CYNfull Living: THANKSGIVING 2016 in CANCUN

Thanksgiving 2016..... a long weekend in the Sun!

Ray and I had never been to Cancun, so we decided to give it a try. Ray selected the Excellence Hotel at Playa Mujeres just north of the town of Cancun. It's at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, really the Eastern most point in Mexico. We are both very happy Ray picked this hotel. It has about 7 pools and 10 restaurants. Food, entertainment, and drinks
are all included! Oh, and ADULTS only!!! We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, November 23rd. The first thing we did after checking in was head to the bar for Mexican Margaritas !

Really pretty hotel, right???

So we went for dinner Wednesday night at "Agave", the Mexican Restaurant at the Hotel.

Afterwards there was a Jersey Boy Show in the bar area. Only 3 guys singing, but good songs and harmonies. Then the deal is you go to a big open air theater for a stage show.

That night it was an Elvis Presley impersonator. He was good at it. Mom would have loved that show. We didn't stay long. We enjoyed the warm night air on our private ( sort of) patio.....

Thursday , Thanksgiving Day, We took the local Ferry to the nearby Island, Isla Mujeres.

This Island was first populated but the Mayans ( more on them later) and when the Spanish Explorers discovered it, the Mayan people had abandoned the island, but there were lots of female statues , hence the name "Island of the Women."

The place is very touristy now, with a flea market lining the streets. We headed straight to a quieter street with a comfortable looking restaurant. Lunch was yummy! Cervesas and real Mexican dishes. Then we walked down the block to the Playa Norte, one of the most beautiful beaches in all of Mexico, which is saying a lot! And it was a fabulous beach!!

Isla Mujeres Playa Norte...... a perfect beach. We rented chairs and an umbrella and hung out happily for a couple hours that afternoon.

Thursday evening was dinner at Chez Isabelle, The French place in the Hotel. With another show in the evening. There are a lot of young couples here, many of them on their Honeymoon. Some are in groups. There is a LOT of drinking and partying going on as you can imagine.....

Friday Morning after our buffet breakfast, we headed to the nearby golf course , Playa Mujeres, to play our 9 holes.

We got on the course and saw a sign about crocodiles on the course, so we kept an eye out. We saw our first one floating in a little lagoon just watching us. Later on hole 9, there was a very BIG guy lying on the side of the fairway near a pond. He was basking in the sun and didn't seem interested in us. But he was SCARY!!! Ray did not seem too excited, but I was Very happy to leave that course.

Here's Ray's photo of that crock. His tail goes all they way to that green sign behind him that probably says "Beware of Crocks". We didn't stick around long enough to read it..

Crocodiles have been known to attack golfers in the area. We were lucky.

Friday afternoon, we relaxed at the resort and enjoyed our patio and the "lazy River" pool in back of us. Dinner Friday was a special reservation for a table in the sand by the shore.

There is a beach here with nice warm water, but a lot of seaweed and debris that rolls in to shore. But it was nighttime so we couldn't see any of that. Dinner was good, not great. We shared Rays entree, as I didn't want to eat mine. It was a very breezy evening by the water too.

After dinner was a great show. A singer who I loved. Ray didn't go with me, but I rocked out!

Her name was Claudia Trevino. She is from Cancun, but sings like an American. You can see her on You Tube.

Saturday we rose early to meet our driver and guide. His name was Wenceslau.... a local guy and father of 3. His mission was to take us to visit the old Mayan town of

Chichen Itza.

On our 2 1/2 hour drive to Chichen Itza, we stopped in this small town populated with descendants of the original Mayans. This is the 16th century church there.. It's no longer in use, just a relic of the past and a reason for tourists to stop.

Here we are at the base of the famous pyramid. Chichén Itzá is a world-famous complex of Mayan ruins on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. A massive step pyramid known as El Castillo dominates the 6.5-sq.-km. ancient city, which thrived from around 600 A.D. to the 1200s. Graphic stone carvings survive at structures like the ball court, Temple of the Warriors and the Wall of the Skulls. Nightly sound-and-light shows illuminate the buildings' sophisticated geometry.