Brittney Loves Bob: November 2012

Here are some of the pictures from our honeymoon (finally!). I did a short description of what we did each day followed by the pictures from that day. The captions should explain everything else, enjoy!

Day 1: After leaving our reception, my dad drove us to our honeymoon suite at the Airport Inn. We enjoyed a couple hours of shut eye before our 4 AM shuttle to the airport, but not nearly enough! I couldn't keep my eyes open on the plane even though I tried to stay up long enough to see the sun rise, but I couldn't do it. We had a 45 minute layover in Fort Worth/Dallas and then we were on our way to Cozumel! We landed around 1 PM, we had already arranged transportation so we were immediately picked up and dropped off at Melia Resort Cozumel. After checking in, unpacking and exploring a little while, we decided to take one of the sea kayaks out for a test run. We paddled along the shore line and over by the pier for an hour or so, and then decided that we were pretty tired even though it was only 4 PM, so we went back to our room to take a nap.

Getting on the 5th plane I've ever been
on and only the 3rd that I'm going to land
in (I jumped out of 2)

On the plane to paradise right
before our naps LOL

Us cute little newlyweds
heading for paradise

Our plane that brought us to paradise

Just off the plane in Cozumel

The adults only pool with a swim up bar
(there were only 2 kids in the whole resort anyway,
but they had to use the other pool..)

I'm standing on the pool deck at our resort
and that's how close we are to the beach!

This is the 2nd pool (this one allowed kids)

This is the view from our balcony. We
didn't even pay for ocean view but we
could see it just fine!

Our favorite dinner spot

The adult pool with the ocean as a background

This is the outside of our building. We
were on the top floor (away from most of
the bugs, crabs and other critters!)

One of the restaurants at our resort. It wasn't
open while we were there though, since it was
off season and there were maybe 20 people in
the whole resort and 2 other restaurants to choose
from.

Our bed in our cute little suite

Our honeymoon suite

Some of the garden area at our resort

More of our honeymoon suite

Day 2: To our surprise, our little nap lasted until 3AM! Needless to say when we woke up the resort was deserted with not a soul in sight! Regardless, we had just slept for 11 hours, so we weren't ready to go back to bed just yet. We decided to take a night stroll and explore the resort in the dark. We walked down to the beach and back. Unfortunately we weren't familiar with the resort yet, and we discovered "crab corner" in the dark all alone wearing nothing but flip flops on our feet! Crab corner is a dark, quiet corner that isn't used very often so it's a kind of safe haven for crabs...lots and lots of crabs!! After our adventure with crab corner, we decided we would be safer in our room, so we went back to our room to watch TV and sleep some more. The next morning we rose bright and early and hit the breakfast buffet (we ate breakfast on the beach every morning). We spent the rest of the day wading in the ocean, snorkeling by the pier, hunting seashells and playing by the pool while periodically going inside to eat or to apply more sunblock.

The beach at night. This was before
I discovered just how many crabs and
other critters were at our resort.
Good thing nothing got us while we weren't
looking. We watched our step after this.

A little blurry, but this is our beach at night

The moon shining thru the palm trees

Dawn breaking with a view of the ocean
thru the palm trees

My attempt at capturing a sunrise,
unfortunately I'm on the wrong
side of the island for that

Our little lizard friend!

A little hermit crab on the pool deck

Sneaky crab hiding in a drain waiting to
pinch your feet as you walk over him

Another crab hiding in the corner, these
buggers were EVERYWHERE! I'm not going
to lie, they freaked me out

One of the pretty flowers at our resort

Ready for some swimming

Day 3: Sunday was a lot like Saturday. I went to a one on one stretching/yoga class on the beach before breakfast, and then we spent the rest of the day swimming, snorkeling, eating, drinking and laying out in the sun. Bob and I played a little pool on the outdoor billiards table, and then started a game of ping pong before we got distracted and started chasing all the wild iguanas that were sunbathing on the grass. We also had time to socialize with most of the guests (there were probably only around 20 people in the resort, most of which were leaving the same day as us) There were 2 other honeymoon couples, Lauren and Austin, and Joy and Troy. Then there was another young couple Gus and Kristen. We also met an older couple from Idaho, Jack and Alice who were there with their brother Bruce, Ana and her husband (I don't remember his name) and an older couple from the NE somewhere named Robert and Virginia. We all become quick friends and would meet up each night for dinner and whatever event the resort was doing that night and then drinks in the bar while we recounted the days adventures!

Just chillin' at our resort

A good ol' fashioned sunset walk on the beach
Just watch out for Crocs!

Being a girl is hard! Good thing I have this
strong hubby to carry me!

Laying on the softest sand in the world

Just me and my instructor getting ready for
some yoga and stretching

My private yoga/stretching class
on the beach

One of several iguanas that we found roaming
our resort. Definately not the biggest one we saw!

My baby palm tree

Another iguana

Enjoying my Pina Colada after another day
of fun in the sun!

I ate more steak in Mexico than Mexican food

Bob and his drink.

Some of the other people at the resort with us.
Lauren, Austin, Gus and Kristen

Day 4: Monday we got up extra early and headed over to the pier to catch a ferry to Playa del Carmen. Once there we were picked up by a tour bus that took us to Tulum. Tulum is a city of Mayan ruins by the sea, it's not as big or as popular as Chitchen-itza, but I thought it was beautiful since the city is built right up the cliff's edge overlooking the sea. We explored for a little while but then the heat and the humidity started getting to us. We left the safe haven of Tulum, right outside the walls there are stores and stores trying to get you to buy their stuff. We bartered a present for my mom down to 10 dollars, and then paid the guy, he kept saying we owed him 5 more dollars for a "tip", we refused so he started calling us nasty names. Then we went to eat some tacos (they weren't very good), we gave the lady a $20 expecting $12 in change, she only gave us $8, when we asked her about it she said the peso exchange rate in her store was higher than it was across the street. Stupid street venders! After being ripped off and cursed at, we decided to wait in the tour bus. Our next stop was a little campsite in the middle of the rainforest. Here our guide took us to an underground river called a Cenote to snorkel. Before getting in the water the tour guide said he had to check the water for alligators, and proceeded to skim his flashlight over the top of the water as if looking for the reflexion of eyes, or bubbles. That combined with the darkness, and the tight quarters of being underground kinda freaked me out a little. Once we were in a more open area of the cave and I could see better I calmed down, but I was near a panic attack for a while there. The water was so cold, and getting out of the sun was nice though! After snorkeling we went to the zipline towers. There were 3 ziplines connected to each other. The first one was 50 ft high and 500 feet, the next one was 60 ft high and 700 feet, and the last one was 70 ft high and 1200 feet! After the zipline we went to the repelling tower and went repelling. After all the adventure and exploring we were starved so we made our way back to the mess hall for lunch. After lunch the tour bus took us back to the ferry. While we were waiting for the ferry we saw two men with monkeys. They told us we had to pay to take pictures with the monkeys, and we didn't have any more cash so we couldn't get pictures. They let us pet them though, I tickled the little spider monkey on the neck and it squeeled and chirped at me before grabbing my finger with it's tiny monkey hands and chewing on my fingers (gently). I now want a pet monkey LOL. Soon we were on our ferry back home to play some bingo, and dance at the disco!

Our ferry tickets to Playa del Carmen

On the bus to Tulum (Mayan ruins)

I have a big strong hubby to
protect me from sharks!

I saw more fake sharks in Mexico than
real ones, not that I'm complaining!

Some weird creature that was like a mix of raccoon,
anteater and monkey that was begging for food at Tulum

The entrance to Tulum, it was only
wide enough for one person at a time.

Tulum's walls were built pretty thick too.
They weren't very tall though, I could have
climbed right over the wall in some parts..

Another half fallen Mayan ruin

One of the more demolished Mayan ruins, back before the
government made an effort to protect Tulum as a national
treasure, tourists would actually take peices of the buildings
as souvineers.

All that was left of this house was the
foundations markers

Tulum Mayan ruins

Bob acting surprised at how clear and blue
the water is at Tulum

Tulum temple overlooking the
beach and the beautiful crystal clear
waters of the Gulf of Mexico

One of the palm trees growing sideways over the beach
in Tulum

Tulum

The entrance to Tulum's Cenote,
It's all dried up now though

Bob posing by the Tulum temple

Me posing by the Tulum temple

The two of us on the otherside
of the Tulum temple

Tulum Temple

Doing my best Vanna White impression

Believe it or not, that was a house,
now it's no more than a pile of rocks

More of the houses and buildings

This used to be some Mayan's house
granted- a wealthy Mayan

Tulum's beach. We didn't go in, but we admired
the clear turquise blue waters from the dock

Bob thought the Mayans were
super 'gangsta'

At Tulum, you can see the ruins and the ocean
in this pic!

Leave it to me to jump into a postcard perfect
picture, and make it just scrapbook worthy LOL

Some crazy weird tree trunk in Tulum

Awe! Perfection!

Enjoying the view, but not the heat

Pretty red leaves on a plant in Tulum

Some weird lizard we found at Tulum.
He was sharing our shade

Some crazy leaves on a plant in Tulum

Bob getting excited to leave the heat for AC

Posing with the Mayans

Cool painted sinks in the bathrooms

Our little pathway to the cenote

There is a hole leading to the cenote in
there somewhere, but you can't see
it from this angle

Aha! There's the entrance!

The entrance to the underground river
we snorkeled in.

More from inside the cenote

My flash completely washes out all the
color, but there are some amazing shades
of reds, oranges and greens down here

This is blurrier since there isn't a flash, but
it's a better example of the colors in the
Cenote. The reflection is from the top of the water
which we snorkelled in

Bob getting ready to climb the first zip
line tower

Decked out in my zipline gear
ready to zip thru the rain forest!

This was the "small" tower that
we went on first

Decked out in my zipline and reppelling gear!

Me on the zipline

Bob ready for his turn!

Bob was daring enough to take pictures
while ziplining! I wasn't sure I could hold
my camera without dropping it...

Nice view of the top of the rainforest

Bob taking in the sites from
the zipline

Bob on the zipline

Me coming in for landing after the 3rd
and biggest zipline

Me coming into the end of the zipline

Me being unfastened from the zipline

Each of those little spikes has
hundreds of "bullet ants" if you
brush against them, then they attack
you by the thousands. Our guide said
if you don't scratch then the pain goes
away in a few days, if you itch then it
can last for months! Needless to say
after I heard that, I backed away pretty
quickly!

Reppelling from the tower

Some of the food we ate after reppelling,
ziplining, snorkeling in the Cenote, and
exploring Tulum. The meat was labelled as
Pollo or chicken, but our tour guide said
it was iguana, and Bob tried to convince me
that it was. I still say it was chicken...

That is the top of the reppelling tower
It was pretty high!

Bob enjoying his lunch after a long
eventful day!

Some of the graffiti in Playa del Carmen

Back at the ferry, trying to get our tickets
back to Cozumel

On our way back to the ferry!

Our ferry to Cozumel

I mostly liked the warning sign by the frog,
"beware, clothing option beyond this sign".
Mind you the building has no walls, and leads
right to the clothing required beach with a group
of what appeared to be Mexican boy scouts

This is the "mexican" way of "shooting tequila"
haha JK but it's still pretty awesome, right?

The little tiny white line sitting on top of the
ocean is actually what you can see from
Playa del Carmen of the Cozumel skyline

Bob ready to go back to our resort with a
nice cool pool, and our room with AC

Bob and I on the ferry back to our resort

Mexican flag hanging off the back
of our ferry to Cozumel

One of my bingo cards. I was always winning
and would get every number until the very last number
I needed, then I wouldn't get it.

Bingo Night at the resort!

Day 5: Tuesday morning I ditched my husband with a book by the pool to go scuba diving. (I'm certified, and he's not). I did two dives. The first one at 60 feet and the second one at 45. I saw every color and every pattern ever imaginable on the fish down there. There were angel fish the size of my head, and pufferfish with cute little polka dots, parrot fish with green, blue, purple, pink, and yellow all on one fish. There were king crabs, and lobsters about as long/wide as my forearm, and sea slugs hiding in conk shells in every color and size. The best thing I saw though was a large sea turtle! It was pretty far away and it was swimming away from us so I didn't get to watch it for long, but it was amazing to see one in real life, in the wild, with no glass or mesh between us! The scariest fish I saw was a 3 foot long barracuda. It came out of now where, and let me just say, that is the meanest looking fish I have EVER seen in pictures or in person. I think I almost would have preferred to see a shark (at least a little one, maybe not a man eating one...) After my morning of scuba I met back up with my husband and we went snorkeling again. While we were snorkeling, Bob pointed behind me and I turned around to see HUNDREDS of little fish following me, I was their leader, they followed me all over and when I stopped they did too. People in the resort would often feed the fish bread, so they weren't even scared of us! That evening while we were sitting poolside with some of our new friends, Joy came running up to the pool yelling about a crocadile in the water. We followed her down to the beach, and sure enough, only 15 maybe 20 feet away from us was a 5-6 foot long crocadile. He swam parrallel to the beach for sometime, popping up to eye us before retreating under water again. Bob and the boys thought it was fun to splash in the water and try to provoke it to come closer, not wanting to be eaten or see anyone eaten Joy and I made it our mission to warn the snorkellers down the beach a little ways to get out of the water. They were pretty grateful!

Cool castle by the marina where I was getting
ready to go scuba diving!

The marina

The marina lighthouse

My little scuba boat

On the boat about to go scuba diving

One of the cruise ships in Cozumel that day

Weird crab that looks like a spider

The best picture I could get of the crocadile
swimming in the ocean on our resorts beach.
He was probably around 5-6 feet long!
There were moments when he was probably
15 feet away, but then he would disappear
under the water for a while. Good thing I wasn't
in the water when we saw him, I might
have died of a heart attack!

Day 6: Wednesday was definately my favorite day! We shared a cab with Lauren and Austin to Chakanooba Bay (or something like that) where we saw a sea lion show and wandered the gardens before swimming with the dolphins! We were in the water with America the dolphin for about an hour. We spent the time swimming with her, being pushed by her on a boogie board of holding her fins and being pulled, we pet her, danced with her and got dolphin kisses. I have wanted to do this for so long, it was literally like a dream come true! I was shaking with excitement! Even Bob (who didn't originally want to swim with dolphins at all, even for free) loved it! He had a grin plastered on his face and he couldn't get enough of the feel of her skin. After swimming with dolphins, we went to swim with the manatees. They weren't as energetic, instead one just rolled on his back and calmly laid there while we scratched his belly and the handler fed him lettuce. After the dolphins we hit the souvineer shop and headed back to our resort. While we weren't gone for long, it's still one of my favorite memmories of the whole trip! Later that night, Bob and some of our new resort friends convinced me to go for a night swim in the adult pool. When I jumped from the deck everything was calm but when I resurfaced I felt like I was in an entirely different place, one experiencing a hurricane! The wind was howling, and the rain was coming in sideways in huge sheets that felt like a million daggers, lightening was filling the sky and thunder 100X louder than anything I'd ever heard before! Bob and I grabbed our things from the lawn chair and began racing across the deck to our room. Already the ground was covered in enough water that it was up to our ankles and staircases were like waterfalls. Several crabs floated by clicking their pinchers in every direction trying to find something to hold onto. That was the first tropical storm I'd ever experienced and it really was nothing like any thunderstorm I've ever seen before. Lucky for me there would be one every night for the rest of our stay (the days were sunny and warm though!)

Bob and I waiting for the sea lion
show to start

Our friends and fellow honeymooners
Lauren and Austin

One of the sea lions

Watching the sea lion show

More sea lion tricks

The sea lion dancing

At the sea lion show. It was hard to enjoy
the moment knowing that I would soon be
in the water with dolphins fulfilling one of
my life long dreams!

One of the sea lions getting ready
to do one of his tricks

Shy sea lion

Sea lion singing

Our friends meeting the sea lion

Bob and I meeting the sea lion

More jumping dolphin picures

Jumping dolphins

I finally caught the dolphin all the
way out of the water!

Bob holding America the dolphin. It was amazing!
He didn't want to swim with dolphins at all,
but I finally convinced him
and he had a blast! Said it was worth every penny!

Me holding America the dolphin

Bob riding on the dolphins belly

Doing my belly ride with America the dolphin

The dolphin is pushing me by my feet on a
boogie board. She was really fast!

Bob about to be pushed by America on a
boogie board. This picture always makes
me want to yell "look out!"
cause the dolphin looks like a shark!

Bob being pushed on a boogie board by
America the dolphin

Spending some quality one on one time
with a dolphin. No biggie! LOL

Holding hands/flippers with America

Dancing with America

Awe! She loves me!

A little girl on girl action

She loves Bob too!

She was so sweet, I wanted to take her with us
I guess we need a HUGE indoor saltwater fish tank?

Day 7: Bob and I headed back to the ferry pier, but this time we got on a Catamoran for a sailing and snorkeling tour. When we boarded we were told that during tourist season, tours would be 100 to 150 people. However since it was off season, it was just us and one other couple (who had actually lived in Utah for several years and new our area pretty well!) The tour took us to 2 different reefs, one of which is Palancar reef, the second largest reef in the world! While snorkeling we saw thousand of fish in every color and pattern imaginable again, and 4 different sting rays. The first one was pretty small, and close and swam with us for a bit, the last one we saw was HUGE! It didn't even react to us swimming by it, it kind of had an attitude of "touch me and see what happens", Bob says we saw a nurse shark too, but I didn't see it. After snorkeling we went to Fury Beach (a private beach owned by the sailing company, so we had it all to ourselves!) They had water trampolines, and water slides, we played on paddle boards, but I never got my balance enough to try and stand. Then we were fed the best hamburgers outside of the states before boarding the catamoran again. On our way back to the pier, Bob and I noticed a lot of shiny things jumping from the sea and flying over the water a good 50 to 60 feet, but they looked like fish so we asked our captain. Sure enough, they are known as flying fish, the catamoran looks like a giant barracuda cutting through the water and spooks the fish so they "fly" as far as they can to avoid being eaten. We spent the rest of the ride watching the fish fly. That night the resort had a group of Mexican folk dancers come over and perform after dinner.

One of the little ally ways in Cozumel
full of shops close to the pier

Our Catamoran

This pose seemed only fitting,
believe it or not, I think I would
have been better off with just
goggles, the mouth piece always
leaked nasty salt water into my
mouth

Decked out in snorkeling gear

The biggest cruise ship I've ever seen!

More water toys

Some of the water toys we had all to
ourselves

I conquered the paddle board!

This is as high as I dared get on the
paddle board, I was even losing my
balance in this pic a little bit

Paddle boarding

I climbed to the top in record time! It's
all those arm muscles from trapeze
still working!

Getting down was almost harder than
getting up, now it was all wet and slippery

I made it!

Some of the cool parrot paintings on the
tables, walls and everywhere else they
could paint!

More parrot paintings by the bar

Another parrot painting

The private restraunt and bar on the beach

Our private beach

Our catamoran waiting for us
while we play on our private beach!

Watching the 'flying' fish

Native Mexican folk dancing
performance

Mexican folk dancing

Mexican folk dancers doing some sort
of tap dance with tequila bottles on
their head

Day 8: Bob and I were both feeling a little sick to our stomachs, so we decided to take it easy. We painted a bowl together, and did some snorkeling, looked for more seashells, and walked the beach looking for more crocadiles, we played some more ping pong and pool and swam a little. That night Bob and I joined the other honeymooners on a trip downtown to an authentic little Mexican restraunt. The street view was a little bit alarming, but once we walked thru the gates everything changed. There were gardens with fountains, and big wrought iron doors leading into a restraunt with 20 foot ceilings and old timey lanterns hung like chandeliers. When we saw the prices were listed in US dollars instead of pesos, we all sighed a little in relief, knowing this restraunt was catered to us tourists (and too pricey for most of the locals would be my guess). The food was delicious, and very very filling and to cap off the night, everyone indulged in some "sexy coffee" where they lit alcohol on fire and poured it from cup to cup as you watch it all burn and carmelize before your eyes then they pour it in coffee and add ice cream. I couldn't drink it mind you, it was too strong, but it was so fun to watch the fire show! It was a great way to end our week!

A cruise ship coming in to port at Cozumel

The fish we fed each morning

More of our fishy friends

A baby fish I found in one of the tide
pools, about the size of my thumbnail

Me enjoying a relaxing day
walking the beach, feeding fishies,
searching for shells and
swimming

Our baby fishies, there are at least 2
can you find them?

Waves crashing into the tide pools
filled with baby fish

The tide pools

More waves crashing into the tide pools

Bob searching for sea shells

My sexy hubby searching
for sea shells for the nieces

Pretty palm tree growing sideways

Pretty pink flowers we found by our
room

This palm tree had the most
coconuts of all the palm trees
I saw in Cozumel

These flowers would open
during the day, and close
each night

Lets play can you find the lizards
there are at least 2 in this picture

Another find the lizard game,
they are all over but they blend in so
well you never really know how many
are there

Another lizard, watching us collect
sea shells

Bob painting our bowl

Our teeny tiny frog buddy! He was super cute
but we were scared to touch him since we didn't
know what kind of frog he was, or if he was
poisenous...

Joy and Troy painting

Lauren and Alice painting

Our own band playing for us
at our farewell dinner

Joy and Troy at the farewell dinner

Bob and I at the farewell dinner

Lauren and Austin at the farewell
dinner

Our server making us "sexy coffee"
basically a 20 minute long fire show,
they even turned all the lights in the whole
restraunt way down, so everyone could
see

More sexy coffee pics

Parrot that we kept talking to after dinner

Day 9: We packed up, said our goodbyes, and checked out of our resort after one last breakfast on the beach, and one last walk to the pier to feed the fish. The air was warm and the sun was shining, it was like Cozumel was begging us to stay, and while we loved every minute of our vacation, we knew it was time to head home to our family, our friends and of course our pets. We were able to hang out with Jack, Alice, Joy and Troy while at the airport, but then we all headed our seperate ways. Bob and I made it to Dallas/Fort Worth and flew thru customs which meant we had a long 4 hour wait to board our plane home. We called our family and let them know we were on our way before flying back to Salt Lake. It was so nice to cuddle our kitties and sleep in our own bed again. We will always remember the memmories created, the friends we made and the moments we shared together. I couldn't have imagined a more amazing way to start our lives together as husband and wife!