March 9, 2008
Aiden woke up around 7:30, which is late for him. The mornings are a bit of an ordeal, since only one person can really get ready at a time—the other is busy watching after Aiden. The hotel room has a two-step drop down to the area where the couch and TV live, and we tried to block it off with a barricade of suitcases. Still, there is plenty of trouble he can find if he looks.
Breakfast was…sufficient. The “all-inclusive” resorts always have plenty of food, but all of it tends to be just average. Aiden snacked on our food as well—not surprisingly, he liked the sugary foods. Donuts, fruit loops, and cocoa puffs went over better than the fruits, pancakes, and eggs. He didn’t drink much of the milk they supplied.
After breakfast, we toured the resort. There is a magnificent series of pools and fountains right in the middle, stretching nearly the length of the whole complex. Aiden was fascinated by the fountains, and would have jumped into the shallow pool if not for us to stop him. Still, he loves to run around on his own, like a big boy. For the most part, he’ll follow you, and won’t get more than 50 feet away. If you run ahead of him, turn around, and beckon to him, he thinks that’s hilarious and will run to you. But if he sets his mind to it, and you’re not paying attention, he’ll just start walking off.
Further down is the actual swimming pools and more restaurants. Past that is the beach, but on the way you pass through a fantastic jungle of palm trees, sand, and small islands of grass and shrubberies. The beach itself is nice, and there are enormous rocks to break the waves right off shore. We tried to get Aiden to get in the water, but every time the wave rushed up around his feet, he got scared.
To the side, there was a path leading to what we later discovered is the neighboring resort, the Riu Yucatan. Our wristbands give us full access to the whole suite of Riu hotels, so we figured we’d explore this one since we were there.
There were monkeys. At least, that’s what the signs lead us to believe. All we could find were these crazy rat-monster animals everywhere. Turns out, they’re called Agouti. We walked around, looking for either monkeys, or a way back to our hotel, and could find neither. There is a chain-link fence separating the two for the entire length of the resort, with the only exception down at the beach where we entered in the first place.
Only when we turned around to head back to the beach did we find the monkeys. They were having a good ole’ time on top of the main eatery. Wild monkeys of Mexico, right here in our back yard. Don’t feed them, we were warned.
We headed back to the room, with everyone tired. It was nearly 11:00 (Still haven’t switched to DST…I’m protesting), which is Aiden’s sleepy time. Plus, he already had more excitement and exercise than he usually gets in a whole day. He zonked out pretty quickly, and Tanya took the opportunity to lay out in whatever sun happened to poke through the clouds.
Around noon, a phone call to the room (wrong number!) woke up Aiden. I need to unplug that phone. The two of us headed out in search of Tanya, who we found back at the beach soaking up the rays.
Taking someone’s recommendation, we decided to walk down to the new Riu hotel, the Riu Palace, for lunch. We passed yet another Riu on the way, and remarked how we were glad that ours seemed the nicest of the three we had yet seen. Still, we cashed in on our all-inclusiveness and got a drink for the road.
The Riu Palace was a good half-mile down the road, but Aiden was enjoying (or, at least, putting up with) the stroller, so it went by quickly. There were several shops across the road that we’ll have to look into later.
The Palace itself has quite a façade around it, but doesn’t seem all that impressive on the inside. Indeed, our fountains and pools seem better. Still, the food there was better than the food in our hotel—even though it was just a buffet. We played around outside for a while, and inside for a while longer.
The walk back was more tiring, and Aiden fell asleep in the stroller on the way back. The sidewalk is unbelievably bumpy—a surprising amount of it is brick, even. He even stayed asleep once we transferred him to the bed in the room.
Later, we explored more of our hotel, with Aiden playing with the plants near the fountains. We found a swing, but he didn’t like it as much as he has in the past. The flowers were falling at one spot, and Aiden thought the mass of them on the ground was quite interesting. It’s nice when simple things like that can occupy him for several minutes at a time and let you recuperate.
We hit the beach one last time, and I got eaten alive by chiquistas–Mexican mosquitos. It was getting dark and late, so we headed back to the room. It took a while for Aiden to fall asleep, even after Gerber’s and formula, but he finally dozed off.