ADIOS MEXICO!

Today is our last day in Mexico - we fly back to Glasgow at 8pm tonight and we're not looking forward to the Scottish weather!

Yesterday was a good day, very hot and humid, but we stayed in the shade most of the time.

We had another go at paddle boarding as the sea was a lot calmer. Dan's skills seemed to have improved overnight - he didn't fall down once!

Other than that there's not much else to report. We're busy packing right now, and as we haven't bought a single thing here in Mexico it should be a lot easier than packing to come here!

SEA KAYAKS, BIKE TOURS, STAND UP PADDLE BOARDING AND MAYAN RUINS

Yesterday was a little bit of a lazy one. We grabbed a bed by the pool after breakfast (our normal routine now!) and based ourselves there for the rest of the day. We left at 10am for the kayak tour, but it was only when we got half way out to sea - something that seemed to take an age - that the guide decided the weather conditions weren't the best and the sea was a bit too choppy to continue. So we turned back and never got to see the sunken ship out in the distance!

Nothing much else happened until the 4pm bike tour (we were a little into the tours yesterday!). We cycled around the whole of the Playa Mujeres complex - which is owned by the richest man in the world - and I managed to get a few mosquito bites while we were all looking at the crocodile in the swamp. Ouch.

We had dinner at The Grill and Dan tried his luck ordering the mixed grill with an 8oz sirloin along with it - no questions asked, he got his meat overload as requested!

Today was a bit more exciting - we went straight to the beach at 9am to rent stand up paddle boards - something I'd wanted to do for ages. Dan had booked a lesson, but at $150 I thought it was a bit too expensive, especially as it was something I didn't think I'd need a lesson in and we could have the boards for free at the hotel.

I was able to get up and stay up straight away (I must have a natural gift for it!) but Dan was a different story...he must have spent as much time in the sea as he did on the board - in his defence the sea was a bit wavey. I felt a bit bad that I'd denied him his lesson. I think we're oing to try again if it gets calmer.

After that we went to borrow the bikes and take them a little further than we did on the tour yesterday. We'd planed on going to El Meco - ruins of a Mayan village - it wasn't too far to get there but there were no paths and as we'd heard that there aren't many taxis that pass we'd struggle to get back, so the bikes seemed like the best option.

About 15 minutes into our bike ride and we were there. It was brilliant, even though it was raining! Lots of ruins of the ancient village to look at, and lots of iguanas all around.

SWIMMING WITH THE FISHIES...

We'd planned on going to Isla Mujeres yesterday but after some stormy weather the day before and the weather report we decided to hold off until we could have a little less rain and a little more sun. It was bright and sunny  first thing, so we were up early, had breakfast and headed down to the pool. We managed to get one of the covered beds by the pool, which was lucky as 30 mins later the  heavens opened!! It poured down for an hour - heavy rain. But it was so cosy in our little tiki bed all wrapped in towels, relaxing and reading.

The rest of the day was a mixed bag of weather so we ventured out when possible, but  mainly
stayed under cover…

I think the highlight had to be dinner at Basmati - the Indian restaurant. We each ordered one of the two set menus and we ended up with 10 dishes to share between us. It was brilliant, and definitely one we'd go back to if we had more days.

Today was a different story weather-wise. It was beautifully sunny and we headed over to Isla Mujeres for my planned trip . I had been researching what to do on the island for weeks and had created an itinerary that I hoped Lauren would like. We got up early, had breakfast and caught a taxi to the Ultramar ferry port in time to catch the 9am ferry to Isla Mujeres. The ferry ride was only 15 minutes, so we sat up top on the windy deck so we could get some could photos.

Once docked in Isla Mujeres, we walked to Ciro's to hire a golf cart. We got number 20, an awesome green Jeep golf cart. We cruised around the island, catching the sights until we went to the very far
east - Punta Sur. This is the most eastern point of Mexico. There are a load of cool sculptures and an old Mayan lighthouse. From there we headed to a little inlet with white sand, turquoise sea and tropical fish to snorkel. Just like on Catalina Island last year, the fish are so use to people buying food to feed them that the second you get in the water they all dart to see you. Tortunaga - the turtle farm - was next on our list. The farm is a conservation project that rehabilitates injured adult turtles as well as collecting turtle eggs from dangerous places and protecting them until the hatch. Once the babies have grown a little they release them all back into the wild.

We had lunch in an amazing little café called Mango Café - the food was so good. We explored the island little more, then returned the golf cart. We had a look around Playa Norte, which is billed as the most beautiful beach in Mexico- it was really nice, but the water certainly wasn’t as warm as a bath as I'd read on TripAdvisor…

We headed back to the mainland  and back to the hotel for dinner at SPICE - the Asian restaurant. Lauren had salad followed by duck and I had two rounds of beef!
- Dan

MEXICO - LAND OF THE RISING SUN (AND A LITTLE BIT OF RAIN)

What a great first full day! We were awake by 5.30am - partly due to the hour's time difference, partly due to the fact we'd been so tired the last night that we'd fallen asleep before 8pm!

We ordered room service and ate our breakfast on the balcony before going for a walk along the beach...in the rain. That's right, it rained for a good few hours but we didn't mind getting wet as it was still warm. Once it cleared we headed down to the pool and grabbed ourselves the last tiki bed - meaning we could lay in the shade (something I was incredibly thankful for as the temperatures
reached over 90 degrees in the midday heat).

We went to the smoothie bar (have you ever been to a hotel with a smoothie bar?!!), grabbed a couple of smoothies and relaxed for the rest of the morning.

We lunched at the beach shack which was hosting Festival de Tacos, and the had a go on the sea kayaks. We weren't great to start with but we soon figure our oars out and picked up the pace!

Then it was time for a quick shower before dinner, which we ate at The Lobster House. There are nine restaurants here, all a la carte, so you feel like you are going out to a proper restaurant each night.

Three games of pool later (Dan won all three) and it's time for bed.

WE MADE IT TO MEXICO

Hola from Playa Mujeres! We made it to Mexico this morning after an early flight from
Ft Lauderdale.

We spent yesterday at Magic Kingdom - Dan's personal highlight was meeting Mickey...he talked (Mickey that is, not Dan)!

We stuck to Fantasyland and Discoveryland and went on a few new rides that I'd never done before, but I won't lie, I was very upset that Peter Pan was out of action!

Afterwards we had dinner at Bahama Breeze. I had the ribs as I didn't pick them on the wedding day, but there were so many I took half of them away with me for the long drive we had down south to Ft Lauderdale.

It took us a good three and a half hours and we didn't arrive until almost 11pm. We were exhausted, so we went straight to bed in the strangest little Ramada hotel I have ever seen (there was definitely a tiki theme going on!) ready for our 5am wake up call.

This morning went well. After struggling to get our cases down to Spirit Airline's 18kg luggage allowance (Virgin allows 23kg) we were relieved to not have gone over and face yet another excess baggage charge this trip!

The flight was quick and the transfer was there waiting for us. And now here we are at the resort. So far...EXCELLENT!

DONT' YOU JUST LOVE DISNEY?

Saturday was a little bit of a boring one. It was check-out day at the villa so we had to pack and make sure everything was tidy before we left. Dan had dropped Rich off at the airport at 4am, so he had a bit of a lie-in while I ran round and finished everything off.

Everyone was out early morning and we headed back to the airport to drop Tasha off. We were supposed to pick up mum and dad as well but after driving around for an hour looking for them we had to give up!

We headed to Dan's mum and dad's villa - our new home for the next couple of nights and spent the rest of the day lounging around until the evening. We had tickets to see La Nouba - one of Cirque du Soleil's creations.

We loved Ka in Vegas so really wanted to see another one. The show was great. I think the highlight were the little Chinese girls (who we found out later were all aged six or younger!) on the diablos. INCREDIBLE.

Today we hit Animal Kingdom with Dan's family. I think Animal Kingdom is my favourite Disney park. There aren't really any big rides - although I did enjoy Everest (a new one since I'd been there last) - but just the way that Disney decorate and theme each land I find incredible. I'd be happy to spend the day just looking around it all!

This evening we went to dinner with my mum and dad, Sam, Jo, Sue and Becky at Disney's Polynesian resort. Something that mum had been trying to book for ages! The food was really good and afterwards we all headed onto the little beach to watch the Wishes fireworks and the electric water pageant. The weather hadn't been particularly warm all day but it was really cold this evening and we all took an armful of towels to wrap up warm while we were there!

SO YEAH, WE GOT MARRIED YESTERDAY

Yesterday was so much fun. And it looked almost exactly as I'd pictured it - the colours were so  pretty in the sun (I cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I am that it didn't rain!).

The weather forecast was HOT, HOT, Hot. I think it said somewhere in the 90s. Ouch! Sorry to  everyone that had to sit on those seats waiting for the ceremony!

The morning started well - I woke up about 7am and started to get everything ready making sure everything was in the right bag heading to the right location. The hair and make up lady came around 11.45am and Felicity, Tasha, Amy and Kate were all  getting ready in mum's villa too.

Disaster struck (I'm being dramatic - a little hiccup) at 1pm. The 36 inch balloons I'd spent so much time researching, buying and subsequently making accessories for were too big to fit in the minibus. I have no idea how big they were but mum said she couldn't hold anymore than four without starting to lift off the ground!

Thankfully, Party City had kindly given mum and dad some small white helium balloons - they were   going to be nothing like the beautiful Geronimo balloons I had imagined, but they were better than nothing. Although most of my streamers and tassels that I had spent hours making were too heavy for the helium so I had to settle for a bit of tulle on each one.

We left for Cypress Grove at 1.45pm (I hadn't had anything to eat and was starving, so had a tube of Pringles with me!). I knew there wouldn't be much time between us arriving and the school bus so we had to run to get all the centre pieces inside. We made it, but Dan said he saw me!

We had the bridal suite upstairs and the photographer and videographer came in to capture us  getting ready as everyone started to take their seats on the lawn.

It looked so pretty out.

And then it was time to go. Tori - our lovely wedding coordinator - let us each know when to walk out with Amy and Conor walking first followed by Kate, Tasha, Felicity and finally me and Dad.

That was it. We were married under the gazebo by the lake. The next hour and a half or so was spent taking photos around the grounds. I can't wait to see them!

We then headed to Bahama Breeze - the food was great and the service was excellent. They managed to get all 36 of us seated, fed two courses and out of there in under an hour and a half. I was very impressed.

Our final stop of the day was Epcot for our own private Dessert Party on the UK Terrace. It was a  great way to end the day.

Today we're enjoying being alone again! We've been shopping all morning and now we're enjoying a drink in Winter Park (it is VERY hot out again today) before we head back this evening for the farewell party.