Iberostar, Mexico and Hospiten

After a solid week in Mexico, I have to say it's pretty good to be back... despite the cold Utah weather.

The trip started out ok with Ellery doing not as good on the plane as she has in the past. Unfortunate for her, and everyone on Continental flight 664 from Houston to Cancun, she had a crash course session in "how to fall asleep while traveling and not in a bed - 101". Benedryl may have helped.

My first impression of the resort was, "wow". Iberostar Playa Paraiso http://www.iberostarparaiso.com/

The rooms are in separate buildings of three stories with 8 rooms per floor. There are quite a few building on either side of the pool which stretches about a half a mile from the lobby to the beach. The main reception/lobby/dining/entertainment area is a huge open air structure connected by marble tile floors and water areas with fish, flamingos, and even some turtles.


Day one:
We arrived Saturday afternoon around 4pm. Dropped off our stuff, checked in (after some confusion - but no major problems) and went down to the beach side snack bar just in time to get some buffet food.

Day two:
Sunday. We went to church in Playa Del Carmen (about a 30 min taxi ride south of our resort). Church was at noon and we got there just before they started (which was surprisingly on time). It was fast and testimony meeting and one of the better (yet less eventful) ones I've attended in Spanish. It was very spiritual and the person conducting invited all priesthood bearers to get up first to bear testimony. I think it was good to see the priesthood power of the exceptionally large ward get up and share testimony. I was very impressed with the male youth and their conviction and faith. The rest of the day we spent at the Iberostar in Playa, playing on the beach, which was much better than the beach at our resort.

Day three:
Spent the day at our resort: pool, beach, eating. Monday night was one of our specialty restaurants - Japanese grill. I went back to the room before dinner even came out... thought I was going to freeze to death - killer fever.
That night I asked for a blessing - thought I was going to die... or at least I wanted to.

Day four:
Everyone went to Chitzen-Itza and the cenotes... everyone except Millie, Ellery and I. I told Millie to just go and that I would be fine, left for dead in the room. I even promised to seek medical help if my condition worsened. It did, and I did.

Here's where it gets "good".

$121 USD to have a "doctor" tell me I have to go to the hospital.
$45 USD to take a taxi into Cancun.
Arrived at Hospiten (as directed by the resort "doctor") and made one more emergency run the the bano before collapsing on the floor at Millie's feet where as she was registering me at the ER. They wheeled me into a room and started an I.V.... just in time too. I had started convulsing and lost control over my muscular function. Millie says I didn't look too good. Ellery was surprisingly behaving well during most of this, as I remember it.
$48 USD to take Millie and Ellery back to the resort to wait for the family to return form their day excursion and give them the news of where I was.
$45 USD to bring Millie back to stay the night with me since I was admitted to the hospital.
No food for Jacob.


Day five:
Woke up in the hospital. Still felt VERY weak but wanted to get out of there. I stunk really bad too. They finally let me eat "food" and even got Millie some "food" for breakfast too. I was given (and I kid you not) two giant croutons the size of a slice of bread each and some apple "juice" and some apple chunks. Millie had some small pancakes which I'm sure were sub par and few other non-eatable items. Doctors ran blood work, took X-rays stool and urine samples: "inconclusive". Personally, for those of you who have seen the Simpsons episode where Lisa finds the fossilized "angel"... I think the same testing method applied here. The "doctor" recommended I stay another 24 hrs for observation. I basically told him where he can stick his recommendation and I wanted out of there dead or alive ASAP.
$2,168.67 USD for my "treatment" and hospital stay.
$135.65 USD for Millie to stay the night and "eat" breakfast there.
$45 USD to get back to the resort.
$98 USD for prescription meds.
Spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping and drinking liquids. Then got up and played beach volleyball with the fam.
We had our second specialty dinner. This one was at the Brazilian restaurant. I was not at all impressed. Maybe a little because I was just sick of the resort food by then, or maybe I was still just sick... either way, Tucano's is MUCH better.

Day six:
Snorkeling in Cozumel. We got up early to catch the 8am ferry from Playa to Cozumel. We were the last to board as were were RUNNING late, but we made it.

The sea was angry that day my friend; like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli.

Three people in our group threw up on the way over, but I'm sure EVERYONE felt sick from the ride... even Jeremy (Abbie's Houndorian bf) who normally makes me look like a pale face whitey, was looking pretty white himself. The sea was calm around the "reef" or what was left of it after the last hurricane a couple years ago. This was my first time to really snorkel in the ocean and I really enjoyed it, even though I know the ocean floor wasn't much to look at, and the water was WAY too cold for my taste, I had fun. Millie was freaking out about the fish swimming around her, and even though I thought that was funny, I still tried to comfort her a bit. I'm so nice.

We rented scooters for each couple and a convertible VW Bug for the grandparents and little kids to cruise down the coast line to the Iberostar on Cozumel. We ate lunch there and relaxed/took a nap on the beach. Then we made our way around the island to return the scooters by 6pm. My only regret of our time on Cozumel was that I wish we could have spent some time on the other side of the island (opposite the "reef") to explore tide pools. The ferry ride back that night was MUCH smoother than the morning and even Ellery made it back with out getting sick.

Day seven:
Spent the day relaxing at the resort. I think I slept most the time. It was a rainy day (as most were while were were there) but we made the most of it. We passed much of the afternoon playing 2v2 beach volleyball in the rain.

Day eight:

Tulum. We secured a personal van and driver for the day. He was very nice, spoke really good English and was very interesting to listen to as he talked about the area (those sitting in the back of the van missed out on that). We arrived at Tulum and it was raining. And it kept raining. Pretty hard rain. But we continued the tour anyway. We paid for a guide to give us the "LDS tour." Carlos, our tour guide, was very interesting. I think he seemed a bit nervous to be giving the tour in English, and although he was a little unsure of some of what he said, I thought he did a great job and I learned a LOT about Tulum I didn't know before from just going on my own. I highly recommend it! The rain finally let up and the resulting lighting was perfect for picture taking!

We got back later than expected that night to find our room keys no longer worked. I ran back (the 1/4 mile) to the lobby to get them reset so we could change and get ready for our last specialty dinner at the Steak House. The dinner was great; the best of the entire week. Most everyone got the Tenderloin (I think) but I got the pork chops. They were good, but mine are better.

After dinner, we headed down to the beach and took a bunch of pictures. That was a lot of fun to just spend time with the family. The night was cool without a hint of a breeze... darn near the perfect night.



Day nine:
Sunday. Time to go home. The bus was scheduled to leave at 2:30 pm but check-out was at noon... apparently RIGHT at noon. I spent the morning packing and cleaning up, Millie took Ellery to wear her out in hopes of getting a nap in for her before the trip back. I asked the front desk if we could use the room till 1-ish so Ellery could take a nap. They said they charge $10 USD per hour after check-out. Ridiculous!!! But... what's another $10 after dropping over $2K... right? They told me to come by to have the key card reset so we could get in since it will automatically not work after noon; so I did. I went back to the room just before 1pm (since the front desk said the key would not work after 1pm and I wanted to make sure we could get our daughter out). Just after walking in the door the front desk called (this was minutes after getting the key reset for me to enter) and they asked what I was doing in my room still. I told them I had to get my daughter and that I had just had my key reset for that purpose, they were SO rude and told me to give them names and that I had to get out now, and they were sending a bell boy up to escort me out and get my bags. I was disgusted with their attitude, the whole thing put a bitter taste in my mouth towards the resort, even more so than having a medical center that couldn't even administer a simple I.V.!!! (I'm still too pissed to even go into all the details and feelings of that whole adventure).
Needless to say, by this time, I was happy to leave that place and just get home.

The flight back was good. Ellery was drugged up on Dimetapp and slept most of the way home (except when the pilot would speak over the intercom). We got in around 1am and I put all our clothes in the wash. I got to bed around 2am.

All in all, a great vacation.

The only things I'd change:
1) Don't get sick and spend $$ on hospital/ER bills and miss out on Chitzen-Itza and the Cenotes.
2) The resort "hot tubs" were colder than the pool. Some of those rainy days would have been nice to spend in a hot tub.
3) Spend some time in Playa shopping. It was on the itinerary but never really happened. Millie missed out on buying souvenirs and we paid a premium for them in the airport on our way out.
4) Don't bring Ellery. This will be the last "vacation" we take any children under 8 on.
5) Shouldda taken more pictures.

The rest of the family took a lot more pictures and once I get them I'll make a slide show and post it as a new blog!