Last week, Lulu and I went to Cancun for our 5th wedding anniversary. It was sort of a combined anniversary celebration and honeymoon since we never went on one when we got married. We had a fantastic vacation. Cancun, during the low season, is awesome. It was paradise. We had the beach just for ourselves most of the time. The moment we set foot inside the lobby, we could see the blue ocean and the hotel’s private beach. The water was so warm and the sand was as fine as flour. It was around 85°F and crystal clear, with an emerald colored tint. When we swam, there were little fish around us in the ocean.

We were located in the quiet part of the hotel zone. No loud music, just the sound of the sea. It was ideal for sunbathing, reading a book under the tiki umbrellas (Lulu listened to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on his iPod), and enjoying piña coladas. The hotel was great; we had a suite with a kitchen. We bought a bunch of fresh fruits (papaya, guava, cherimoya and bananas) and made a ton of smoothies. The limes were super fragrant! The only disappointment was that the coconuts were uniformly bad. Maybe Lulu and I are spoiled by the coconuts we’ve had in India and Vietnam in the past, but these didn’t taste sweet or fresh, as several guide books warned us.

Sweet delicious papaya.

The restaurants around the hotel zone were terrible but downtown the food gets much better. I think that the restaurants in the hotel zone don’t try very hard because they don’t need to worry about repeat customers. In downtown, the restaurants have to cater to the locals in order to stay in business, so the quality is much better. There's one place in particular that I really liked. It’s called La Pasteleria (Ave. Coba, Downtown). They had wonderful French and Mexican pastries and really delicious Mexican interpretations of brunch fare. Another good restaurant is called 100% Natural. It’s kind of out of the way, but the fish is amazing there. They served fish ceviche that melted like butter in your mouth.

Quatros Leches.

As fun as lazing about and eating were, we also went on a number of excursions. We took a ferry to a small island off the coast of Cancun called Isla Mujeres. Lulu rented a golf cart for us and I got to drive it around the island, which was a lot of fun. At one end of the island there is a cliff where a large family of iguanas live. I’m a bit of a wuss, and I started screaming and jumping up and down when one of the iguanas approached me. Needless to say, some of the local vendors looked at me like I was crazy.

Another trip we took was to Tulum to see the Mayan ruins. They were spectacular, and our tour guide was a veritable fountain of knowledge about all things Mayan. The highlight of the trip though, was the zip-lining excursion we went on, managed by a company called Selvatica. It was an incredible experience, flying through the jungle from tree to tree.

Mayan Ruins in Tulum.

Zip-lining.

Everything was great but we missed the girls and the family so much, we ended up calling them every evening and talking for hours. I don't think we're going to go away from them for that long ever again. It was nice to get away, but it’s even nicer to be back home.