We're back....

We returned last night from Cancun, where the weather was beautiful and our stay relaxing, although I did get a nasty sunburn the second day which put something of a damper on the rest of the week.

We left Houston in a torrential downpour.  Our friends here generously drove us to the airport, and the storm hit while we were en route.  Our flight did get off the ground, albeit an hour late.  Our friends from Beaumont, who were supposed to be on the same flight with us, were not so lucky.  They were to connect on a flight from Lake Charles, LA, which was ultimately canceled due to the weather in Houston.  They ended up driving from Lake Charles to Houston (right past their home in Beaumont) and did not arrive at the resort until late that night, after a 16-hour travel ordeal.  (That did give us the opportunity, though, to catch a ride home from them last night.)

The resort has made a terrific recovery from hurricane Wilma last year.  We saw photos of the extensive damage, and it's really amazing they were able to reopen as soon as last month.  We posted photos of the place last year, and it looks more or less the same today, except the little-used lobby pool, claimed by the hurricane, has been replaced by a comfortable outdoor seating area.  They have also added an additional restaurant with a Japanese theme, which we found quite good.

We spent one day "off-campus," visiting Xcaret, which is a park unlike any to be found in the US.  Sort of a real-Mayan-ruins meets zoo meets Disney-esque theme park, with eco-tourism, snorkeling, a beach, and bars and restaurants thrown in.  Hard to describe -- one just needs to go for oneself.  We had a good time, and particularly enjoyed floating through the underground river.

A word about our map page is in order, since I received some comments.  We did not bring Odyssey to Cancun (although it would certainly be possible to do so), even though the map shows us there.  While we normally update this page with automatic software that derives our position from the GPS unit built in to our satellite dish, I do have a way to manually update it with any coordinates I choose.  Since we did not want to post Odyssey's actual position at our friends' house, nor did we want to simply leave the map at our last updated position in Katy, TX, I decided to take a stab at the coordinates of our resort on the Mayan Riviera and show us at that location.  I'll update the map again after we leave here and are in a more public place, probably tonight.