Saturday was our final full day. The girls and I dressed appropriate and went to the 'fancier' restaurant for breakfast... we weren't impressed and preferred the other one that had a basic breakfast buffet. But they got their Nutella pancakes and were happy.
Back to the pool when it opened then the kids made bracelets at the kids club
Emma had lost her goggles in the ocean on Thursday, I checked the store at the resort and they had some for sale. Got her a new pair... which she hated. They were pretty crapy after all, but hey they worked. Luckily she has a very kind brother who let her take over his pair.
peacocks at the store
Some basketball playing that morning, not much cuz the court was kinda crappy. And of course pool time. Kyle, Isaac, and I played some cards poolside.
Then lunch. They sat us at about the same spot every time since there are six of us.
And back in the pool of course, lol. Looks like Mary got the crappy goggles in this photo.
Afternoon snack at the crepe station.
Then dinner as the sun went down.
Progression of sun setting.
Slowly walking back to the room after the sun set and enjoying a few more the resort has to offer: ping pong and rocking horses.
We had popcorn back in the room and began packing our bags. Not a super early flight but we planned to eat breakfast then get a ride to the airport. We had a noon flight but didn't want to be rushed. Grand finale as we left was Mr. Peacock shaking his tail feathers! Adios!
Third and final highlight video:
Pretty early at the airport, bags checked and hung out for a bit. Wishing we could have snuck in on the 11am direct flight to Minneapolis, but had to wait on a connector which was also full and they were taking volunteers to stay back. We boarded the loooonnnngggg flight to Detroit.
Once in Detroit we had to go through customs, getting our checked bags, checking them again and waiting in the security line. Not much time before our connecting flight but was able to grab food to eat on the plane. Long day of traveling on Sunday.
Arrived about 10pm, kids were super helpful getting the bags, now this we could get used to :-)
The pet boarding place picked us up and shuttled us to the facility where we retrieved our van and Oakley who was HAPPY to see us. Here are some photos of his time while we were away.
Friday came and it was excursion day. We booked a boat trip to a private beach called Las Caletas. I think it's owned by this travel company; it's only accessible by boat. It was super fun and I highly recommend it! At first we felt rushed like we wouldn't have time to do EVERYTHING. But in the end we had plenty of time and the hour and a half after lunch we didn't realize we'd have was spent relaxing and playing in the sand... so yes plenty of time to do it all (well mostly - we didn't do many of the group things like the cooking class or mezcal tasting, nor the scuba diving lesson or banana boat ride. But all that we wanted to do with did)
First up was the port arrival. A quick 15 minute taxi ride from our hotel we arrived, got this photo taken, paid the port fair and got checked in for our boat. Oh and I bought this floatable GoPro attachment! Perfect for the day ahead.
First in line to load. We saw a family we knew from Edina in the security line to get through to the port! Small world.
Sat up top one the way there to see the views.
The ride to the beach was 45 minutes or maybe a little longer as the captain drove closer to the shoreline and talked about the town.
Mary started to get a little sea sick at the end of the ride. Isaac took a little nap.
As we approached the beach they had demonstrations of the adventure park options (zip line, blob, banana boat, etc) I was on the lower deck with Mary to get a barf bag (wasn't used) but Kyle said they had parrots flying over head as they docked.
First order of business was breakfast and why I think Mary wasn't feeling well. The kids all ate some cereal in the room before we left but it wasn't enough for her belly to handle the boat ride.
There was a little bit of a line for breakfast so I made a quick walk to the bathroom. Beautiful trails. Super yummy tacos for breakfast and pineapple juice. All inclusive with the trip.
After breakfast we walked over to the beach, the waiter gave us a tip to take a short cut through the restaurant seating instead of going up the hill through the trails. Lots of crabs on the rocks!
This was great except the tide was up and the beach path meant wading in waves, lol. But we made it through. Later that day we were back in this spot and there was plenty of beach space to cross in front of these rocks.
We were all interested in snorkeling so that was our priory. I went up to retrieve the gear.
Mary did some paddle boarding in the mean time then we got our stuff on. And at some point I messed up a setting on my GoPro so these next few photos are wonky. I mainly used my go pro on this trip so check out the video at the end of this blog post for the better highlight.
View of the activities beach.
Fun in the sun. Girls each got to hold a bird.
Next order of business was to check out the adventure park which was on the other side of the bluff.
Turns out you have to be 9 to do the big kid adventure park. There was a kid park, but we had to make a reservation on the boat and at the time Thomas did not want to do it. So while the other four went off and did the zip line, dunk tank, rattle snake water slide, and tree stepping stones Thomas and I found our own fun.
He wanted to explore this adventure gym.
Then we went back down to the beach and snorkeled. I had returned 4 of the 6 pieces of gearing thinking we might want to go again. We snorkeled out to this hammock island.
Parrots flying overhead.
Sun bathing
Snorkeled over to this little floating pad thing.
This second round of snorkeling I found much better fish! That was probably my favorite part. Loving my new GoPro and its ability to capture underwater. Can you spot the eel in the second photo?
I didn't get any photos of Mary paddle boarding earlier (there's video) but Thomas and I did a little circle on the kayak.
Back at the beach the other's returned from their adventure, we had a little bit of time in the water. Girls borrowed life jackets to float out to the hammocks. Then it was time for lunch - 1:30.
We were thinking we'd have to load the boat right after lunch but turns out we didn't load the boat til 3:30, so plenty of time to do whatever else we wanted.
We ended up hanging out at the small beach and the kids played in the sand and swam.
Back on the boat they were passing out the drinks and provide entertainment on the boat deck.
Kids are loving the all inclusive life of smoothies, Shirley temples and drinks galore.
Zoomed in view of our resort! You can see how lushious and green it is. They do have amazing foliage.
After a big walk around the port to finally find the exit to the taxis, we were able to get in a bigger van with another family.
Sun kissed and happy, we're back at the resort. Thomas got a LOT of sun. He also was a stinker when I tried to get sun screen on him that morning, now he knows why we wear it.
You'd think we'd had enough, but nope Mary and Thomas went straight to the pools. Emma followed shortly after. I'm sitting at the pool looking up at our room:
Cleaned up for dinner and caught the sunset on another wonderful day.
All images are copyright of Daisy Simpson. It is unlawful and illegal to copy, scan, alter or edit the images in any way. This depreciates the photos value as well as my reputation, I take great care in capturing and editing each image and they are each important to me. Thank you for respecting my passion and my copyright.
