The Mayan Riviera.
Or, "The Engagement Honeymoon."
Our story begins last spring. Candi and I had just been on an impromptu vacation to Atlantic City. It was her idea. She found a Group-on, or whatever it's called. My spring break was coming up, and she insisted I take some time off to relax. I took a couple days off, most of which coincided with when I normally had off for class. It was a really nice time together.
We started talking about going on a cruise together. Or, rather, she kept saying how she wanted to go on a cruise. Hey, my given nature is to stagnant and not go anywhere. I have to smile and nod a little, or I won't get dragged anywhere! We talked about where we wanted to cruise. Eventually it turned into talking about where we'd be comfortable vacationing. Which somehow turned into six days and five nights in the Mayan Riviera.
I'd already gotten the idea ahead of time to get portraits done together of both of us. It was just really good timing.
Somewhere in May, it occurred to me that proposing over the vacation would be a fantastic idea. I pictured us on the beach, me telling her how much I love her and how much she puts up with me. I imagined writing in the sand, "It's too dangerous to go alone, take this!" as I got on one knee and handed her the ring. Don't think about the physics of that.
I dropped hints like crazy, but she just thought I was being me. Hints like, "Let's move in together when we have monies!" Hints like, "Let's have ten thousand babies!" Hints like, "What do you want our last name to be?" Hints like, "WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO NAME OUR TEN THOUSAND BABIES?" Hints like, "Where would you like to live?"
I'm sure she'll facepalm at some point.
As for the ring, it was a no-brainer. I've known for ages that Opal is her favorite stone. Every time we pass a jewelry store, she looks for all things opal. Never buys anything. So I browsed online. Then I browsed in person. And there, I found it. I was in a Kay. I mention it is to be an engagement ring. He shows me one. And I just knew. Bought it.
A friend suggested I propose while we got pictures taken. Catch it on the spot. I had the ring on me during it, but it just feel like the right time, so I refrained.
Day One: July 27, or 7-27. Easy to remember.
We got up at 4 AM. Her friend Bradford gave us a ride to the airport. On the way, we passed by a 7-11. We made the commentary that there's never any females awake at this hour. Checking our luggage took time. Security was a breeze. Got a compliment by one of the security guards on my hair. Man, I should have kept tabs on how many compliments I got while I was in Mexico. It was not even 8 AM, and I noticed a Smashburger in the airport. Cue me eating my third meal of the day.
We were taken to the hotel by shuttle. Our travel agency has a branch/liason in Mexico, so it was nice not to worry about things. Well, except for the mexican speed bumps (aka: topes). It was 1 PM local time by the time we arrived at the hotel. We were tired, sweaty, and our room wasn't ready until 3 PM. We began our pattern of her grabbing food while I ordered us water and a pepsi for her. (A pepsi I would always sip out of, but never too much.) I ate an astounding level of beans. Astounding, because I really didn't fart that much. Seriously. I love beans.
With time to kill, we hit up a liason to our travel agency for activities. We scheduled an express tour of Coba for Day Two, and a snorkeling activity for Day Four. At our room, we waited another hour for our luggage to be brought up. Dude, next time, I'm keeping my luggage NEXT to me. We travel light. The "courtesy" of having our luggage brought up to us is silly.
We attempted to find dinner at one of the fancy restaurants, but discovered they were all reservation only and all required pants. Yes, seriously, I didn't bring pants with me. I mean, it's fucking Mexico. I thought, "Why would I need pants in MEXICO?" Live and learn. I was a bit upset with myself, but got over it fast. After all, once I found the right pants, I looked rather nice. On this evening, we simply went back to the buffet, and I had more beans.
Oh, this resort was all-inclusive. We paid nothing extra for food or beverages.
We returned to the room to supposedly retire. She wanted to shower. I suggested I fetch us seabreezes, her favorite drink. It was about 10PM. I beckoned her out onto the balcony of the room. In the daylight, you can see a pool below us, and the jungle out into the distance. I improvised conversation and drank nearly both of ours to get my wits about me. I had imagined telling her how things have changed in the past year. How I don't feel worthy of her and I would have understood if she had left me in the dust. How much I need her in my life. How much I just love how we are by default, cuddling and watching things on TV - things I want to be doing years from now. How all those fears of commitment, as I understand them now, are completely gone. How I've been afraid of believing in someone ever since I let my fantasies run wild with Paige.
Nerves got the best of me. I had the ring tucked away in the right cargo pocket of my right pantleg. I got on one knee, reached into my pocket, flicked open the box and said, "Will you be my Stinkie?"
What? It's a petname.
She said, "Are you serious?" I don't think she fully believed me for a few minutes. She hugged me and somewhere in there was an affirmation. I ate her pussy and somewhere in there we formally went to sleep.
Day Two:
We got up at 7:40. After a brief buffet breakfast, we herded ourselves into a shuttle for Coba. There was only one other couple, who happened to be from Canada. Our bus driver kept reminding us of his name. (Javier.) Our tour guide was Jorge. At Coba, he lectured for around 45 minutes before we had time to explore. We took a "Mayan Limo" to the climb site. (That is, a guy on a bike pushed us for two miles. I tipped well.) I climbed Nohoch Mul, one of the last Mayan ruins that you can actually climb. (Chichen Itza has been offlimits for years.) Not a hard climb, but it was very slow-going on the way down, not to mention hot.
We did an informal siesta back at the room, though I don't recall sleeping. Spiderman 3 was on TV, and I insisted that we finish it. It was an absolutely terrible movie, yet I felt compelled to know just how bad the ending would be. (Oh man, it was bad.) I apologized afterwards. We went to the pool, then went to the buffet. For dinner, we hit up La Fleur. I began my pattern of ordering champagne every night and giving a toast to anything that crossed my mind. My first toast was, "To the Undiscovered Country!" Hard to take me seriously when I'm quoting Star Trek (which is, in turn, quoting Shakespeare.) As for dinner, french are all about fluff and less substance.
Day Three:
We woke up around 10 AM. I laid out on the balcony of the room, unseen by eyes below, for about an hour. Hit up the buffet for breakfast/lunch. We went to the beach and were thoroughly disappointed. The water was full of seaweed and quite rocky. Meeeh. There were also no available beds to lay out on. Did see one or two girls topless, but hey, gotta keep it classy.
Returned to the pool outside our building, which was where we spent most of our pooltime. It was in an adults-only area, so there were no screaming kids or annoying teenagers. Somewhere in this day, we found a free internet lounge and made things Facebook Official™. I continued to gorge myself on chips and guacamole. I swear, I don't like guac much, but in Mexico, it tasted fantastic. I took a nap before we hit up Hacienda. This was the best dinner of the four, for me. Fantastic tacos and fajitas and, just awesome. Yes, I had champagne.
Day Four:
We got up around 6:40 AM. There's a bunch of pictures from our activities on this day. This time, we were in a busload with five other couples. Along the way, there was a gaggle of photographers cataloguing our day. At the end, we were offered a disc of all the pictures of ourselves for $40. Frankly, it was a steal. Almost all of them came out nice. Our bus driver/tour guide/kitchen aid was a guy named Alfonso. He did everything. He drove us around, demonstrated and explained everything, then DID everything with us, cleaned up after lunch, went out into the ocean with us, and drove us all home. Heavy tip, man.
The rappelling was underwhelming. I was hoping it was going to be off rocks or something. Instead, it was a freefall where I just had to test my grip-strength. The ziplining was a LOT of fun. Screw South Park, that was awesome! Snorkeling was... a challenge for me. I had to take my glasses off, so I couldn't see anything. I also initially snapped the piece the held the tube to the mask, so I was paranoid I was going to drown. As well with the low ceiling, I think I had a mini-panic attack. The old ball and chain calmed me down and lead me into the underwater cave.
It was so refreshing. You go into this cave and wonder, "Where's the water?" Then you realize IT'S RIGHT THERE. That's how clear it is. Supposedly this cave supplies water to 2/3 of the penninsula. There are lights along the path we were following, but my sense of direction was really thrown off. I pretty much stuck by Candi. Though, I could see the butts of everybody around me pretty clearly, ha ha.
Lunch was delicious. I LOVE MEXICAN GUACAMOLE. The open ocean didn't give me a panic attack, but I could NOT figure out how to swim with fins on. I got really frustrated because it felt like I was swimming with bricks on my feet. It felt like the harder I tried to swim, the slower I went. My arms ended up chafing my shoulders against the lifejacket, from how hard I was trying to breaststroke. Eventually I gave up and just let the girl tow me. Yes, I saw sea turtles and a school of fish and some neat stuff. But feeling like I was going to get left behind and get tossed out to sea is the fear that will stay with me the most. Snorkeling was also the only thing to give us sunburn.
I took a brief nap before we went to Tapas. Another mexican place. Inebriated by three glasses of champagne, we improvised conversation with me in spanish and her in italian.
Day Five:
I woke up at 7:00 AM of my own accord and went for a walk. Which quickly turned into me sweating my ass off. I did get some nice pictures, though. I came back to a very hungry ball and chain. After buffet, we relaxed in the pool again. I tended to lay out in the sun while she laid in the water reading. There were these little platforms in the water that you could lay on and keep your head out of water. On both sides, there were places for your drinks. Nice touch.
At 4 PM, we got massages. Mmmmm. Damn, that was nice. Afterwards, we went in the "hydrotherapy" pool. Whatever, it was just a pool with jets here and there. At 7 PM, we hit up the buffet for dessert. We left in time for our 8 PM appointment at the Fundue place. FUN-DUE. It was really tasty. I only had two glasses of champagne. However, on the way back to the room, we sat down to do shots of tequila. The bartendered picked a bottle that said, "Hornito". It was quite tasty. After doing two shots, I had to finish her shot, as she just can't do it. Word to the wise: champagne and tequila will not give you a happy stomach in the week to come. I felt fine that night, but the girl thinks I had a light hangover the next morning. Whatever.
Day Six: We both got up at 6:40 to poop. YAY, POOPIN. We hit up the buffet one last time. We waited around the hotel entrance for our shuttle to the airport. It was supposed to arrive at 9 AM, but was a couple minutes late. Clearing baggage took some time, clearing security was faster - though I did stub my toe on something, causing it to bleed immediately. We had fifty minutes before our plan was supposed to board. Candi got in line at a Johnny Rocket's to get us food. We were barely a quarter through our food when we heard the Last Call for our flight, a full 25 minutes early. Yes, the motherfuckers had everybody boarded a full 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave. That left us hungry. Moreover, we had to circle in Virginia because of the weather in Newark, so we ended up being delayed.
Her parents picked us up and congratulated us. We had dinner at Five Guys. It's not Fatburger, but it's still tasty.
Day Seven: Okay, we just spend it at her house, but I mentally wanted to count it as part of our "vacation". She downloaded the four seasons of the Big Bang Theory, as that's what we watched by default when we were in Mexico.
Aaand, that about does it. We had a nice vacation and now she's stuck with me. Good times.
Our story begins last spring. Candi and I had just been on an impromptu vacation to Atlantic City. It was her idea. She found a Group-on, or whatever it's called. My spring break was coming up, and she insisted I take some time off to relax. I took a couple days off, most of which coincided with when I normally had off for class. It was a really nice time together.
We started talking about going on a cruise together. Or, rather, she kept saying how she wanted to go on a cruise. Hey, my given nature is to stagnant and not go anywhere. I have to smile and nod a little, or I won't get dragged anywhere! We talked about where we wanted to cruise. Eventually it turned into talking about where we'd be comfortable vacationing. Which somehow turned into six days and five nights in the Mayan Riviera.
I'd already gotten the idea ahead of time to get portraits done together of both of us. It was just really good timing.
Somewhere in May, it occurred to me that proposing over the vacation would be a fantastic idea. I pictured us on the beach, me telling her how much I love her and how much she puts up with me. I imagined writing in the sand, "It's too dangerous to go alone, take this!" as I got on one knee and handed her the ring. Don't think about the physics of that.
I dropped hints like crazy, but she just thought I was being me. Hints like, "Let's move in together when we have monies!" Hints like, "Let's have ten thousand babies!" Hints like, "What do you want our last name to be?" Hints like, "WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO NAME OUR TEN THOUSAND BABIES?" Hints like, "Where would you like to live?"
I'm sure she'll facepalm at some point.
As for the ring, it was a no-brainer. I've known for ages that Opal is her favorite stone. Every time we pass a jewelry store, she looks for all things opal. Never buys anything. So I browsed online. Then I browsed in person. And there, I found it. I was in a Kay. I mention it is to be an engagement ring. He shows me one. And I just knew. Bought it.
A friend suggested I propose while we got pictures taken. Catch it on the spot. I had the ring on me during it, but it just feel like the right time, so I refrained.
Day One: July 27, or 7-27. Easy to remember.
We got up at 4 AM. Her friend Bradford gave us a ride to the airport. On the way, we passed by a 7-11. We made the commentary that there's never any females awake at this hour. Checking our luggage took time. Security was a breeze. Got a compliment by one of the security guards on my hair. Man, I should have kept tabs on how many compliments I got while I was in Mexico. It was not even 8 AM, and I noticed a Smashburger in the airport. Cue me eating my third meal of the day.
We were taken to the hotel by shuttle. Our travel agency has a branch/liason in Mexico, so it was nice not to worry about things. Well, except for the mexican speed bumps (aka: topes). It was 1 PM local time by the time we arrived at the hotel. We were tired, sweaty, and our room wasn't ready until 3 PM. We began our pattern of her grabbing food while I ordered us water and a pepsi for her. (A pepsi I would always sip out of, but never too much.) I ate an astounding level of beans. Astounding, because I really didn't fart that much. Seriously. I love beans.
With time to kill, we hit up a liason to our travel agency for activities. We scheduled an express tour of Coba for Day Two, and a snorkeling activity for Day Four. At our room, we waited another hour for our luggage to be brought up. Dude, next time, I'm keeping my luggage NEXT to me. We travel light. The "courtesy" of having our luggage brought up to us is silly.
We attempted to find dinner at one of the fancy restaurants, but discovered they were all reservation only and all required pants. Yes, seriously, I didn't bring pants with me. I mean, it's fucking Mexico. I thought, "Why would I need pants in MEXICO?" Live and learn. I was a bit upset with myself, but got over it fast. After all, once I found the right pants, I looked rather nice. On this evening, we simply went back to the buffet, and I had more beans.
Oh, this resort was all-inclusive. We paid nothing extra for food or beverages.
We returned to the room to supposedly retire. She wanted to shower. I suggested I fetch us seabreezes, her favorite drink. It was about 10PM. I beckoned her out onto the balcony of the room. In the daylight, you can see a pool below us, and the jungle out into the distance. I improvised conversation and drank nearly both of ours to get my wits about me. I had imagined telling her how things have changed in the past year. How I don't feel worthy of her and I would have understood if she had left me in the dust. How much I need her in my life. How much I just love how we are by default, cuddling and watching things on TV - things I want to be doing years from now. How all those fears of commitment, as I understand them now, are completely gone. How I've been afraid of believing in someone ever since I let my fantasies run wild with Paige.
Nerves got the best of me. I had the ring tucked away in the right cargo pocket of my right pantleg. I got on one knee, reached into my pocket, flicked open the box and said, "Will you be my Stinkie?"
What? It's a petname.
She said, "Are you serious?" I don't think she fully believed me for a few minutes. She hugged me and somewhere in there was an affirmation. I ate her pussy and somewhere in there we formally went to sleep.
Day Two:
We got up at 7:40. After a brief buffet breakfast, we herded ourselves into a shuttle for Coba. There was only one other couple, who happened to be from Canada. Our bus driver kept reminding us of his name. (Javier.) Our tour guide was Jorge. At Coba, he lectured for around 45 minutes before we had time to explore. We took a "Mayan Limo" to the climb site. (That is, a guy on a bike pushed us for two miles. I tipped well.) I climbed Nohoch Mul, one of the last Mayan ruins that you can actually climb. (Chichen Itza has been offlimits for years.) Not a hard climb, but it was very slow-going on the way down, not to mention hot.
We did an informal siesta back at the room, though I don't recall sleeping. Spiderman 3 was on TV, and I insisted that we finish it. It was an absolutely terrible movie, yet I felt compelled to know just how bad the ending would be. (Oh man, it was bad.) I apologized afterwards. We went to the pool, then went to the buffet. For dinner, we hit up La Fleur. I began my pattern of ordering champagne every night and giving a toast to anything that crossed my mind. My first toast was, "To the Undiscovered Country!" Hard to take me seriously when I'm quoting Star Trek (which is, in turn, quoting Shakespeare.) As for dinner, french are all about fluff and less substance.
Day Three:
We woke up around 10 AM. I laid out on the balcony of the room, unseen by eyes below, for about an hour. Hit up the buffet for breakfast/lunch. We went to the beach and were thoroughly disappointed. The water was full of seaweed and quite rocky. Meeeh. There were also no available beds to lay out on. Did see one or two girls topless, but hey, gotta keep it classy.
Returned to the pool outside our building, which was where we spent most of our pooltime. It was in an adults-only area, so there were no screaming kids or annoying teenagers. Somewhere in this day, we found a free internet lounge and made things Facebook Official™. I continued to gorge myself on chips and guacamole. I swear, I don't like guac much, but in Mexico, it tasted fantastic. I took a nap before we hit up Hacienda. This was the best dinner of the four, for me. Fantastic tacos and fajitas and, just awesome. Yes, I had champagne.
Day Four:
We got up around 6:40 AM. There's a bunch of pictures from our activities on this day. This time, we were in a busload with five other couples. Along the way, there was a gaggle of photographers cataloguing our day. At the end, we were offered a disc of all the pictures of ourselves for $40. Frankly, it was a steal. Almost all of them came out nice. Our bus driver/tour guide/kitchen aid was a guy named Alfonso. He did everything. He drove us around, demonstrated and explained everything, then DID everything with us, cleaned up after lunch, went out into the ocean with us, and drove us all home. Heavy tip, man.
The rappelling was underwhelming. I was hoping it was going to be off rocks or something. Instead, it was a freefall where I just had to test my grip-strength. The ziplining was a LOT of fun. Screw South Park, that was awesome! Snorkeling was... a challenge for me. I had to take my glasses off, so I couldn't see anything. I also initially snapped the piece the held the tube to the mask, so I was paranoid I was going to drown. As well with the low ceiling, I think I had a mini-panic attack. The old ball and chain calmed me down and lead me into the underwater cave.
It was so refreshing. You go into this cave and wonder, "Where's the water?" Then you realize IT'S RIGHT THERE. That's how clear it is. Supposedly this cave supplies water to 2/3 of the penninsula. There are lights along the path we were following, but my sense of direction was really thrown off. I pretty much stuck by Candi. Though, I could see the butts of everybody around me pretty clearly, ha ha.
Lunch was delicious. I LOVE MEXICAN GUACAMOLE. The open ocean didn't give me a panic attack, but I could NOT figure out how to swim with fins on. I got really frustrated because it felt like I was swimming with bricks on my feet. It felt like the harder I tried to swim, the slower I went. My arms ended up chafing my shoulders against the lifejacket, from how hard I was trying to breaststroke. Eventually I gave up and just let the girl tow me. Yes, I saw sea turtles and a school of fish and some neat stuff. But feeling like I was going to get left behind and get tossed out to sea is the fear that will stay with me the most. Snorkeling was also the only thing to give us sunburn.
I took a brief nap before we went to Tapas. Another mexican place. Inebriated by three glasses of champagne, we improvised conversation with me in spanish and her in italian.
Day Five:
I woke up at 7:00 AM of my own accord and went for a walk. Which quickly turned into me sweating my ass off. I did get some nice pictures, though. I came back to a very hungry ball and chain. After buffet, we relaxed in the pool again. I tended to lay out in the sun while she laid in the water reading. There were these little platforms in the water that you could lay on and keep your head out of water. On both sides, there were places for your drinks. Nice touch.
At 4 PM, we got massages. Mmmmm. Damn, that was nice. Afterwards, we went in the "hydrotherapy" pool. Whatever, it was just a pool with jets here and there. At 7 PM, we hit up the buffet for dessert. We left in time for our 8 PM appointment at the Fundue place. FUN-DUE. It was really tasty. I only had two glasses of champagne. However, on the way back to the room, we sat down to do shots of tequila. The bartendered picked a bottle that said, "Hornito". It was quite tasty. After doing two shots, I had to finish her shot, as she just can't do it. Word to the wise: champagne and tequila will not give you a happy stomach in the week to come. I felt fine that night, but the girl thinks I had a light hangover the next morning. Whatever.
Day Six: We both got up at 6:40 to poop. YAY, POOPIN. We hit up the buffet one last time. We waited around the hotel entrance for our shuttle to the airport. It was supposed to arrive at 9 AM, but was a couple minutes late. Clearing baggage took some time, clearing security was faster - though I did stub my toe on something, causing it to bleed immediately. We had fifty minutes before our plan was supposed to board. Candi got in line at a Johnny Rocket's to get us food. We were barely a quarter through our food when we heard the Last Call for our flight, a full 25 minutes early. Yes, the motherfuckers had everybody boarded a full 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave. That left us hungry. Moreover, we had to circle in Virginia because of the weather in Newark, so we ended up being delayed.
Her parents picked us up and congratulated us. We had dinner at Five Guys. It's not Fatburger, but it's still tasty.
Day Seven: Okay, we just spend it at her house, but I mentally wanted to count it as part of our "vacation". She downloaded the four seasons of the Big Bang Theory, as that's what we watched by default when we were in Mexico.
Aaand, that about does it. We had a nice vacation and now she's stuck with me. Good times.