Easter in Mexico day 9

[ali-s]

Not a very exciting day today, we are leaving Merida and going to the Grand Palladium all inclusive resort nr Akumal, where we will spend the rest of our holiday.
We have to take the Ado bus to Tulum, it's a 4hr journey and there are 2 buses to choose from- 10.30am and 2.30pm. I'm in favour of the pm bus as it's sunday and in Merida the streets will be closed off for dancing in the main square and a craft market . BUT, that means we'll not get to the Grand Palladium until early evening, and as we are able to use the facilities whenever we arrive, we decide we'll get our moneys worth and take the early bus- a decision we regret later.
We wander down to the Plaza to have a last look around, the craft people are setting up their stalls, and we have a wander and buy a few souvenirs before relaxing on one of the many benches.
We'd only been sat a couple of minutes when a little Mayan lady walks past, does a double take at our boys, says 'hello' and asks me how old they are. She is amazed at how tall they are and launches into an explanation of how Mayan kids and adults are much shorter than Europeans etc etc. We soon learn that she is studying at the university and this was obviously her opening line to practise her ( very good) English on us. There follows a long,rather one sided conversation- I couldn't get a word in edge ways. After she'd given us the spiel on kids ages and heights, she moved onto her knowledge of England -' is cold? is wet?' accompanied by actions incase we misunderstand her- little shivers for 'cold' and rain with her fingers above her head, she was a scream, though she didn't mean to be.
She then points to the hats that DH and DS11 are wearing - the one I haggled so hard for, and says ' good hats, but not for you, are 2nd class hats, are hats to give to teachers or friends, you give to teacher , maybe , and say'' here is souvenir of Merida'', not hats for family, are 2nd class hats, family need 1st class hats , Panama hats are 1st class hats, family need panama hats, not these 2nd class hats.' Well DH and DS's faces were a picture, I was trying so hard not to laugh. She had obviouly learnt certain phrases that could be used in many situations, and 2nd class must have been one of them , she must have repeated it about 10 times in slightly different ways, just to be sure we got the message. When she was certain we were ready to go buy Panama hats, she moved onto her next subject, the difference between Mayan and Spanish, she taught us how to say 'hello' , goodbye' and 'thank you' in Mayan and was really very interesting, but when she stopped to draw breath , I told her we had to leave to catch the bus. She was crestfallen and told us about the dancing we would miss , but I think she was just sad at losing her guinea pigs to practice on
Back to the hotel, taxi called, and to the bus station in time to buy the last 4 tickets for the bus to Tulum, we've been very lucky so far, I really should have bought tickets in advance.The journey seemed to go quickly, yet another nature documentary,and the new Star Trek movie, shown in Spanish ! Arriving in Tulum, we have to take a taxi to Grand Palladium, we are shown the rate board so we know what we will pay ( about £12) and there is a good natured squabble amongst the drivers over who will take us. We are soon on our way, it takes about 30 mins to get to the resort. We have to wait for a barrier to be raised before we can enter the property, then it's a long drive down to one of the 4 lobbies ( it's sort of 2 resorts merged into 1 ). My heart sank , it looked lovely, but as soon as we entered the lobby , all we could hear were American voices, the the decor, though very nice,didn't scream 'Mexico', infact, it could have been anywhere in the world.
A golf cart took us to our room, not in the building I'd requested, but the location was better for us, so I wasn't bothered. We were a few mins walk from the pool, beach bar, beach and salt water pool.






I'd read on site dedicated to Grand Palladium, that there was a stall where we could paint pottery, it would then be taken and fired overnight. I was eager to do this, and as we needed a couple of days to allow for the pottery to be ready, we headed straight to the stall. We each chose our piece and began painting, we didn't have time to finish, but enjoyed what we had done.




We had a wander around the resort and a dip in the pool , before heading to the buffet for dinner. The food was good quality, but obviously aimed at the American guests , not a Mexican dish in sight. The decor was nice enough, but it was so busy and noisy, it reminded me of a school canteen.The boys were happy as they had fries ,chicken nuggets and pizza on tap.DH asked me yet again, 'why did you book us here ?' was beginning to wonder myself Many people love all inclusive resorts, we discovered we are'nt among them ! Never mind, tomorrow we have an all day excursion off resort.

[kilbroney]

Thanks for posting enjoyed it, making me think I would like to go there

[pepsicube]

Lovelly looking resort - shame it wasn't very cultural though!

[DIBBadmin]

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