Caribbean Craziness

Please read the first part of this vacation saga to catch up on what has brought us to this point, Caribbean Cluster...

Day Two: Thursday

We got up around 8:00 - the Funjet rep called shortly after and said that we could make the change. I was so happy! We were glad that it worked out. Even the additional fee couldn't discourage me. I packed up our bathroom, our clothes and we were ready to leave in ten minutes. No lie.We were on the third floor with five bags/ suitcases and the elevator was out of order. Seriously...par for this resort. Luckily we found one that was working. We ate breakfast, paced from the lobby to the rep and finally got the final go ahead to get a taxi and head to our familiar paradise - the Iberostar Quetzal. (This is where we stayed last year with Jason and Megan, this is what I knew that staying in Playa Del Carmen could be like.)

We arrived at this resort a few hours before check-in time. That didn't matter. We had a place to leave our luggage and we hit the path to the dive shop. This was my main concern, Joey needed to get busy diving. Scuba diving has become a passion of his and one of the things he most looks forward to on these trips (spending time with me tops his list but this is second). I wanted him to have the next available opportunity to do this. He wanted to get his next level of certification - Advanced - and so it began. He was able to go out on a dive shortly after we visited the shop. I took care of getting us into our room when it became available. I wasn't even going to complain that we were in the farthest building from everything (except the lobby), or that there was construction going on right outside our balcony or that we had to walk three flights of stairs to our room. It was all about perspective. We had a room at an amazing resort with a beautiful beach, enough said. And, we knew our way around. We were back in our 'comfort zone'. The rest of the day was spent at the beach or in the buffets. After dinner, we went to the Iberogrammy nightly show - enjoying performance by 'Shakira, The Blues Brothers, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson and all the singers in USA for Africa'. And then we decided to call it a day.

Day Three: Friday

Joey dove at 8:30 and 10:30, thank goodness that these dives only take him away from me for about an hour. I enjoyed my quiet time on the beach with my book and then we had lunch together, spent some time feeding the fish in the ocean and taking in the beauty of the crystal clear, turquoise sea. We rested in our lounge chairs until the sun became too much - and after being in it for six hours - we both needed a nap in the AC. This was a good decision due to some sunburning going on. After some rest and while Joey was studying - yes, he seriously had to read, study and answer review questions - I got a wild hair and decided to ask if we could change rooms. It was worth a shot to see if they had a better location with a better view available. Great news! We got to move to a room close to the middle of the resort - the pool was nearby, the dive shop was one building down and it was on the bottom floor. Yay! I packed in a hurry, once again, to make a move. Third night, third room - it was all good :) We settled in our new room - I had become a master packer/ unpacker. Joey went on his night dive from 7:00-9:00. I read on the beach, ate dinner and waited on him to get back. Selfishly, I was thankful that he only signed up for one night dive.He enjoyed this dive but after three dives in one day, he was dragging a little bit. I went back to have dinner with him - this time I ate fruit and cookies. We started watching the nightly show but it wasn't entertaining us enough to stay up for it. We headed back to the room for a good night's sleep.