Comfort & Chaos in Cancun: Part Two

To fully understand this saga, please be sure to have first read Part One. It’ll make this second half that much more impactful. Thank you, you’re simply the best!

Kamber and I only had two full days in Cancun, Thursday and Friday, but we didn’t hesitate to make the most of them. Following our incredible breakfast from the buffet, we went down to the ocean. We secured a pair of lounge chairs and I then promptly set off for the restroom. Yes its the ocean, but I don’t like peeing in it. Makes me nervous. On my way across the sand I was invited seemingly countless times to play volleyball, “HEY GREEN SHIRT! GET OVER HERE AND PLAY WITH US!”

“NO, THANK YOU!” I hollered back. We were considerably far from one another initially, but with each step I got closer to their game.

“Come on green shirt, don’t be lazy, come get crazy,” said some random volleyball playing guy. “We need a sixth.”

There was no way in this world I was about to go play volleyball when like my girl, Moana, I could see the line where the sky met the sea. I knew it was calling and of course no one knows, how far it goes. We’ve established I love the ocean, so unless it was the Spice Girls or the Elevator Boys asking me to be their sixth, it wasn’t happening.

Thankfully we got about two hours of beach and ocean time before the thunderstorm set in. Kamber and I waited until the last possible second before heading back to our room. This proved to be quite the mistake.

Those raindrops were so heavy that they pelted us like hail! Each one hurt like hell and given that millions of them were raining down on us, we were experiencing a lot of pain! Mother Earth definitely got us good.

While I went to the room, Kamber walked down the hall to the housekeeper. After a few moments, Kamber came back to the room and I had already changed out of my drenched clothes and into some new ones. I could see the look of shock sprawled out across Kamber’s face, so I asked, “what’s wrong?”

“There’s a giant scorpion outside our room underneath the ledge!”

Wasting no time, I hustled out into the hall to see. Sure enough this big, black scorpion was tucked up right where she said it would be. Nasty. It was the first time I’d seen a scorpion in the wild and unfortunately, it so happened to be about ten feet from our room!

You best believe that from that moment on, each and every time we walked into that hallway, we were on scorpion watch! I even prayed we wouldn’t encounter it again, but as you’ll soon find out, I didn’t pray hard enough.

After the storms ended, Kamber and I went down to the “Jungle Pool.” We swam around and had a wonderful time being surprised at how deep it got in some parts. I thought I read somewhere that the pools were all four feet, but there were parts of this one that were clearly five. Kamber was nearly underwater. Nonetheless, swimming was a blast!

We then decided we wanted a jacuzzi, so we set out in search of one. Near the ocean, just off the infinity pool, we found what we were looking for. Unfortunately for us though, we couldn’t figure out how to get the jets on. So we basically just sat in a large, circular tub of warm water. Fortunately for us though, two people came over to join us in our bath.

Shawn and Macy were an amazing couple from Dallas, Texas that we got to know quite well over the next two days. They’d just gotten married and were celebrating their honeymoon. I’m sure in their case they loved the room accomodations! This was the first of what ended up being three times we rendezvoused with them and each time was progressively more terrific than the last! Meeting them was definitely a top tier highlight of our trip full of nothing else!

I wish I’d taken photos, but that evening when we returned from spending the night at the bar with Sean and Macy, we had received a turn down service in our room. There were cute little slippers laid out on each side of the bed, chocolates on our pillows, water bottles and glasses on our nightstands, and the most insane video on the television. It featured all these children frolicking and what have you with various baby animals: wolves, elephant, whales, just name it. It was all in a sepia tone and was just weird as could be. I’m not really sure why it existed, but it was on the television in the massage salon also the next day.

Friday morning we got up super early and set off on an excursion to Isla Mujeres! A cute little island just off the coast of Cancun. We began with a cruise on a quaint yacht that sailed out to the shallows where we got to go snorkeling over a reef!

Neither Kamber nor I had ever snorkeled before and she was super good at it, me, not so much. I couldn’t get the tube to stay put in my mouth and I kept swallowing gallons of saltwater. There were a couple times I thought I was going to vomit violently, but thankfully, that never materialized. While I couldn’t seem to figure it out properly, this didn’t sway me from having the best time! The water was probably only about eight feet deep, so looking down beneath us and seeing the thousands of fish swimming in every which direction was just surreal. Not to mention seeing the reefs was just incredible. I loved every single second of the forty minutes or so we spent in those waters.

Once we completed our snorkel, we all got back on the boat and they served us this luncheon plate full of spicy alfredo pasta, shrimp salad, a corn muffin, guacamole and chips, just all this food. The only thing was, it was 9:27 in the morning! I looked at Kamber and we both shared a, “who in the world is going to eat all this this early?” Well, apparently everyone but us. We were shook to see all the other patrons scarfing their food down. I swallowed enough salt water I could’ve filled an aquarium, so my sodium intake had been met for the day. Plus, it was so early, was there no pastries and muffins? Oh well, happy everyone else was happy. I did nibble at the food, didn’t want it to go to complete waste. Also, of the thirty-five people aboard, only ten of us snorkeled. Maybe that had something to do with it.

Isla Mujeres looked like that stereotypical Mexican town that would be showcased in any Hollywood movie. This was actually quite charming to me as I felt like I was really getting a true Mexican experience more so than I ever could on the resort. I’m not much of a trinket shopper, so I wasn’t interested in remaining in the city center. Being a history fanatic though I couldn’t wait to get to the south side of the island where they had Mayan ruins and a lighthouse amongst a series of statues by the sea.

So we paid a taxi driver to take us the five miles south to those ruins and wait a half hour for us while we walked around and explored. He was the sweetest and nicest man and shared so many interesting facts about the island. It was quite small as I mentioned, but still, twenty thousand people resided on there. A whopping forty thousand people visited it each day. I wasn’t surprised by this as the streets were PACKED with golf carts, motorbikes, and taxis heading in every which direction and I do mean that, traditional rules of the road seemed to matter little.

We saved the fine dining Mexican restaurant for our final night as it felt like a fitting ending. Following three delicious courses, we were sitting there and enjoying our desserts when a bat started flying around the restaurant patio. It was swooping down and diving and just flying so erratically. Kamber, who had her back to it, didn’t think it was coming that low. My Snapchat video showed her though that it was coming within a foot of her head! If only I had brought pants! This particular wildlife encounter could’ve been entirely avoided!

We then went and met up with Shawn and Macy at the premiere bar again. We all sat and talked while a cover band performed a variety of chart-topping hits while others danced the night away. Kamber, who had a presentation to work on, left the three of us behind and set off back to the room.

I left my phone with the screen turned down on the table in front of us. I was just yapping it up with Sean and Macy when I finally grabbed it to check. I had SEVERAL texts, snaps, missed calls, and even a voicemail from Kamber.

“BEN DESHON ANSWER YOUR FUCKING PHONE!”

I promptly read her texts and while there was plenty to read, they said nothing next to what the two photos she sent said:

The hero above rescued Kamber from not one, but TWO SCORPIONS! After capturing the one shown, ANOTHER RAN OUT FROM UNDERNEATH THE SOFA CUSHION! Kamber closed and locked that door after he left and neither of us ever went out there again! We had spent a LOT of time lounging about out there! It chills me to the bone to think those creatures could’ve been with us the entire time! OOF!

Despite this menagerie of last minute chaotic creatures we had THE BEST time at Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres! I would 100% return! The staff was second to none & the place was draped in perfection. We truly had THE BEST time!

This trip wouldn’t have been possible without the travel plannings of my good friend, Ashley Wilson, over at Sky High Travel! I’ve known her for two decades & we’ve even traveled the world together in years past! If you’re looking to go ANYWHERE I would STRONGLY recommend reaching out to her at [email protected]! She’s simply the best! THANK YOU ASHLEY for giving Kamber and I a vacation we’ll never forget! It really was THE BEST!

Well, that wraps up Cancun! As always, THANK YOU for viewing! I appreciate you greatly! Feel free to leave me a comment below as I love reading and responding to them! I’ll return soon with another all-new post, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!