Viva Riviera Maya!

“Mommy, I want to live in Mexico and then we can have a pool in our backyard.”

This was Austin’s declaration on our last day of vacation. He and I spent a few moments working through the logistics of such a plan and I sadly pointed out that there are no jobs for mommy and daddy in Mexico.

It was a good trip. Our flights were perfect and once we finally left the rental car place we zipped quickly down to our boutique hotel, LiveTulum, which I found with the ease (having been past it while on my girls trip in January.) It was largely as we left it and thus pretty good. It was a little more expensive, because we were there during spring break week, so Hayden noticed things that were a little less charming when you pay more: inattentive (unresponsive?) staff who had to be reminded to make up our room, an extra fee for Austin, etc., but for the most part it remained the perfect launch point for beach and restaurants.

We wasted no time and headed straight for La Coqueta, our favorite place, which did not disappoint. Austin became obsessed with the the wooden cut out of a Mexican wrestler and proceeded to ask 400 questions about Mexican wrestling. I could answer two of them and Hayden’s reply was, "what’s Mexican wrestling?"

We started out on one beach, but were surprised to find it covered in huge mounds of seaweed. Odd, because it was not there on my trip in January. We moved to another beach which we knew, Playa Paraiso. It had the seaweed, but also a seaweed patrol who were busy lifting mounds of it.

Beach time was endless fun for Austin and pretty nice for us too. We lounged and sipped cocktails. Hayden would take Austin out to jump waves and then I would build sandcastles with him.

This was our daily routine, although we experimented with different beaches. The good thing about waiting two hours for a rental car was that Hayden got to know someone who was a frequent tourist and gave us a bunch of tips. We tried his first tip, Caleta Tankah beach. It was a 6 minute drive from our hotel and it was waaay better than the Tulum beaches. A small fee for the car and we were in a gorgeous place with stunning views and few people. This was my favorite of the week. We next went to Xpu-ha beach which was further away but was the first beach where Mexican families outnumbered tourists and that was fun too.

We found the town at Tulum beach to be just too boho-y for us this year. It was truly overrun with 20-somethings who could somehow combine scantily clad with the gauzy draped look. We did endure it long enough to head for a nice meal with great service at Cenzontle.

So we headed north to Playa Del Carmen, via the fun if too well marketed Akumal Monkey Sanctuary. Despite our fears (not security fears, tourist fears), Playa was actually quite nice. Chief amount our happy surprises was our hotel, Petit Lafitte, another boutique hotel. This time it was on the beach and this blew Austin’s mind. He instantly declared it the winner. When probed for the reason why, he explained that he never wanted to leave because this beach had shells. They were itty bitty shells, but enough that beach combing took up a large chunk of our days in Playa.

Indeed, we got pretty lazy (or settled) in our last couple of days and didn’t move from our hotel, which was very family friendly and due to the price tag, was filled with pleasant families from Brooklyn to Berlin.

Austin had his only almost meltdown at dinner one night here due to sheer exhaustion. We were able to steer him back on the path, however, with an airport purchase that became our mealtime savior: a dry erase book of games. Instead of the phone, we were able to keep him entertained with kiddie Madlibs. He broke his heart laughing as we filled in silly stories about a turtle named Robert (his best friend at school) who ate grumpy milkshakes...

Trip honorable mentions go to Playa del Carmen's downtown pedestrian walk - not nearly as offensive as I thought it would be (although the water was Jersey Shore brownish) and to a potential future destination: Puerto Morelos. We were there for 40 minutes, but it looked like it could be the best combination yet of relaxed, local Mexican vibes that would transport us away and sustain us upon reentry.

One more honorable mention to Austy on our return trip. We didn't get in until midnight. After all day sightseeing and two plane rides, Austin was great by the time we got home and handled school the next day like a champ!