What a whirlwind of
adventure and romance the past few weeks have been! Trav and I left
our Caribbean island home of Utila on a visa-run to the USA, where we celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary by renewing our wedding vows in Las Vegas, took a
600 mile round trip on a bus to drive over the Hoover Dam and travel along ‘the mother road’ of Route 66 before exploring the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and
grabbing a last minute flight to Mexico for a second honeymoon.
Yes, really, it all happened
exactly like that - although, when we set off, all we had was an 18 day window,
a tight budget, a low cost flight to Sin City and a deal-of-the-day hotel
reservation.
This time last year, in May
2015, we also had to do a visa-run/wedding anniversary trip and we'd flown to Miami Florida for Memorial
Day weekend and then took a Greyhound Bus down to Key Largo and then onto Key
West – where we spent our wedding anniversary. Afterwards we'd flown to New
Orleans for a few days before going to the Bahamas and staying in a rental apartment
just off Cable Beach, Nassau. It had all been amazing.
This year we decided to
explore more of the USA and at the same time do something we had been talking about doing for years - renewing our wedding vows in Vegas – with Elvis.
We were SO excited about
going to Vegas. It was our first ever visit and I kept thinking of all the movies I’d seen and all the TV shows
about the casinos and the iconic hotels like the Bellagio, the Venetian,
Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand. It was just as fabulous as we expected and we must
have walked at least fifteen miles up and down The Strip that first day.
Happily, our aching feet were relieved with all the complimentary drinks we
were served in the Casinos while we gambled away a few dollars and won them
back again!
All this excitement gives you a hearty appetite and we found the best value and most delicious dining was at the ‘big name’ hotel dinner buffets. We tried the Bellagio and the Wynn –
the Wynn won – and their endless pours of champagne and wine made the gourmet
food even more delicious.
The next day was our much
anticipated special day - our second wedding day. We chose the Graceland
Wedding Chapel, a traditional and also famous wedding chapel that offered Elvis
themed weddings.
We had a stretch limousine to
pick us up from our hotel. Ridiculously, I was bursting with excitement
before I even saw it. Our driver had phoned to say, that when he picked us
up, he would have to leave the car at the end of the drive AS THE CAR WAS
TOO LONG for him to make the turn into the hotel’s circular driveway!
At the wedding chapel. I was
given a red rose bouquet and Trav a red rose button hole. Elvis walked me up
the aisle and sang a few classic songs while we joined in and danced. It was crazy fun!
As well as our wedding vows,
we also recited the ‘Elvis vows’. Trav promised to Love Me Tender and not to
leave me at the Heartbreak Hotel and I promised not to step on his Blue Suede
Shoes or treat him like a Hound Dog. And the whole thing is on video!
The next day we were up
early – 5am – as we had booked an excursion to the Grand Canyon. We chose to
take a bus tour to the South Rim – a 600 mile round trip - but which offers a
wider and more spectacular view of the canyon and also takes in the spectacular
Hoover Dam and part of the famous ‘mother road’ of Route 66.
It was a long and exhausting
day – but so worth it to walk the trail from Mather Point to Bright Angel Lodge
along the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
Another big tick off the
bucket list for sure!
As I mentioned, we hadn’t yet
booked a flight out of Vegas, and because we were feeling tired from all our exciting
activities, we decided to stay in Vegas one more night just so we could slow down, sleep
in late, and have some time to discuss and plan the next part of our trip because we still had a couple of
weeks before we needed to return to Utila.
We looked into going to San
Francisco – another destination on our bucket list. I’d love to see the Golden
Gate Bridge, all those famously steep roads and tramcars, and Alcatraz. Flight
prices seemed reasonable but hotel prices were prohibitively expensive for our
budget. So we looked at heading east instead using budget flights and Greyhound
Buses to get to Nashville, to Louisville, and Lexington in Tennessee, because Trav had
always wanted to do The Bourbon Trail. But again, on this occasion anyway,
both logistically and financially, it seemed to be out of our reach.
So we looked outside the USA instead and on the internet we found a bargain flight to Cancun. Mexico is a country we
had yet to explore and certainly a place that ticked all the boxes for sun and
fun and as a ‘honeymoon’ destination. We struck lucky again and managed to also
book a bargain all-inclusive hotel resort in Cozumel – an island just off the
Mexican coast which seemed easy to reach from Cancun via a public bus to Playa
del Carmen, a ferry over to Cozumel Island, and a taxi to our resort.
After an amazing 6 nights
and 7 days of eating, drinking, and lazing on the beach or by the hotel pool,
we decided to add a little adventure and some culture into the holiday mix, as
we discovered there were Mayan ruins to explore just a couple of hours away in
Tulum.
We checked out early the
next morning (made difficult by the horrible hangover I was nursing from partying with our new friends by the pool bar the night before) and we took a ferry
back over to the mainland and then a public bus down to Tulum.
Then we had a flurry of a drama
at Tulum when we stepped off the bus and it promptly drove off with our luggage. We ended up chasing it across town on another bus until we managed
to catch up with it and retrieve our bags!
In Tulum we stayed in a
gorgeous little roadside hotel. It didn’t look like much from the outside but its
few rooms were clean and comfortable. The place had a rich history and was atmospheric with lots of old photos of Mexican bandits and antique guns displayed on the
walls!
The hotel offered us bicycles
to get to the ruins – which would have been a good idea early in the morning
but by this time it was mid-afternoon and blisteringly hot – so we opted for a short taxi ride instead.
Seeing the Mayan ruins first
hand and walking around the ancient site at Tulum was a wonderful experience; for me it was akin
to walking around the ruins of old castles in Scotland, seeing the great pyramids in Egypt,
or visiting the sacred Buddhist temples of Thailand. I do love old places and the
feel of history they evoke and so I now wished we’d had the time to take in the great Mayan
step pyramid ruins at Chichen Itza, which were only a few hours away from Tulum, and to
visit and swim in the many Cenotes, the fresh water pools and caves in the
region. Oh well, places and adventures for another visit to Mexico, perhaps?
It was time to make our way
back to Cancun, to Houston, and to home.
We’d experienced another
amazing trip, had another fabulous and exciting adventure, and made a few more
ticks off our bucket list.
What’s next? Well, Trav has
some very exciting diving commitments over the next few months and I have a new
book to finish writing. Then, as the end of the year and the rainy season approaches,
and another visa-run is required, we will no doubt fly away again like birds on
migration to another place and on another adventure.
Until then, I’ll continue to
post about island life, about writing and my progress on the new book. I’m
excited because my lovely cover designer has now produced the cover for Island in
the Sun – and it looks fabulous – but I feel I must actually produce more of
the novel before I can legitimately show it to you!
Please do feel free to leave
a comment or ask a question or tell me about your own exciting plans and
adventures – I’d love to hear from you.
Love, Janice xx
