Resort living for a week

In a single word, perfect.

That’s how I would describe the Xmas holiday week my wife and I spent in Mexico at the lovely Excellence Riviera Cancun resort about twenty minutes away from the Cancun airport. We’re not all-inclusive resort travellers by any stretch of the imagination, but on a few occassions, that’s exactly the kind of vacation we crave. We had a particularly hectic 2016 so the idea of laying around in a warm climate, reading some books, taking long afternoon naps and generally shutting off our minds was very appealing. With that in mind, we picked the resort and sprung for a room with direct access to a lazy river and its own dedicated sun bed. Ours is the one with the two blue pool floaties in front of the bed. We spent a lot of our vacation either lounging in the river or on that bed.

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A true vacation

December 30, 2016 – Puerto Morelos, Mexico

Maybe this trip has reminded me of the definition of “vacation”. For all the good in 2016, this past year hasn’t been a year of relaxation and this escape to Mexico came at the right, if a bit overdue, time. My feet are dangling in a pool, there is an ice cold Sol beer beside me and my wife is half dozing, half watching a movie on her phone on a sun bed behind me. This is a true vacation.

Excellence Riviera Cancun, Mexico

I guess I am a bit of a travel snob to have felt at least a little bit guilty in even calling this a trip. I know this isn’t authentic Mexico, but the moment I walked into the resort and someone handed me a glass of sparkling wine, I was immediately relaxed. With what has been on my shoulders this year – leaving a job, moving, starting a bigger job with more pressures, living without my wife and dog for nearly two months, Chewy’s death, making new friends in Saskatoon, selling our Halifax condo – this vacation is exactly what I needed.

Simple, uncomplicated down time. It has felt great to just shut off my mind and simply be for a week. Yes, there’s winter and work ahead back in Saskatoon, but after this vacation, I’ll be ready for whatever 2017 throws at me.