Our family just got home from a great vacation down to Riviera Maya in Mexico!
We flew out of Des Moines on Friday the 19th, and we had an overnight layover in Dallas. We were lucky enough to get switched to a different flight, because the original flight we had booked was delayed for 5 hours and eventually was cancelled.
On Saturday we arrived to our resort around noon. We stayed in the Iberostar Paraiso Maya Suites, which is a family friendly all-inclusive resort. To make it even more fun, Amy & Brandon brought their kids down as well! It was fun to be able to share a great vacation with them.
While we were at the resort, we enjoyed plenty of good food (both buffets and sit down restaurants), we enjoyed the swimming pools, wave simulator, water parks (complete with water slides and a lazy river), we played on the beach and in the ocean, Elizabeth and Brandon both sang karaoke, and we went to a variety of shows at night (there was a circus with aerial acrobats, a fire show, a Michael Jackson performer, and we watched a world cup match at a sports pub).
The sit down restaurants that we tried included La Geisha (teppanyaki), Taki-to (taco stand in the shopping mall), Lemon & Spices (Greek), and El Museo (Italian).
The Saltons went on an excursion on Monday, June 22nd. This included exploring the Mayan ruins at Coba, swimming in a cenote, and going to a local Mayan restaurant. I thought the Coba ruins were really neat to see. We rented bicycles to ride around the site, and we were able to climb the main pyramid at Coba, Nohoch Mul. We also saw the ball courts where the ancient Mayans played their ball game. Our guide told us that it is not clear if there were human sacrifices from these games or not.
Our flight home included a layover in Charlotte before returning to Des Moines on a late flight. It was about 1 AM this morning when our family got back to Ames. Overall, it was a great vacation, and I think we are all pretty worn out from the long trip! Here is a link to the last time our family went to an all-inclusive resort... Beaches Turks & Caicos in 2023.
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| Here is a nice picture of both families at the "snake bar" at our resort. |
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| The Salton family by Nohoch Mul in Coba. |
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| The kids had fun on the water slides! |
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| Nolan jumping into the main pool at the resort. |
