The Great Cancun Adventure

One day, some months ago, I was walking through the newsroom, when a coworker said to me, "Hey, you wanna go to Cancun?" I shrugged and said "Um, ok". And so it began.

I was in need of a little change-up to the everyday routine, and I'm certainly not one to turn down an adventure, so I was in. Now, I know what you're thinking- A vacation, in this economy? Well, someone stumbled across an all-inclusive deal for $350. Hotel, airfare, food, booze(!), all for no more that $350. I figured it probably wasn't gonna be A-class all the way around for that price, but heck, I couldn't argue with the price, which seemed to cancel out any further doubts. Swine flu? $350. Hurricane season? $350. Drug wars? Heck, $350.

So I was in. And we went. And it was a good time. Oh, and I brought some company.

So the hotel wasn't great... It took us over an hour to check in, despite being third in line, and the lobby wasn't air conditioned. Neither was the elevator, which was like a sauna on a cable. Also the A/C in our room stopped working on the last night, and the toilet clogged twice. They also didn't clean our room. But hey, $350. We got what we paid for and we had little to legitimately complain about. Besides, who's hanging around the rooms when you're in Cancun?

Now I gotta say, I've been around the world on countless adventures, but never before have I seen ocean that looks like this. Something about the blue-green color just blew my mind, and this picture doesn't do it justice, but I have to say it was awe-inspiring.

The best part about the all-inclusive deal was the constant influx of free alcohol. It wasn't good alcohol, and most of their margaritas and other blended drinks would be considered sub-par at best, but when there's a free bar stationed around every corner, it was hard to argue.

Lots of time spent at the pool and the beach, plus we ventured out to get in some snorkeling action (non-all-inclusive), and although we were only there for two full days, it made for quite an adventure.

The only downside was the abundance of travel time. On the way back, we had to leave the hotel at 9:30 am, fly to Chicago (for some reason), face a 4 hour layover (they don't even have any Chicago pizza restaurants in the massive airport), then fly to Sac, getting us in around 11:30 pm. Yeah, a long day. And, while it was only $350, it was an exhausting venture (especially considering the full work week that followed), leaving me in dire need of a vacation.

Still, an adventure for the ages. Plus it was Alfonzo's first time out of the country. There's sure to be more adventures to follow.