Thursday, 5/5

Breakfast for the birds

Boo hoo, it’s our last full day in paradise!

While enjoying my coffee on the balcony this morning, I shared a mushy banana (and peel) for the birds and agouti. AA wondered if the guests below us were sitting on their balconies seeing random stuff dropping from the sky. The birds seemed to like the banana but the peel sat out there for most of the morning.

We were planning to meet up with everyone for the 11:30 dolphin show, so we hopped the resort shuttle to check out the breakfast buffet at Maya Caribe which was the one closest to the Dolphins. For the first time, we had to give our resort bracelet numbers to the hostess. AA discovered that her number was 10666, so she was basically 10SATAN all week! While we were once again seated very far from the food, we agreed that the breakfast buffet at Caribe was the best one! It had the largest food selection of all the buffets we’d tried.

Band aids from the staff at Maya Caribe

Since I was hobbling around with flip flop blisters (stupid winter feet!), we stopped at the Caribe lobby to see if they had a gift shop where I could buy band aids. The staff asked how many I needed and handed me 4 children’s band aids. Sweet! You have to love a resort that hands out something at no charge!

We headed over to the Caribe pool area to grab beach towels and slather ourselves with sunscreen before meeting up with everyone for the 11:30 dolphin show. Though we arrived early at Dolphinaris, all of the front row seats were completely filled. We all ended up standing to watch the dolphin show which was AWESOME!  Dolphins racing back and forth in their pool (we had no idea they were so fast), jumping several feet into the air, “walking” across the pool, snuggling with their handlers. Adorable!  After the show, we headed over to the Riviera Maya sign so we could all take pictures with it like the tourists we were.

dolphin show!

dolphin flip

dolphin flip

dolphin flip

dolphin flip

The dolphin say thank you for coming to our show!

Being tourists and having our photo taken at the Riveria Maya sign

Following the dolphin show and pictures, the plan was group snorkeling. AA and I were considering snorkeling, but decided at the last minute that we would just hang out on a lounge chair on the beach. A few minutes after we got settled in a chair, the crew showed up to say that all of the gear was in use, so they weren’t able to snorkel either. We packed up our stuff to move to a group of beach chairs that could accommodate all of us.  Everyone dropped their bags and headed out into the ocean [AA:  sea…the Caribbean Sea]. AA and I joined them. AA went into the water willingly! Those who know her know that she does not like touching nature, nor nature touching her! The water was WARM and crystal clear. The sand was very soft with no shells or rocks where we were.  We bobbed around in the water for a while, and were watching a guy riding a jet pack (and showing off). Just as we were making our way out of the water, someone noticed a stingray swimming near us. Of course, we had to all stop and get pictures of both the stingray and the schools of fish we could see swimming. Picture six people, in less than knee-deep water, all with cameras stretched out in front of them, circling the stingray.  LOL! AA later sat in the water to try to get more underwater pics of the fish and got smacked in the face with a small wave, reminding her why she usually keeps nature at a safe distance. I headed back to my chair to begin packing up my stuff as we were going to grab lunch together. I missed AA falling as she tried to make her way out of the water. [AA note: There was a surprise ditch in the sand. Left step, right step into ditch, SPLAT face first in the water! Wondering how many tourists got to see the flailing. It was sooooo not graceful.  Nature 2, AA 0]

Jet pack rider

Stingray!

Stingray!

Our group grabbed lunch at the Mariachi Grill in Maya Colonial and got to see two more beautiful hawks – Cappuccino and Matrix.  We even got to touch Matrix! His feathers were so soft!

Cappuccino

Matrix

After lunch, AA and I headed down towards the pier. I parked myself in a lounge chair to grab some more sun and give my knee a rest, while AA took a long walk down a short pier to get a few (hundred) pictures.

Pier

Fish swimming at the ends of the pier

Since we were still sunburnt, we headed back to our resort pool to sit in the shade for the late afternoon.  A number of the wedding crew were gathering for dinner around 7. Since we were still at the pool at that time, we opted to grab dinner a little later.  On our last evening there, we finally learned that the resorts had dinner buffets  – we were never really hungry at dinner time so had not paid attention to dinner options – so we planned to visit Hacienda Buffet for our first and last buffet dinner! As we sat down to enjoy our plates of food, I commented that we are always seated as far from the buffets as possible. Are they worried that I’m going to eat all the food? Maybe they don’t want us in anyone’s vacation pics? And then we noticed that “Santa” had a front row seat close to the buffet! I guess THAT’s how you get priority seating. Harumph!

View from our table farrrrrr from the buffet. Red arrow is where Santa was seated.

Santa’s primo buffet seating

Following dinner, we head up to the lobby to pre-check out. This should save us some time in the morning.  We head back to our room to sadly begin packing for our return to normal life. As I’m moaning and groaning in the bathroom trying to de-suit myself for a shower, AA says “I’ve lost my prescription glasses!” While I’m showering, she’s checking her bags, the bedside table, the desk, the closet, and the balcony. As I’m wrapping up in the bathroom, AA asks if I’m dressed yet and can open the bathroom doors. Uh oh … what happened in the time I was showering? As I open the bathroom doors and she tells me that she found her glasses …

On her face …

The entire time … [AA note: I have literally become my grandmother!]

Note: AA co-authored and contributed pictures for this post.