Oh how travel changes once you have kids. Ryan and I got into the habit of taking adventure vacations - together and on our own. We both loved getting out and seeing a country for what it really is - sampling all the food, driving it's roads, taking it's scariest public transportation, hiking it's mountains, swimming in it's most beautiful and sometimes not so beautiful (and even once - oops - crocodile infested) waters. We were never attracted to the packaged, polished, cushy tourist spots or cruises. Until... the kids came along. Suddenly lounging on the beach at an all-inclusive, letting someone else do the cooking and the cleaning, while we played all day in the ocean and pool, sounded divine.
We just got back from such a vacation at an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I have to admit, it was heaven on earth - beautiful beaches, gorgeous pools, good food available nearly 24 hours a day, large and comfortable rooms with fantastic views, endless margaritas. But best of all, it was so easy that it allowed us time to just play with and enjoy the kids. We didn't have to bother with meal planning, grocery shopping or any kind of planning whatsoever. Our only concerns were whether to go the beach or the ocean first and when to pull ourselves out of the water to go sit down for meals. And I think the kids really enjoyed having both me and Ryan all to themselves and getting our full, relaxed, stress-free attention. But boy did we feel old, fat and lazy. We kept talking about how it would be nice to be there without kids and sipping margaritas pool-side - except that had we not had the kids with us, for some reason, we never would have taken a vacation like that. We would be in some mountain town somewhere snowboarding all day and drinking beer all night, thoroughly and happily exhausting ourselves. Certainly not being pampered.
We did venture out of the resort one day for a boat ride to a small fishing village called Ylapa. It is an isolated village accessible only by boat and very new to electricity. A catamaran is not the easiest transportation for a 3 year old and a 16 month old and it does not make for an easy lunch experience, for sure, but we thought Jack would really get a kick out of a boat ride. He loved it for the first 12 minutes or so and then he was kind of over it. There was an elderly French couple on the boat who spoke very limited English and Spanish but tried very hard to chat us up anyway. Mostly they corrected my English! Leave it to the French. I answered a question with 'yeah' and the man said 'oh, no, no 'yeah' that is Dutch. No English." and on and on until I indicated to him the best I could that I had gotten his smug, French point loud and clear. But they loved Stella. They called her American Baby. 'Hi American Baby' 'Sweet American Baby' 'Au revoir American Baby'. When they found out we were from Denver they were so very excited to talk about John Wayne. But all I understood was blah blah blah John Wayne blah blah French stuff blah blah blah Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Blah Blah. They were old. And I couldn't relate on so many levels. We had a language barrier and an old barrier.
I always love visiting small, traditional towns in other countries. We hiked up to a waterfall that was beautiful if you squinted past the overweight, cigarette smoking tourists. A sweet, little 84 year old woman hiked all the way up to the waterfall with us. She looked more like 94. She walks along each day with the tourists, helping them stay on the path, offering her feeble arm for support down the hills (even to those who look much more capable than she), and even tying tourists shoes. She does this for tips, of course. It is her only income. I wanted to pack her in my suitcase and take her home with me. This day trip allowed us a bit of local culture (tour package notwithstanding) puncuating our larger packaged trip.
Getting back to our resort at the end of the day, I realized that we had slipped very comfortably into the resort scene, having become intimate with all of the restaurants, the best drinks, the friendliest waiters, the best time to be at the pool or at the beach. We were now feeling like locals. We were getting to know the other tourists and they us. They knew our kids' names and where we were from. Best of all - they were older and more sedentary, which made us feel much more secure about wearing our bathing suits, encouraging us to let it all hang out willy nilly (more willy than nilly, though). I even sported a bikini for the first time in years. And the entertainment was deliciously cheesy - as it should be in a resort; think magic shows and bad (and I mean bad) karaoke. We enjoyed every canned, beautiful, tropical, packaged detail. Dare I say that we may even try a cruise someday? No. Probably not. We are looking forward to when the kids get older and we can take real vacations again.
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