Finally got around to going through the photos on my DSLR from Cancun and wanted to share some of my favorites. Any votes on which one(s) I should print for our gallery wall, which I have yet to put up?

My main goal for our trip to Cancun was simply to relax. It had been a really tough couple months before that, full of studying and stress so it was great to just get away for a while and learn more about the culture of a country so close to ours.

We stayed at the Intercontinental Presidente Cancun Resort and we absolutely loved it! While a lot of the resorts were full of mostly tourists from abroad, the guests at ours were mostly from other parts of Mexico. It was wonderful to walk the halls and hear Spanish everywhere we went, even within the hotel. The view from our room was absolutely breathtaking.

The Mexican food in Cancun was actually really disappointing. Growing up in Southern California, Mexican food has always been one of my favorites. And there are so many places you can get authentic and delicious food here so I know what it’s supposed to taste like. But most of the food in Cancun was targeted towards tourists so that was definitely saddening.

My favorite part of the trip was visiting Chichen Itza and learning about the history of Mayan peoples. It was a really hot day so it took some effort to really enjoy learning but I’m so glad we went. We set the tour up with a company that was housed in the lobby of our hotel. The architecture of the pyramid was absolutely amazing. It still boggles my mind how they knew so much about astronomy, medicine, etc. with such limited technology. Part of the tour was also visiting and swimming in a sinkhole, under a mini waterfall. We also visited a Mayan village where we had lunch and shopped various small businesses featuring art my local artists. Being surrounded by that culture and truly learning about it was so wonderful.

We also went to Playa del Carmen one of the days, which was nice because of all the shops on 5th avenue. We personally thought that the beach in Cacun was nicer but some people think otherwise so if you’re going, check out both and form your own opinion. We met some really cool people who were in our van for the trip. We were all able to communicate in our broken english and spanish. Our tour guide grew up in Texas and was fluent in English so I was able to ask him a lot of questions about Mexico (about their healthcare system, the economy, etc.).

Overall, other than the heat & humidity, it was wonderful vacation. My favorite thing was definitely learning about the Mexican culture and getting to practice my Spanish. The next time I go to Mexico, I’d like to go to a less touristy area so that I can learn more about the culture and history.