Entries Tagged as 'brian'

Brian and Sara’s Welcome Party at the Beach

March 12th, 2012 · No Comments


Palapa at ixhel Beach Hotel


Josh & Lynda


Christine & Adam


Spontaneous dance?


Dallas doing his Angelina Jolie leg.


Brett & Trevor


The Girls


The Guys


Lifting Brian?


Brian’s Sermon?


Brothers: Adam, Todd, Mike


Larry & Dallas


Larry & Brett


Rachelle & Brett


Dallas, Mike & Brian


Rachelle & Mike


Chow time!


Brian thanked everyone for coming to Mexico for the wedding.


Adam said a few words.


Drunken sing-a-long to Chicago’s song “You’re the Inspiration”.

On Friday night, Brian and Sara had a welcome party on the beach under the palapa at the Ixchel Beach Hotel, where they and all their wedding guests were staying. Even though we’d been on Isla Mujeres for a few days and had seen a lot of friends and met some new ones, it was nice to get everyone all in one place for an informal party. Also, a lot of people were still flying in on Thursday and Friday so we finally got to see everyone that was there for the wedding.

We took many photos in front of the spectacular sunset and enjoyed some excellent authentic Mexican food. I don’t know where Sara and Brian found these ladies, but the food was like very homemade and delicious. We had tacos, tamales (cooked local-style in banana leaves), beans, and rice. Oh, and there was a huge container of margaritas and a lady passing out the best mini churros ever. I wish I could have seconds or thirds of those, but I guess everyone beat me to it!

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La Casa Del Tikin Xic, Isla Mujeres

March 9th, 2012 · No Comments


La Casa Del Tikin Xic


La Casa Del Tikin Xic


Dallas, Larry, Josh, Sara, Brian, Lynda


Vanessa and Damian visiting with Carrie and her husband?/boyfriend?


Getting an autograph from the great Eva Mendes

Our third stop, La Casa Del Tikin Xic, was a bit hard to find. In fact, I’m not even sure it was our intended destination, because some of our group never made it there. Or maybe they just couldn’t find it. Who knows. Things were getting a little jumbled by this point in the island golf tour! Also, the last photo is Josh getting an autograph from the great Eva Mendes to make the people who never made it here jealous! Kelly took one look later on and said “What? That’s Lynda!” … think whatever you want, Kelly!

I couldn’t find much online about La Casa Del Tikin Xic, but did see that it used to be called Playa Lancheros (Boatmans Beach?). Googling Playa Lanchero will bring up many more results and that’s where I found out that tikin xic (pronounced “teekeen sheek”) is a famous dish on Isla Mujeres. It is a dish made of white fish, usually grouper or drum or a local variety, that is prepared whole and marinated with adobo de achiote and sour oranges. It is then wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked. This would have been good to know beforehand. Instead I ordered chicken quesadillas and they had bones in them! Ew. But I did share a big mound of guacamole with Vanessa and Damian and it was SO GOOD.

La Casa Del Tikin Xic is right on the beach. There’s a big pavilion with a ton of seating , which is connected to a bar and what looked to be a dance floor? In the bar there was a jukebox that Josh commandeered and started annoyingly (to the people already there) and amusingly (to the workers) playing American dance songs, including Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.” I think we weren’t drunk enough to dance to that yet, even though it is Brian’s absolute favorite.

Outside there was a lot of chairs and tables set up and even some chaise lounge chairs. Some people were swimming. One area even had a long and skinny palapa with seating underneath. I loved sitting outside. So nice and relaxing.

Out on the pier there was a guy in a fenced in area who, for a few pesos, would let you get in the water with him and hold his pet shark. Before you freak out, it’s not like this was a Great White. It was a Nurse Shark, which is a bottom feeder that is generally not a threat to humans. Vanessa and I walked down the pier to take a look but it was so unimpressive that I completely forgot to even take a photo!

Aside from the chicken bones and the unimpressive shark, I really liked this place. You could probably spend a whole day here, eating and swimming and relaxing and having drinks. Oh, and who doesn’t love a sink like this?

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Garrafon de Castilla Hotel y Club de Playa, Isla Mujeres

March 8th, 2012 · No Comments


Brett and Trevor going into Garrafon de Castilla. Like Dallas’s beach bag?


Admission was $50 pesos (about $3.90 USD)


Brett braided my hair. What a relief to have it up for the beach and golf cart ride.


Larry


Looking down at the beach.


Lynda, Jess, Dallas, Josh, Mike, Todd


Feeding the fish


Feeding the fish


Just part of our crew!

Our first stop on our tour of Isla Mujeres on golf carts. Garrafon de Castilla is a beach club on the south end of Isla Mujeres. For $50 pesos (roughly $3.90 USD), you get access to their private, white sand beach, snorkeling, a bar and restaurant, beach chairs, dressing rooms, showers, restrooms, and staff that waits on you. This was our first stop on our golf cart tour of Isla Mujeres.

One thing I didn’t really think about before arriving on Isla is the water. It is so clear and beautiful. A bright turquoise color. I made a comment right away saying it reminded me of the Caribbean (from when I visited St. Thomas many years ago), and of course…. duh. It is the Caribbean! Isla Mujeres is the Eastern-most part of Mexico and is essentially in the Caribbean. Another thing really liked liked about hte beaches around Isla was that there were no rocks. It was smooth, fine sand all the way out. And the sand really is so soft, not course like the Hawaiian sand we’re used to. Many of the beaches were shallow for a long way. You could walk and walk and still be only waist deep.

Anyway………. for a few pesos, you can rent snorkel gear to go snorkeling at Garrafon de Castilla, but here’s the thing: When you step into the water you are immediately surrounded by fish! And the water is so clear, you can see them all. Some of the girls were freaked out by all of the fish, but that doesn’t really get to me. Kelly decided not to snorkel because of it, so I took advantage and used her gear to go out a little bit farther. Tons of fish to look at. If you wanted, you could get a little container of food to feed the fish. I didn’t do it, but one woman did and the fish were surrounding her! I wonder if this is why the fish are so “friendly” in this area – they’re used to getting hand outs! Kind of like the pigeons in NYC or something.

The bar and restaurant were under a palapa. You walked down some stairs to get to the beach level. The beach was abundant with some groovy wavy chairs and you could rent towels for $25 pesos (about $1.90 USD). Visitors go up the palapa to order or there is wait staff who will come down to the beach to take and deliver orders. I had an order of fish tacos that was pretty good. And again, glass bottles on the sand and in the water? No problemo! I don’t know how the ocean is not filled with glass. I guess drunk people are more responsible than I would believe. Also, early one morning I saw people hand-raking the beach at our hotel with what looked like garden rakes. Maybe this gets most of the debris out before people arrive.

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Golf Cart Tour of Isla Mujeres

March 7th, 2012 · 2 Comments


Lynda and Dallas getting ready to leave.


Josh and Brian and their inside-joke tshirts.


Brett and Trevor, ready to go!


Rachelle and Lynda, ready to go. And Dallas clowning.


Our golf cart caravan is off!


Most of the taxis (all?) were this redish maroon color. They were also really cheap.


Brett taking a photo of me.


U-turning with a taxi in the middle!


Sara and Brian.


We had 8 or 9 carts with 4 people in each.


Vanessa and Damian.


Christine and Adam.


Kelly and Todd.


Hugs! We made it to Garrafon de Castilla!


I do not know what Lynda and Josh are doing back there!


Pretty Isla street.


Isla Mujeres statue.


Dallas, sun is setting on a long day.


Josh returning the cart.

On the Thursday before the wedding, Brian and Sara planned for everyone to rent golf carts (about $40 for the entire day) and do a snorkeling outing/pub crawl. We all met up at the Ixchel Beach Hotel, where we were staying, and went from there.

Isla Mujeres does have cars, but the main modes of transportation are scooters and golf carts. I’d say scooters for the locals. We saw whole families all fitting on one scooter. And many kids piled on. I think most of the golf carts are tourist’s rentals, though tourists also rented scooters. The carts are more practical, though, because you can fit four people on them and stuff easier.

Here’s the thing I realized very quickly that day: There are not many rules in Mexico. Drunk driving? Ok. Driving while drinking? Ok. Seatbelts? No. Speed limits? No. Drinking out of glass bottles on the beach and in the ocean? Ok. Snuffing out your cigarette in the sand? Yep. Obeying traffic laws? Nope. In other words, I thought we might die. But, we all did ok.

These were our stops (and I’ll have more photos of them coming up):

1. Garrafon de Castilla Beach Club
2. El Pueblito
3. La Casa Del Tikin Xic (formerly known as Playa Lancheros)
4. Modelorama drive through beer store
5. Soggy Peso

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Ixchel Beach Hotel

March 6th, 2012 · No Comments


Ixchel Beach Hotel – View from the ocean.


Ixchel Beach Hotel – View from Avenida Hidalgo, coming in from “downtown.”


The living room in our suite.


The kitchen in our suite.


Water cooler = big time money saver.


Bedroom of our suite.


Our balcony looking back from the ocean side.


Looking at the other tower from our balcony.


Looking towards the ocean on our balcony.


The awesome view.


The beach in front of the hotel. The water was amazing.


Ixchel Beach Hotel has two pools.


It wasn’t until one of the last days that I noticed this bird-shaped bush nearby our balcony.

Something like 80 people travelled to Isla Mujeres for Brian and Sara’s wedding and everyone stayed at Ixchel Beach Hotel. I thought it was pretty cool that everyone was at the same place. Every time we walked around or looked out from our balcony we’d see people we knew. Plus, the downtown area of Isla and the island itself are so small that everywhere we went there were people we knew.

Dallas and I upgraded our room to a suite so that we had a kitchen, dining room and living room, as well as a private balcony that had patio door access from both the living room and bedroom. Vanessa and Damian got the adjoining regular room so that we could all hang out in our common areas. I didn’t go out as much as other people who were out til the wee hours every day and will remain nameless (Dallas!), I had a more chill vacation, so I was thankful to have the extra space at night and in the morning.

Overall we were very happy with the Ixchel Beach Hotel. The rooms are actually condos so they all differ, depending on the owners. Our room had a clothes washer/dryer, a dishwasher, stovetop, and many other modern appliances. We were happy to have a water cooler. I was expecting we’d have to buy a ton of bottled water. We did buy a lot, but it was great to be able to refill and reuse water bottles with this fresh, clean water. I think all of the rooms had a water cooler, whether you had a suite or not.

Our suite was clean and modern and up to date. I loved the patio and spent time each morning eating breakfast and reading out there while gazing at the ocean. The hotel has two pools, a beach with free chaises and waiter service for food and drinks, two bar/restaurants, a gym, and many other programs and amenities that we didn’t use. I think the only universal complaints I heard were that the beds were super hard. Like sleeping on a board and that pillows were hard as rocks. Surprisingly, this was a plus for some people. Dallas loved it. Also, we had a hard time getting extra toilet paper one day and I heard others did too. Not good when Montezuma’s Revenge hits! Overall, though, these were minor things and we really enjoyed our stay at Ixchel Beach Hotel.

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