Katsu-Ya, Cancun


Katsu-Ya


Tuna salad. For appetizers we also had rock shrimp and edamame.


These jalepenos did not make Dallas’s stomach feel better after he ate all of them.


Our food being prepared to cook.


Look at the size of that lobster tail!


Our chef.


Dallas, Rachelle, Damian, Vanessa, Travor, Kate & our chef!


Delicious rice


Grilled veggies


My seafood + the giant lobster tail.


Steaks


My plate of seafood.


Girls shared dessert.


Guys shared golf stories.

Our flight out of Cancun was very early in the morning. Instead of catching the earliest ferry from Isla Mujeres and getting a shuttle or taxi to the airport and risking getting there in time, we decided to take the ferry the night before and stay over one night in Cancun. That way we’d for sure get to the airport in time and we’d get to see what Cancun was like. Damian, Vanessa, Trevor, Kate, Dallas and I were all in this same boat, so we all did this together.

Since we were still paying for the Ixchel Beach Hotel for that night, we decided just to get a cheap hotel in Cancun, not at one of the resorts. Let me tell you… there is a reason I have no photos of that place. I would just as soon rather forget it! It had to be one of the most horrible hotels I’ve ever stayed at. Let’s just say that I barely slept a wink and had the blankets off and the lights on all night.

But…. what are you gonna do? To make the best of the situation we decided to treat ourselves to a really nice dinner. There were some books in the hotel rooms that showcased Cancun attractions, so we looked over the restaurant section and chose Katsu-ya, a Japanese steakhouse. Leave it to Dallas to find a great Japanese restaurant in the middle of Mexico!

Getting there was a bit of an ordeal.. trying to get a cab from our roach hotel and then trying to tell the cab drivers where we were going.. they acted like they didn’t know where the main tourist/resort areas of Cancun were! But once we were there… ahhhh. We had a great time. Very good food. Relaxing. It was kind of funny to have a the chef at the Japanese steakhouse speaking Spanish and English with a Spanish accent, but he was very good. A nice treat dinner and a great way to spend our last night in Mexico.

Ferry to Isla Mujeres


The ferry boat.


Looking back at the Gran Puerto.


Singer on the ferry.


The shuttle director gave Vanessa and I these roses.


Dallas and me.


Damian and Vanessa


Todd gave me and Vanessa and all our luggage a ride to the hotel in his golf cart. The others walked.


View from the cart.

Dallas and I took a long weekend trip to Mexico for our friends Brian and Sara’s wedding. I had been in Mexico when I lived in San Diego, but just on short day trips and just down in the Baja California area. Brian and Sara got married on the tiny island of Isla Mujeres, a four-mile long island off the coast of Cancun.

Damian and Vanessa were our traveling partners on this trip. We booked the same flights and even had adjoining rooms at the hotel. I liked traveling with them and it was nice to have some friends with us to figure everything out. The flight to Cancun was pretty simple. It’s only four hours from Chicago and is in the same time zone so there is no jetlag. After going through customs, we got a shuttle to the ferry in Puerto Juarez. The ferry took us to Isla Mujeres, where we spent the next five days.