Shipwreck museum in Puerto Aventura

 This little museum in Puerto Aventuras is worth the half hour you will spend there if you enjoy diving or sailing, history and culture. The artifacts recovered by a diving club are well displayed, documented and varied. There are Spanish shipwrecks as well as Mayan artifacts from offerings thrown into underground pools called cenotes as well as a history of the diving club. Free will donations are greatly appreciated. You will find it on the back side of the mall surrounding the dolphin plaza area in Puerto Aventuras.

Reconstructed canon carriage for a recovered canon. Other artifacts shown below.

Winter Escape

Back home winter is pushing one last (I hope) assault, trying to leave a lasting impression of cold and wind. But in the warm of tropical ocean breezes it is ages away.

 I used to check messages and email a couple of times a day, but the last couple of trips I lasted 3 or 4 days before I had to get my internet fix.

 Beautiful colors, although it is probably new construction. This is what the world is like outside of the cookie cutter subdivisions.

My last sunrise by the ocean until the next trip.

Towel Art

My husband and I celebrated his 50th birthday in Mexico. The friends we were traveling with put black balloons and streamers on the door. Our maid, thinking something special was afoot left some beautiful  towel art for us. How nice it was to come back from a day out to find how much she cared!

Napkin art for Valentines Day in Costa Rica....




And again the love bird theme in the Dominican Republic...


 






Hope you get to enjoy towel art on your next vacation. We usually leave a daily tip of a dollar whether or not the maid does it.






And not towel art but pretty..

Something the kids would enjoy

             

   


Creating a romantic vacation!

Nomadic Matt

Nomadic Matt is one of my favorite travel blogs. He is a fun writer and truly wants to share his love for travel and how to do it on a budget.  He will wander off the beaten track, explore the real world and do it cheaply. He has also been able to have his writing pay for his travel. Something that many of us would LOVE to do. Visit him here: Nomadic Matt

A Sample from his Blog...

Cheap Accommodation: Getting Beyond the Hotel/Hostel Dynamic

November 19th, 2012 // by Nomadic Matt // Travel Advice // 43 Comments »
I don’t really like staying in hotels. I generally avoid them because of how much they cost. I just don’t see the point of paying $100+ per night for a room I will barely be in most of the day. It seems like a waste of money – no matter how nice a hotel can be. So I stick to the other end of the spectrum: I stay in hostels, with their dorm beds and cheap prices. I love hostels, [...]

Water adventures

A Caribbean snorkeling trip will remind you why you left the snow and ice behind in the middle of winter to fly hundreds of miles. To RELAX and enjoy being alive. In my mind it is the next best thing to laying on the beach and soaking up the heat.

A trip to Akumel in Mexico was my first time snorkeling and I had the feeling I had jumped into my childhood aquarium. Some days are sunny and some are cloudy, but the fish are always beautiful. I did not see any rays or sharks or eels, just fish. But they were the kind of fish that told you that you weren't in Winter anymore.

They were motoring, but we were sailing.

Swimmers go out to feed the fish

Aboard the Catamaya catamaran

Be sure to check out the Catamaya sail, lunch and swim tour if you are near Puerto Aventruas. Excellent crew make a great experience!

So far, I have not been brave enough to venture away from the packaged trip and the hotels where you can find approved purveyors of any adventure you may want to try. Someday I will book flight and room and meals separately and will have to comb through the yellow pages to find the zip-line or four-wheel trek through the jungle. For now, I am happy to stay in an all inclusive and go on one or two mini adventures during my stay.

One thing we did do on our first trip with 2 other couples, was to get a taxi and driver for the day to take us to a couple of places near Playa del Carmen. My girlfriend had a list of things to see from a friend who has spent time there, and we managed to hit a few of them. We snorkeled, visited two sets of ruins, ate lunch in a plaza, shopped in a local grocery and drove on village dotted jungle roads.

We felt safe with our experienced driver, and had a wonderful time. He got us to the ruins before the cruise ship tourists and had many suggestions that we wished we had time to take in.