Tales From The Ipe!

The interpretative desserts at Vento

Not the most exciting day for the Ipes here in Mexico. It rained nearly the entire day, so there was no pool or beach today. We spent most of the day indoors on account of the rain. For a time, we did go and sit outside for the fresh air under some outdoor seating with canopies. Is having an entire day rained out something we planned? Of course not, but you have to roll with it. We rationalized our loss that we still got to relax and lounge for a day. No beach or pool, but no meetings, no deadlines, no office bureaucracy, no laundry, and no dishwashing either.

In the evening, we had a family dinner at Vento — “international specialties with a distinct Mediterranean flair and its own Fusion Bellini Bar for lunch and dinner.” A number of varied dishes from India, Morocco, and other Middle Eastern cuisine. The Indian food wasn’t very flavorful, but what can you expect? The rest of our dishes were good though, though I think all of these fusion dishes that are trying to be creative are sometimes stretching the difference between the traditional and the interpretation. This was Middle Eastern, and they had Baklava on the menu as a dessert, or at least their “interpretation.” I hesitate to call myself a purist about anything, but baklava is a pastry with pistachio. What did I get? A martini glass full of pudding, with a cracker/cookie on top. Uh, that is not baklava in any way, shape, or form. Sigh. Food artists.

Our first full day in Mexico and at the resort. Prior to our vacation, I did notice on Weather.com that it had been raining nearly every day in Cancun for the past two weeks. I was hoping that it was just a fluke, but could this also be the rainy season here in the Caribbean? Dunno. Today has been an on-and-off rainy kind of day. After breakfast, we dressed for the pool, waited for the rain to break, and hit the pool area directly outside of our hotel suites. Sadly, the rain started up again, so we hightailed it to a cushioned cabana hut thing that provided protection from the rain. We all sat and read and watched videos, and jumped into the nearby pool when the rainfall took breaks. Eventually, the rain stopped for a longer period, and the kids and I had a lot of fun in the water. We later all visited one of the outdoor grills / restaurants for lunch, then tried out the kiddie pool.

After cleaning up, Nums and I dropped off the kids to the Kid Zone area for dinner and entertainment, and we went out for more of a an adult / romantic dinner of our own. Our plan this vacation is to alternate family dinners and romantic dinners. Last time in Punta Cana, we only had the one romantic dinner, which was fine in of itself, but why just have one this year? Tonight, we ate at Fuego, which is their Latin Fusion restaurant featuring a lot of ceviches. Good food overall.

It’s been 5 years since our last big vacation. In 2007, Lily had just entered our lives, and it was our 5-year anniversary. We left Lily with my in-laws at the time, and the three of us (myself, Namita, and Josh) spent about four days at the Paradisus Punta Cana. A decent resort, fairly okay food, but good weather. The only problem? Four days went by fast, and we already had to go home.

This year is our 10 year wedding anniversary, and we wanted to spend at least 6-7 days somewhere tropical. Working with our always awesome and extremely resourceful travel agent Tom Varghese, he helped us research and narrow down a vacation that would fit our needs, schedule, and budget. Considering that this is our 3rd time working with him (honeymoon 10 years ago, our 2007 Jamaica trip, and 2013 Playa Del Carmen trip), he’s 3 for 3 on great vacations. This year, we settled for a 6-day, 5-night vacation at the all-inclusive Paradisus La Esmeralda in Playa Del Carmen, about 45 mins from Cancun, Mexico.

For the past two months, we knew that we were leaving on Saturday August 31st for our big family vacation this year. In prior vacations, we’ve often been so busy in the days before the vacation actually starts that we end up packing at the last second. I still suffer post-traumatic stress flashbacks to our 2007 and 2008 Jamaica and Punta Cana trips when we packed all night long, got late packing up the car, then drove straight to JFK desperately hoping to make our flights. I swore never again. My plan was that we pack ahead of time Wed and Thurs, load the car up Friday night, and — here’s a novel idea — sleep in bed that night.

It almost worked out that way this year. Almost. I’m happy to say that we did begin buying extra clothes in the weeks prior, and began packing our suitcases earlier in the week. We did have minor items to pack early Saturday morning, so no, the suitcases were not loaded into the car hours in advance. I built in buffer time for travel to JFK, to drop off the car at The Parking Spot for off-airport parking, travel to the terminal, and drop off the bags. I don’t usually like to build so much buffer time into my travel, because I like to live on the edge, but again, post-traumatic stress. We left 30 mins later than planned (around 5:30am), but the NJ Turnpike and the Belt Parkway were clear. We made it with plenty of time, sailed through security, and were comfortably (uncomfortably?) sitting at our JFK gate for 90 mins prior to our flight. We bought breakfast at one of those terrible, overpriced restaurant vendors at the terminal, and waited.

The flight itself was non-eventful. This was Lily’s first trip on an airplane. I thought this would be more momentous for her, but after takeoff, she was strangely uninterested in the view from her window seat. Maybe I’m unfairly comparing her to me, but since I was a child, and still to this day, I enjoy looking out the window at the clouds, the land features far below, and that beautiful blue sky. My kids? Not so much. Oh well, maybe they’ll see it one day.

We took private transport to the resort, checked in without too much fuss, spent way too much time talking to our Guest Services concierge guy when all we wanted to do at 4pm was eat lunch, and finally made it to a on-site restaurant. After lunch, we checked out our two rooms for the first time. This year, through the help of our long time travel agent, we had two wonderfully appointed adjoining rooms — one for the kids and one for us — both with separate bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, and balconies. Two LCD TVs in each, three hot tubs combined, two small kitchenettes, and one large dining room. Definitely the nicest setup we’ve ever had.

After lounging for a spell, we freshened up, and made our way to our first reservation at the resort’s Asian Fusion restaurant Bana, “A contemporary Asian fusion cuisine and offers a sushi bar, Teppanyaki tables and its own themed Martini bar.” Good food, but not in huge portions. So far, the resort seems to believe in quality over quantity. I’m onboard with that.

We would have attended the 9:30pm outdoor show at the South Avenue Bar, but everyone was fairly exhausted after such a long day, so we turned in early. There are shows put together by outside performers every night, so maybe tomorrow night.