A cuzzies wedding in Cancun?! Sign us up! Maddie and Ruben hosted a destination wedding in Mexico and as we do, the Murphy family showed up! There were over 80 of us there to celebrate them and cheers them into their new life together.
We planned to travel Wednesday to Monday with the wedding on Saturday evening. Most of the group came on Thursday so we had a full day with the 7 of us to explore. I convinced everyone that we should book a private tour to Chichen Itza - a Mayan ruin that is one of the seven wonders of the world and I'm so glad we planned it. It might have been my favorite part of the whole trip.
We connected with a private driver that Dan knew and he helped me set up a great day! The drive from our resort to Chichen Itza was about 2.5 hours so it was definitely a commitment but it was totally worth it. We headed out early to miss the crowds and the heat and it was 100% the right move. Our guide shared all sort of history and interesting facts about the ruins.
We learned all sorts of interesting things. We learned that the Mayan's rebuilt the city every 53 years. We learned about their architectural advancements, their sacrifices, their religious and ceremonial beliefs. We learned about the Day of the Dead and the three tiered alters they built. We learned about how large the city was and how expansive the population was. We learned about the ball court and the rules of the game - and the consequences of loosing the game (the captain of the losing team is killed!).
Our guide did a great job of showing many of the parts of the city that people rarely see or learn about. The majority of our tour didn't even center around the big pyramid like structure we all identify as the ruin but of course we learned about that as well. We learned about the animals the Mayan's celebrated (the snake specifically) . We learned about the architectural features of the pyramid that there's no way we'd have known had we not had a guide. He told us about the snake shadows that are visible only during the the equinox's and how it was built to perfectly align to create those shadows in celebration of the snake. We learned about the echo noise that sounds like a bird if you stand in the right spot and clap your hands. We learned about how the Mayan's used onyx stones to view the sun and about the sacrifices they'd make to please the Gods.
After touring Chichen Itza we were all getting pretty warm and ready to get out of that area as it had started to get super crowded - we'd arrived just as things were starting for the day. The majority of the vendors were just starting to pull out their wares and there were very few people around. By the time we left - around 2 hours later it was getting packed and HOT and we were ready to move on to the next adventure.
Mario took us to Ik Kil - a cenotes located just a few minutes down the road from Chichen Itza. I was honestly not sure what to expect with the cenotes and I really downplayed this part of the trip with the group and it turned out to be the coolest thing! It was so perfectly planned to visit there after Chichen, we were hot and needed a refresh and a quick dip in the cenotes was the perfect next activity.
Like the ruins, we got there before the crowds and were already headed back to the van when the crowds started to arrive. We had the nicest time! Our day Thursday ended with lunch at a beautiful restaurant in Valladolid. We had the best meal of the entire trip and hands down the best margaritas of the entire trip! Mario did a great job of planning the perfect tour of us and I'm so glad we went the route of the private tour. It was slightly more work for me to coordinate it all, and we had to go through the trouble of changing money to pesos for the day, but it was really totally worth it and I'd recommend both the trip, and planning a private tour to anyone who is visiting this area.
The rest of the trip was pretty much wash, rinse, repeat with hanging out pool/ocean side with friends. We laughed, we drank 12 million gin and tonics, we moved from sitting in chairs by the pool to chairs by the ocean to a dip in the pool/ocean and back again all day long. It was great!
I think I spent less than an hour total reading (boo), and we played exactly zero games of Yahtzee, but we had all the conversations, laughed all the laughs and made lots and lots of memories! There were over 80 people at the wedding - both families showed up, big time. But, the majority of the trip our core group was the mid-tier oldies. LOLOL!! Erin/Nate, Chris/Julie, Sarah/Dan and then Ryan and I stuck pretty close together for the majority of the trip. We'd hang with the mid-tier youngsters, but we're clearly the oldies in that age range (well, not Ryan, he's always the last one at the party and the last one to bed!).
There was all types of wildlife at the resort - we saw peacocks, flamingos, cats (yes, cats..), strange rat/dogs called Agouti and lemur like animals called Coati. They had huge turtles at the resort and wild monkeys. They had domesticated parrots in the lobby and Ryan nearly pooped his pants when he almost stepped on an Iguana. It was pretty cool to see some new animals we'd not heard of before and the amount of wildlife that was just living in and around the resort was really quite cool. It didn't feel like the animals were disruptive at all!
And, most importantly, the main event for the trip was the WEDDING! The ceremony was on Saturday night and they hosted the ceremony in the jungle area of the resort. The hope was that the shade would keep everyone cool (vs. being out in the hot sun won the beach) and the setting was beautiful. The fun part of hosting it in the jungle was that they could lean into more tropical flowers and wedding colors vs the traditional beach wedding. But! They got the best of both worlds! The hosted the dinner and dancing portion of the wedding down by the ocean and even though it was sunny down there, the breeze was amazing.
Maddie was beautiful, Ruben had an amazing suit and shoes (which he wore the ENTIRE night...like...all the way through the after party they hosted in their room!). The flowers were beautiful and the bridesmaid dresses were so eclectic and pretty. The food was good, and we danced late into the night but the best part of the entire wedding was the vows that Maddie and Ruben wrote for each other. They both wrote custom vows and they did an amazing job delivering them. They are an adorable couple and I can't wait to see how they grown together and build their family.
Who is ready to go back? Or, better yet...who is ready to plan the next Cuzzies All Inclusive!?
