After a few hours in the air, we arrived in Cancun, Mexico!
We expected to go through immigration as soon as we arrived, but instead we were let out right into the middle of the terminal, where we saw a California Pizza Kitchen, Johnny Rockets and Bubba Gump's. It was like we never left the US. We were thankful that we were let out into the terminal first because we really needed to use the bathroom after the long flight (since we napped until the descent and then couldn't get up from our seats). I also changed into shorts. No need for fleece pants in warm Cancun! It felt so good to wear shorts again.
We then set off for immigration, which took some time. It was so different from flying in to a European country and just getting your passport stamped with almost no questions asked. In Mexico, we had to fill out forms, go through immigration and also go through customs. The lines took longer than we expected, but after getting through the strict border control, we were officially in Mexico for the first time!
We had pre-booked our transfer from the airport to the resort, so we met up with the contact person from the company and then took our private van to the hotel. We got a pretty good price (in our opinion) through USA Transfers for a round trip transfer for both of us. The private van was great because we didn't have to stop at other resorts on the way to ours. I do like seeing other resorts (like when we took the walk-in clinic van at Disney) but, with such a short trip, we wanted to get to the resort as soon as possible!
While we waited for our transfer and then while we drove to our hotel, we noticed that the airport seemed to be sponsored by Corona. The air traffic control tower, overpasses... all Corona ads.
The ride to our hotel took around 20 minutes. If you've never been to Cancun or Riviera Maya, here's a quick geography guide to the area. Cancun is located on the Yucatan peninsula in the state of Quintana Roo (one of the safe zones according to the new Mexican travel advisory). There is the main area of Cancun itself (downtown) and then a 7-shaped piece of land jutting into the Caribbean Sea (with a lagoon between the 7-shape and the mainland). That 7-shape is the "zona hotelera" (hotel zone) where most of the resorts and tourist areas are. It's very close to the airport and as we drove to our hotel, we saw resort after resort. Our resort, Dreams Cancun, was located at the corner of the 7-shape. If, instead of going north from the airport to Cancun, you went south, you would hit Playa del Carmen and Tulum, home to many (many) other resorts, archaeological sites (Mayan ruins) and other ecological parks. We would have explored more but it was a short trip and our highest priority was pure relaxation.
We took in all the sights on our way to the resort (and I read every sign in Spanish that I could find) and then we finally arrived at Dreams. We were so excited to finally begin our vacation!
Next up: our pretty hotel room at the resort - and dolphins!
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