Coming Down

As is customary on returning from holiday across timezones, motivation to blip anything apart from views from the plane was impossible. This is us going over Cornwall heading for Gatwick. I only knew where we were due to the inflight map display, it was clouds everywhere until we went over Edinburgh on our 2nd flight. Lack of motivation issues are likely to continue :-/

Despite booking this trip last May, we'd not done something like this before, a beach resort or somewhere which was fully inclusive so we were apprehensive right up to a week or so before we were due to fly out. We would definitely not have gone had it not been an event based around Wilco (the band) and in the middle of winter. But we slowly settled in and the day trips to Mayan ruins and the cenotes meant we didn't need to sit in the sun every day and we really enjoyed them, I am still amazed by the underground river views we saw. All three of the trips involved bus trips through extremely straight roads and through small villages and towns where houses and buildings never looked finished, dogs were wandering as they pleased often sitting/sleeping in the road, and I found the scenes quite fascinating and took tons of photos as we whizzed along. 

The music festival began on our day 4 when the resort filled up with purely Wilco fans (around 2000) and the vibe became much friendlier (not that it was unfriendly), but everyone wanted to socialise with each other. As Jeff Tweedy mentioned at the start of the music, you wouldn't associate Wilco or their music with a beach resort in the sun, and I am sure they were also apprehensive, but it appeared to grow on them quickly to the point where by the end they were talking of doing it again! It was weird sitting at the beach or walking around and the musicians and their families were doing exactly the same alongside everybody, without being hassled. It was fab and my only regret is I didn't see the spider monkeys who lived in the resort with my own eyes although there were plenty of videos of them - oh they are so cute. The resort staff were also great, always checking if you wanted more drinks (free) with smiles whether you tipped them or not (we tipped), whether on the beaches, at the pools or the middle of the music! Our 7/8 days there did feel like far longer, which is also good! If Wilco do do it again in a couple of years, we may do it again, better get saving now!