My children planned this Cancun visit to bring us to USA, since we could not have come directly from India. My three children Planned their visit in such a way that Anil(son-in-law) and Anu(daughter) will reach the same day as we were, 3-4 days later Akhil(son) will join, next week Nikhil(son) will join and next day Anil will leave and then we all leave same day on 1st sep. We came to Connecticut with Nikhil and Anu and Akhil went to California together. Our plan is to stay for two months with Nikhil and about three months with Anu and Akhil.
17th aug Tuesday– we reached IGI Delhi airport and there we found that the flight which was supposed to go from Delhi to Cancun via Frankfurt was delayed because of Afghanistan problem. The airlines therefore rerouted our flight from Delhi to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Mexico and from there to Cancun by domestic flight. Our immigration and custom was cleared at Mexico and from international airport to the domestic airport we took a train which left us at the domestic airport. With some body’s help we got our boarding passes in which there was no gate number mentioned. Because of the language problem it was difficult to communicate with the people to find out the gate number of our flight. However on one of the notice board we could get the gate number and we went to that gate to catch our Aeromexico flight. The flight reached after 12 PM in the night and there my daughter and son-in-law were waiting to receive us. We became sentimental to meet them after three years. We reached to our beautiful apartment around 1230 h. This Airbnb 3 bedroom apartment was overlooking lagoon and was quite descent. At home Anu served us with a delicious food including prepared daal, sabzi and rice. After taking food We talked together and slept .
18th Aug Wednesday
We got up and did some exercises, had a breakfast with Upma. We had lunch with aloo, beans and ate with thepla, karela, and bhindi we brought from Delhi. Evening we decided to go towards hotel zona and there is this place which is total party zone – hard rock cafe, coco bonco, mandala club houses and we went to a resort Krystal to check it out and it was lot of fun.
19th Aug Thursday
Similar routine work in the morning like yoga exercises meditation etc, we had a good breakfast with great parfait, omlette and later lunch of rice and daal. We then decided to go to La Isla Shopping complex, beautiful place to hangout for shopping, eating and just be on the lagoon side and watch the sun set. After that we played cards together and slept.
20th Aug Friday
Routine Work in the morning and breakfast and pasta for lunch. Anu and Anil finished their work slightly early so we could go to delphine beach and spend some time there. It was gorgeous, although the waves were quite high, we all still had great time.
21st Aug Saturday
We decided to do the Chichen Itza archieological site trip, which was about 2.40hrs one way trip. It was a beautiful site and we went in our own car that Anil drove. Anu and Subhadra packed a lot of food, sandwiches, parathas/aloo and ofc junk food. We truly enjoyed this whole day picnic, learned a lot about Mayan culture. Chichen Itza was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period. The archeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality of Yocatan state.
Chichen Itza was a vibrant city with a diverse population of Mayan people extending well into the tens of thousands. Today, the site is home to the remnants of many ancient Mayan structures, including the famed El Castillo pyramid that dome of Chichen Itza is one of the New 7 Wonders of the
But the highlight was visit to Ik-kil Cenote, so beautiful and so gorgeous , wines dropping from the top and Cenote is like a sink hole underground with clear blue water, which was so refershing to take swim in and we fully enjoyed swimming there. When we returned home, Akhil was at home by then and we again became emotional meeting him after a long time
22nd Aug Sunday
This day we decided to do Coba ruins, Tulum Archeological and Playa Del lagoon and Mayakoba resort.
Ruins of Coba lie 43 km (approx. 27 mi) northwest of Tulum, in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Coba is located around two lagoons, Lake Coba and Lake Macanxoc. A series of elevated stone and plaster roads radiate from the central site to various smaller sites near and far.
But since Anil could not sleep the whole previous night, we let him sleep for few hrs in the morning, so the start of the day started around 11am. And we went to Coba ruins, it was fun biking and being pulled in a rikshaw to all the coba ruin side. From there we went to Tulum, but could not make it on time to visit Tulum arch site, so decided to just see Tulum beach, where Anu had planned to do Rakhi celebration in the backdrop of Tulum ruins It was super fun to celebrate rakhi in this unique style. We decided to offer dinner in the vegan restaurant, great ambience, great food. And then we returned to home, but could not visit Mayakoba. Our energy was still high and decided to go to swimming pool, it was super awesome.
23rd Aug Monday
Work day started, but Anu and Akhil went running till the lagoon and did some exercise and came back and picked up food from the grocery store close by. Breakfast was omlette and lunch was rajma/chawal and evening we had golgappas and shakarkandi chaat. Evening we went for shopping in Mercado 28 and bought some souvenirs, that was the outing for the day. Later we played cards, my favourite time.
24th Aug Tuesday
All of us went to the walk to lagoon but Anu and Akhil ran. Went again went to the grocery store to pick up few items. Breakfast was daal paratha, lunch was pav bhaji. Evening we all had icecream and went for a visit to party place of Hotel zona and strolled around the streets and went to mandala beach and walked in the wet sand. Loved that part of the evening.
25th Aug Wednesday
This was the day for our transition to the hotel zona property right off the beach. We got up and went for last walk/run to the lagoon and came back and packed our bags and had our breakfast and lunch. Any, Akhil and Anil did their worked for the remainder of the day. We got extended checkout time so Anu Akhil and Subhadra moved majority of the stuff in the car in the first round and then in the second round me, anil came along. This property in hotel zona had the most beautiful views and right on the beach. Our apartment was the corner one , so it had almost 270″ view of the beach and surrounding and very refreshing. We straight away jwent to the beach in the water, but this time of the year, beaches are quite wild and high tides, so it was not very safe to go inside the water, so we waded and just walking and sitting on the beach and enjoying the vastness and sound of the waves.
26th Aug Thursday
Early morning sunrise was the most breathtaking, right from the room and sun rising from the ocean. We enjoyed that time a lot and did some of our
early morning yoga right there. We went to the beach early morning and enjoyed our time at the beach for almost 1-2 hrs. This was a lot of fun. After our tea and dinner we went back on the beach at night and enjoyed thoroughly, this was a relaxing day for us.
27th Aug Friday
Got up and as any other day wanted to walk on the beach, we were enjoying and Anil was taking a lot of pictures from Anu’s camera and somehow he lost her camera in the sea, he himself does not know what happened, we looked all around and could not find, it was a big bummer for Anu, she even cried but thought in the big streams of things that it was nothing. Its a monetary loss and a bit of inconvenience that she did not have the full backup of the phone , but atleast all her memories were airdropped in my phone , a day before. Anu worked with Gaurav to get a new phone and he did it being employee of Apple and sent purchase details to Nikhil’s phone since he was planning to come next day to Cancun. We all decided to go to the Isla Mujaris Island. We drove to the docking area and took a ferry to Isla Mujeres, where a mexican guy was singing beautiful songs, we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Akhil, Anil and Anu had the snorkling trip planned there, but they purposely did not let me and Subhadra to join since it was not recommended for people with heart issues. They left us at the beach under the shade and asked us to take dip in the water since the beaches had such beautiful calm water unlike cancun beaches. They asked me to even take 1 hr of massage and then they left for the snorkeling trip. The trip organiser took them to 3 different stops, first had enormous amount of fish and they loved it and then he took them to underground museum MUSA with lots of statues and car, and the third stop was the second largest coral reef , it was so serene and beautiful with so many beautiful corals and fish. They even saw few divers that were at the bottom exploring and their bubbles in water looked super cool. After snorkling experience, the boat took them to a small place for food and there in a pond they had tamed shark and u can take pictures with it and that is what they did, touching, kissing the shark and it also squirted water on them. Although food was not that great, they were hungry and hence finished quite a bit of it. Took some fun picturs there and they headed back to where they left us. We also had a good time in the water and had a one hour massage. We all were ready to take the ferry back to cancun. After returnign we decided to eat out at an authentic mexican restaurant and there we ordered food. It was quite delicious and he made us veg tacos and quessidilla too. Late night we had couple of games of cards, our favourite pass time.
Isla Mujeres is a spainish word and it stands for “Island of Women” (formally “Isla de Mujeres”)) is an island where the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea meet, about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) off the Yucatán Peninsula coast in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is approximately 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long and 650 metres (2,130 ft) wide. To the east is the Caribbean Sea with a strong surf and rocky coast, and to the west the skyline of Cancún can be seen across the waters. In the 2010 census, the namesake town on the island had a Population of 12642 inhabitants
28th Aug Saturday
Like every day, we started with our yoga, morning walk and went to the cancun sign at the delphines beach to take some pics. Nikhil was going to come tonight so we were super excited and he was also coordinating to pickup Anu’s phone from connecticut. We decided to explore a close by cenote verde lucero, roughly 40 mins from our place, it was not as gorgeous as the Ik-kil cenote, but was very refreshing and fun. We all went into the water. They had a zip line, first Anu was a bit skeptical but on then Anil went and did first and then Anu decided to do as well, it was so much fun to jump in water from the zip line, Anu did it 3-4 times. I wanted to do as well, but was not allowed due to my heart condition. We thoroughly enjoyed the water fun and took some pictures in the beautiful park. We ate and returned home and it was almost time to pick up Nikhil. When he came to the apartment, he was looking like a tall Mexican with a hat on his head. We again became emotional to meet him. We all opened a wine bottle and toasted together and felt really blessed to be together and then decided to go to the beach for a stroll. We saw something unique, a giant turtle that was perhaps laying eggs and we witnessed her for the long time, hoping at some point it will go back to the water, but it did not. Night was really beautiful with moon reflecting on the sea waves and creating a shimmering effect. We came back and then chatted over, no one wanted to sleep yet, after many years we have been together as a family
29th Aug Sunday
Anil was to leave this day in the evening, so we wanted to stay in the resort only. After the morning usual yoga, walk on the beach, children decided to get into water and have some fun and later moved to the pool, where no one wanted to come out. I because of my ear problem did not go inside the pool. Anu thought of taking some before and after pictures, so we had some old family pictures and decided to take the pictures in the same pose after so many years, Anil was the director. It was really fun to recreate the same scene, but got exhausting after a while, however the results were awesome. Anu put a collage of those before and after pics, which came out really good. We dropped Anil at the airport in the evening and he reached home safely, Subhadra packed some food to go and Tanuja picked him up. Night we played our favorite pass time, card game.
30th Aug Monday
Since Rakhi had just left and Anu had already tied the rakhi to Akhil, she wanted to tie it to Nikhil too and that is what Anu did in the morning. Since Anu and Akhil already went for snorkelling, Nikhil came up with the idea of taking us for boat ride and snorkeling trip. Nikhil took us to the nearby place where the boat trip and snorkeling was available. Nikhil Took a trip for high-speed boat ride and snorkelling. He drove the boat behind a guide throughout lagoon and ocean. We were a bit scary as the boat was just flying on the water with lots of ups and downs. After a boat ride we reached to a place where we have to do snorkelling. We were told that it was the longest coral reef which goes up to Barbados. Nikhil throughout did snorkelling at his own while we both took the help of the guide who took us to a coral reef where we saw so many colourful fishes surrounding us. I was trying to catch the fish but they were just slipping out of my hand. We fully enjoyed the trip. We decided to buy a very expensive drone video clip of the high speed boat drive. We came back saying that this was the highlight of their cancun trip. Rest of the day was chill, gossiping, eating, drinking, and playing cards.
31st Aug Tuesday
This was the last full day before we leave for USA and we wanted to capture every moment together. Nikhil, Akhil and me decided to go to pool and have some drinks together, It was super chilled easy day, we went to the beach and took another set of pictures in the evening and hung around together and truly enjoyed each other company. After dinner, we talked for atleast 4-5 hrs on every topic from philosophical, relationship, tragedies, family, passion , drive, love, blessings etc..
1st Sep Wednesday
Final day to leave had come, we were excited. Again all three children went for walk on the beach and then stayed in the beach water for a long time and then went to the pool, we also came to the pool and we just relaxed. Had our omlette breakfast and Subhadra made paranthas to carry for all and Anu and Akhil dropped three of us to the airport. Since Anu and Akhil flight was in the evening they went for shopping and then to airport. Our 15 days stay in Cancun came to an end and we are taking memories of our lovely and enjoyable stay with children with us.
At the Cancun airport there was no difficulty as son Nikhil was with us. Boarding pass and booking of luggage was at the machine which one has to operate himself. The psecurity clearance was not difficult and we then flew for Newok (NJ) airport USA. We knew in advance that the weather in New Jersey was bad. Our plane with great difficulty, in a very bad weather and in a very shaky state landed at the airport. But due to the flood at the airport the plane remained for more than two hours at the strip itself and then moved to the vestibule when the water receded. At immigration no question was asked as my son Nikhil was with us, they took photo of all the three of us and then allowed to go without stamping our passports. When we reached to the belt for luggage, we waited for more than 45 minutes and later there was an announcement that the luggage cannot be delivered because of the flood and you have to collect it next day. We then came out in the lounge and when my son tried to go down to take his car, he found that it was all flooded having at least 2 feet water on the ground floor. There was no other way except to wait at the airport so we just sat on the chairs and ate something and relaxed. After about three hours we found that some traffic started moving and then my son went to the car parking and brought his car. We put up all the hand baggage in the car and started our journey for Orange town of Connecticut. In the way there were many cars stranded and some were accidented and therefore the traffic was very slow. We reached home at seven in the morning while we should have come in the normal way at 9PM in the evening. When we reached home Ritu and Anika was waiting for us anxiously as there was a storm in this town also. The adventurous journey from Cancun to USA came to the end and we relaxed at home. We requested the airline to deliver our luggage at home which they did and our luggage reached after four days. The mean time we used clothes of Nikhil and Ritu.
It was an unforgettable 15 days of love, happiness, joy with the people that are most close to
Our hearts and it is now etched forever in our hearts ♥️
DK and Subhadra's Visit to various countries and cities! 