The Real is a fairly new hotel. Sr B thought it was a year or two old. It's not an all inclusive and it's on the lagoon side but, still, it was quite nice and at $80 a night, very affordable. No beach access but it had a very nice pool as well as a gym for those who want to keep up their fitness routine while on holidays. Since none of us are gym rats, we didn't take the time to check it out so I can't offer up an opinion on it. For breakfast, you have your choice of buffet or ordering from the menu. I believe the buffet is 230 pesos. Ordering off the menu makes breakfast much more affordable. Breakfast service was incredibly slow...over an hour from the time we sat down to when we left, so if you're in a hurry to start your day, you might want to consider the buffet. Supper had much better service and since we didn't eat lunch there, I can't comment on it. Overall, the food was adequate...not spectacular but certainly edible. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of anything.
We decided to spend the first day at Isla Mujeres. Tootled around on the golf cart and showed the girls the sights. We stopped at the turtle research place, which they just loved. You could purchase a small bag of food and, as you can see in the pic below, the seagulls like the food as much as the turtles do.
There was an aquarium building with various stages of turtles, from babies to adolescents. No pics of them but I did get a few of some of the cool creatures in various tanks.
Lobster looking critter.
Seahorse wrapped around...I forget, but I don't believe it's another critter. I think it's a plant of some sort.
Check out the really ugly fish on the sand.
This is the southern tip of Isla. There is a walking path with cool architectural structures in it. There is also a little al fresco restaurant that we always stop at for a drink and sometimes a light meal.
After we got back, we did the Captain Hook pirate ship adventure. As always, the entertainment was great and the meal superb. The girls had a blast.
The next day, yesterday, the girls had booked a swim with the dolphins activity. It was a rainy day so Sr B and I hung out at the hotel. The girls joined us after they got back and we all just relaxed.
Today we made the trek back to Progreso via the ADO. They use some sort of air freshener that smells really awful. It makes me nauseous and all I can think about for the whole 4 hours is, "Don't throw up. Don't throw up." It makes for a very long trip. I might have to consider taking Gravol in the future.
So there you have it. With pictures to boot. Now I just have to figure out how to upload more than one picture at a time into my Picasa Web Album.
