December 3–17, 2020 Cancun, Mexico

Tobey and I left Penny with our moms in Scottsdale and flew to Cancun to spend two weeks at our timeshare. It had been almost ten years since we had been there!

The Moon Palace is an all-inclusive resort which made it easy for us to just chill out! The resort was limiting capacity at 40% occupancy, so that made it pretty nice - and easy to get into the restaurants. All of the resort workers wore masks all the time and they sprayed all of the beach chairs with disinfectant every night. Concrete surfaces were being cleaned, daily, as well. In the buffet restaurants, you were required to wear a mask going through the buffet and they had you use hand sanitizer. We wore our masks going in and out of every restaurant, as well as outdoors until we were settled in chairs by the pool where we were able to maintain safe distances. Several guests wore their masks when they were out and about, also, but not all. We did our best to keep our distances!The first few days were chilly and rainy.
The high temperatures were in the lows 70s – not what we had been planning for a beach vacation. It quickly warmed up and temperatures were in the high 70s and low 80s.
We made spa appointments for massages, manicures, and pedicures and took one of the offered excursions to Ek Balam, a Mayan ruin. (Temperature checks were taken when we checked in and every time we went to the spa.)


The ruins of Ek Balam started to be restored in 1997 so it is relatively new. The term Ek Balam means “black jaguar” in Mayan. The city of Ek Balam was used from 600BC to 1600AD and the heyday was 770 AD-900 AD. The site is actually 15 square kilometers large but the core of the site was a walled city and contained about 40 buildings. Ek Balaam was about a two hour bus ride away and all of the passengers were required to wear their masks. Our guide told us about the civilization which occupied the space and the importance of the different buildings. It was an interesting tour and I am glad we went! After Ek Balam, we stopped at the Chukum Cenote where our group had lunch then time to swim in the cenote. Before entering, they took everyone’s temperature. I’m not sure how much good it did, but some precautions seemed good.
There was a “zipline” set up in the cenote that we did one time. The water was pretty chilly, but we can at least say we swam there!

At the resort, we enjoyed taking out one of the Hobie Cat sailboats almost everyday and kayaked a couple times. We even gave paddle boarding a try. Tobey has better balance than me and was able to stand up. I attempted to stand, but quickly found myself in the water! It was fun and would be easier, I’m sure, if the water was calm.



We did not give the Flow rider a try, but it was sure fun watching the young folks giving it a try!

The resort has a new section, “The Grand”, that required a day pass to use. We had fun at the waterpark there going on one of the slides and floating on the lazy river.

We had lunch at their “Los Tacos” restaurant, sampling several different kinds of tacos. Our dinner was at The Jade Restaurant. We didn’t know what to order, so our waiter took over and brought a variety of appetizers, main dishes, noodles, rice, and desserts. It was a great experience!
We enjoyed the different restaurants at our section of the Moon Palace.

We ate at Agra, the Indian restaurant, a couple times. The first time we muddled through the menu, the second time we let the waiter bring his suggestions. It was delicious both times! Tobey also got his share of Sushi at lunch at the Buganbillas Buffet.

With unlimited food and drinks, we also had fun trying different adult beverages by the pool!

One day we took the hotel shuttle into the Beach Palace located in the hotel zone of Cancun. We had lunch there then took a city bus (12 pesos each, 60 cents) to the drug stores to pick up some asthma inhalers for Tyler. Almost everyone on the buses wore masks. When our shopping was finished, we headed back to Beach Palace where we had a chance to walk the beach and bounce in the waves. Tobey enjoyed that part immensely!

Every night there was free entertainment. We enjoyed the Aquatic Circus and the Pop Stars show the most.

They even had a journey to the North Pole to see Santa which was very popular with the families with children.

It was surprising how fast the two weeks went by and we found ourselves on the shuttle back to the airport heading back to Scottsdale! We had such a good time, we are going back in March!