Day 25 – Cancun to San Francisco

We had a nice breakfast and then headed to the Cancun airport. We made our connecting flight in Salt Lake City with only 8 minutes to spare! The attendant at the gate smiled and said, “Congratulations, you just made it.” We arrived home around 10pm and since Delta serves no food, we were starving. The only place still open on a Sunday night was the Taco Bell in Matt’s neighborhood. We calculated that in 24 days, we had been on 12 flights, visited 4 countries, two continents, got 10 passport stamps, and flown over 23,000 miles. It was a good trip…an earned trip…a trip we will always remember and appreciate.

Day 24 – Cancun – The Wedding of Nick & Dana

The wedding was not until 4pm, so Matt and I took some time to explore the intricate labyrinth of swimming pools and the swimming canals that flowed from each pool. We also decided that we had to experience the swim-up bar and discovered that Matt has a talent for swimming with 2 drinks in his hands.
At 2pm, Matt headed off to meet the girls and photograph them getting ready. At 3pm I met up with the guys and photographed them. By 4pm, we were all standing on a beach, with the waves crashing behind us, under a perfect sky, and watched happily as Dana and Nick said their vows to each other. After the ceremony, we headed over to bar for some matching blue drinks and then the magic hour hit…sunset. Matt and I stole Dana and Nick away for some more photos hoping for the perfect Mexican sunset. It truly was Magic! As if on cue, the sky became bright pink and Dana and Nick started having a lot of fun being photographed. The light was perfect! After sunset, we met up with the rest of the party, enjoyed an incredible dinner and danced until 11pm. We felt really happy to be apart of such a special day.

Day 23 – Cancun

We spent the day exploring the resort and scouting out photo locations. It was very warm and humid. The surf was too strong for swimmers, so most of the guests were bobbing around in any of the 30 pools on the property. We ended up getting about ½ hour after sunset to splash around in the big pool and then met everyone for the rehearsal dinner.

Day 22 – San Francisco to Cancun

We were up at 4am and in the airport taxi by 4:30am. It feels like we just left this airport…oh, wait a minute, we did! Our final destination was Cancun, Mexico. Matt’s friends, Nick and Dana, are getting married, and we are their wedding photographers.

In Cancun, we landed with about 6 other flights, all of us funneling our way through Mexico’s immigration line. It took 90 minutes to get through immigration. We emerged from baggage into a deluge of aggressive tour and time share operators and found our way to a shuttle bus. Our destination was the El Dorado Royale Resort. The resort is a 25 minute drive south of Cancun. We passed through the exclusive security gates and were verified as guests. It was hard to take in the massive, all-inclusive, no children allowed, resort.

As soon as we walked into the main lobby, we were handed champagne and a helpful porter took my grubby backpack. The porter drove us via golf cart to our suite. Matt laughed because he and Nick (the groom) had met as bell-hops at a resort in Carmel where they both drove guests around in golf carts. The resort grounds were gorgeous. It was really warm and humid, and when the porter opened the door to our suite, we were hit with a blast of cold air conditioning. The suite was such an extreme to everything Matt and I had experienced the past 3 weeks in South America. I just started giggling uncontrollable over such excess. We had gone from sleeping on a cement slab with a thin mattress stuffed with hay to the biggest 4 poster king-size bed I had ever seen. Next to the bed was a Roman style spa tub. White linens were draped around the bed and spa and also hung from the ceiling. It was completely unreal! The bathroom was like a Roman bathhouse, complete with arches. It was all very overwhelming for me. The size of the shower itself could have housed a Bolivian family of 4.

We headed out around sunset and met up with the bride and groom, Dana & Nick, as well as the other friends and family members who had just flown in. It was nice to meet everyone and their families were great.

Day 21 Santiago to San Francisco

Our flight departed at 9pm last night from Santiago and we landed in Dallas at 6:30am. I slept most of the time which was good, because our take off from Santiago was kinda bumpy due to the bad weather and that did not agree with my tummy. When we landed in Dallas, we had to pick up our bags and re-check them for immigration purposes. It was interesting watching all the Chileans from our flight getting confused over all the US security stuff like taking off your shoes, jackets, laptops, etc. There were some confused faces and non of the Dallas security staff spoke Spanish, they just yelled out directions in a thick Texan accent. Our flight to SFO landed on time. We had some lunch, did laundry and re-packed for the wedding in Cancun.

Day 20 - Santiago

Last night we found the indoor pool and hot tub in our swanky hotel. We had a fun time splashing around and finally got some use out of our swimsuits. This unusually ritzy Holiday Inn is like an oasis after 3 weeks of backpacking. After dropping our packs of at the airport storage desk in the morning, we ran the gauntlet of aggressive taxi drivers and tour guides waiting for us outside the airport doors. Good grief! I got so annoyed with all the drivers jostling to take us to various places, that I just turned around and went back inside to the safety of the airport. However, that safety zone did not last long due to the aggressive tour agents inside. We turned our backs on all of them and went for a walk. We found a taxi driver standing quietly in the corner, just holding his taxi sign, not hustling anyone. He became our taxi to city center and along the way pointed out areas of interest and helped us get our bearings in city center.

We climbed up Santa Lucia mountain for a nice view of the city, found the artesian market, and then made our way through the pedestrian shopping district. Santiago is a huge city, with 4 million people, all of which seemed to be walking and smoking in city center. Since neither of us care for big cities, smoking, or shopping, Santiago was not our type of travel destination. It was just another city. We both arrived at deciding that hanging out in the airport for a few hours was better than being in downtown Santiago, so we flagged down a cab and went back to the airport. Also, at some point, someone tried to get into my backpack while we were walking and a nice gentleman stopped me to point it out. I then got further warned by his spouse and a newsstand lady who told me to wear my backpack in front. Nothing was taken-- the only things in the pocket were some lens filters, and they were tightly stuffed in the pocket.

Back at the airport, we dropped our bags off at the airline counter, got our boarding passes, and then immediately left the airport once again, to walk back across the street to the unusually swanky Holiday Inn. Matt purposely kept a room key from this morning and just flashed it as we walked in, so instead of spending the next 3 hours in the airport, we are in a nice bar, sitting on a poofy couch, sipping an entire bottle of champagne waiting for the tasty restaurant to open.

Day 19 – Rapa Nui to Santiago

Today is Matt’s birthday! After breakfast Biki gave us puka shell necklaces and wished us “safe travels.” Our flight to Santiago was only delayed by 90 minutes. We arrived in Santiago around 7pm. Matt had his birthday steak-dinner. Tomorrow we will spend the day in Santiago, however, it is predicted rain. Oh well, at least for tonight, we have a nice place to stay.