Happy New Year!

[Crankin]

Emily, those desserts look unbelievably delicious, as does the other food. I for one, love Mexico, although I have not been there for years. If you can believe it, I went on a 7 day exploration of the Yucatan for my senior trip, in high school. I went to a very small private school in Miami, and our history teacher had done research down there. We raised a lot of $ and my parents paid for the rest of the trip as my graduation present. Realize, I had never traveled anywhere except in New England at this point in time. We stayed in MerÃ*da for most of the week; what a beautiful colonial type city. Then we actually stayed in a very small village with one bathroom, where we slept in hammocks and ate our meals at a farmer's home. Went exploring in a bunch of caves there, as I remember. We also went to Tulum; you are right, the beach there is gorgeous.
We had some wonderful camping trips in Puerto Penasco, too, when I lived in Phoenix. Of course, now it's more built up, but it was like a private spot of ocean for Arizonans when I lived there. I've also been to Puerto Vallarta, but I found that very touristy. I'd really love to go to the Mexican wine country, next. It would be easy to combine with a trip to see our son, so maybe in the next year.

[emily_in_nc]

Very cool, Crankin! We've been drinking some of that wine from Mexican wine country!

We haven't been anywhere on the west coast of Mexico but enjoyed Merida and San Cristobal de las Casas very much as inland locations. Playa del Carmen is very touristy too, but if you stay out of the tourist zone, it's still very much Mexico, with mostly Spanish spoken, and plenty of local restaurants and businesses. Merida might actually be a better "fit" for us as a winter location, but it was easier to get here with a dog, so that is why we are here rather than there. And I'm really glad we got to check it out since we hadn't been here before, and it's been loads of fun.

Your senior trip sounds great!