Postcards from Mexico

Rooftop of Sky Suite at Azul Fives Playa del Carmen 

It never ceases to amaze that in a span of four hours a traveler can go from the dull gray hues of the subarctic midwest to the splashing blues and whites of the Caribbean along the Yucatan Peninsula.

Sun beds, a table and self-fillable jacuzzi on the open rooftop

It also never ceases to amaze how unusual it is to land in Cancun with such high expectations of the sun city and countryside only to be confronted with an hour-long taxi drive to your resort along a highway through a Mexican wasteland consisting of shells of old business buildings, residential shacks, and one pump gas stations.  Cars abandoned along the road simply look too hot to work.  Cerveza signs (Mexican water) litter every corner of every block.  Then your driver takes his turn off the highway

Ground transportation and dancing sunkids

and into the coastline jungle. Before you know it, you reappear as if inside a new world of beach retreat – from third world to out-of-this-world in six blocks.  The Azul Fives in Playa del Carmen is

Infinity pool and swim up bar

the neatest and best thought-out hotel we've ever stayed at.  Uninterrupted white beaches extend back northward to Cancun and south toward Tulum.

Sand beach from the north looking back toward Azul Fives

Directly out the center of the resort, the infinity pool opens to layers of green and blue where a wooden deck extends out to a thatched hut.  No cold here.  At 85 degrees the breeze is welcome.  Reading a

View from rentable hut at resort (Julia on chair)

a book on the beach chair isn't homework.