After a direct flight from Toronto to Cancun, Jackie took the ADO bus just outside departures and 50 minutes later we were greeting her at the ADO depot on 5th Avenue. She was hungry so we had our first beach lunch together at La Tarraya. We relaxed and caught up the first evening with snacky foods at home. The next day Jackie was happy to hang out in the pool and we ordered pizza. On Monday with Connor back at school, we headed down to 5th Avenue and the beach. We ate at Los Rancheros, dipped in the ocean for an hour, collected Connor at 2 PM then spent time exploring the Playcar ruins then playing in the ocean. Los Rancheros restaurant on 5th Ave. Large share platter. Jackie at the portal. Xaman Ha ruins. Shapely souvenir shirts Jax bought us. On Tuesday Jackie and I made the 7 km walk around the loop of Paseo Xaman Ha, discovering the massive resorts, hidden ruins and caught a lovely sighting of the macaws at...

As we hoped, Playa is much more accessible than Belize and in our first few weeks we have connected with friends already. Our friends Ti, Jason and Tesla were vacationing from San Pedro and we met for lunch (Aug 18). Lunch at Zenzi. Tesla was one of the first friends Connor made in Belize. We had a great farewell supper with Shari, Debbie and Tom at the Tequila Barrel on vibrant 5th Avenue (Aug 26). Then we got a surprise message from friends vacationing from Burlington and met for a lovely few hours of lunch and live music on the beach at Wah Wah (Sept 2). Miniature margaritas with Suzana. Bucket of beer with Mike. After school gelato with Michela and Sunny.