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.

It's only money!! While you cannot always control what happens, you can control your reactions, so we decided to walk away from our housing mistake, take the financial loss of deposit and rent and moved into a new place belonging to Chris, our original landlord. It is much nicer and quieter with a slightly longer walk to school and stores and located within the beautiful gated community of Playacar.  Wayak Condominiums - 2nd floor. Living space. Inviting pool. Jordan also found us 3 used bikes on the Playa Facebook marketplace for around $250 for all three including new seats, baskets and tune ups!

Our friends Shari, Debbie and Tom are visiting from San Pedro and Shari generously invited us to be her guest for the day at the Playacar Palace resort they were staying at. Given the frantic nature of our time here so far, spending the day at 5-star all inclusive was a wonderful way to enjoy what Playa will ultimately have to offer us. Swim up bar. Relaxing and hydrating. Stunning views. Soft sand and waist deep water. Say cheese and cheers. Schools out ... ... time to make friends and play. Finishing the day with supper at the Japanese a la carte restaurant.

The 5:45 AM alarm came with a jolt following a hot, sticky and loud night. Connor was a trooper though, and, after the 13 minute walk to the gates of Escuela Maestro Manuel Acosta (EMMA) school, he gave a nervous smile as he waved goodbye. He was beaming at the 2 PM pickup so that was a relief!

Time has not been on our side and this has prompted some rushed decision making. We visited two schools and with Connor's enthusiastic approval, we registered him at EMMA school armed only with information about school fees and uniform costs. The extra financial gulps came when we got the lists of school supplies which included a lab coat, guitar and accessories, scientific calculator, USB stick and art supplies among many others, the pricey required textbook list, digital resource fees, insurance fees etc. To be fair the school has small class sizes and offers many of the things we wanted available to him including extracurriculars such as swimming and tae kwon do. Some of the supplies. Rather more disheartening is our rush decision to secure a 6-month rental close to the new school in the 3 days before school started. We only visited 3 places very briefly and chose the one with a pool. Upon moving in we learned some very hard lessons. Looks can be...