¡Hola Amigos!

I am officially done traveling for the summer!

July 6th marked my first time out of the continental US; and will hopefully represent the beginning of more international trips to come.
Mexico was a blast.
We stayed at a huge resort in Riviera Maya called the Grand Palladium, which was one of a kind to say the least. There was tons of wildlife present and it felt like many parts of the area were still untouched despite being in the midst of a massive hotel group.

There were hundreds of these little guys running around the resort. They loved company and would stand on their hind legs to beg for food.

I spent the majority of my week being a beach bum or laying by the pool with my mom and her friend's daughters. We only left the resort for one day, and it was to go to Xel-Ha (pronounced "Shell-Ha"). Xel-Ha is a park in Riviera Maya where a freshwater river meets the ocean and, in turn, creates an incredible wildlife habitat for visitors to snorkel and tube through. The float down this river was only an hour long, but incredibly enjoyable since we spent the first half of our day exploring some nearby Mayan ruins.

The Mayans definitely knew how to pick a good location

The heat and humidity are borderline unbearable when you're this close to the Equator so getting to spend the remainder of our afternoon in a river was total bliss.

I couldn't think of 9 better people to share my first international experience with and am so thankful for the opportunities I had to travel to new places this summer. Stillwater, I'll see you in 4 days!

These next couple weeks are about to be extremely hectic, but I will try and keep this updated as much as I can.

Also, a huge thank you to Phil-C for the photos from this trip. You rock.

Until next time,
Lex