Grand Velas Riviera Maya

I have never been in a place like this before. It was magical. As we arrived and our van parked in front of the main entrance we got our stuff and went straight to the front office to check in because we wanted to go to the pool right away. The view was amazing. The pool was beautiful and at the very end of the swimming pool, you could see the ocean. Between the ocean and the pools, there was the beach, the palm trees, a volleyball net and beach chairs.

Food, food and more food

There were restaurants for everyone, formal ones, less formal, buffets and much more. For breakfast we went to Azul because we liked the buffet they had in the morning, the variety is endless. For lunch, we would always change and try something different. Dinners were usually more formal. We went to:

• The French restaurant Piaf, which was very elegant;
• Then we also went to the Asian Bar Sen Lin;
• But the one I remember the most is Cocina de Autor because it is literally unbelievable.

Let's talk about the latter. Firstly, there was basically no menu. Waiters would just bring you the dishes, which were ten but really small. We tried unique things. Everything on the plate was something interesting that the cook made his own way. It is hard to explain by words so I will just let photos speak for themselves:

(Do not ask me what this is because I forgot the moment he brought me other plates. We literally had ten plates like this one, just with different things on them. I think the cook is rather an artist. He plays with food and this is the result).

We are talking about really elegant restaurants right now, where you cannot go with flip flops and shorts on, but to show you how good the whole resort is, I will also show you what I had for lunch in my swimming suit:

Teens' room and activities

I enjoyed staying in the teens' room from time to time, just to sip some smoothies with my American brother or to play some pool with him. I also enjoyed walking by the pool at night, just the two of us, and talk. No one was around and at night the pools would change color every few seconds.

Sometimes if my American family was busy doing something else, I would listen to music and walk on the shore. I would relax me and I would just take a moment for myself. It was really hard to leave this place because the few days we spent here were problem-less. No things to worry about, just food, sunshine and laughs.

This is literally what I would see from my window. Just by writing this I feel really nostalgic and wish I could be back right at this moment. Anyhow, this beautiful place also offers many things to do, like scuba-diving, fly-boards and probably something else. I listed these two because this is what I remember, and this is what we did. I loved the fly-board, after doing it in Mexico I found out you can do it in many resorts almost anywhere in the world, but I feel lucky I got to try in Mexico.

These things were pricey, but for everyone else who could not spend that kind of money, every day in the biggest pool there were some people from the staff who would put some music and entertain. It was fun! It was for sure one of the best vacations of my life so far. Te extraño Mexico!

- Cristian