All-Inclusive & Monkeys?! Don't tempt me with a good time!

Hola! I hope y'all have been staying warm in your part of the woods.  Here in Chicago we had wind chills reaching the -50's last week!!  It was so cold that my employer put us up in hotels down the street for our safety when coming to and from work.  A little relief from the cold weather was a wonderful trip to MEXICO!  Nick and I joined some friends in Riviera Maya for some fun in the sun and the celebration of their upcoming nuptials.  I was a little nervous with the GF options they might offer since their response to my e-mails were super vague, but it was not as bad as it could have been.

While waiting for our transportation to the resort, we realized the airport had a bar outside where everyone waits.  Brilliant, eh?! Of course I could not turn down a $20 margarita!  In all fairness, it was listed in pesos, so I did not calculate USD and was just so happy to be in warm weather!  I did make sure that it was with 100% Agave tequila (always a GF friendly liquor option). He asked if I wanted Don Julio, in which I responded, "Don't tempt me with a good time!" haha!

The drive to the resort was about 1 hour and 20 minutes, but that did not matter since we had our drinks in tow.  We stayed at Luxury Bahia-Principe Sian Ka'an.  The check-in was seamless and they met us with a glass of their house sparkling wine!  It was DELICIOUS!  It was called Mirabelle Brut.  It did not bother me at all in my digestion, so I knew I was at least able to drink that for my trip...and boy I sure did!  My only issue with check-in was that Gluten-Free had not been added to our reservation, so that was annoying since I had emailed them twice to make sure it was done.  Also, a little side note**Download the app ahead of time and book your dinner resos in advance because most places are full and booked when you arrive! That was annoying!!

They upgraded us to a PENTHOUSE! The pictures did it NO justice! It was lush and beautiful! Instead, here is a pic of us with our new friend, Sarah! Below you will find out about her home!

Our friends arrived after we did and since we were famished, we went to the buffet.  They immediately brought me GF bread once I told them I was GF.  They then sent me to the ginormous buffet with one of the head chefs.  He made sure to tell me ingredients.  I do have to say, he, as well as a lot of his peers, kept saying I could not have certain things because it had ,"leche".  Thatcould have, so I made sure to go over the ingredients on the "approved" items one more time.  I had salad, fresh tuna, salmon, grilled calamari, and ice cream.  It was just enough to hold me over before we had a late dinner with friends at, Maiko.
is "milk" in Spanish and that is NOT gluten.  That made me start second guessing the items he told me I

Maiko is one of the Japanese restaurants that Bahia offers.  It is on the Sian Ka'an property.  We were greeted with a Sake Cocktail! It was fresh squeezed juice with sake(typically GF friendly).  I did not know what to expect, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Salud!

For dinner, I ordered the Niguiri Assortment.  It did not disappoint.  I had already gobbled it down before I realized I had not taken a picture.  I promise to get better about this.  I finished my meal with the Oriental Ice Cream Fantasy.  I mean, how could I not say, "HECK YES" to this?!  As you can see...I hated it.

BEFORE...

2 MINUTES LATER!!

After an AC freezing debacle in the middle of the night in our room, we were moved to another one just to be able to take a nap and unfortunately missed breakfast and the beach for Saturday.  We were, and still are, super bummed.  We woke up in time to get back to our room and get ready our visit to the Akumal Monkey Sanctuary & Rescued Animals.

Anyone that knows me well, knows my nickname given by my parents is, MONKEY!  They are my spirit animal and I'm obsessed!  I am literally wearing monkey socks as I type this! This place was WONDERFUL for several reasons.  They rescue animals, take in donated ones, rehabilitate those that can go back into the wild, and plant seeds into the minds of people about environmental education .  It is wonderful!  It is about $65ish to go there, but so very worth it. Oh, they also have Mayans who live on the land and help take care of the animals.  They make sure the animals live their BEST life!! At the end of the journey around the sanctuary, we were given traditional pineapple water and a Mayan Corn Cake...that was surprisingly GF!!  It was delish!  Here are a few pics from our journey!

Rubbing "Mimi". 
She is an older monkey that looooves attention. 
She prances around with a lot of sass.

"Sarah" was obsessed with Nick!  

We were obsessed with Sarah.  

Those faces.
I really wanted to keep them!

He's an amputee that they are nursing back to
health before reintroducing him back into the wild.  

Me enjoying my Mayan goodie!

Giving Little Sarah some treats & love

My heart exploded when she
sat on my shoulder!

Super friendly!! They were rescued from a
bad home environment. 

Be still my heart!

For dinner we had reservations at Rodizio Restaurant: Los Corales.  All of the Bahia Akumal properties are within a huge area with shuttles in between.  It only takes about 5-10 minutes to get to where you want to go, so you are able to indulge in all of the restaurants, pools, and bars they all have to offer.

I started out with a glass of Pinot Grigio.  It was awful.  It was the house one.  I swapped to their red wine (a tempranillo) and it was really tasty.  I usually am not a huge fan of reds, but this one was hitting those taste buds in the best possible way.  They gave us a card that is red on one side and green on the other.  They told us to hold onto it until it was "time".  We grabbed a salad from the salad bar and went back and waited for the "time".  The salad bar was extremely fresh.  We made the server aware immediately I was GF.  He brought out an appetizer and placed it in front of me.  It looked SO GOOD!  There was a cream sauce over the potato I was concerned about.  I asked him and he stated it was not GF.  I was wondering if he was confusing gluten with dairy like my last few go-rounds with folks.  Due to a language barrier, he was unable to confirm the ingredients and brought me out one that was sans the delicious looking sauce. Below are some pictures with and without the sauce.  The flavor was sub-par at best.

Sans questionable sauce and GF.

Sauce in question....

For dinner I ordered the Chilean Sea Bass. It was prepared perfectly!  The butter and herbs and freshly squeezed  lime.  Yes, I did have the meat they brought out, but it was devoured before I took a pic.  I HAD to take a picture of this.  We had to leave before dessert because our friend developed a migraine.  I can only imagine the popping flavor that it would have had.

 

Devoured in about 5 minutes.

We topped the night off with a show back at Sian Ka'an before heading to La Hacienda, a bar in another part of Bahia Principe, that we heard had KARAOKE!  Again, don't tempt me with a good time!  The girls may or may not have sang, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"!!  That video will NOT be posted...I mean, what video?!  We danced the night away for quite sometime and headed back in hopes for a good nights rest.  I kept waking up in fear that the AC unit was going to pour ice cold water all over us again from it freezing up.  

Sunday was our last full day at Bahia Principe.  The group was planning to go to Tulum to see the Mayan Ruins.  Nick and I decided to sit that excursion out and actually get to the beach.  We found a cute little straw umbrella on the adults only part of the beach and relaxed with some drinks.  I had another Maribelle and he had a beer.  The crew showed up after their excursion and held down the fort while Nick and I headed to the buffet at Bahia Coba called, Kukulcan.  It was wonderful!  I had a salad, sashimi, fresh tuna roll (sans Soy Sauce of course), and more ice cream!  We headed back to the beach for some fun in the sun with the crew before getting ready for the SUPERBOWL!  

Life is better with you.

Beach life is the Best life

Bahia Coba offered a nice Sports Bar where they aired the Superbowl for everyone to see.  The Superbowl was extremely unappealing, so I ran back and forth to watch The Lion King Musical that the resort had at their darling little theater!  It was the highlight of my night.  That Superbowl definitely was not.  I also made time to run over to the same buffet, Kukulcan to grab a quick bite.  I met a sweet guy that worked there named, Jesus.  He brought me out some delicious GF bread!! He was THE BEST and had a heart of  the purest gold.  Afterward, we went and had some drinks outside and listened to a live band play some popular covers.  I danced and danced and finally needed a breather!  The group sat around, had some good laughs, and decided to head back for a farewell nightcap.

Such a fun group!

Cheers to the FABULOUS couple!

All in all, I have to say that Luxury Bahia Principe Sian Ka'an had more ups than downs.  I felt comfortable with their food options, as well as, their cocktails and spirits.  If you are looking for a safe bet while on your own gluten-free journey, I would recommend them.  Again, just make sure to confirm with the actual resort about being gluten-free and also make resos at the restuarants ahead of time.

My next getaway will be a quick little Wisconsin retreat next weekend.  My favorite restaurant, The Barn, burned down recently and we are all heartbroken. Join me as I hunt for another GF favorite.  I also plan on travelling back in time to my recent trip to Europe at the end of 2018. 

Adios for now amigos!