Day 4 (February 15, 2026): From beach to opera

This short getaway was intended to be all about rest. And so far, that’s exactly what we have done. There is no end of day tours and excursions that one can participate in. However, having been here before and done several of those, we decided not to pursue any of them this time.

A lovely 9 AM omelet on the patio of the buffet restaurant started the day. We spent the morning by the pool, instead of the beach, so that we could enjoy our new inflatable lounge chairs. After lunch, we headed south on The Strip again, to Playa Delfines, where we joined the throngs of Sunday locals enjoying the best of Cancun. It made for a pleasant beach walk and a dip (for David) in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. Then we took the bus back to the hotel and ended the daylight hours on the beach. 

We used our second reservation at one of the specialty restaurants to take in an amazing Italian dinner, and then topped the night off with a concert by three male opera singers. Another wonderful day in a wonderful place.


We inaugurated our inflatable lounge chairs from Amazon this morning. Each chair is comprised of two inflatable tubes, connected by netting that you sit in. They fold flat, taking hardly any space in a suitcase.

The resort has an aviary, with many budgie birds. 

The entrance to Playa Delfines has a bronze statue of a pod of dolphins. (Delfine means dolphin.)

Play Delfines is simply an exceptional public beach. The facilities are amazing, admission is free, and it is spic and span clean, with not a piece of rubbish to be found anywhere. On a Sunday afternoon, every palapa  was taken.

Looking south, to the end of The Strip. 

Playa Delfines is such a long and wide beach. Stunning! We enjoyed a 2.2 km walk at the water’s edge. 

Iguanas at Playa Defines. 


David braved the fairly chilly water and strong surf for an enjoyable dip in the Caribbean. 

This is sargassum - brown macroalgae (seaweed) - and it has become a major problem in the Caribbean, including Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Sargassum can extend for kilometers across the ocean surface, forming golden brown drifting mats that move with the currents and wind. In recent years, satellite data has revealed that a new sargassum hotspot has been forming, extending from western Africa to the Caribbean Sea, called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt.


Fun watching the pelicans dive for fish. 

Dinner tonight was at La Trattoria Ristorante Italiano, here at the resort. This massive Parmesan cheese round was available to scrape, using a special cheese tool. We had never seen anything like it!

David’s “primi” dish was a seafood fettuccine, filled with scallops, calamari, a giant mussel and shrimp. 

Pam’s “secondi” dish was a lasagne, while David’s secondi was a steak with risotto. 

Another wonderful meal here at the Occidental Costa Cancun. 

We ended the evening with a very enjoyable concert of three opera-quality singers. They did a mix of operatic and popular tunes. The entertainment here has been truly excellent.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Days 1-2 (February 12-13, 2026): Back to where we began!

Image
For years, we have done a Valentine’s / Heritage Day weekend trip to the southern USA. But those days are over - at least until the regime is overthrown and America can find its true self again. Knowing we’d still want a mid-February getaway, even if the USA was out, we decided to do a few days in Cancun, since flights are plentiful between Halifax and there. Cancun holds a special place in our hearts as, in July 1992, we came here on our honeymoon for two weeks. We were young, poor and naive, but still, we have great memories of that first Caribbean experience of our married lives together. Apart from this visit, we have only been back one other time since 1992. After a stormy week, we had a perfect break in the weather for our trip. Despite a three-hour delay in leaving, it all worked fairly smoothly. We left for Halifax Airport at 6:30PM and were airborne by 9:45PM, arriving at our Toronto Airport hotel at 11:15PM.  With three hours of sleep under our belts, we headed back to th...
Read more

Day 3 (February 14, 2026): A wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Image
Happy Valentine's Day 2026! After a deep sleep that allowed us to make up for the night before, we enjoyed a great omelet (one of the things we love most about resorts) and then installed ourselves on the hotel’s beach. A late morning walk was followed by lunch, and then we ventured off-resort, taking one of the ramshackle buses (by Canadian standards) to an archaeological site we had read about. After discovering a stunning beach that we will explore tomorrow, we took the bus back to the resort for some late afternoon beach time. We had a 5:30PM Valentine's dinner reservation at the hotel’s seafood restaurant, which proved to be a 10/10 dining experience. We weren’t into the evening magic show, so we skipped that and called it a day. Looking back at the day, with its sunny skies and high 20s, we couldn’t have asked for a nicer Valentine’s Day.  Resorts in the morning hours, before they really come alive, are a joy to photograph; they are clean, organized and read for a new day...
Read more