I can only take so much relaxation. We’ve never done an all-inclusive before because I do all the vacation planning and I don’t particularly enjoy sitting on a beach for a week at a time. It doesn’t matter how nice the resort (or cruise ship) is or how many activities are available. I like a change of scenery once a day, even if it’s only for an hour.

Certain other members of my family do not share this need, however, so I was having trouble organizing a family outing this morning. Chris was happy to just sit by the pool, and Justin could not be dragged from the kids club. I finally sold Brayden on the idea of checking out a small archeological site near the hotel that’s known for being overrun with iguanas. He couldn’t care less about ruined temples, but hunting lizards is totally his thing. So off we went.

The ruins were bigger than I expected and probably would have been more impressive if we hadn’t just done Chichen Itza yesterday. We counted 34 different iguanas — not too shabby for 40 minutes’ work. It wasn’t until we found the first big lizard that it dawned on us that we knew almost nothing about them: should we be worried that they keep bobbing their heads in our direction? Is that one about to charge? What do iguanas eat anyway? Huh.

After lunch and some colorful kiddie cocktails, it was back to (where else?) the beach. I swear that sand is never coming out of Justin’s hair.

To an eco-park tomorrow…