Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
SCDC Travels: Island Dreaming: 48 Hours in Culebra, Puerto Rico
on
Jan 30, 2014
On a sunny January Sunday, the Dutchman and I hopped on a Vieques Air Link flight to Culebra, a tiny island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. We took in the view of the beaches lining the northern part of the mainland and 45 minutes later, we landed in a tiny airstrip in Culebra. As the plane descended, we took in the idyllic view of Flamenco Beach, considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We rented a Jeep upon arrival and checked in to Rosa's Guesthouse. Rosa's is owned by Marcos and Richard who a few year years ago, decided to leave the Chicago cold in order to open their lovely guesthouse in Culebra.
Culebra, unlike its older sister, Vieques is very simple and stripped from luxury. There is no W Hotel or any other fancy hotels. Just simple guesthouses where people can focus on what makes this island so special: the beaches. After checking in, we immediately headed to Flamenco. The sky was blue, the sand fine, and blue waves crashing into this amazing beach. It was everything we imagined and more. We also enjoyed the fact January is "Puerto Rican winter", which means the beach was not crowded as it is in the summers. After working up an appetite, we went to the "chinchorros" (little food shacks) to snack on crab empanadas, washed down with Medalla (local beer).
All photos above by: Adventures Of The Repatriate and Dutchman
The next morning with went on a snorkeling trip with Richard, one of the owners of Rosa's. He took us to Tamarindo beach where we went looking for sea turtles. The water was calm and clear. As we swam further into the ocean, we started seeing these amazing animals, swimming peacefully and munching on sea grass. After our morning adventure, we headed to discover the other beaches of the island (this is where the jeep comes in handy). We ended up at Zoni beach, a more secluded and difficult beach to reach on the island. This was another beautiful sight. The water was a little rough for swimming but it was great just to be there next to the ocean, listening to waves, just the Dutchman and I. We continued to discover other small beaches such as Playa Larga. All of them had a special, unaltered vibe to them. Our last night in Culebra we had dinner at Susie's which was lovely. We had Chillo Frito (whole fried fish) with Yuca mash. The open air dinner was a great way to end such a nice stay. The following day, we woke up early to take advantage of Flamenco one last time. We got some breakfast sandwiches at the local bakery, Pandeli and sat at Flamenco one last time before catching our flight home, wishing we could stay a few more days.
Photo Credit: Rosa's Guesthouse
Make sure you follow AOTR in all of her Travel adventures via Insta @DCRepatriate!
Photo Credit: Rosa's GuesthouseMake sure you follow AOTR in all of her Travel adventures via Insta @DCRepatriate!
Lucky Me
on
Aug 30, 2013
It is very rare when you get a call from one of your friends letting you know to pack your stuff and get ready to party in LA for 48 hours for
The LUCKY winner!! THANK YOU again for letting me be your plus one. We had two full days of fun adventures! ;)
Kinda loved this quote! #sotrue
I wore this outfit as we walked around Melrose. These H&M shoes are seriously one of my best buys of this summer. Wearing vintage denim vest, Forever21 crop top & H&M drawstring shorts.
Wishing ALL of you an amazing LABOR day weekend! ;) I will be posting photos of the party where we met Lauren Conrad on Monday. You can also see video and photos of that night in our insta @spicycandydc.
Kisses
-C
Playa Del Carmen Photo Diary
on
Oct 27, 2012
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| Every single evening we experienced the most beautiful sunsets! |
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| Welcome drinks! |
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| The Blue Diamond Riviera Maya Resort only has 138 rooms total and once you see the rooms, you'll understand why! |
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| One of our favorite parts of our suite was this enormous, sunlit, bathroom equipped with two separate rain showers and an outside tub for that fresh air bath -- if that's what you're in the mood for! |
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| The resort features three restaurants with all-inclusive a-la-carte menus. The pool and beach bar had the most delicious choices like above chicken tacos and fresh shrimp ceviche! yum |
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| Another yummy lunch item - duck tacos! |
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| Blue on Blue |
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| Postcard view from Tulum |
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| Mayan Ruins of Tulum |
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| Sunbathing Iguana |
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| White on White |
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| I think I tried every single tropical drink on the menu - hey when it's premium liquor all-inclusive, that's what you're supposed to do, right? |
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| We started every breakfast with a fruit plate and my favorite, the grilled grapefuit. |
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| A feast by the beach! |
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| If you can't tell how happy I was on this trip from this picture, I have nothing else to say haha. And how stunning is that blue sky with not one cloud? Only in Mexico :) |
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| I'm not gonna lie, we drank a LOT of champagne!!! |
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| A traditional Mayan dance |
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| One of my favorite Turquoise necklaces from my store She's Unique - I love animal print with a pop of color |
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| The essentials |
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| One last cheers to a fabulous time in PDC, Mexico! (all bracelets from She's Unique, pearl bracelet from Pearl.Love) |
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| Til next time Playa Del Carmen!
So here is the final post from my trip to Playa Del Carmen and looking at these photos is definitely bitter-sweet. I can honestly say a little part of me is still somewhere on that beach living in an imaginary hut and enjoying those incredible sunsets. Hopefully someday I'll be able to go back and relive every moment we spent there while drinking champagne and talking about life, love, friendship and everything in between. As for the details of our stay at the Blue Diamond, the resort definitely offered a luxurious escape that I can't really call 'home away from home' because my whole apartment is probably the size of that bathroom alone, but it was still nice to be able to indulge in all the amazing food, specialty drinks, and five star (or shall we say five diamond) service! I have to give the amazing staff a special shout-out because without them our experience wouldn't have been as amazing. There was not a moment when these super attentive guys (Jesus, Omar, Cesar, Florisel, and others) didn't attend to us like we were royalty. I mean everywhere we turned there was a glass (or bottle) of champagne waiting for us. One of them even offered to "marry me" by the beach (if you follow our instagram, you'll know what I'm referring to haha). Ok maybe the whole marriage thing was fake and a joke that only occurs to someone who spent 12 hours in the sun and drank three bottles of champagne, but on a serious note, it would have made an absolutely stunning location to get hitched if I had the right person next to me (not that my friend Marta isn't amazing...but you know what I mean). In reality I'm probably nowhere near that moment at this point in my life since this year has been a total roller coaster when it comes to relationships, but I won't get into too much detail here since this is a fashion and style blog after all, but I will tell you a little about an interesting ritual we exprienced there that did help me clear my mind and body and gave me some perspective on this subject...this native Mexican American ritual is called the Temazcal.
Now I'll be honest, I'm very skeptical of any kind of ceremony that is performed in a luxury resort (even if it is in the middle of a jungle setting) by a handsome Mexican man who wears a red bandanna on his head and nothing but a sarong wrapped on the bottom, and who proceeds to put clay on my face and smoke all over my body before entering an igloo type of structure with hot lava stones where we chant songs while sweating profusely from every pore of our bodies in an effort to purify our minds and bodies. You can already picture my face right? Yea...it was definitely something "interesting and exotic" at first, only worth giving a try because it was included in our stay, but after going through it, not only did I realize its health benefit, but the true spiritual cleansing it offers those who can make it through the entire ceremony. You may be asking, what's so hard about sitting in a hot igloo with a handsome, spiritual man (and a few other resort tourists)? Well, let's put it this way, imagine that igloo being very small, and the door is closed so it's completely dark, and the lava stones are hot, and the herb infused water spilled on them is producing more vapor than you think your lungs can handle, and through all of this you're supposed to either meditate, or chant, or simply try really hard not to vomit or pass out. And to top it all off, the Temazcal has "four doors" (representative of childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age) meaning the doors only open four times for fresh air, and each time they bring more lava stones, and there is more hot vapor, and more meditation...oh and if you leave early, it is considered an "abortion" because the igloo is representative of a mother's womb and you are the fetus that is about to be reborn into a new "YOU". Sounds crazy right? No, it's freaking awesome! I felt completely empowered after making it through the entire 2-hour ceremony. My mind hasn't been this clear in years and my body felt amazing, clean, and free of all impurities we put into it every single day. Anyway, I can go on and on about this but it's something that one must experience for themselves to understand how life-changing it could be. I mean ok, maybe my whole life didn't change after it, but it did help me put things into perspective while I was going through it and it brought me just a little closer to my goal of letting go of the negative (relationships, habits, emotions, etc) and embrace all the positive things this life has to offer! So big big kudos to the Blue Diamond Spa for offering this ritual as part of the services! Anyway, I'll stop here since this is probably one of the longest posts I've ever written, but if you want to learn more about this ritual that was practiced by many different tribes all over the Americas, including North American tribes like the Lakotas, check out this link.
Happy weekend loves and let's hope this hurricane Sandy isn't as bad as the weatherman is predicting!
xo
Katya
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