Mexico - Our first full day at Riu Santa Fe - Post 2

Written on Saturday 9th November

So yesterday, Friday 8th November, was our first full day here at the Riu Santa Fe hotel in Los Cabos.

It was an earlier start to the day than I had hoped. Despite the beds being super comfy (really nice firm beds - perfect for my bad back) I kept waking through the night thinking it must be morning. 

Miss T awoke at 2am and despite my efforts to get her to go back to sleep she remained awake and D  then awoke at 4am. Us three are sharing one room with J and daddy sharing the second room. 

At 6am, still awake, we decided it was no good trying to fall asleep again. We got up, washed and dressed and made our way gradually to breakfast whilst enjoying the views en route. Surrounded by mountains, with the beach and sea at the hotels edge and views of San Jose and San Lucas in the distance as well as seeing the rock formations at very tip of the peninsula, this hotel really is situated in the perfect spot. 

We ate breakfast at the Torote which opened at 7am with gorgeous sea views and the Mexican sunshine rapidly warming the place up. It took only a couple of hours to go from the mild warmth of sunrise to full 34 degree heat!

After brekkie we headed poolside opting for the 2 pools nearest our accommodation in block 4. With the weather being so hot here, the coolness of the pool is a welcome relief. 

I was curious to see how busy this place gets. With over 1,000 rooms on site one of my big worries was how crowded the pools and restaurants would get.  But so far so good as although the hotel has capacity for so many guests, they also seem to be well equipped for a large number of guests too with plenty of sun loungers and plenty of bars and restaurants. 

So far there's no sign of the usual "rush to get a sunlounger phenomenon" that can often be experienced on holiday.

Once the water park with the slides opened at 10am, we headed over to try it out. It is split into 2 separate fenced off areas. One with the bigger waterslides for ages 12 and over and one for the little ones. The boys enjoyed the big water park whilst Miss T splashed about in the kids pool and water park area. 

At 11am we had our Tui rep meeting with the lovely Isobel and Sue. 

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We headed back to Torote restaurant.  The afternoon was spent back at the pools near our block as they remained quieter than the beachfront pools. There was also the first of the world-famous Riu pool parties going on today. It was the pink themed party. It's adults only, and we did have a peek as we walked past to see what all the fuss was about. They have really gone out their way to make it a special occasion with staff dressing up, pink face-painting, and lots of pink props. We could see foam and hear music but in all honesty, a pool party just doesn't appeal to us either now or when we were younger. But admittedly they do seem to pull out all the stops here for those that do enjoy pool parties. 

Then it was back to our rooms, a quick shower and a change of clothes for dinner. Tonight we've been invited to a special dinner laid on by the hotel management especially for Tui guests to welcome us and celebrate this special occasion of being the very first cohort of Tui guests here. It was at the steakhouse restaurant.

As we arrived, Miss T's tiredness finally caught up with her. She lay down across a couple of chairs and promptly fell asleep. She missed all 3 courses of her meal. 

When we got her home to bed, she stirred enough to tell us how hungry she was. Luckily food is available 24/7 here and we knew the sports bar would have something available. Daddy headed out to grab something for her to eat but when he got back with a sandwich, cereal bar and plate of nachos, she had settled into another deep sleep.  

We popped the sandwich into the minibar fridge. So when she awoke early again the next morning (4am this time) complaining of hunger, I had something to feed her to keep her going until breakfast. 

Saturday 9th November 

Once we were all awake at around 6am we again slowly made our way for breakfast at the beachfront restaurant, Torote. 

I wasn't planning to write an update each day as I figured the format of most days would follow the same pattern of food, pool, food and so on. 

But today we tried the beachside pool after breakfast. Having got there early, there were plenty of sunloungers and the pool was relatively quiet to begin with. But as the day heated up, this area got busier and busier. One of the pools seems to mainly act as a swim up bar and the other lends itself more for swimming in. Both have an infinity pool style edge to them looking out to sea. 

Richard and D and Miss T alternated between the water park areas and this pool. I enjoyed a bit of poolside reading - a momentous occasion as it was the first time ever!!! 

I began to read Dynamo's autobiography becoming very excited when I read the sentence about making the impossible possible.  The card I use as a bookmark is Juvenile Arthritis Research's info card which carries the sentence "are you ready to make the impossible possible". I have a feeling this book is going to be a good one!

So today we discovered where all the daytime entertainment happens. With beach walks, beach and water volleyball, aquarobics and various other activities as well as music and generally buzzing atmosphere, it seems this area is the place to be. 

We headed off to lunch and that's when we noticed that despite best efforts to stay smothered in sunlotion both D and Miss T had rather red cheeks. 

So we decided to have some time away from the sun by having a slow lunch followed by some time hanging out in the cool air conditioned Sports Bar. This meant we managed to avoid any more of the strongest sunshine at this time of the day. 

We discovered just how delicious cheese sauce on nachos tastes. We really didn't need to be eating any more but a plate of nachos and cheese sauce was perfect to snack on whilst we played Dobble and I spent some time typing this up.  We also discovered the cocktail menu including non-alcoholic mocktails and milkshakes.  So that is an exciting find rather than sticking just to water and juices. 

Just deciding whether to head for another dip in the pool or not. Watch this space! 

.....

(We did....!)