Not Again...

From my 1989 trip.

Another sleepless night.

It's the anticipation of what's to come, enhanced by past experiences. I've been there before: I know what to expect. I've seen this before and I'm going to see it again.

Over the weekend, DW and I began planning our upcoming trip to Mexico's Mayan Riviera. I'll be her second trip to this beautiful region of the Yucatan Peninsula in less than a year and my first time back in almost 30 years.

As she has in the past, DW has gathered with her best friends from high school for a girls' getaway. Usually, they meet somewhere between Ottawa and Mississauga, the two extreme ends of where everybody lives. Often, they meet in Toronto; other times, Kingston. To celebrate their 40th birthdays, they spent a long weekend in New York City.

And, last year, they stayed in an all-inclusive resort outside of Playa del Carmen, just 50 kilometres or so further up the coast from where DW and I are headed, near Akumal.

DW loves to thoroughly research travel plans. She wants to know exactly what the location is like, what is available to see in the surrounding areas, and what our options are. I like to know this, too, but DW really goes into detail.

Cenote photo credit: Joel Penner

Over the weekend, as I said, we began making plans for day trips outside our resort. She wants to see Tulum and Cobá (as I said in Monday's post). She also wants to explore some of the many cenote, or limestone sinkholes, which make for some stunning snorkeling and photos.

I'm also all over that.

Because Monday was a holiday in Ontario, DW spent most of the day researching the best cenotes in the vicinity of our resort. She created a table that listed the site, the pros and cons of that site, and any links to YouTube videos that showed that cenote.

When I returned from home (I work in Québec and had no day off), we watched about a half-dozen or so videos of her top picks. We also watched several videos of Cobá, and debated whether we should rent bikes or walk the jungle-covered archeological site.

Bikes: we'll definitely use bikes.

We also discussed whether we should rent a car for a couple of days to get to Cobá, to the cenotes, to Tulum, and to Akumal Bay, where the sea turtles graze.

Yes to that, too.

With all of our new plans in mind, I thought about possibilities beyond our resort. I remembered more about my past trip to Cancun.

And then we went to bed.

As with my upcoming trip to South Korea, I lay in bed and thought, instead of sleeping. I started wondering about what photo gear I should pack, what photos I would take. Should I buy an underwater camera? Should I purchase a waterproof case for my D-SLR? For my smartphone?

Overnight, I managed fewer than four hours of sleep. Yesterday, at work, I was exhausted by mid-afternoon.

I can't do this again.

Maybe the best-laid plans shouldn't be done until I'm ready to go on vacation. I still have five weeks to go until we leave for Mexico, another five weeks after that trip before I go to Korea.

Too much planning is bad for my health.