What My Week in Cozumel Taught Me - Part II

Traveling is one of the things our members tell us they love and want to continue doing.

Often they share accomplishments from their trips.

Stuff like:

• "Popping" up from a low poolside lounge chair to

• Hiking waterfalls in Hawaii to

• Running in waders up river while fly fishing to

• Keeping up with companions 20 years younger for a week of excursions and fun to

• Walking up flights of stairs without using handrails.....

  and the list goes on and on.

But take a moment to consider the physical demands of simply moving around a large resort.

Last week I shared that I recently spent a week in Cozumel, MX with my mom and two of my gal pals.

I had a small bit of anxiety about this trip. My mom hasn't been very active in the past decade. I felt like the trip would be a disappointment for us both. Here's the thing:

Mom's not interested in exercise. Not even a little bit. She's fought formal exercise for years. She struggled with PT following her bi-lateral knee replacements. And that has, I'm afraid to say, come at a cost.

So back to our trip.

The resort is large and spread out. We stayed on the 5th floor of the tower. The dining room is a fair walk from our room. There are steps to navigate all across the property. Additionally, the walk to the gym and the spa as well as other dining spaces are all a distance walk from our room.

So moving about the property was taxing for Mom. She struggles with cardio endurance (runs out of breath easily) and general body strength. Things like navigating steps were challenging due to loss of muscle strength and restricted range of motion.

Now, let's look at what happens when you move beyond moving around the resort to adding excursions as we did.

On Monday our excursion was renting a buggy and driving the Island. It wasn't until we walked up to the buggy we realized the buggy had no doors and we had to climb in.

Mom's about 5'5 so this little hiccup was yet another unplanned challenge in our vacation plan. Once mom settled in we set out to explore.

We stopped at Punta Sur at the Celerain Lighthouse Eco-park. Beautiful white sandy beaches and the aquamarine water make this eco-park postcard perfect!

After some effort getting Mom out of the buggy we grabbed her Urban Poles and we walked the beach. Can you see the beauty in your minds eye?

Enjoy the pictures and then join me for Part 3 of this series on Lessons Learned from My Trip to Cozumel where I'll share the rest of our trip. And then, in Part 4, I'll reveal ways Mom's trip would have been enhanced by a little exercise time.

See you soon in Part 3.

Jackie