How it Began Part I of III

In Sept 2005 my parents asked me if I wanted to go to Mexico with them and their 10 other 50-60 year old friends, along with my sister and her husband. It was a group, all inclusive tour. I hesitated, knowing that I am not the crowd/partying touristy type sitting at the pool drinking. But I ended up having the time of my life. We stayed at Iberostar Lindo and I fell in love with Mexico. It has everything I always dreamed: tropics, beach, culture, great food, music, friendly people, adventure, exploration, jungle, language, freedom, colorful, ruins, history, Indigenous natives, and an abundance of nature. On the next to the last day, my father and I, with my sister and her husband, took a walk on the beach to the right--south. We ended up at this abandoned hotel that was damaged by Hurricane Emily in July 05. There was nobody there except for marine iguanas that overtook the building, so we walked thru the hotel, looking inside all of the closets and rooms. I felt like a pirate searching for treasure in a run down fort.
The last full day before we were scheduled to leave, on a Friday, my father asked me if I wanted to go for a long day hike with him on the beach. His plan was to ask a taxi guy to bring us 20km on highway 307 (direction of south) and drop us off. The taxi guy left us standing there, after we told him we were walking back along the beach, and after he told us we were 'loco gringos', while shaking his head. This was where our first help from the locals were. I believe that the 'law' in MX is that all the coastline/beach is public in MX, but as soon as you step off the beach, it is not. Which means that we needed to have public access to get to the beach to walk back. There is not public access any where in this area (Mayan Riveria) , so we got permission by the owner of Playa Los Pinos to allow us to cross his property.
We asked the hotel staff back at Iberostar before we left for the day's hike if there were any rivers to cross. They said no, but there ended up 3 rivers to cross: at Tres Rios--using ropes and large logs to help us cross and a teenage boy (who spoke no English) who yelled at us for getting to close to his boat, but eventually helped us by showing the way that was not too deep or a strong current. We also got chased by 3 angry dogs, in fact we had to swim in the ocean to get them away from us. But I loved every minute of that day.