Valladolid

Valladolid is always a favorite stopping off point for us. There are lots of great churches and parks to visit. In prior visits, we've stopped off to eat some very iffy cockroach infested food. mmmm...notsomuch this time.

Ek Balam

We took a day trip out to Ek Balam and Valladolid one day. They are about a million miles from civilization on tiny winding roads. I think it was the hottest day ever recorded on the history of the earth too. We've been to Mexico a few times and seen the usual ruins, Tulum, Chichen Itza, Coba, etc., but Kelly found some ruins that we had never been to. Ek Balam. It means Black Jaguar. The structures are still being excavated and there are clearly bigger, more impressive temples yet to be uncovered. The main temple, however, had some very cool and magnificently preserved statues and structures.

Playa Del Carmen

Where we were staying was only about 30 minutes from Playa Del Carmen. We did some scuba diving there as well as shopping, beach combing and eating. We were there in time to see the participants of a traditional ceremonial boat race stretching from Xcaret to Playa Del Carmen, a good 50 mile stretch if I can remember right. These people craft their own boats from huge trees then race them and have a big ol' party on the beach. It was very interesting to watch.

More Cenotes

Funny that the man who reassured me that cave diving wouldn't be at all scary, admittedly now thinks it might just be a tad bit scary. :)

Cenote Diving

Always and without a doubt, regardless of where we vacation, scuba diving is our number one best recreational activity. It's hard to imagine that any diving could compare to that of the diving we did in Fiji or at the Blue Hole in Belize, but I'd have to say that diving in a cenote is one of the next best things. This is the first time that either of us have done a cave dive, but it was awesome! First, the dive master drove us out to the middle of the jungle in a kind of jungle jalopy that spat radiator fluid into our faces. We arrived at our first dive, "The Bat Cave". There were, as you would imagine, lots of bats. We had to climb down into a hole and then lower our equipment in. The water was cold, but crystal clear and it looked as though we were swimming in mid air. There were huge formations of stalagtites and stalagmites, blind fish, and...bats. The dive guide took us off the beaten path and into some pretty tight spaces where there were awesome structures to be seen. A few times, we would put our lights and it completely pitch black. Our second dive was "Dos Ojos" where we got to swim through "The Belly of the Snake" which was really just a long tubular cavern that was very small. We couldn't get very good pictures while we were diving because it was so dark, but if I can figure out how to load the video we got from the dive shop, It might give you a better idea of just how amazing cavern diving is!

Xpu Ha

One of our favorite resorts to visit was Xpu Ha. I think in the 10 days we were there, we saw about 4 other people there. We went Kayaking down a mangrove river thing and by far my most favorite picture is of Kelly in his teeny tiny little life jacket. :) Xpu Ha also had a zoo of sorts where I fell madly in love with the monkeys. I think the picture of the empty pool sums up most of our recreation...completely alone. I think you can see Kelly snarfing down some chips and guac in the background.

mExIcO!!

Long overdue as it is, it is time to post some pix about our trip to Mexico. We went to the Riviera Maya from May 22nd to the 31st. Because we were almost literally the only Americans in Mexico, it was wonderfully relaxing and EXTREMELY cheap. We were able to stay at an all inclusive resort so all of our food, drinks, activities, etc., were paid for. Most of our pictures are of us eating. There were 7 restaurants on the property to choose from, and because we could go to any of the Palace resorts on the coast, we stopped in at quite a few of them to sample their culinary delights. I don't have much time or patience to try to figure out how to more effectively post things to Blogger, so I'm just going to make separate posts of some of the highlights from our trip. Without further adieu....