Vacations. They are great aren’t they? When we left, the wind was blowing and it was snowing. We didn’t make too bad of time driving to the airport and made it there without any issues. When we were sitting at the airport we laughed when we saw the string of 10 snow plows and blowers cleaning off the runway – until we figured out that it was OUR runway! But soon our plane came and after they de-iced the plane wings, we were off. The flight was uneventful which is a good thing and eventually we made it to Cancun. After we went by the tons of people trying to sell us just about everything, we made it to our ride and in only a few minutes we were checking into our room. The room we were supposed to get wasn’t available, so we ended up in a different one and it worked out really good. It was more of a suite and was literally just a step away from the beach, the pool, and the bar. Humm.. sounds like a good plan huh? We wanted to take one excursion while we were there, so we went on an all day trip to the Chichen-Itza Mayan ruins and then we planned on swimming after a late dinner. The Mayan ruins that we were at are around 3000 years old and are on the New Seven Wonders of the World, along with the Great Wall of China, the Rome Colosseum, and others (so cool!). We didn’t really know what to expect and after we got there to see it, we were really just amazed. They were huge and it was almost too much to see in a day. Now you know how much of a camera person I am right? Well I started to snap pictures until I couldn’t open the lens. I just knew that there must be something wrong I but didn’t know what. The reason that I knew that it couldn’t be anything too major because before we left for our day trip, I checked to make sure that I had my picture card in the camera along with a full battery. Well after I quit listening to the tour guide and took a look closer at what was soon becoming a problem – it said ‘battery exhausted’ I had to take off my sun glasses because they were starting to fog up and when I looked at Daryl he just stood there with absolutely no expression at all on his face. Well I felt like my eye balls were going to explode from my head and I was getting hotter and hotter. I could feel myself getting sick and I couldn’t stand it. Finally I told Daryl that I must not have looked at the battery right (no idea how I could screw this up…) He just stood there and then said – ‘It’ll be OK’. You know that you’ve been married for about 28 years when you can show each other the skills that you’ve learned along the way. And let’s just say now that I think of it, he really did a good job. So I just told myself that it wasn’t that big of a deal and to just get over it. Even though I had a fresh new charged camera battery in the hotel room, I wasn’t going to think about it again. After I kind of got over this whole ordeal – we had a great time checking out all the ruins there. I am so interested in the Mayan culture, I want to get a book to read up on it more. After a dinner at the restaurant at the ruins, we then headed to go swimming. The place we went to was called Cenote Ik Kil in Yucatan. WOW ! It was so cool . It’s called the “Sacred Blue Cenote,” and it’s a perfectly round well-type cenote with plants on the walls and waterfalls. It’s 196 feet wide and about 130 feet deep, and is about 85 feet from the surface. A grand stairway leads you down the steps into the water. I asked Daryl if he wanted to go swimming with me and he asked me if I was nuts. I think that meant no, so off to the changing room I went and was just a little nervous when you walked by the life vests. But once I had my suit on there was no turning back and I since the lift vests were optional – I didn’t take one. I made it down the steps and Daryl was down there watching everyone. I jumped in and thought to myself this isn’t bad. You just had to forget about the fish that was sharing the same water with you and there really wasn’t any bottom to the water. When you looked up when you were swimming you could see the blue sky and some waterfalls. It was one of the best experiences that I can say that I’ve ever done! Next thing was to go up to a platform and jump in. I’m not sure how high it was over the water, but I took a deep breath and then jumped over the edge. When you hit the water you just kept going down and down and down. I think the heavier you are the deeper in the water you go. Maybe I should have taken that diet more serious huh? Then all of a sudden you kind of stop and now you have to make your way back to the surface. It was cool. So after swimming awhile, our bus was off to take us home. We had food and refreshments on the bus which was a good thing because we were gone almost 12 hours.
Cleaning off the snow before we took off
Chichen-Itza - One of the Seven New Wonders of the world
Human sacrifice platform
Now this is a swimming hole
Other things that we did was to hang out at the hotel and beach. The weather was really great – about 85 degrees. Daryl even had a chance to show off his talents at the Mexican Volleyball Tequila games. I’m not sure who won – but once the game was over it didn’t look like anyone really cared.
We also celebrated my birthday a couple of nights by going out to some local restaurants. It’s always a bad thing when your waiters know that it’s your birthday and it for some reason the nights always ended up with balloon hats. It’s a good thing that birthdays only come around once a year.
We 'thought' we looked good...
We were able to figure out the public bus system so that’s how we got around town. It was a good suggestion to always have small bills with you, because you won’t be getting any change from you money. We soon became pretty good at asking before we wanted to buy anything if they had change back. For some reason they did if you asked ‘before’ you bought.
Our flight home didn’t leave until the afternoon, so we spent the last morning on the beach soaking in the sun. The flights home went as planned and after we drove home in the fog, it was good to sleep in our bed again. The house was cleaned and William was sleeping. A welcome sight to a fun couple of days away.
Not sure why I spent the time combing my hair in the morning
great pics! thanks for sharing!