RECOVERED FROM THE MEXICOMA...FINALLY

Its been a couple weeks since we got back from Mexico, and I am finally getting around to finishing up the blogging for this trip. It took me a while to get fully recovered from the Mexicoma - not sure if the trip hangover was from the insane amounts of tequila or chocolate I consumed!

So, my last post was the night before we left Mexico - and boy was that day a story! We were up at 6:30 to get everything together, drop off our bags, check out, and hit that delicious breakfast buffet just one more time. I of course had my usually totally unhealthy breakfast consisting of that chocolate doughnut, churro, and to balance it out - pineapple! I spent a few minutes walking around the resort trying to get some last minute pictures of where we had spent this wonderful week! They were starting to decorate for Christmas - my favorite time of year - so the hotel was looking beautiful with decorated trees and other hanging decorations throughout the walkways. And sadly, we then boarded the bus back to the airport, frowning the whole way to our seats.

It took about an hour to get to the airport on the full bus of travelers - all miserable knowing they were leaving their Mexican vacation. We checked in - along side a college basketball team nonetheless (that put a smile back on our face)! After getting our bags checked - weight passed...whew! - we proceeded to security. The woman waiting at the front of the security asked for my ticket to check with passport - and it was no where to be found! Oh no! Thinking I had left it down at the check in desk, I ventured back there. Again, no where to be found. (And attached to the ticket, the $40 pass to get out of the country.) Luckily, I had texted Kelly to check her stuff and about this time, she called my cell, realizing she had taken my ticket with her. Whew, crisis avoided. We then made it through security, Kelly passing this time with no issues. We sipped Starbucks and played cards for while, waiting for our flight time to arrive. When it arrived, no plane to be seen. The delay ended up being close to an hour by the time we took off, which worried Kelly and I since we had a connecting flight from Charlotte to RDU only 75 minutes after our originally planned landing time, and we knew we needed to go through baggage claim, customs, and security again in CLT. We made it to Charlotte with what we thought was plenty of time to make it to our next flight. Kelly had decided that since her boyfriend was in Charlotte with her family, she would hitch a ride with him from the CLT airport. So, I was trying to rush through all the needed stopping points to make my flight to RDU. Baggage claim took forever!! Not only did they tell us the wrong baggage belt 3 times, but then the correct one shut off...with my bag in plain sight about to call onto the belt! Ahhh. I finally was able to retrieve it with 4 minutes until my flight left! I guess this was my sign that I needed to go for a jog after all that horrible eating! So, I did just that, jogged through customs, security, and Terminal C down to the flight. I was the last to arrive, and luckily, the plane had been held 20 minutes for a few of us coming from the Cancun flight. Barely making it, the 40 minute flight to RDU was just enough time to catch my breath. I arrived in Raleigh, cabbed it to my car (shout out to Schanzy for letting me park about 2 miles from the airport and saving the mulah), and drove home for Thanksgiving dinner.

I made it home by around 7:00 and proceeded to grub on turkey, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, and plenty more. Although traveling on Thanksgiving was a nightmare, it was wonderful to see my family for the evening and get to spend the weekend at home before getting back into the real world. Now, it's time to start planning the next trip.

That's all for Mexico. I will be sure to come back and blog about some of my past trips but until then 

- Adios Amigos! 

UNDER THE SEA

Today was our morning of snorkeling. We woke up bright and early to grab breakfast before meeting our tour bus in the lobby at 8:20 to ride out to the snorkeling adventure. We opted for the option only 15 minutes from our hotel in order to keep the trip short and not take up our entire last Mexico day. We rode with a family of 7 in a van to the site of "Snorkeling Adventures". It was quite a bumpy ride down to the beach, but the beach area we arrived to was very nice. Next door to the hotel, the beach set up was very similar to that of our hotel beach. A few straw roof huts - restaurants, bars, and bathrooms - surrounded white sand sprinkled with lounge chairs and picnic tables facing a beautiful blue ocean. 

We signed into our morning snorkeling session, picked up our life jackets, flippers, and snorkeling mouth pieces. After anxiously waiting on the beach for 20 minutes or so, we were finally asked to head out to one of the boats waiting in the water. The boat sped out to the ocean while the guide gave us even more chill bumps on an already cold ride with scary stories about the dangers of snorkeling. The company which we choose to snorkel with supports the conservation of the reef, so they strongly warned us against touching the reef. Not only will that kill the reef and obviously stop it from continuing to grow, but it could also cut and burn your own skin. They even went so far as to not allow us to wear anything other than all organic sunscreen. Of course our aerosol cans didn't meet that requirement so we decided to take the risk of being burnt on our last day rather than paying the ridiculous price of their sunscreen. 

We made it out to the first spot for snorkeling and carefully dove into the water - pretty nervous by now after the scary stories and the fairly rough water. We snorkeled for about 20 minutes, taking about 10 of those minutes to get used to the breathing through the mouthpiece. The views were amazing! Kelly used her GoPro camera along the way so we also got some great videos of the underwater scene. We saw a sting ray at one point, but other than that lots of colorful schools of fish. At the first stop, we were not very close to the reef itself, but still saw lots of sea life activity surrounding us. We then re-boarded the boat and sped over to another location, this time closer to the reef. Again, we were off the boat snorkeling for about 20 minutes. Now that I had gotten the hang of the breathing, I was able to separate from the group a little more and see more fish. We were closer up on the reef, a couple times just a couple feet under my legs as I swam over the top. The fish were all beautiful, and again we got lots of videos on the GoPro. 

After that snorkel stop, we again boarded the boat and went back to the beach. Since we needed to wait for the afternoon groups to arrive before our rides could take us back to the hotel, we were provided with a light snack of sweet bread and fruits, as well as free drinks. Margarita time it is - a little tequila is just what we needed! Now time to go back to the hotel. 

View from our beach chairs

We went back to the delicious taco place at the shopping mall for lunch when we got back to the hotel. Yummy! Finishing our tacos in 2.2 seconds, we rushed back to our room before quickly getting out the beach for our last day of soaking up the sun. Again, we spent some time laying out, reading a book, and sipping on Bahama Mamas. Then, the 2 o'clock beach mechanical bull riding began. Again, although we had some people trying to convince us to participate, there was NO WAY we would be doing that! After watching the contest, and taking in a few more minutes of sun, we spotted a Coco Bongo representative on the beach. Sine we hadn't yet bought tickets for the show tonight, we waved him down to ask him about tickets. For some reason, tonight (a random Wednesday) was sold out - oh noo! We convinced him to call and ask if just 2 more people could get in. Success! 2 tickets for $65 each, a little pricey in our book. Worth it since a cab ride each way is $25 and this price included transportation, the 4-hour Coco Bongo show, and all you can drink the entire night. The issue was we had 8:30 dinner reservations meaning we wouldn't be able to use the provided transportation to get to the club and although I actually prefer to travel on little sleep (usually means I can sleep easily on the plane), Kelly doesn't have good experiences with that and so didn't want to be out until 4AM, which means we also couldn't use the provided transportation home. This means our trip to Coco Bongo was now totaling $180 - a little steep. We had heard that there were $35 tickets that didn't include the all you can drink option, but we couldn't convince the rep on the beach to sell us those, so we declined the tickets and decided to try to buy some while we were in Playa later in the afternoon. We stopped again at the snack bar for our usual fries and ice cream on our way back to the room to get ready for the 5:00 shuttle from the hotel into Playa. We rushed to get ready early in order to go to the pool during the 4:30 dance lesson and get pictures with all of the star friends since we wouldn't see them at the show tonight. 

Getting to the pool with about 5 minutes to spare, we tried to rush everyone together to get a picture, but everyone was all over the place! We told Cesar that we had to make the 5:00 shuttle and couldn't wait any longer so he proceeded to call up to the front desk and have them hold the shuttle for us - what a gentlemen. He also called and had a golf cart sent to pick us up and bring us up to the lobby - I knew we like him for a reason! So we were able to get our picture with a few of our friends and catch the shuttle on time to make it into Playa by 5:30. We had quite a few things we wanted to do - pick up some souvenirs for friends and family, visit the chocolate shop Kelly had read reviews about online, and get some tickets to Coco Bongo. We did the first 2 pretty quickly, then went on the journey to the Coco Bongo sales window. Now we were getting the same answer as before - $65 ticket whether we wanted to use the transportation or not. Uh oh. We tried to convince a couple more people to sell us the cheep tickets, but at this point we could only get $65 tickets and were even to late to sign up for the transportation if we could have used it. Thinking about it a little longer, then giving up on the hopes of visiting the club/show I had heard so much about was a major disappointment :(. So, single regret of the trip: not booking this Coco Bongo trip earlier in the week and getting it on the schedule for sure. Guess I will have to watch some videos on Google when I get back to the States!

Our delicious Hot Chocolate from downtown Playa del Carmen

We continued to walk around Playa and stop in shops down 5th avenue for a few more minutes before getting back on the shuttle bus to go back to Iberostar for our last dinner. Quickly rushing to the room and changing into dresses, we were ready for dinner at the hotel Mediterranean restaurant. It was delicious! We each had an array of appetizers from the buffet style bar - calamari, oysters, shrimp, and lots more. For dinner, neither of us could decide so we split two entrees - the steak / lobster combo and the pork chop gnocchi dish. We each ate half of our delicious dinners then swapped plates and finished the opposite dish. The pork chop gnocchi definitely won, but everything was great. We were both so full, we barely ate dessert, but made room anyways. 

When we were done, we went right to the theater for the show since it has already started. The show was the Star Awards show, so a competition between the professional dancers and the Star friends, which was pretty entertaining. After the show, we were dragged up on stage and did the cupid shuffle and the Wobble with a few other people from the audience. There was a "Boogie Party" at the Star Wars themed club that night, which we thought about going to, but after coming back to the room to pack our suitcases, we both decided that bed sounded better and we should get our rest. We know, kind of lame!

So, my suitcase is packed and as much as I'm not ready to leave Mexico tomorrow, the day has come and it will be nice to get home and see family at least for the end of Thanksgiving Day! Wish me luck traveling and bring on the turkey!

CENOTE AND XICHEN ITZA

Ta Da! It's Xichen Itza

Today, we took our full day tour to Xichen Itza and the cenote. We were up by 6:30, which was quite difficult since we haven't had to wake up to an alarm since last week, the day we left on our trip! We each took a very full backpack (remember the part about us over packing - it happens even for a day trip), with a bathing suit, towel, change of clothes, and any cameras or other electronics we could possibly need. We thought the plan of the tour was to go to Xichen Itza (pronounced Che-chin eet-za) then to the cenote (pronounced se-note-eh), so we woke up early to look somewhat cute for pictures to be taken during the Xichen Itza part of the tour. We stopped by the buffet for another chocolate filled breakfast - I am really going to miss these buffet style meals! Then, we went to wait in the lobby for the tour bus to arrive. It was right on time - 7:35am, and it was picking up about 10 people from our hotel. The way the tour groups are organized is that a large group of people are picked up from all the different hotels, then driven about 20 minutes down the road to Xel-Ha (shell-ha) where everyone switches around tour buses depending on what tour you are going on. Some people were going on a half day tour of Xel-Ha or half day tour of Tulum, but we had chosen the full day option and the three hour drive to Xichen Itza - well worth the drive. Much to our surprise, when we arrived in Xel-Ha for a quick bathroom break and swapping to another bus, we saw a sign that put a huge smile on our faces - "FREE WI- FI". I know, I know, this shouldn't make us this happy. I will admit that it has been kind of nice not having Internet and phone service being so expensive that I will only use it in case of emergency, but for just five minutes to do a quick Facebook check and be able to wish my good friend Keani a Happy Birthday via iMessage is always nice. We of course did everything we could possibly do on our phones for those 5 minutes, then it was on the road again.

Streets of Volladoid

Chucrch on Town Square

The streets of Volladoid

We were surprised and slightly disappointed when our tour guide told us we would be stopping the cenote before heading to Xichen Itza, partially because we knew we would be swimming at the cenote and then looking horrible in hats and no make up for all of our pictures at the Xichen Itza site. Before either of these stops, the bus took a detour through the town of Valladolid, a small town near the other sites we were visiting. We could have chosen a tour which would stop in this town, but instead opted for the drive through with pictures from the bus, which would give us more time to include swimming at the cenote. After a couple trips around the Valladolid town square and some great pictures, the bus started towards the cenote. 




A cenote is an underground cave / lake, and they are all over the Mayan country of Mexico. We stopped at one of about 8,000 in the country (the tour guide compared it to Swiss cheese). We had two hours to take pictures, swim if desired,and eat the provided lunch at the cenote restaurant. Of course we were going to swim, so this didn't give us much time. We were first able to take pictures from ground level - up above the cenote - then went down to another level, still above to cenote, for more pictures. Now time to swim. We rented a locker for our things and changed into our swimsuits. You had to take a freezing shower before they would let you head down to the swimming area, so we did that and started down the long stairway. Once to the bottom of the stairs, the chilly water washed over our feet, but the view was amazing. The swimming hole was 150 feet deep so although the water was crystal clear, you couldn't see to the bottom. Looking up, you could see straight through to the sky, surrounded by a circle of trees and some water falls streaming into the cenote itself. There was a cliff on the side which would could climb and jump off from, maybe ~20 feet high. Kelly and I both took the plunge, and of course 'Go-Pro'ed the whole thing. About half way down to the water during my jump, I saw just how many fish were swimming in this water. I thought for sure my toes would be nibbled at, but I didn't feel a thing. After each taking our turn jumping off the cliff, we swam around the cenote for a few minutes, taking more video and swimming up under the waterfalls while watching more people take the plunge we just had. Now, time to get changed back into our clothes and take even more pictures of this beautiful place. This time, we took our cameras all the way down to cenote level for better views and waddled through the water for the best shots we could get. With only about 30 minutes left for this tour stop, we needed to get our lunch from the cenote restaurant. Lunch was served buffet style and was delicious. We had chips and bread with a spicy salsa along with each having about 4 servings of Mexican style rice and beef, chicken, and fish. Everything was great, and it was topped off with a dessert of fresh fruit and flan. 

Now for the main event, a five minute drive and we would be at Xichen Itza! We met up with another tour group by the same company coming from Cancun, and we split the English and Spanish speakers between the two tour guides. This was a great way to do it because it avoided everything needing to be repeated in multiple languages and questions only being answered to some people. When first entering The Xichen Itza parking lot, I knew it would be tourist central, not that I expected anything less. Tour buses filled the lot and streets surrounding. After a quick five minute wait to get our tickets, we walked into the park. The path was lined with Mexican vendors trying to sell all sorts of items - from the classic tourist shirts and shot glasses to hand carved wooden Mayan symbols and hand painted pottery. As we walked past, people shouted "Princess, buy for boyfriend" or "This is cheapest spot, almost free". Once past the lines of vendors, we made it to the example of an old Mayan house.

The house was very small and made of clay with a grass roof. Just one room made up the entire house and inside were some stools on one side and a religious cross on the other. The fire pit - aka the kitchen was outside since it could set the roof on fire at any time, especially during the dry season. You can see the pictures below of the house. 

We then moved on to explore the ruins. The tour guide shared lots of very interesting fun facts with us. The ruins were built around the year 980 AD, and any build up of rocks was considered a temple, even the (what looked like) pile of rocks in the wooded areas. All of the temples were built by slaves and were there to honor different kings. The slaves would walk from 10 miles away with the stones, usually one stone at a time, and then walk the 10 miles back for another. And this was all done with only man power, no horses or elephants or anything. That's crazy! 

Some of the temples had symbols on them. One of those was an elephant - an elephant with a trunk curving upwards means they were praying for rain and a trunk curving downwards meant they were thankful for the rain. Another was a snake, which was one many different temples. A snake represents a god, very different from our culture where a snake is associated with evil. There were also lots of symmetrical columns in the temples, which connect back to how mathematical everything was for the building of the temples. 

After seeing most of the secondary temples, it was time for the main attraction - the largest tower at Xichen Itza, which represents the Mayan calendar. Each of the four sides have 91 steps (91 x 4 = 364), plus the common platform at the top equals the 365 days in a year. The temple was supposed to face each side in exactly the north-east-south-west directions, but it actually faces northeast. Because of this, each September 21 and March 21 - the first days of Fall and Spring - the sun hits the corners of the temple perfectly to create 9 triangles on the 9 levels of the temples. All of the temples are built on top of other temples - every 52 years they were built over. As we walked up to get a closer look at the largest temple, part of the ground we were walking on was carved out and we could see down into the temples and ruins that were all under us. The entire area had been filled in, but we were literally walking on ruins everywhere we went! Throughout the years, the temples have been weathered and ruined by people wanting to take a piece home with them. You can see from the pictures that three of the four sides of the large temple have been restored - work that happens each summer (the off season) - but one side remains ruined and you can see what a difference the restoration makes. The other temples surrounding this one are all at perfect angles, and when standing between two of the temples you can clap and hear the clap echo 6 times. Our entire tour group stood and clapped for a couple minutes, listening to the echo over and over. 

We then walked over to the playing field area - the arena. This was the largest of seven playing fields, and was huge! The field was surrounded by walls on which the audience would sit, but not many spectators would fit since there was only one row on top of the wall. At the ends of the field are places for the king on one side and the priest on the other side. They could talk back and forth if speaking loud enough - just like the  brickyard at NC State. The tour guide described the game they would play to us, which sounded very interesting. The field was set up with something similar to sidewalks going down each side. A captain would stand on the side, elevated about 5 feet above the rest of the players. The players would hit the ball using their hips and other body parts - they couldn't use hands or feet - and try to pass the ball up the captain. About 10 feet above the captain was a hoop about the size of the ball. The captain - using the same rules of no hands or feet - would try to get the ball through the hoop. Our tour guide said the games would take months and sometimes years to finish. Talk about a slow game to watch! (And I thought golf on TV was bad.)

The hoop to get the ball through

Artwork depicting the sacrifice

Represents all sacrifices made

The winning captain of the game would then take his prize - being sacrificed. That's right - you win and you end your life as an honor. No wonder the games took years - I wouldn't want to win! The sacrifice would happen at a smaller temple that was between the largest temple and the Cenote Sagrado. After the sacrifice, they would take the 5 minute walk to the cenote and dump the body - filling the water with sacrificed bodies over the years. Supposedly jewelry and other findings would float to the top of the water throughout the years. 

We were standing where sacrifices were made while we were finishing up the guided part of the tour at the playing field, the rain started to come down. We hid under a tree for about 20 minutes trying to keep any of our tech gear dry for the time being. With only about 30 minute left to explore, and knowing my camera would easily stay dry under my shirt, I took the five minute walk down to the Cenote Sagrado to get some great pictures, avoiding more "sales people" all the way down there.



After a couple more photo ops, it was time to head back to the bus and finish our day out. A four hour drive back to the hotel was a good time for a nap, and we got another 5 minute Internet binge when we stopped to swap buses again. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were starved! (I mean, we have been eating every 3 hours or so for a solid week now!) We went straight to the shopping mall diner for burger and fries. Even though we hadn't been in Mexico for long, we both through some American grub sounded delicious - and it was! On our way back through the shopping mall, we heard some loud drums from across the breezeway. Mayan dancers were putting on a performance. We stayed to watch for about 30 minutes and saw many dances by women and men, including some fire dances. We also got to see a version of the game I described earlier - the performers were using a ball the same size and hitting it back and forth using their hips, trying to score in hoops behind them. 

         

We then headed back to room to get ready and try to go to Coco Bongo. We thought we might be able to get on the provided transportation from the hotel. I called the club from our hotel room, and when we realized we only had 30 minutes to shower and get ready, we decided Wednesday night would be better since we wouldn't be ready in time. So, we got ready to go to the nightly show at the hotel. Tonight was Mexican themed, with different dances and costumes from around the country, all different states. The show was really cool to watch - and perfectly finished out our day full of Mexican culture. After the show, there was karaoke in another one of the hotel bars. We had scoped this out when we arrived at the resort, so we were definitely going! It was a fun show to watch but Kelly and I weren't getting up there after these three girls with great voices were all trying to show each other up, and honestly were all amazing singers. We would have been laughed out of the place. Now, I'm in bed blogging but needing to get to sleep. Tomorrow is our last day in Mexico, and we have lots planned - snorkeling in the morning, pool time and hopefully games with the star friends, heading back into Playa del Carmen for some shopping on 5th avenue, back for dinner at the Mediterranean restaurant, and finally out to Coco Bongo to experience the playa nightlife! I am so excited, but going home on Thursday sure is approaching too quickly.