So last week, we took our first real vacation in a very long time and headed south to the beautiful coastline of Cancun, Mexico! We flew Transair out of Austin and it was a 2.5 hour nonstop flight...that's it! We left on Sunday and came home on Friday because tickets were about half the price of going the other way around. Even though I was hesitant to plan the vacation that way because of having to take 5 vacation days from work, it ended up awesome because that actually gave us 9 days in a row without work! WOW! I had forgotten what that felt like...it was wonderful :-)
Derrick and I went with my Uncle Doug and Aunt Laura, cousins Christopher and Kyle, cousin in law Ciera, and Jason. On Monday, we had no specific plans...we got to Cancun around noon and had the rest of the day to play. We got settled in to our 4BD/4BA condo and played games a while (Settlers of Catan was a staple for the trip) and then swimsuited up to play in the surf and the pool. The water is so incredibly beautiful! That night, we went to a very nice restaurant called The Captain's Cove. They made a homemade Ceasar dressing in front of us and most of the crew had great seafood (not me though of course....seafood...ick! :)
On Day 2, we had no agenda so more relaxing and reading and playing occurred. That evening, we decided to venture into the city of Cancun to find some local cuisine. We discovered that local cuisine isn't the greatest option. :) Worth trying, but no thanks. We also walked through a Mexican market that was pretty sketchy. If the darn owners weren't so pushy and so salesmany, they'd sell a lot more stuff. I would have loved to look at their stuff and bought some souvenirs for friends, but they are so gosh darn obnoxious, you can't even look at their stuff without "especial price for you!" "you want some Mexican weed?" "good price...right here." "How many do you want?" blah blah blah! Jason ended up buying two leather belts and some Foakley sunglasses, which he negotiated pretty hard for. It was quite humorous :)
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| The restaurant, Emara, recommended by some locals |
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| Derrick and his tamale thing that ended up making him sick. |
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| Christopher and Ciera were brave and went for some pretty exotic food. |
On Day 3, we had a private tour to Chichen Itza lined up with Gerardo Rodolfo Ham Diaz, cleverly marketed to Americans as Jerry Ham. :) He was awesome - an excellent private tour guide. We had a comfy van for the 2.5 hour drive inland to one of the 7 Wonders of the World - Chichen Itza. These Mayan ruins date back to somewhere between 300 and 900 AD and is a religious plaza reflecting the Mayan culture. The people pretty much self deconstructed by overusing their own resources by pursuing power and building an image rather than taking care of the things they needed to survive. Plus, in my opinion, they sacrificed their entire people away!
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| The main temple that has been beautifully restored. An amazing piece of architecture and engineering. |
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| Can you imagine climbing those stairs in full out priest regalia! |
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| Another sacrificial site...where they sacrificed prisoners of war - warriors from other tribes and people |
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| The Mayans had Facebook too! :) This wall reflects the heads of those they beheaded who were WINNERS of their ritual sport. The winner! It was an honor to be beheaded as they believed they moved on up the levels of life. |
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| Their ball field...see the hoop in the top right corner. They had to get a 2.5 pound rubber ball through those hoops using only their shoulders, hips, and elbows! ouch! |
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| Ha |
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| The saddest spot of all - the freshwater senote where they believe their god of water lived. They would drug their own children aged 3-12 and have them "walk the plank" to their drowning death. :-( Again, they believed it an honor. Sad day. |
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| People of Mayan heritage lined the walkways with artistic souvenirs. |
The time at Chichen Itza was hot but interesting. After several hours, we loaded back up in the van to head back but we had several treats for the way home. We stopped at Senote Ik Kil...a gorgeous fresh water sinkhole with the most clear water you've ever seen. We got to swim there and the guys jumped off the cliff into the freezing cold but refreshing water. Wish I could have taken my camera down in there. It was so cool!
We then got a Mayan buffer lunch that was pretty yummy.
We then made more progress on our way home and stopped at an old Spaniard village that was beautiful. We visited the plaza and city hall and saw some beautiful artwork. We made a quick stop in the Spanish "kissing chairs." :)
And the last stop on our way home was a surprise stop at a tequila distillery. It ended up pouring down rain on us so we didn't stay long but we got to see the plants and process from which tequila is made. The guys even got lil shots of tequila to taste the quality differences.
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| The plants - blue agave |
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| Inside the distillery, they actually had a horse grinding out the liquid with a millstone. |
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| Ariba! |
Day 4 was another day for relaxation for me, but Derrick, Christopher, Ciera, Kyle, and Aunt Laura went deep sea fishing. They caught banana fish, queen trigger fish, and Kyle caught the big'un...a barricuda!
That night we ventured up into the hotel zone to find a fun restaurant and we decided on Carlos N Charlies. It was worth seeing, but I'll probably never go there again. Their entertainment was over the top and they did thing after thing looking for tips. We took advantage of the balloon hats as they were fun, but they forgot my food and I didn't get it until after everyone else was done eating. Derrick's burger wasn't cooked all the way through and it was all pretty expensive, but it was fun and my favorite pic of the trip came from this dinner.
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| Balloon hats! |
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| My 30 minutes late Mayan Pyramid Nachos...didn't know they'd be the size of Chichen Itza!!! Ridiculous! |
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| My favorite pic of the trip. :) Christopher the creative! |
The whole time we were there, it was sea turtle egg laying season. The huge turtles would come on shore in the dark to dig nests and lay their eggs. We weren't too close to any big resorts so it was pretty dark around us so it seemed like our part of the beach was especially popular. We tried to get a pic for several nights but the turtle patrol guys were out and they were good! They would be on a turtle before we ever could and wouldn't let people get near. "No moleste!" Finally, we found one without a guard and snapped a quick picture. Bad tourists...I know!
One night though, the turtle patrol brought out a crate of baby turtles for the tourists to help release. They were so very very cute!
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| Cute...The turtle and him :) |
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| Looks like a Disney movie character |
Settlers of Catan was a popular time waster. :) lots of games, lots of tense moments, and lots of creative games. ha
Jason bought a boogie board on the last day to take advantage of the great big waves outside of our condo....sheer joy!
The last night in Cancun, we were looking for some yummy food....we'd had a hard time really finding great tasting food. Finally, Bubba Gump Shrimp performed! Fun night out on the patio!
And alas, the trip was over and back to Texas we came on Friday morning....such a nice relaxing time - probably the last for us for several years :)
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| Sunrise and |
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| Sunset over Mexico... |
