Monday, March 1, 2010
3/1/2010: Day 8
Happy March! Spring is just around the corner. Actually, it already feels like Spring here! :) We just wanted it to start early, so we came to Mexico for vacation. Today was great. Overcast for much of the day, but it was perfect weather for sightseeing. It was still somewhat hot during parts of our excursion. Our excursion was to visit Tulum in the morning and then head off to an adventure park to zip line, repel, and swim in a cenote.
Tulum is an ancient Mayan city. It's a small city, but very cool. It's the only Mayan city to have a cliff. Only about 500 upperclass people lived in the city and about 1000 lowerclass people lived outside the walls. We learned a lot about the Mayan culture and their development. Our guide was very smart. I asked him about his educational background, and he said he has certificates in giving tours in archeological finds, etc. Very interesting. We loved him. He reminded me of Christof, Jessica!! Very nature oriented. Soft spoken, but had a divine energy coming off of him.
He gave us a tour for about an hour, then we were released on the small city to take photos and hang out at the beach. All over the place are iguanas. BIG ONES. We really really liked the iguanas...every one did. A guy that we met from Nebraska commented "Here we are surrounded by all these ruins and everyone is taking photos of the iguanas!" True! We were. Iguana males usually have 5-7 girlfriends. They sit around all day storing up their energy. If they have to oflee, they expend ALOT of energy quickly..which they stored from resting. When they fight, the first they do is attack with their tales. The photo of the single iguana shows his tail growing back. He lost it in a fight. The guide said the growth was about two weeks worth. Gross. But interestsing. I was kind of hoping one would chase up, but that would have been a little scary. They are so dang fast, though! 
We took a ton of photos and I will post a few in a separate entry. Before we left for the adventure park, we had a few minutes to shop around and eat. On our way to the shopping center we saw another creepy animal photo opportunity. Couldn't pass this one up and it didn't pee on me! What a relief!:) 
After holding and pettinig the iguanas, we picked up some food to snack on. I had really bad pizza. Yes--pizza. I forgive myself for beating myself up the other day. Pizza is for sale EVERYWHERE! So I gave in and had some today. yuck. Bland. Hardly any cheese. But it held me over until lunch at the adventure place.
When we arrived at the adventure park , the first thing we did was repel from an 80 foot tower. Walking up the stairs was the scariest thing I've done in a long time. My heart was racing and I was feeling a little sick. Not to mention that the entire time I was comparing it to jumping off Macau Tower in Hong Kong in December 2010. After three flights of stairs I had convinced myself that I was not going to be able to jump from 764-ish feet. What in the hell was I ever thinking?????
I had to bring myself back to the present. Repelling is kind of scary at first. The part where you have to strap in to a line, then LEAN BACK, OVER THE GROUND BELOW---took my breath away--each time. My group got to go twice if they wanted, so of course we did. 
The photo with the girl on the right in the red shirt and black shorts is me. The guide had to talk me through each step--I was pretty scared. :) Of course, Mr.Cohen is good at everything he does, and he's repelled before, so he wanted to go upside down. Unfortunately he didn't ask, because after his second repel, a guy did go down head first. Eric really wanted to try it.
After repelling we went to the zip lines. Again, the scariest part was climbing the stairs! It was really windy and the stairs were steep. There were three zip lines of increasing heights and distances. We did zip lines in Dominica, so this wasn't extrememly fun. The best part was getting high off of my fear of heights, on the stairs!
the next activity was swimming in a cenote. I think we had a horrible explanation of it on the nature tour, but got a much better description today. Cenotes happened when bazillions of years ago the meteor hit mexico which supposedly killed off the dinosaurs. The impact caused the tectonic plates to move, and the ground to shift. Before the meteor, where the cenotes are now, used to be reefs. The meteor stuck, pushing the reefs above sea water and they died, creating caverns under ground. Then somehow the caverns filled up with fresh water. This caused the limestone from the reefs to drip and make stalactites (sp?) and other cool stuff. It's easier to just show you than explain it. I guess I didn't pay attention well enough. ;) Anyway, we had the chance to swim and snorkel in one, underground, very carefully. 
It was chilly..but what an AWESOME experience. A very cute couple from California took our photo down there and is going to email it us when then can. I'll post it as soon as we get it. Then it was time to eat! OMG. We had chicken, beans, rice, chips and salsa. The food was awesome. The salsa was the best salsa we've had the entire time. I turly do not know what "authentic mexican" food is, but I think it was what we had today. We loved it. :)
So that was our day. Eric is in the bedroom watching My Sister's Keeper and I am playing with photos and the blog. I can't watch that movie. Even knowing about it makes me cry. We ate around 3....so later we'll probably order room service, pour ouselves some wine that we bought in Playa Del Carmen a few days ago, and read Percy Jackson books. :) I'm almost done with the second on and Eric is on the fourth. He's going to be stuck in Mexico with no way to get the last one! I told him he should have brought the entire series!
Hope everyone out there is having a good time! We are!
Tulum is an ancient Mayan city. It's a small city, but very cool. It's the only Mayan city to have a cliff. Only about 500 upperclass people lived in the city and about 1000 lowerclass people lived outside the walls. We learned a lot about the Mayan culture and their development. Our guide was very smart. I asked him about his educational background, and he said he has certificates in giving tours in archeological finds, etc. Very interesting. We loved him. He reminded me of Christof, Jessica!! Very nature oriented. Soft spoken, but had a divine energy coming off of him.
He gave us a tour for about an hour, then we were released on the small city to take photos and hang out at the beach. All over the place are iguanas. BIG ONES. We really really liked the iguanas...every one did. A guy that we met from Nebraska commented "Here we are surrounded by all these ruins and everyone is taking photos of the iguanas!" True! We were. Iguana males usually have 5-7 girlfriends. They sit around all day storing up their energy. If they have to oflee, they expend ALOT of energy quickly..which they stored from resting. When they fight, the first they do is attack with their tales. The photo of the single iguana shows his tail growing back. He lost it in a fight. The guide said the growth was about two weeks worth. Gross. But interestsing. I was kind of hoping one would chase up, but that would have been a little scary. They are so dang fast, though! 
We took a ton of photos and I will post a few in a separate entry. Before we left for the adventure park, we had a few minutes to shop around and eat. On our way to the shopping center we saw another creepy animal photo opportunity. Couldn't pass this one up and it didn't pee on me! What a relief!:) 
After holding and pettinig the iguanas, we picked up some food to snack on. I had really bad pizza. Yes--pizza. I forgive myself for beating myself up the other day. Pizza is for sale EVERYWHERE! So I gave in and had some today. yuck. Bland. Hardly any cheese. But it held me over until lunch at the adventure place. When we arrived at the adventure park , the first thing we did was repel from an 80 foot tower. Walking up the stairs was the scariest thing I've done in a long time. My heart was racing and I was feeling a little sick. Not to mention that the entire time I was comparing it to jumping off Macau Tower in Hong Kong in December 2010. After three flights of stairs I had convinced myself that I was not going to be able to jump from 764-ish feet. What in the hell was I ever thinking?????
I had to bring myself back to the present. Repelling is kind of scary at first. The part where you have to strap in to a line, then LEAN BACK, OVER THE GROUND BELOW---took my breath away--each time. My group got to go twice if they wanted, so of course we did. 
The photo with the girl on the right in the red shirt and black shorts is me. The guide had to talk me through each step--I was pretty scared. :) Of course, Mr.Cohen is good at everything he does, and he's repelled before, so he wanted to go upside down. Unfortunately he didn't ask, because after his second repel, a guy did go down head first. Eric really wanted to try it. After repelling we went to the zip lines. Again, the scariest part was climbing the stairs! It was really windy and the stairs were steep. There were three zip lines of increasing heights and distances. We did zip lines in Dominica, so this wasn't extrememly fun. The best part was getting high off of my fear of heights, on the stairs!
the next activity was swimming in a cenote. I think we had a horrible explanation of it on the nature tour, but got a much better description today. Cenotes happened when bazillions of years ago the meteor hit mexico which supposedly killed off the dinosaurs. The impact caused the tectonic plates to move, and the ground to shift. Before the meteor, where the cenotes are now, used to be reefs. The meteor stuck, pushing the reefs above sea water and they died, creating caverns under ground. Then somehow the caverns filled up with fresh water. This caused the limestone from the reefs to drip and make stalactites (sp?) and other cool stuff. It's easier to just show you than explain it. I guess I didn't pay attention well enough. ;) Anyway, we had the chance to swim and snorkel in one, underground, very carefully. 
It was chilly..but what an AWESOME experience. A very cute couple from California took our photo down there and is going to email it us when then can. I'll post it as soon as we get it. Then it was time to eat! OMG. We had chicken, beans, rice, chips and salsa. The food was awesome. The salsa was the best salsa we've had the entire time. I turly do not know what "authentic mexican" food is, but I think it was what we had today. We loved it. :)So that was our day. Eric is in the bedroom watching My Sister's Keeper and I am playing with photos and the blog. I can't watch that movie. Even knowing about it makes me cry. We ate around 3....so later we'll probably order room service, pour ouselves some wine that we bought in Playa Del Carmen a few days ago, and read Percy Jackson books. :) I'm almost done with the second on and Eric is on the fourth. He's going to be stuck in Mexico with no way to get the last one! I told him he should have brought the entire series!
Hope everyone out there is having a good time! We are!
2/28/2010: Day 7
Sunday the 28th, Day 6, was golf day. Eric has been looking forward to playing at El Camaleon for, oh, seven months. This golf course is the home of the Mayakoba Classic, played here the week before we arrived. Actually, the course was closed Monday and Tuesday when we first got here as they tried to put everything away.
We got up around 6:15 and got ready to golf (I was actually a rider...but I still had to LOOK the part!). We were the first players on the course. It was nice. After about two holes we lost the players behind us and were able to relax and enjoy the scenery...and Eric got to hit that stupid little white ball all around the course. :) Seriously. I would want to scream! Correction--I will WANT to scream. I have committed to taking golf lessons this year so that I may accompany my great husband to whatever beautiful courses he wants to play. That commitment may be a bad decision on my part! Have you ever been on a PGA course? CRAP! The hazards are insane. The distances are insane! Insanity.
We played quickly...around 3 hours for Eric, since he was playing as a single. He had a lot of great "high five" shots. We even took video that I will put on his you tube account someday.
We were tired the rest of the day. I tried to nap and Eric went down to the beach. Eventually I joined him for a bit. Then we headed up to the beautiful pools by the cafe. I snacked on (cover your eyes Julia and Duane!) carrot/coconut cake and a diet dr. pepper. Damn that Dr. Pepper! It was probably the reason I was up at 2:30am ish this morning!!!
For dinnner we went to El Puerto again. Eric's eyes were bigger than his stomach. He ordered TWO orders of parmesan and truffle mac and cheese. They brought it out in a big bowl. We took photos! At the end of dinner they always bring out petit fours for dessert. One of the pieces was a a little tiny muffin with a raspberry in the middle. Eric sweared up and down that it had chocolate in it, which I knew it didn't. But, the server had said something about it having chocolate in it...so he was convinced. We have this conversation a lot...and it always ends in "What do you want to bet?" Eric placed his wager down...what he would do for me if I was right. I told him that I wasn't going to bet because I knew I was right. He said "You better hurry up and tell me what you will give me if I am right or you forfeit if you win." Whatever. I KNEW there wasn't chocolate in it. So, the waiter, being wonderful like they all are, comes out with another plate of them (yikes!) and informs us that the muffin is pistachio and raspberry. HELLO, ERIC!! NO CHOCOLATE, SWEETIE PIE! So, I win! He said: "Yeah, but you didn't state what you wanted if you won!" I said sweetly: "Honey, the simple act of you having to admit that you were wrong is reward enough for me!". He wanted me to tell this story in the blog...so here is it. Eric was wrong. Mark it on your calendar. And just so you know..Eric ONLY bets if he's sure he is right. In this case, the server first said it had chocolate...so he thought he was right. I told him to turn on his brain and then he would have SEEN (no brown in the muffin) that he was wrong. Anyway, another good day on vacation.
2/27/2010: Day 6
Saturday the 27th, Day 6 of our trip, was fairly uneventful. We woke up early and ran to circuit workout class (our warm up). The class turned out to be pretty challenging. It was cardio drills followed by weight lifting intervals. Nice, nice workout. I'm finally NOT sore today--just a little muscle stiffness. After circuits we went to the beach, then to the pool.
Before we knew it, Eric was stupid-sunburnt-red. Luckily there is a cafe here where if you are willing to pay a fortune , you can get anything there. We went to the Mayan Cafe and bought some aloe vera lotion and two coffees. I think the bill was $25. :) Best damn $8 coffee I've ever had! ;)Later that night we went to El Puerto for dinner (again) and had steak and some sides. Eric and I decided that humans really shouldn't consume 14 oz of steak at a sitting, so we have started sharing. It works out perfectly. A steak and two sides, plus bread and maybe sorbet is still entirely too much food, but it's easier sharing the steak. Plus, the food at El Puerto is AWESOME! :)
Sleep? Who needs that?
Another night of restless sleep. It's 4am now and I have been up since 2:30am. Does my body only require 6 hours of sleep anymore? Am I being punished by caffeine? All I know for sure is that the night before tonight, I dreamt of work ALL night long. Very, very intense and stressful. Yesterday I was tired due to the restless sleep, so I tried to nap. Again, restless. Then last night....sleeping well....until 2:30am, then wide awake.I don't get it.
This is vacation and I LOOOOOOOVE to take naps and sleep. Especially since we have a big comfy bed and lots of pillows and we can make the room almost completely dark, except the light that blinks close to the ceiling. I should ask them why it's blinking.
Anyway, I see that I am a few days behind on blogging again. Arg.
So...quick update. Yesterday was golf. Very beautiful. Eric had some nice shots. I failed at taking a nap, but did finish Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, and started Sea of Monsters, the second in the series of five. We had some hours at the beach and a delicious dinner.
Today we are headed off to Tulum to see the ruins, go zip-lining, repelling, and swim in the cenotes. These have been explained this like. Imagine a volcano carrying lava to the surface. A cenote is a volcano carrying water down.....so it creates underground pools, etc. We are going on an excursion in which we get to snorkle in one of these. Tulum is about 45 minutes away and we are going with a tour, so no worries on getting kidnapped or anything. We will be fine.
Bugs. Let's talk about bugs. I am EATEN UP! I feel like there are bugs on me all the time now. My legs look like I have the beginnings of chicken pox due the the number of times I've been fed on. Yikes.
I'm going to post some more beautiful photos of the hotel and the grounds. Laters. :)
This is vacation and I LOOOOOOOVE to take naps and sleep. Especially since we have a big comfy bed and lots of pillows and we can make the room almost completely dark, except the light that blinks close to the ceiling. I should ask them why it's blinking.
Anyway, I see that I am a few days behind on blogging again. Arg.
So...quick update. Yesterday was golf. Very beautiful. Eric had some nice shots. I failed at taking a nap, but did finish Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, and started Sea of Monsters, the second in the series of five. We had some hours at the beach and a delicious dinner.
Today we are headed off to Tulum to see the ruins, go zip-lining, repelling, and swim in the cenotes. These have been explained this like. Imagine a volcano carrying lava to the surface. A cenote is a volcano carrying water down.....so it creates underground pools, etc. We are going on an excursion in which we get to snorkle in one of these. Tulum is about 45 minutes away and we are going with a tour, so no worries on getting kidnapped or anything. We will be fine.
Bugs. Let's talk about bugs. I am EATEN UP! I feel like there are bugs on me all the time now. My legs look like I have the beginnings of chicken pox due the the number of times I've been fed on. Yikes.
I'm going to post some more beautiful photos of the hotel and the grounds. Laters. :)
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