Day 1: Woke up for flight at 4am. Arrived in Cancun at about 1pm. We went snorkeling first thing after eating some burgers at the resort. I had a lot of issues this first time snorkeling with water getting in my googles and snorkel so I went back to shore. Darrin and Brady saw some huge fish that day that we never saw again.
Day 2: Snorkeling day. My gear was a lot better today and we saw 5 turtles and 2 stingrays! Very cool! Got fried despite multiple sunscreen applications.
Day 3: Took a trip to Playa Del Carmen. Took the collectivo for the first time to go there and we went shopping. We bought Mexican vanilla and some little toys for the kids. Darrin went snorkeling when we got back and saw 2 more sea turtles and 2 stingrays. We ate at the restaurant at the resort tonight and it was much better than the buffet. Not amazing but better.
Day 4: We went to TULUM-ancient Mayan ruins. It was soooo hot but really neat. After walking around Tulum we went to a beach there and sat in the shade with a nice breeze. Darrin went snorkeling but didn't see anything. Then we tried to walk back to the collectivo and missed the turn somehow. We ended up walking 4.5 killometers in the hot hot humidness until we ended up taking a taxi to the bus back to hte resort. If we didn't take the taxi we would have had to walk 2.5 more miles!
Day 5: We walked a mile to Half Moon Bay. The snorkeling was terrible and we didn't see anything really. Then on the way back to our resort and collected lots of sea shells and coral type stuff that had washed up along the shore. We got lunch and a little later we went out snorkeling again by our resort. It was me, Darrin and Brady. We saw 7 turtles and 3 rays! One of the rays was small and white with black specks. I saw an additional turtle on my own. I am completely fried despite all the sunscreen I've been putting on!
Day 6: Coba and Punta Laguna. Such a fun day. We got a driver to take us to both locations. First, we went to Coba-more ancient Mayan Ruins. We paid for a tour which was sooo much cooler than not having a tour at Tulum. We learned all about their ruins, blood sacrifices, purification tunnels, where they got their "colors" and about their games. They had trees there that had black sap coming out of them that were poisonous. They had used the poison on their spears for hunting and killing. The antidote tree was always near by which was cool. We rented bikes at Coba and rode around looking at all the ruins. We also got to climb to the top of one of the ruins. After Coba we went to Punta Laguna and stopped for lunch on the way. We had a nice sit down lunch at a local families restaurant. We were the only ones there and our driver sat and ate with us. We had some good conversation. Punta Laguna is a Monkey preservation place. We paid $12/person for a tour. We saw about 20 spider monkeys and howler monkeys in our walk of the jungle. It was really cool-especially to see all mommy monkeys carrying their babies from tree to tree.
Day 7: XPLOR park. This was the coolest thing we may have ever done. Despite getting there and not having our ID's and Credit Card we paid with. We spent an hour trying to prove our identity to them. We were finally able to use their computer to find documents needed to prove it to them. It was ridiculous though that they needed those forms of identity. We had our tickets printed off and they had a bar code on them so no one would try and use the same ticket twice. It's not like you have to have those forms of identity for Lagoon or even Disneyland. Anyway, once we got it the park it was SWEET! It's a HUGE cave with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. They have all kids of activities to do that are all included with the price along with an amazing buffet and drink stations everywhere! That's how amusement parks should be. They really exceeded our expectations on many levels. One of my favorite activities were the swim. You take a 30 minute swim under this cave in crystal clear, cold but refreshing water. We got to see so many cool things on the swim including a bat. Unlike anything I've every done. You can also do a paddle boat through a trail under the cave. Cool, but not as neat as the swim. Another activity is their amphibious vehicles (basically ATV's that go through water). There were two 5 km tracks to drive on. You get to actually drive these vehicles through the jungle, under caves, and through mud puddles! There was a real sense of danger as you could run into trees or the cave at any turn. They even had a pit of real alligators along the path! And then there were the ZIP LINES! 14 zip lines total-7 on each path. You would go from zip line to zip line above the jungle, over the pit of alligators and there was even a tiger that half of us saw! Some of the zip lines were single rider and some were double which was cool. It was simply amazing-best money we spent there by far. Another refreshing thing about it was that no one was trying to sell you stuff or rip you off. All was included and so much fun!
Day 8: Picked up at 6:30am to go to the airport and wait for 5 hours only to have our flight delayed. I wanted to get home to my boys and it was dragging on forever! But we finally made it and it was SO great to see my boys again! When Parker saw us he just started laughing and laughing :). I swear Spencer didn't even recognize us. He was being strange! All was normal again the next day though. We all went out to dinner that night to take my AMAZING Mother-in-Law, Father-in-Law, and Sister-in-Law (Chrissy) to THANK THEM for watching the kids!
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