Saturday we ventured out from the hotel on our own for the first time. I was a little nervous at first, although I was the one spearheading the "let's take public transportation and save money" movement. We got up at 6:30 and got breakfast and packed and we set out on the nearly mile walk from the resort to the highway. We walked under the overpass and out to what looked like a bus stop on the side of the road we were trying to travel on. We managed to ask about the "colectivo", the public bus system of sorts. We managed to get on an Ado bus, not the same thing, but for the distance we were going the price was the same--$2 a person. The Ado bus was more like a greyhound, and the colectivos were just high roofed toyota shuttle vans(of many various years) that seat about 12.
We got dropped off at Xel-ha and got to the entrance by about 9. We got inside and after walking around pointlessly for about 10 minutes decided to put our things in a locker and check out the snorkeling gear to snorkel. Snorkeling was so fun! After the initial near drowning myself while trying to get myself to breath calmly underwater it was smooth sailing. :) We saw so many cool fish, especially a huge 3 foot long rainbow colored fish. Not gonna lie, I was scared when we got close to that thing. We also saw 2 sting rays. I am glad we went snorkeling in the morning when the water was calm and nearly no one was snorkeling. We saw hordes of people doing it later and the water was all stirred up and I'm sure the fish were hiding. Of course I got pictures of all of this with an underwater camera. Then when I was trying to figure out how to download the pictures I opened the battery compartment. WHEN YOU OPEN THE BATTERY COMPARTMENT THE MEMORY IS WIPED. WIPED!!! Who on this green earth would design a camera that does that??!! And so it goes, we have no snorkeling pictures. Moving on...sadly.
Xel-ha is a HUGE park with many things to do and see. I mean, the place is virtually a giant circle around a mini bay. It takes about an hour to walk around...speed walking. I should know, I did it at the end of the day. More on that in a moment.
Our first walk around the park was a nice stroll. I jumped off the cliff and felt pretty darn proud of myself. We floated down the river a ways, until we came to the 2 small ziplines and obstacle course over the water.
This isn't us, but it's a good picture to show the idea of the beginning of the river.
We of course had to do the obstacle course over the water. I saw people trying it and nearly laughed at how quickly they fell off...until I got on. However, with a constant streaming audience of 20+ passers by I couldn't NOT do the course. And let's be honest, if I fell in the water I didn't have the strength to start over and try it again. Rope ladder, swinging rope knots, rolling inflatable wheels, this thing was hard. And I nearly cursed (nearly) at Dax for getting too close to me and throwing me off balance. That is how badly I wanted to finish this thing. And, I DID! I felt like a super hero with super strength, but as I was going through the thing I am sure I looked like a scrawny little thing clawing her way through. Seriously though, it is a good thing I have strong thighs...they got me through. Of course the pictures Dax took of me on it were wiped with the camera. (Sigh). It was like living Wipe Out!
The ONLY picture I found of it on the internet. Probably because it was so hard most people didn't bother with it. :) To start, you zipline into that rope ladder and pray you can move your hands fast enough to grab it before you fall in the water or the zip line gets pulled back.
After that we got some lunch at the buffet, and because we ate a later lunch the masses were out doing other things, so it was nice. After we stuffed ourselves silly (me mainly, Dax is pretty much the master of self control when it comes to food) I decided it would be a great idea to find all of the stamps at the park. You see, when we arrived the clerk gave us a pocket size book about Xel-ha and told us that if we got all 15 stamps from around the park that we could get a free t-shirt. I was sold. How could I not do that for my 5 year-old son, who would love seeing the stamps and his prize book and shirt? I anticipated it being a lot easier than it was. One, the park is huge. Two, the stamping stations are hard to find, they aren't located on a map or anything so you are just searching for them. After several hours we got them all, and we saw some pretty cool things in the park we wouldn't have seen had we not been seeking the stamps(like the plant nursery, where they grow most of the plants to sustain the park), but man did we do a lot of walking.
After we found them all we got a cold drink and headed out to the highway. For kicks we asked a taxi what they charge. $29 for a one way trip!! We opted to take the colectivo and save $25. We actually got on a colectivo this time. The first one to stop said they charge $7, but I knew we could get one for $4, so I said no. The next one took us for $4. After being dropped off at the entrance to Puerto Aventuras we still had to walk the mile to the resort. We were done walking for the day, and just wanted to shower and eat by the time we got back.
That night we ate at the Italian restaurant, it was delicious. The restaurants were so nice. 3 course meals from the menu. I loved that I could order whatever I wanted from the menu without thought of price. The menus didn't even have prices on them (because they were included in the stay). It made the whole experience relaxing. Really though, I don't think I've eaten at a restaurant as good as the ones at our resort, ever. Granted, I don't get out much and when I do I am too cheap to spend a ton of money, so this was amazing.
A really cool rendition of Tulum during its prime was by the entrance.
The floating bridge. I now know what it feels like to walk when extremely drunk. I almost fell off.
They had a dolphin area where you could swim with the dolphins(for an extra $120). We opted to watch.
I forgot the name of this tree, but the sap is poisonous.
This tree heals the burn from the poisonous tree. They are naturally found growing near each other. There is an old legend that they are two warriors reincarnated.
One of the best views I could get. Luckily the day was overcast so it was warm, but we didn't bake ourselves.
The precious t-shirt I trekked all over the park to earn.
Divine desserts. Mine was a toffee type cake, and I'm not normally a toffee fan.
Yummy pasta!
Just a random pelican doing his thing.
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