So We Went to Mexico...Part 3

We spent our last full day at the resort doing a little more suntanning, Kolton and Bear played tennis, and I finished a couple more books. 

We went snorkeling in the ocean for a few hours that morning which was really neat. We were able to get up close and personal with a lot of fish. I got a little seasick by the end (weak sauce, remember?) by felt a little better when we got a quick glimpse of a sea turtle on the way back to the resort.  

 Since we were sick to death of eating at the buffet, we decided to head into Playa again to do a little more souvenir shopping and to eat dinner.

 All too soon, it was time to go home. We got up that morning, went for a quick ride on the catamaran with Capitan Kolton, enjoyed our last pina coladas and boarded our shuttle to the airport.

 We were more than happy to be back in the U.S. of A. And especially happy to be eating American food, even if it was just McDonalds.

 And that's the end my friends! It was quite the vacation and we are definitely ready for round two! Next year? 

So We Went to Mexico...Part 2

The day after our ruins tour, we decided to just take it easy and relax on the beach and around our hotel. Kolton has a much harder time just relaxing than I do so he went and learned how to windsurf and run a catamaran while I stayed on my chair sipping pina coladas and reading my book. Best part of the vacation. I could have done nothing else and been happy the rest of the week. 

I did finally get him to chill for a second and try to enjoy learning how to relax. 

So funny story. When we first got to the beach we noticed right off that there was a naked lady walking around, that's what we called her anyway. She was wearing her swimsuit bottom, but unfortunately no top.And she wasn't just laying out. She was walking around the beach, talking to her friends, swimming in the ocean, etc. like she had no cares in the world. It was weird. 

So Kolton, Bear and I were walking down the beach to find some chairs to camp out on. We walked a ways away from the naked lady and then Kolton directed me to find some chairs over in that area, far away from the naked lady while he and Bear went to find out about the windsurfing. They walked away and I started hunting. I wanted four chairs close together kind of close to the water. So I walked and walked and finally found them and set up camp. I immediately sprayed myself down with sunscreen and became absorbed in my book enjoying hearing the ocean in the background. (Again, best part of the vacation, especially if I also happened to be simultaneously sipping a pina colada.) 

So I'm just sitting there loving life when all the sudden Kolton marches up to me. "What are you DOING!" he screeches at me. I was a little confused, what does it look like I'm doing?! "The naked lady is RIGHT there!" I looked up and saw that indeed the naked lady was sitting on her beach chair less than 15 feet away from me, and I honestly had not even noticed. Kolton could not believe that I hadn't even seen her and I had to explain that I had more important things on the brain and don't exactly have naked ladies on the radar like he must. Oh we got a good laugh out of that one as soon as Kolton calmed down and realized that I was honestly oblivious. After we moved quite a ways down the beach obviously. 

Aside from that incident that day was quite nice. That night we went to eat at the fancy Mexican restaurant in the hotel. It was so funny because the restaurant was right next to the swim up bar in the pool and was called Capitan Morgan's Grill, but when we got there that night they tried to make it as fancy as possible. There were candles on the table and after we sat down they handed us a cold wet rag to wipe our hands off with. The food was pretty good, my cold had flared up so I honestly couldn't taste much of it, but it was a good night.

We also spent some of that day exploring around the hotel. We couldn't believe how thick the vegetation was everywhere we went.

Yes, I looked like a homeless person for much of the trip. 

Kolton thought this tree was neat and I think he's neat so...

The next day we had another half day tour at a place called Indiana Joe's. We went zip lining, cave exploring and snorkeling in a cenote. 

The zip lining was quite fun. I think the best part were the funny guys that were manning the zip lines. They had us go upside down, together as couples, and bounced us up and down as we zoomed down the line. I got such a kick out of them.  

They took us down through a cave and showed us all the stactites and stalagmites. It was really neat, especially seeing the tree roots that would break through the limestone in order to get to the water beneath. 

The reflection of the cave in an underground pool.

Sometimes columns will form and when the ground shifts, everything breaks apart.

Neat tree roots stretching for the water underneath the rock.

Modeling the lovely helmet

 We learned that stalactites and stalagmites take about 100 years to grow 1 centimeter. That really made us gain an appreciation for everything we saw in the cave.

That bundle of stuff is actually tree roots breaking through the rock to get to the water below.

 Kolton made a friend!

We went snorkeling in the cenote and it was SO neat. All of the pictures were taken on our underwater camera so I don't have them yet, but it was so cool to put on the goggles look under the surface and see this whole new world open up. The water was so clear and the bottom of the cenote/cave was so cool to look at. We loved that part.
After that adventure we headed back to the hotel to enjoy some more beach time and play some mini golf which I lost horribly at. 

So We Went to Mexico...Part 1

Kolton and I have been wanting to go on a trip for a while so we finally pulled ourselves together and decided to head down to Mexico!

We talked Shannon and Bear into joining us and just had ourselves a grand ole time.

 Sitting in the airport ready to go!

 When we got off the plane the humidity about killed us. There had been a tropical storm pass through the week before we got there so there was 100% humidity and it was REALLY hot and REALLY different from Monteview weather.

 We sat on this shuttle for FOREVER and were ready to just be at our hotel already! When we finally got there, we headed straight for the buffet and ordered up some virgin margaritas (the free drinks were the best part of the trip!) Our hotel was right on the ocean so that night Kolton and I ventured down in the dark so he could see the ocean for the very first time!

That night we crashed and the next morning woke up to the loudest thunder I have ever heard. We had been so nervous about it being rainy the whole time we were there and the thunder, lightning, and pouring rain weren't helping us out at all. It rained for a couple of hours and when it finally stopped we decided to head in to Playa del Carmen to do some shopping.

We ate lunch at Senor Frog's where we had free passes from our hotel. We were cracking up at all the funny signs and especially loved these barstools. 

We spent the day walking around Playa and grabbed a few souvenirs. We loved the town's beautiful ocean view. After the rain from that morning cleared up we had nice weather the whole rest of the trip and were so glad! That night we ate dinner at the buffet in the hotel and spent a little time exploring and again enjoying all of the free drinks and trying to convince the bartenders that we really weren't interested in their tequila.

 The next morning we got up early for a tour we had scheduled to see some of the ruins. My parents went to Mexico last spring and loved the tour they went on so this was kind of a priority and one of the biggest reasons we decided to go to Mexico. I woke up that morning and felt awful. I don't know what was wrong with me but I had a cold for most of the trip and this day was the worst. You can see how good I felt from my fake smile in all the pictures.
Anyway, Lemuel came to pick us up and we went with us and another couple to the ruins of Ek Balam first.

We got to climb up a lot of stairs and walk around on the buildings which was pretty neat. 

We were so amazed at all the carvings and statues, especially on this wall of the temple. We were on an LDS tour so it was really neat to get the gospel perspective on everything. This tour really made the Book of Mormon come to life. 

 Yes, we climbed those stairs and yes, I thought I was going to die. I couldn't believe how steep and scary the stairs were. But we learned that the trick is to walk up the stairs on the diagonal and zig zag your way to the top. That's how we locals do it anyway...

 At the top! The jungle was so thick and it was neat to be so high up to see everything. On the way down the stairs I really started feeling not so good.

 I don't know what this next picture is of because at that point in time I was sitting on a stump with my head between my legs trying not to pass out. Because I'm weak sauce. 

After Ek Balam we drove to a little spot to have lunch and swim in a cenote. There are rivers that run underground in Mexico and cenotes are little sinkholes that go down to the river where you can swim in the fresh water. 

The lunch we ate was delicious, one of the best meals of the trip, and I started feeling much better after eating something. Then it was time to swim!

 Looking down into the cenote. The lines behind us are roots from the trees and plants on the surface that stretch clear down to the water.

 We couldn't believe how beautiful this place was!

 Of course it wouldn't be enough to just chill and swim. We had to do some extreme stunts to make Kolton happy. Here I was counting up so we could take a picture. My fingers stayed on the count of three for a couple minutes before I finally got brave and just did it.

Kolton doing a backflip. 

 Then, we went to walk around Chichen Itza. This was one of the Mayan cities and it was AMAZING! These people were so advanced and when they were righteous and had the Spirit with then they really did some amazing things. The temple behind us is the main temple. All of the buildings here were based off of the stars and constellations. In the Spring Equinox, the shadows fall on the temple just right to make it look like there is a snake slithering down the side of the temple. We also found that when you clapped your hands the echo was just right to make it sound like a bird call. It was crazy and blowing our minds! Here at Chichen Itza there was found a carving of the "Bearded White Mystery Man". This same carving and stories of this same figure have been found in many other places all over the Americas. Legends are told about the man who came and taught the people and visited with them, but many people just can't figure out who it was. If they would open up the Book of Mormon, all the answers are right there in 3 Nephi. This was so amazing to us.

 It was also really sad to learn about what happened to this people and how quickly their advanced civilization declined once they began being prideful and wicked. They still had the truths they had been taught but there were distorted and twisted around until the good things they knew became evil.
The picture above is of the ball court where they would have serious matches and play to the death to get the ball through that little ring. The winners would be sacrificed, and beheaded because the people believed that they were giving the best of them to the Gods.

 This picture above is of a fence thing that had skulls carved into the stones that made up the fence. Inside the fence, archaeologists found the heads of what they believe to be the winners of the ball game. Skeletons were also found of young girls, children, and infants in a cenote found on the premises of Chichen Itza. Again, it is believed that the people thought they had to sacrifice the best and purest of them to the gods.

 This is a road that was built by the people that led to different ancient cities that have been discovered.

We got soaked in a quick thirty minute absolute downpour. It was nice, it downpoured, and then was nice again all in a matter of less than an hour. We are standing in front of the observatory. 

We learned so much on this tour and our guide Lemuel was just the best. It was so interesting to learn about the ancient people and was such a testimony builder to see all of the things we read about in the Book of Mormon come to life.