Time Away at Cancun - Day 6 - Winding up...

Time to say see you again and rest and head back

We really did not have anything planned at all for the day to have any activity, hence we had no pressure to wake up early, all us leisurely woke up and were headed to breakfast at the hotel. After the long arguments of food and all-inclusive deal the hotel, we manged to secure a complimentary American breakfast by discussing with the shift supervisor and others, hence we headed within the hotel to the breakfast place and had good use of the meal, had bread toasts, hash browns, scrambled egg for those who wanted it and coffee.

Dream place to be in and some snaps

We have seen such locations in movies or photographs and pictures of other folks, but for you yourself to be in such a place is really an ecstatic feel. Just behind the hotel was a long beach with awesome blue waters and sea chairs lined up with para sailing activity happening and kids were having fun time playing around. For few minutes we were all line up resting on the chairs under the shade, overlooking the beaming sunshine filled sea shore, with crystal clear blue waters, a sure heavenly experience, making us forget the feel of coming to the end of vacation.

Kids slowly headed on to jump start the photo sessions with some snaps in air and some good enough in flight photo sessions. Kids slowly ventured into the waves, with their genuine expressions of their state of mind was a true witness to their genuinely expressing their feel. After spending some time with the kids playing around in the waves of the ocean, admiring the beauty of nature with pristine unique landscape, was an unique experience indeed.

Medha and I headed to the pool and for some time, with no life jackets in there or any flotation stuffs and it being more than 4 feet deep pool had to carry her around on myself and walk around. The very dream of spending time in the pool overlooking the clear waters of the ocean on a sunny day, was fulfilled, hitting onto the Jacuzzi for some brief moment and boom we headed to the room, showered and got ready to check out sharp at 12:00 PM.

Checkout, wait, commute to airport and delay

It was a matter of 10 minutes for the checkout process and with no incidental charges of any form, we were all set to move on. Our shuttle pick up to the airport was scheduled for 12:55 PM, while waiting in the hotel lobby for some time, quickly finished off my duties with my Hyderabad marathon activities, profile edits, some refunds and what not. Soon our shuttle arrives and we are headed off to the airport. With a 20 minute commute we were already there at the airport, getting ourselves checked in in a kiosk. Only after we headed to the counter to the airline agent to check in the baggage, did we were informed about the delay in the first flight to Phoenix causing a close call to the connecting flight leaving us only a mere 35 minutes to clear US immigration, check in the baggage and head to our gates. Hence we had to have our connecting flight from Phoenix to Seattle changed to the 11 PM flight, which gets us a delay of over 3 hours total reaching at 1:10 AM.

Closing notes for the trip

Overall it was a well planned trip by the able efforts of Sathish and none of us really contributing to that effort other than approving the plans he proposed, definitely a big kudos to him, executed as planned with the great co-operation from every single of us including the kids, accommodating to the consistent early rise and a tiring day and some hiccups in delayed meals and what not. Overall I had a stupendous time with family and friends and I am sure all of us would agree to the same with no doubt, eagerly looking forward to yet another such eventful vacation, to draft and share my experiences with all of you. Till then good bye, thanks for patiently reading through my experiences being drafted down. Hope you enjoyed reading the whole stuff and gave some good feel of what it could be as an experience if you had been planning to take on the trip or just to virtually experience the tour.

Time Away At Cancun - Day 5 -Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza - One of the Modern wonders of the world

Earliest Start and Longest ride to the attraction…

After the long stifle with hotel authorities the previous night and a tiring day, had a tear down sleep and had to be ready early on, the earliest start time of all the days, since the destination we were going up to was a 3 hour ride away from the Cancun city.  Since there was no option for us for our breakfast at the hotel and being early start, we had to skip the breakfast of any form or the bare minimum of having coffee and worry about it on the way. Right at 7:15 AM we were ready at the lobby awaiting for the bus to arrive to pick it up, after await for over 20 minutes did our bus arrive to pick us up, we had our hand bands put on and off we go starting our long ride to the historical place of Mayans. During our 20 minute wait time at the lobby did it make me wonder on how many variety of historical/tourist spots did the Cancun city have and how many means of commute being available and how many folks of different nationalities arrive here.  Just like running is to Kenyans, looks like tourism is to Cancun.

Long ride …

It was a 3 hour long bus ride from Cancun to the Chichen Itza in Valladolid city. We were advised of the being offered continental breakfast and lunch, we were started to explain about the Mayan history, Mayan calendar, various symbols and rituals and practices of Mayan people. As we were explained about the culture and what not, which pretty much to me felt like a history classes restored, yet it was interesting to listen about a unknown culture.

 After about half hour, we were served the so called continental breakfast, again we weren't surprised, but had to pity ourselves, since we were served a tuna sandwich, a cake overloaded with egg and a carton of orange juice. I just said to myself, stating it's going to be my day of starving, really absolutely no options for vegetarians to feel better about any meal here in Cancun be in any place, having years of tourism expertise and having multitude of nationalities arriving, it's so pathetic for people to not realize the fact that vegetarian folks suffer so much to the fact they start cursing and feeling bad about the overall experience. If only I could complain or offer feedback, the availability of vegetarian food would be my highest order or priority. Much more than the non-availability of vegetarian food, the fear of mixing up any food with beef/meat/pork was the real concern, oh my goodness, the hospitality industry having decided the mankind to be real carnivores….. :(

Information on Mayan History

The ride to chic hen itza was all covering about long lectures about who Mayans are and what is their lineage and some real commercialization of products and services they offer, under the surreal face of lineage of history and culture. To being with I started to feel that these folks were really explaining the culture in the intentions of making is more public and earn respect, but it looked like sheer commercialization of their culture, with due respects to those folks who make their living with the commercialization of their culture and selling artefacts and services. One of the service they were explaining about was that given your personal details of date of birth and time of birth, there is a Mayan prediction based on their protocols charging an amount of $25. Your future is predicted by that $25 :) , the only thing that I could think of and mock it was about the Raasi palan that comes up in our local television channels. I just giggled to myself while the tour guide was explaining it to us. Another offering was getting Silver pendants made based on your gender, your initials, your spouse's initials and what not. Again I got reminded about the small dog like pendant that we used to wear as a kid stating that it would guard the kids from the feel of fear at night :) every culture had its own version of some belief and value system. I truly respect, but I could not stop from ridiculing about it, with very commercialization of the same.

Beaming heat and walk around to the Wonders of the world

We were handed over a radio for the guide to speak to all of us, a small radio device tuned to a particular frequency so that the guide could communicate to all of his group. We reach the destination after a 3 hour long drive, with few of us taking small nap along the way. It was a day of no action only reaction to loading lessons of history and details. We all disembark the bus, were handed over a bottle of cold water along with a hanging loop for us to easily to carry and to avoid dumping it along the way. We were assigned a local guide, part of the tour operator, to explain to the set of people who want it to be explained in English. We got a 60+ guy who seems to have done his master degree in history of Mexico and more importantly the in and around of Chichen itza. He started off stating about the obvious things a guide would do and how he is different and wants to keep it simple, taking it to shaded parts of the area and explaining the specifics, to me he sounded like a well-informed guy and was open enough explaining stuffs

Facts of the location and history

Just as a disclaimer, you may find better and precise facts about Mayan history, but I am brain dumping some interesting stuffs that I heard from the guide and key takeaways according to me. Hence here we go. Mayans are a set of folks who originated around the vicinity of Chichen itza and the current descendants of that group of people are the ones who are short people who work pre-dominantly work in the hotel and tourism industry in and around the city of Cancun.  As simple put forth by the guide as much as we come from various religious cultural backgrounds assigned some duty or profession by means of our culture, yet we immigrate and transform to get to a job which earns our living and matches our interest.

Mayans believed in few stuffs

1. As much as many of us believe in we get energy from god, they believed god needs energy from humans
2. They believed in nature as god rather than any people worship or any other factious figure
3. They believed in astronomy and had many architectural raises based on which their whole life revolved, there still exists around 29 different buildings each marking about when to plant, when to wage war, when to worship the sun god etc…
4. The main building is the Temple of Sun, which is the place the mayans used to worship the sun god 8 times a day, referring to various stages of sun throughout the day, offering different stuff to the god, with the belief that they provide energy to god
5. They believed in the fact that blood is an offering made to god so that he could continue on with the cycle of life
6. To decide on whom to sacrifice, they had a game primarily like any other culture, as a fight with good with bad and decide on the team to sacrifice.

Facts about Chichen Itza

• This is a land which has abundant resource of lime stone and rocks and that’s the reason all the architectural buildings are built only with rocks and lime stone.
• The name Itza got added later when some invaders to the place, figured out some source of water and started to invite people and made it a place of worship, thus started to import various other items that they needed for their survival, essentially turning out into a super power in the locality to have control over all surrounding areas and become a bigger commerce place.
• The sun temple which is the primary figure, has four 91 steps leading to the top location which has 1 huge step uniting the steps from all the four directions, denoting 365 days of the year.
• On december 21st of every year on some particular time of the day, the sun rays fall on the serpent figure which forms the hand rails of steps of the sun temple in all directions and gives it a feel as it the serpent is live in action with shadows of the edges giving that feel
• There are 29th other buildings which are still existent which used to denote the mayans the various timings of the year like time to start plantation, when to wage war, when to harvest etc…

Our guide did explain the various scientific facts and various bogus theory that exists around the history of chichen itza, for over a period of one hour, we started with a huge group of around 25 people at the end there were only 7 people, probably many were super bored with the history of the place been explained by the guide. We had about 50 minutes for people from our group to pose and get our photographs done and some wooden carvings purchased and headed to the bus right in time for it to depart by around 1:20 PM

Lunch and the Sea hole and drive back

We boarded the bus and in another 40 minutes we were headed to lunch in some city on the way, all buildings and shops had the local architecture to speak off from its look, layout and color and what not. Purely looking like they are real old buildings built years ago. We were headed off to a local hotel, which was claimed to be offering international food, but buggers did not have anything other than bread which can be consumed. All full of beef, pork, sausages, and what not, nothing edible, after having skipped the breakfast and first glimpse of food offering for lunch all us were devastated, it was nearing 100 degree F, with beaming heat, we were even more tired. I could only find some mexican rice and salsa which I tried to have with tortilos and the saviour was the Friend banana, munched them as much as I could to fill in. Tamil managed to convince the cook inside the hotel to prepare some vegetarian fried rice and some raw banana, who came in as a saviour to the whole group, all of us loading up with what she got and got over with our lunch

We had to walk 4 blocks away to get to the bus, tried to find some curd along the way, but to avail no way to make the locals understand what it means by curd, nor did anyone have.

Within 5 mins of boarding the bus, we got down to have a look at the sea hole, which seems to be a phenomenon, primarily caused by the excessive lime stone availability in the region the sea water seems to have dissolved with limestone and causing acid reaction happening, which results in the below ground level caving in to form stalagmites and finally resulting in a sea hole. It was literally like a cave to start with, but many places were open up to the sky. Looks like there are multiple other such sea holes in the area.

We boarded back on the bus, with sweaty feel, with beaming sun at around 3:15 pm. We all were really beaten up by the heat and the deprivation of food in both breakfast and lunch, we all dozed off and at around 6:15 we were woken up to have reached the cancun city and we got dropped off at the hotel.

Some relief to our taste buds and photo consolidation

We were already on look out for dinner options, and we figured out a pitza place just opposite to our hotel, got in the hotel, freshned up and headed to the pitza place and got couple of to go orders for all of us to feast on, after a food deprived day with swiltering heat. Did not realized the pace at which we got the order to the hotel and the rate at which got over. Clearly all were super hungry. On the contrary, I felt that after overloading ourselves from varied buffet options in the previous hotel for 3 days, this looked to be a controlled diet. Had some coffee made in the room, had brief chat with all in the room and headed out to the wifi zone in the hotel to download photos for which we had paid for in couple of locations. We managed to download all of those and consolidate one huge album for the trip and had backup copies created. It was already 11 PM by then and headed to the room for the much awaited no early morning raise 8 hour sleep that night

Time away at Cancun - Day 4 - Xel Ha

Xel ha.... Amigos....

Decent sleep, grand start

For the first time in the trip, with 6 hour sleepy previous night felt much better, I am sure many within the group were equally tired or better due to some reduced physical activity the previous day or some good sleep relative to previous days.

In addition to the breakfast today we had the additional task of checking out the hotel, 3 day period at marina gets over today and we transfer to Marriott at Cancun main city. We had clear 15 minute to have breakfast, had decent varieties today and we were already half Mexican, in explaining the dish we want or give the raw materials ourselves. All that I get reminded about when I try to explain why dish, is the famous interview question ` How do you explain computer to your great grandma` . Credits to the staff, Awesome smile throughout the day and peaceful which ultimately translates to customer delight.

Long ride...Anticipation of unique rides

Today we headed to xelha a forest range with natural setup of water resources which is considered mammoth and monumental aqua set up in the world which i believe based on my guesstimate figure of more than 1500 acres. The wait to witness the marvel and solace the anticipation was a clear 1 hour and 15 minutes from our hotel. After a short pit stop of 5 minutes in a gas station we reach the destination at 9:45 am. It was already blazing sun and humid enough to persperate already.

Register, plan and accomplish

Honestly speaking we had no clue how big the park is and wasn't even sure if it's feasible to cover all the activities in a day, but upon the briefing in the bus through a video and the explanation given by the guide post arrival made us realize it was really a big park to cover in a day. We had reservations for Dolphin ride and other basic packages from the park. We did register with the basic protocol of having the all family photograph package covered which lets us take unlimited photographs throughout various locations in the park.

We had the exclusive Dolphin package paid for and some additional tweaks for relevant photos and videos. Just to mention that the dolphin ride is one in 2 places in the world where they let you be along with the dolphin, cheeking, kissing, playing around with your family for various poses, more importantly, having an almost 100 meter push by two dolphins. The more we hear the more we were excited and were looking forward to the 1:10 PM appointment with the Dolphin Family :)

Adventure Ride, Zipping…….whoosh past the water

The first ride was the adventure ride along a cable which lets you get a dip in the water, with two varieties, with a variety to sit in a fibre rope and you zip along a cable and you have your legs dipped at the end, and you end up swimming a bit to the other post. It was less risky fun activity, which also had the second variety of hanging to a pull up bar and swish along the cable and have a similar dip. It was a mediocre fun activity for adults, but kids enjoyed a lot, our junior most fellow around 3.5 years enjoyed as much as a 6 year old and a 36 year old :)

I was waiting for rest of the folks to have the ride, while I was snapping photos of them in either directions and for somebody to take over the camera and the bag that I was holding up to. I am sure all of us in the group had mixed experiences and few had delightful experiences along the adventure ride.

Short Lunch and Dolphin Experience

We had our dolphin ride scheduled for 1:10 PM and we had a clear 30 minute pit stop for all of us to finish off the lunch and head to the ride. We managed to get a decent so called international restaurant which served a majority of Mexican varieties and few of Italian. We managed to find some rice again and managed to survive with the same and topped up with our hydration pack of fruit salads, we were few minutes past the time when we huddled to the start point of the dolphin ride.

Upon arrival, were we handled the life jackets based on our sizes and had a quick 5 minute orientation about what the dolphin ride was all about, stressing the importance of living with the nature and how natural a predator the dolphin is and how much can it be domesticated enough to follow your instructions. It's amazing to hear to the fact how hard is to breed them away from their natural environment. This is one in 2 places where you are allowed to play around with the dolphins per the instructions from the trainer.

All seven of us ventured into the water on a platform to stand on for the swift sweet swimmer to swish past us and greet in all of us. It was an exhilarating experience on its first sight coming from nowhere swizzing past us. Every one of us got to interact with the dolphin, they do have standard protocols and signs to interact with the little kiddo swimmer who seem to behave as in it was super excited. You hold on the platform with crossed hands which indicates it cheek with you. Palm on palm with it facing upward indicating it to kiss you and your elevated hands for it to stand vertical and try touch your palm. Hear what… you also get to dance with the dolphin holding its fins, few were super excited and enjoying the experience thoroughly and few of us were super nervous and few crying. The first feel of the sweet little swimmer and interactions was nothing short so…… lovely.

Few of us from the group get to swim to the middle of the dolphin area swimming toward the centre and our entertainer of the day comes plays around you, making circles around you, creating whirlpool around you when all of the family holds a big circle in the middle of the water area and the most exciting part of the whole dolphin interactions is not started yet until we get on to foot push by the dolphins, One would not believe that the dolphins can be trained to do custom made things for any of the visitor beyond the usual activities that we see in some demonstrations. You get to the middle of the water area and keep your legs straight and you facing forward, and with a blow of a whistle from nowhere do these great little 2 creatures come from under water and precisely pushes from behind both your foot and accelerates at least to a 30 to 40 kmph speed for over 60 meters, what an experience was it, just short of words of the experience for myself and what it takes to train those little sweeties. You lock your knees and legs straight you get pushed for a distance and it drops off just before a bridge and you get to reach shore yourself. I am super satisfied with the overall dolphin experience myself and so were even more satisfied all among the group. It’s a definite try and NOT to me missed activity, just for the scarce availability all over the world and the unique experience the whole activity has for you.

Snorkel underwater photos, kids time…potential attempts, snack

After an awe-inspiring experience with the dolphins, we got to see the photographs taken and videos recorded during the activity, was super funny to see few of the snaps and awesome performances looking at the video. With the satisfied experience we did get the photo purchased and move onto the next activity, we were headed to snorkel photos underwater, looks like the fishes were fed with corn bits a lot and we got on to our snorkel outfit and headed into waters for photos underwater, alone and with family. There was a stationery boat just adjacent to the place, accidently went near that and witnessed a huge burst of multi-coloured fishes of all sizes, that was an awesome experience indeed.

We headed out to let have kids have some of their natural games come in, with water splashes, usual kids games, kids were stuck with the water games,  I was sitting there watching the kids play and how excited they were for some trivial activities, just make me wonder how much expectations we build up for what it means by excitement as we grow, feels so natural to have very basic and mundane expectations. We were a 50 minute away from the reporting time to the return travel, we were headed towards our locker rooms, based on the previous bad experience on missing dinner , we sneaked into one of the restaurants, fed ourselves with  enough snacks and nice latte, with all of us loaded enough with energy, went onto have our shower and dressed up and we were spot on at the bus pick up area at 5:55 PM. To sum it up it was a relatively less active yet super fulfilling day for each of us.

Travel back and share of bitter experience at the end of day

It was a hour and half ride to the hotel and it was comfortable, with filled in stomach and cool temperature was relaxing ride back to our hotel, just before we headed out to Cancun hotel to the next hotel, we had a sip of super awesome double shot lattes at the bar and we had set on a taxi with all our luggage headed to Cancun city, it was an 45 minute ride to the city, seriously discussing about the various happenings over the last few days and what to expect at the new hotel, and huge plans to eat what, relax in what ways and what not, as we speak, over a period of time, we arrive at the hotel at the Marriot in the Cancun city. Having shelled out all their energy and being fed with more than enough food, kids were fast asleep as we arrive at the hotel.

Not knowing what was in store, we were eagerly getting to the check in process at the Marriot, having the kids asleep, put them on the sofa and started the check in process, after the first few minutes, did we were informed about the coverage off costs were just for the hotel room alone and it’s a not all inclusive package, which was not what Costco Travel had promised, we went on with back and forth arguments with them at the reception, had  more than an hour worth of call with Costco travel and finally nothing came fruitful, we had to settle with just the room and the whole food from the night on till we leave had to be billed separately, much beyond the surprise, it was the feel of potentially being cheated on that too by the famous brands of Marriot and Costco, I am sure to go public and blatantly review for the worst of experience we had, with no options left since the remaining trip was scheduled from the very hotel, we settled in for the same hotel, checked in and had some rest before we head to Xichen itza.

Time Away at Cancun - Day 3 - National Reef Park Garrafon

After a super tiring day and a super late dinner the previous day, all of us were super tired and I am sure all of us were not even wanting to wake up. We had to start off the hotel at 7:45 hence all our stuffs had to be planned backward and we were done with a light breakfast and headed out to see the flora and fauna in and around the super blue waters of isla mujres at the Garrafone island

Commute to Cancun and ferry ride

We were spot on with reporting timing and we had a 50 minute commute to  the main city of Cancun. Though the seaside looks royal, the 30 km ride from our hotel to Cancun city seemed to me as any Indian suburban ride through a four lane highway connecting cities, well including the vegetation's along the route did seem to resemble in the sub-continent, maybe because of the similar temperate climates. After a 50 minute long ride we did reach the tour operator and we were right on time for the ferry to leave. While we were trying to negotiate some deals for the rides at the Garaffon, we were forced to board the ferry and speak about the deal on-board

In the first 10 minutes of the 40 minute ferry ride did we see the super alkaline super blue clear water along the ocean, we could witness the super luxury ocean view hotels with their own private beach and folks enjoying a sunny morning. It was blazing sun at around 90F and we were on top of the vessel, with abundant wind we could still feel the burns, we were asked to get to the base floor so that the ferry could cross a bridge were it was barely grazing to the top of the bridge. It was after another 30 minutes that we reached the Garaffon, we could witness from distance the folks zip lining and super crystal clear water where we could see the coral reef from a far distance underwater

Much awaited Zip Ride and few more

The main attraction at the resort being Zip ride on 3 directions right on top of the crystal clear blue waters over the reef, snorkelling, kayaking, kids pool overlooking the ocean. Far from a photogenic view it's an awesome place to be in, but the overall experience could only be rated average for the occupancy through the day and variety of activities. The first activity was to register for the zip ride for all 5 adults and a grown up kid ;) based on height measures were allowed to register for the ride. We again had to take turns per family just to make sure that each of us had enough photo and video coverage of the once in life time experience to be snapped and recorded. Though the first set of 2 of us had a long wait in the queue and unfortunately made the others wait , after over half hour wait in the queue in the blazing sun, we two started to zip past the tall trees in the first ride, second zips past over the crystal clear blue water and the third one coming along back to the spot where our friends and family were waiting for us to snap and later on take up their chance and we switch roles. It was quick but one in kind of experience, awesome view with a rush of adrenaline.

Lunch and a break..

By the time all 5 of us were done with the zip ride, it was already around 12:15 PM and it was right in time to have our lunch, then get onto the water activities for kids, women and the those daring fellas to venture into the sea for some serious inspection of species underwater :) . As usual finding some vegetarian dish to eat is a great challenge wherever you get to dine and all of us feast for a majority on the fruits to keep our body temperature down and filling with enough fluids. After a reasonably contented lunch due to some availability of edible rice with some salsa and avocado adding spice we head down to the lawn with some shamrock to leisure out and having the kids have the trampoline jumps in succession, with the kids satisfied with their hunger and wish to take onto the trampoline, we brave souls headed out to the much expected snorkelling in the fresh crystal blue waters while kids and ladies except one minding their jobs in the small pool.

Snorkelling and Kayaking

Me, Sathish and Rithvi, ventured into the snorkelling arena, trying to repeat the previous day activity and with much anticipation, today we got a wide stretch of water we could cover snorkelling, with much anticipation and excitement all 3 of us venture into the waters, after few yards we witness few fishes, but not as much as the previous day, again it was crystal clear to view till the ocean floor, but was super salty, with water oozing through the wind pipe of the snorkel and at times through the eye view, had to take too many stops to clear it on both ways. We finally reached the turnabout point near a pier were we finally witnessed quite a bunch of yellow striped fishes, when there are so many of them underwater, you feel you are part of their family, just trying to reach out to few of them and feel as part of the ecosystem, unique feel which cannot be matched. After a brief stay there, we got back to the start point after around half hour.

After that we turned in the snorkels and headed to get a kayak for each pair, I and Sathish ending up making 3 trips , covering all 7 of us for brief rides on the kayak. Kids had their first ever experience in serenity in crystal blue water on a sunny day with mild breeze with their dependable friends and parents along with them. I wish I had any such experience early on. Glad that they have a good experience and memories to cherish as years pass by. With all of us done with our turns on kayak, we had just enough time to get shower and dress and be in the queue to board the ferry back to Cancun city.

Ride back and dinner and siesta

We had to hire a taxi with not so great negotiation with overrated rental by $30, we did not want to argue with kids

 and grown up kids being tired and wanting to take some refreshment and rest. Just to rub it in, we made the taxi driver to take a pit stop at Starbucks, yeah you heard it right :) stopped to get the refreshment lattes for all who wanted, soon we started the ride , relaxing a bit with folks getting their much desired Chai after few days , I am sure it would be of some content or respite, discussing about various happenings and narration by kids on their Candid conversation through the day, we reach the hotel at 6:30 PM

With continuous overload of Mediterranean/Mexican food menu for all consecutive sessions, tried to sneak into Italian restaurant on premise which needs a reservation. Our multiple arguments and discussion did no good to us, had to settle in for the usual buffet which had limited choice for past 2 days. Luckily today's was a much better experience with having rice and getting a custom preparation of Vegetarian pasta with added spice, all of us were happy with the comparative treatment of taste buds today, with less sleep over the last night and early rise today, all hit bed early on except this night owl author who wanted to record in the experience and share it with friends

and well-wishers :)

Time Away at Cancun - Day 2 - XCaret

Having spent a leisurely time last night, all were looking forward to the eventful day, though we had a look at videos of rides before, nothing can match the true experience itself. We were all page planned for a 8:30 am start. With the planned time we were up to a decent breakfast and all set for timely start. Man.. It's a pain in the neck to explain the Spanish speaking folks anything in English, leave about explaining the ask for vegetarian food. That's a big lowlight of the dining experience

Start of an eventful day

Will all done breakfast sharp by 8:30, few minutes after we were out, came the so looking dog truck alike bus. All clipped with bands we boarded the bus and with bilingual explanation about the trip by the guide we reached the xcaret park

First of a water activity experience

With so many rides planned for day, got ourselves registered for one in world experience underwater tours and photographs  all along the route. We set om to the first ride, a underground river which goes all around the park, with all of us dressed up with life jacket and fins, we set out for the self-motored ☺ ride. Though everyone had inner fear, many of us tried to give it a try and few super hesitant to even step into the water, with a group picture after venturing into the water and there we started gliding through the flowing waters of the river solely powered by leg kicks.

With kids hanging on to the back or along the adults, we kept having the first such unique experience. After around a hour of wading through water we got to the exit returning back the swimming apparel and we were headed for yet another rarely available ride.

Sea trek it is.. Yeah baby

With kids with us, who aren't allowed for the next ride we split into two groups with different timings. One getting to finish lunch while the other group to have the unique under water experience.

The ride is called sea trek, here is how it happens, there is a 32kg weighing glass mask kind of apparatus that which is connected to oxygen supply through wires which goes on tip of your head resting on your neck with rest of the body free open to water. Slowly being taken to the world of awesome experience, you trek along a underwater iron lining, going up to 600 meters down gradually, with fishes, turtles, stingrays going around you as if they are your next door neighbour and you get to see a underwater museum along the route. Man i got to say that was one unique experience in a pristine clear water on a sunny day under water. A definite and no miss activity.

With the second group now going to the same ride, we get to manage the kids and have our share of lunch.

What next in the day?

While we were having our lunch and second group arriving after their share of unique experience, we quickly chat try decide the next activity and we head on to   spend some time off water to visit the Mayan architecture, special multilevel aviary, a unique of its kind, was merry spending time with unique of birds and water bodies along the bike within the aviary. Commendable effort put in by the real restate folks of the park to set up the unique aviary. Unique experience guaranteed, nature lovers make merry here.

Humid and back to some water activity

With the walk around the park being humid and sunny, we took some short 5 mins break and we huddled along to our next activity

Kids adventure and snorkeling

All of us being super tired, few decided to relax in the wooden chairs, kids venturing into the water instantly with their life Jacket on. After watching the kids women folklore in our group stepped in to the beach and had some fun time with their kids. With me and Sathish trying the rope walk across the beach, we were already ready for our next activity

Snorkeling and the paradise within

I am sure many of us have heard about snorkeling, but our first-hand experience at it was nothing short of awesome. Kids were super hesitant and ladies backing out of the activity, spent some time convincing Medha and trials with rethink, the remaining three of us had a beautiful view of coral reef and fishes snoozing past you, at a very arm distance. The breathing by mouth was an experience to be learnt. It was 6 pm already, time to turn in the snorkels and get ready for the magnanimous performance on local dances and skit of various Mexican cities

X caret experience in the huge amphitheater

After a daylong water extravaganza, we quickly had shower and in batches had some rest time on a shamrock for some time and headed to so called dance, but what we experienced in person was stupendous. The skits dance and oral singing was in a huge stadium that could easily accommodate a 6000 fellows. Fully light up, super awesome sound quality, the experience of the local theatre and art fellas was astonishing. There were performance from every city in that 2 hour time period which had a 10 min interval as well. We sneak out at around 8:45 , a clear 15 minutes ahead of finish time and headed slowly to our bus, we got dropped by the bus at 10:45 pm . Man a tiring day indeed!