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.
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