The Honeymoon is over

This morning I woke up before Rod and watched him sleeping. I am so sad that we have to go back to the real world where I have to share him. It has been SO nice having undivided time with him these last two weeks. I was really worried about traveling with Rod before we started this trip. He has not really been out of the U.S. before. (We don't count Cabo since they speak English and take dollars). And he has never travelled without an itinerary and reservations. But I think I am starting to convert him (and I hope that within a few years, he will be a veteran international traveler).

On our last day, we stayed in bed for as long as we could. Then we had just enough time to stop at our favorite gelato bar--Cool--before catching the ferry back to Cancun. Our two-hour wait in the airport was the most time we spent in Cancun during the entire trip. We still managed to make it to the essential Cancun experience: Margaritaville.

It was bittersweet coming home. I am so excited to start our lives together, but I wish I could have another week of Rod all to myself.

Isla: My Birthday Outing

Today started much the same as the day before . . . with Rod singing to me. Instead of "Happy Birthday to you," he changed the words to "Happy Birthday observed." It was cute. To celebrate, Rod had booked us a trip on a boat to swim with the whale sharks. We had initially planned on swimming with dolphins, but after hearing about this opportunity, we just couldn't resist. Besides, you can swim with dolphins at most resort towns and they are in tanks. Swimming with whale sharks would be a much more wild and (hopefully) animal friendly experience.



Picture courtesty of ZooZoo2


It was magnificent and these photos (and the video we took) do not do it justice. The whalesharks are humongous, the size of a bus at least, and they were EVERYWHERE! Our captain stopped counting when he got to 29. Every time we turned around there was a new whaleshark surfacing. The captain would drive the boat up close to a shark, and the three people "on deck" would jump in with their snorkel gear and swim as fast as they could towards it. When it was our turn, I could not believe how much bigger the sharks looked up close. There were three of us swimming in a single file line and we still did not cover the full length. It was a bit unnerving looking over to see those huge gills and an eye starring right at you. The water was so clear we could see everything down to the sharks spotted belly. Eventually the shark would swim away, and we would either swim to another whale or get back on the boat to wait for our next turn. We spent the whole morning doing this and it never got old (though my legs did get FRIED despite the fact that I constantly applied 50 SPF).

According to wikipedia, the whaleshark is the largest living fish species. They can grow up to 40 feet and weigh up to 15 tons. The sharks can live up to 70 years and are believed to have originated about 60 million years ago. They are filter feeders so we did not have to worry about getting eaten, we just had to watch out for their gigantic tails. We were careful not to touch them, but a couple members of our group were touched by the sharks. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done and made for an unforgettable birthday.

On the way back, we stopped for some snorkeling. The water was crystal blue and (much) better than the diving we have encountered here. I'm not sure if it is because we are in a class or whether our divemaster just does not know or have the patience to take us to good spots, but we have been underwhelmed with diving here. The snorkeling was much better, and we even saw dolphins. Rod jumped in to swim with them just as they swam away.

While we were swimming our captain made us ceviche. It was SO good. I cannot say enough great things about the company that took us out. Now if only I could remember their names!

As we docked, we noticed our divemaster setting up another boat and decided to hop on with him to finish our last dive (rather than wait until later that afternoon). This dive was our buoyancy dive. It was a better location than our previous dive, but because there was a girl in our group who totally freaked out, we spent most of our time (and air) sitting in one place waiting for the divemaster to return. At least there was pretty coral and it was our last dive. I never thought I would say I was glad to be done diving, but the Isla diving experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't help either that I fried myself lobster red. At least I saved the too-painful-to-walk sunburn until our last full day.

Check it out. LOL!

We got back just in time to watch an incredible sunset before catching our 8 p.m. reservation at Olivia's, the new and very popular Mediterranean restaurant. It was overrated, but we had a very romantic birthday dinner.

Are you Happy? Then it is happy hour.

I woke up to the rare sound of Rod singing . . . Happy Birthday to me! I am officially 28 (old, I know). Rod planned something really special to celebrate, but, due to scheduling problems with our dive class, we decided to postpone our celebration. With the way my stomach was feeling, it was probably better that way. Damn you ceviche!

We were supposed to start the day with a wreck dive, but the coast guard waylayed those plans. They were doing something with the wreck and would not let anyone else dive there. We went in search for another wreck, but, alas, we did not find it. Instead, we just went deep where there was nothing interesting to see and did some sign language to make sure we didn't get nitrogen narcosis. I did okay, but Rod was a bit loopy. On the way back, we saw some tuna, dolphins, and a huge turtle.

Closer to shore, we did a photography dive. I was really excited to try my hand at water photography, but the water was so silty it was impossible to see. By the time I could see the fish, my turn was over. Here are a few of the pictures:



Here are what the pictures should have looked like:

(These are pictures taken in the same place by someone who knows what they are doing.)

I have not been impressed with the diving here. I'm not sure if it is the area or the dive instructor. It has been so frustrating because I made Rod get certified before he came. I wanted him to have an amazing time and get addicted like I am.

Isla Day 2

Our first full day in Isla started with a stroll on the beach. We set up right in front of our hotel and swam out to a sand bar. The water was an incredibly clear and blue.






After lunch at Cafe Rolandi (which was really great at the time, but I suspect the source of my illness the next day), we went to the first two dives of our advanced certification. The dives were only okay. We did not see much. We were supposed to do a navigation dive and a night dive, but they both ended up being night dives. One just happened to be with a compass. We passed the navigation dive even though we were completely lost. By the time we set up, it was too dark to see the compass. Our instructor chose to look the other way. The night dive was better because they gave us flashlights. We still did not see much marine life. The phospholuminesent phytoplankton was really cool though. The water lit up like a night sky every time you waved your hand.

It was late when we got back to Isla. We got a quick and tasty bite to eat at a place with meat on a spit. Rod had been eyeing the meat spit ever since we arrived in Isla.

Goodbye Cancun, Hello Isla

It was bittersweet checking out of our hotel in Vallodolid. Our next stop was Cancun on our way to our final destination: Islas de Mujeres. We took a heart-stopping drive through Cancun in search of the car rental place. We cleared the car out, only to fill it back up after the rental place guy offered to take us to the ferry. After all the crazy moments driving over the last week, the last five minutes in Cancun were the scariest of the whole trip: we almost hit a lot of other cars and a biker, went down a one-way street, the wrong way. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the ride was over.

The ferry ride over was uneventful. We were a bit skeptical, though, when we saw the crowd. It looked a little too much like the Cancun tourist trap we were trying to avoid. The scene when we arrived was not promising either. But we made our way to to Cabanas Maria del Mar, which was far enough from the crowds but not too far from the good food and (our favorite Gelato bar: Cool).

After taking a nap and settling into our new homebase, we walked around the main street to check out all the restaurants and dive shops. By the end of our walk, we had signed up for an advanced dive course. It looks like our last four days weren't going to be as relaxing as we thought. We had a romantic meal at the water's edge at Zazil Ha. The location was great, the food was underwhelming. Then we settled in for an early night.

Ek Balam: the last ruins

The next morning we got an early start to Ek Balam. It would be the last (but not least) of the ruin sites we visited. I loved that we had the place almost to ourselves (there was just one crazy guy from Connecticut, biking his way across the Yucatan). After climbing up the tallest tower, we took a walk around one of the unexcavated ruins, which looks just like any other tree-covered mountain. There were butterflies everywhere. And we saw this incredibly strange animal that looked like a cross between a squirrel and a rabbit. It had a squirrel's tail, but it hopped like a bunny. We were so confused until the guy at the information desk told us it was a mongoose. One of the neat features about Ek Balam is that they have renovated some of the towers to show what they would have looked like. The designs were so intricate.




After the ruins, we headed to what would also be our last Cenote, Dzitnup. It was good ce-note to end it on. There were lots of stalagtites, tree roots, and bats.


On our way out, we checked out this really incredible cave. It had really cool formations and a "window" overlooking the water.

Vallodolid

Next to Campeche, Vallodolid was our favorite town on the Yucatan. It is midway between Chichen Itza and our final ruin destination, Ek Balam. We arrived late in the afternoon after visiting Chichen Itza. We spent most of the afternoon enjoying the food at our hotel, napping, and walking around the town. There is a super art deco central plaza that looks out of place surrounded by the colonial cathedral and museum.


The plaza was surrounded by vendors. We saw this really curious fruit, a pitahaya, that we had to try. It reminded me a lot of kiwi.




We walked to see a cenote, but it was a little feo (and we got attacked by flesh-eating ants . . . twice).

The food at our hotel was so superb, we ate there again for dinner and breakfast the next day. The hotel itself was really neat too. It is a colonial building overlooking the central plaza. We could have stayed here a few more days, but, alas, we had to return our rental car to Cancun and head to our final destination.

Uxmal to Chichen Itza

After a couple of detours . . .


Rod and I made it to Chichen Itza. Even though it isn't much of a town, we decided to stay there to get an early start to the ruins.

The next morning, we were the second car in line when the gates opened. We were the first people at the pyramid and were lucky enough to get photos without herds of people in front of it.




This ruins site was really spread out and had some really cool features. According to the guide book, this is one of the few Mayan sites that has non-Mayan architecture. There is a long road to a sacred cenote where human sacrifices took place, a huge (muddy) ball court, the Palace of A Thousand Warriors (with a thousand columns),
the church, the castle, and an observatory. The carvings were incredible. There was one building with a different skull carved in each stone to symbolize the lives of the enemies they had conquered. It was not our favorite site, too many tourists, but it is easy to see why it is one of the most popular ruin sites.






We were finished exploring right as it started raining. It was warm enough, though, that we went for a swim anyway in a very cool with natural underwater tunnels.