The Yucatan was amazing!! We stayed at this place called Xpu-Ha Palace which is a 5 diamond resort placed in the middle of an animal sanctuary. It was set right on the beach. It was the exact definition of paradise. We stayed in a bungalo style hut that was separated in. Even though everything was outdoors, we definitely were not roughing it. The resort sits ocean side but is shielded from seeing anything outside its walls with thick brush and trees. We had to search our way to the beach but loved every minute of it.
This a our bungalo. Amazing huh? These pictures do it no justice. It had to be just like Adam & Eve, except there were other people around serving us all day. I guess Adam & Eve could not say that. We also ate a lot of forbidden fruit. When we ordered fruit from room service, we expected kind of like a plate of cut fruit. No, it was whole gigantic grapes, mangoes, and papaya on steroids. We ate so many of them for breaky, lunch, & dinner. This was all inclusive which made the forbidden fruit taste even better.
Ok, so snorkeling story. There was this tiny reef inlet at the resort that people could canoe or snorkel in. It had this huge tree in the middle of it. The roots from this tree took up so much space and made the water really dark and mysterious. Avery jumped in without me and took off around this huge tree under the water. I waited until I could see him again before I jumped in. When he came back to see me, he told me that behind the tree seemed really creepy and dark and that I should go check it out. (so protective of me isn't he.) So I blew it off and told him he was just afraid. I started to search and explore around this reef and tree when all of the sudden this HUGE fish was starring me in the face. I am not kidding. He was about the size of a cow with now legs and his face was literally 2 feet from mine. I screamed in my mask and proceeded to swim backwards faster than I have ever swam in my life. By the time I got turned around I was almost walking on water. Avery was up on the dock laughing so hard. He said he has never seen anyone swim that fast in their life. I think I flew up on the dock instead of climbing up. I told him about this fish by holding my arms out as far as I could to show him the size of the beast. He totally cracked up and said I was exaggerating and there was no such thing. He was waving his hands as if to blow me off while laughing still histerically at my olympic style swimming. I told him that I was not making it up, that this thing was seriously as big as me if not bigger. My heart was still pounding from the look in the fish's eye as he swam up to me almost as if to say "Hey, what's up!" He didn't look mean but still just his mere size and stare was enough to make me pee my swimming suit and now here was Avery so beside himself with the vision of this fiasco and fictional fish story. I was just starring at him like how was I going to convince him of this thing. I told him to go in there and check it out. He said he was done but I think deep down inside he was just afraid. Just then, this guy comes around the corner and asks "Hey. did you see the Manitee in there?". I looked at Avery as his moking came to an abrupt stop. His eyes went wide and his gaze went from me to the reef. I told him I could not believe that he would believe a complete stranger over his own wife. Even though the guy informed us that they were docile and didn't mind people, Avery never got in that water again the whole trip. I still see this fish's eyes in my sleep. I was like both of us were just minding our own business and just happen to bump into each other in the dark. It was pretty funny.
The hairy legs are mine. So sexy.
This pic was taken at Xel-Ha (shell ha). It was pretty much a massively huge reef made into a snorkel, scuba dive park just behind Talum (old mayan ruins). I have never seen anything like this place in my life. It was about 10 miles in circumference and so much to do. There was cliff jumping, snuba, scuba, rope swings, tubing, swim with the dolphins, etc. I mostly just loved the beauty of it as you will never see anything this beautiful in the states. There are more pics in the album below.
We also visited one of the seven wonders of the world, Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is a mayan ruin city. It was very educational and seeing things like this helps us whity american's gain a better appreciation for Mexico and the Mayan (Which actually is vastly different). Anyway, I can not even explain all that we visited here because there was so much of it. So if you are interested in learning more, click on this link: http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/chichen/chichen_index.html
We also went to a place called Coba, which is a mayan ruin as well, just not a city such as Chichen Itza. However, Coba has the tallest tower in the world and we actually got to climb that one. It was just like the stairmaster only hotter. Too bad my camera died. The only regret about our visit to these cities was that there were Mormon tours for each of them and we did not know. Apparently there is quite a bit of LDS history with the ancient cities of the Yucatan.
