Playa Del Carmen
I found out that if we walk a short distance to a Starbucks we can get a half hour of free internet connection, so I am entering what I wrote in my journal so those 3 or 4 of you who read my blog can see what we've been up to.
Wed June 17, 2009
We got up very early—maybe 4:45 this morning because our instructions said to get to the airport 3 hours before departure for international flights. We left home close to 6 a.m. for our flight, which was scheduled to leave at 9:40 a.m. I think we were the first ones there for our flight. The flight went smoothly. Everyone is very organized. I think this is going to be a good trip.
I was kind of disappointed to find out that they do not have any internet access at the hotel. A tried to call on my cell. The phone rang, but when I picked it up, the call would not come through. I got a message about roaming, but I didn't think her call was an emergency, so I haven’t figured out how to use roaming. It would be pretty expensive just to say hi. Ken and I had a buffet dinner, and walked down to the beach just to see how close it is. It looks beautiful! We can’t wait to go swimming tomorrow. The hotel has a show of some kind every night here. Tonight it was about pirates. They had greetings at the beginning of the show in Spanish, English, Dutch, French, Italian, and German. There were people in the audience that spoke each of those languages. The show was mostly dancing to various songs to tell the pirate story. The dancers were really quite good. It is interesting to see some of the actors in the play working around in the hotel now.
Ken and I were definitely VERY TIRED by the end of the day. We both slept very soundly.
Thurs June 18, 2009
Since this “land cruise” was advertised as a Book of Mormon Land Cruise, they have a lecture at 9 a.m. and one at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday about why those who are lecturing think that the Book of Mormon activities occurred in Meso and Central America. It has been very interesting so far. The person who has been speaking is Bro. Wayne Brickey. He is very knowledgeable about both Bible and Book of Mormon research. The other speaker will be Bro. Jack Marshall. He and his wife, Liz, are the main contact people for the trip.
We have had lots of activities from which to choose today. After the lecture this morning, and breakfast, we signed up to go to Xcaret tomorrow. It will be kind of expensive, but it sounds like a fun, full day. Today we looked at the activities that the hotel offers. They have various exercise opportunities, like a beach walking, water aerobics, and step aerobics and dance classes. Then they have stuff like Spanish classes (they just taught stuff like numbers and colors), and bingo, table tennis and various other games. We missed the actual beach walk, but we went for a walk along the beach on our own. Ken complained that he couldn’t talk to me because I was always ahead of him (he walks way slow). We swam in the ocean and in the pool and sat in a whirlpool for a while. The weather has been absolutely beautiful—even perfect. The ocean is a perfect temperature. The water depth averages probably 5 feet or so in the area right behind the hotel and it was fun to walk out and bob up and down with the waves. The swimming area is protected by a type of berm that they have built with what looks like huge black bags of sand. Beyond the berm there were ski jets, sailboats, parasailing that we could see people doing. The parasailing looked very fun, but it is rather expensive, and we decided to do the trip to Xcaret instead.
They have a gym with treadmills and stationary bikes and various weight machines. Of course Ken wanted to try out the sauna. I went with him for about 5 minutes and had had enough of that! We got brief archery lessons and got to shoot a few arrows. My arrows tended to go quite far to the left of the target, but toward the end I got a couple actually on the target. You are supposed to hold the bow with your left hand and pull the string with the right arm up at shoulder level. Well, unfortunately that is the shoulder I injured, and I haven’t been very consistent in strengthening it.
After the evening Book of Mormon lecture we thought about going to see the comedy show they have tonight, but I decided that the activities of the day are wearing me out. I think I’ll sleep well tonight too.
Fri June 19, 2009
Our major activity for today was going to Xcaret. We decided to wait until after the Book of Mormon lecture and so we left directly thereafter. We got there by taxi--$14 plus $2 tip. Interestingly, it only cost $11 on the way back. We started out with floating down the underground rivers with life jackets and snorkeling equipment. It was a very hot, humid day, so it felt good to get in the slightly cool water. We came out a fair distance away from the start, so we saw a number of things while we were trying to find our way back. We bought a deluxe pass that included a locker, a towel, snorkeling equipment, a buffet lunch with drinks (we just wanted purified water), entrance into the underground river float, and what they called the Paradise river raft ride. Paths wound around so that there were many ways to get places, which made it easy to get lost. Here is a list of the things we saw: The coral reef aquarium, Jaguar Island, Butterfly Pavilion, Mayan Village, Flying Men, Flamingos, the Underground Rivers, Paradise River Raft Ride, Xcaret Mexico Espectacular, Edible Mushroom Farm (no samples given), The Tapir’s Territory, Deer Shelter, The Main Plaza and gift shop, Pre-Hispanic ball Game, the Bat Cave, St. Francis of Assisi Chapel, and the Cementerio Mexicano del Pueblo Maya.
Some of these may need a little more explanation.
The flying men were 5 men who climbed up a very tall pole. One beat a drum and danced on top while the others wound ropes around the pole. Then the 4 attached the ropes to their feet and spun through the air around the pole as it unwound.(I took some videos) It was really quite interesting to watch. The ball games were also very interesting to watch. It was toward the end of the day and the arena was packed with spectators. We almost didn’t get a place to sit. There was a lot of pageantry to begin with. Then they played with a ball that we hear was 15 lb of pure rubber. It looked about the size of a soccer ball from where we sat. The players could only knock the ball with their hip or upper thigh. Then they would try to get it through the hoop up on the side of slanted surfaces by just getting the ball up the sides and through the hoop with their hips. It is hard to describe but really quite interesting. Then they played a game with a ball that was lit on fire and wooden sticks that looked kind of like hockey sticks from where we were. It was very interesting to see them batting the fireballs up and down the field. Hopefully my video of this isn't too far away to tell what is happening.
The Mexico Espectacular was the very last activity of the day and again it was packed. And again we almost didn’t get a seat. We finally ended up at the very back of the tarp-covered outdoor theater sitting on the top of the back wall. I’m almost surprised they let us sit there, because there was a very long drop from that wall to the ground below. They had some wonderful traditional Mexican dances and costumes. Ken says he even remembers when I took a Mexican dance class in college and he attended a concert we presented at the end of the semester. Some of the dances reminded us of that.
The cemetery was on a big hill sort of like a pyramid. They say that the people celebrate death, so they make a monument to the person who as died. There were a number of rather elaborate monuments there and the whole hill was covered with them. Very interesting. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me when we saw this.
Sat. June 20, 2009
We thought for sure we would wake up in time for the B of M lecture by ourselves this morning, so we didn't ask for a wake-up call. However, we both must have been very tired, because we didn't wake up until after the lecture was over. I am again disappointed because that means we missed two lectures, the one last night when we were at Xcaret and this morning. Oh well, I guess we can't do everything.
Tomorrow we will be on the bus all day visiting 3 different archeological sites and we will end up in a hotel next to Chichen Itza. I doubt that we will have access to the internet the rest of the trip, so I'll have to post the rest of the story when we get back.
posted by Butterfly Kisses at 10:14 AM
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