A Post From Mexico

Buenas tardes!

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I'm sitting in the gorgeous lobby of our resort, catching up on some correspondence, and I thought I'd do a little blogging.

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Today is our second full day in Mexico. Our travels went off without any problems, and we are loving our resort. It's called the Catalonia Royal Tulum and its in the town of Xpu Ha (near Playa del Carmen.)

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Here's what you see of our resort looking back from the beach.

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The beach to the left of the resort
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The beach to the right
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The pool and "La Palapa" (Where they serve lunch)
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The pathways here are surrounded by vegetation - It's gorgeous (and also very handy when the sun is beating down on you!)

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One of many, many iguanas that inhabit the area. "Mexican Chicken" as our bus driver called it. Yum!

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One of the "cenotes" (a natural sinkhole) at our resort.

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We woke up early yesterday morning to watch the sunrise on the beach. Does life get any better than this?

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Before we left, we paid for one excursion that we really wanted to take - to Chichen Itza. The old Mayan Ruins in the state of Yucatan. It's about 2 hours from our resort. When we arrived on Friday, we chatted with our Apple Agent here and found out that due to slow tourism (thank you swine flu) there were only 2 tours available during our stay - One was the day after we arrived, and the other - the day before we leave. We decided to go for the earlier date. Unfortunately, that made for 2 really long days in a row . . . but it was worth it!

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The Temple of Kukulcan - one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. These people really knew something about acoustics (or were accidentally really lucky) If you stand at the base of the stairs on the North side, and then clap, it makes a vary interesting sound. Not an echo, like you might expect, but the sound of the native Quetzal bird. They believed that the sound was Kukulcan speaking to them.

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The temple of the warriors - this is where they did their human sacrifices (Mostly children ages 10-14). On the top, between the 2 pillars you can barely make out a statue. This is Chac Mool. The intercessor. They would put their sacrifices in the bowl on his belly and they belived that he brought it to the gods.

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A better picture of Chac Mool. I didn't take this one (I found it on the internet). Since acheiving the "7 Wonders of the Modern World" status a few years ago, no one is allowed to climb any of the ruins.

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One set of stairs outside of the ball court. The steps are literally taller than they are deep.
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A snake head, decorating the ball court.

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The ball court. Yes, the Mayas had their own sport. Kind of a combination of soccer and basketball. But it wasn't played for recreation. Just once a year they would play (after training their entire life). The captain of the winning team was decapitated. Some incentive to win, huh? They considered it and honor and a sacrifice to the gods. They believed it would bring them a fruitful growing season.

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This is one that you really need to click on to see well. (Again, not my picture) It's a carving that is carved into the side of the ball field. On top is a painting showing roughly what the carving shows. Two teams facing each other. One captain holding the head of the other. 7 snakes coming out of the neck of the decapitated captain, along with plants, flowers and fruit.

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Chichen Itza is covered with carvings similar to this, though different in subject matter. These people had no metal tools. It was all done with stone.

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After Chichen Itza, we were taken for a buffet lunch, and enjoyed some Mayan dancing.

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Our last stop on our excursion was "El Cenote." Another natural sink hole. This one is HUGE! The water is 150 ft. deep. You have to walk down 90 steps to get to the water table, and then you can swim in it. We passed on the swimming - too tired!! This is the view from the top. Those are roots that you see hanging down.
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They had a couple of stopping places on the way down, and this is the view from one of them. It was very cool!

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Today has been spent in ultimate laziness! It's been wonderful. Sleeping in a bit, lounging by the pool with a good book. For lunch, we enjoyed a great buffet in "La Palapa" where we were seated with a beach view (See below). We enjoyed yummy food, a great view and a nice breeze. It was heavenly!

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Next on the to-do list: snorkeling. Time to go get changed. More to come . . .