We took our customary 6 a.m. flight to Houston, grabbed a quick burger at Ruby's, then on to Cancun. The airport was not at all what I'd expected. Most times I've flown to Mexico or to Central America, we've disembarked via rolling staircases (think Burbank, only hot and humid). Cancun has the same cool jetway gizmos most of our major airports have.
After very successfully and smoothly gathering our luggage and winning the "you don't get searched" lottery in customs (I'm serious -- we had to push a button to find out!), we discovered that we had to run a gauntlet of salespeople to get out of the airport. "Your tour only includes Tulum -- Ours has Tulum AND Xelha!" We escaped unscathed and managed to find our pre-arranged transportation folks - Chaza Travel, owned by Palace Resorts. After cramming ourselves and our luggage into a wonderfully air-conditioned van, we headed south for our various resorts.
I remember the other folks on the van by which beers they bought at the stop at a convenience market we convinced our driver to make. Mr & Mrs Corona were from Angels Camp, and Mr & Mrs Bud Light were from somewhere else -- but they owned 200 weeks at Aventura Spa Palace. I still can't figure out why on earth anyone would buy 200 weeks of...basically a timeshare. I guess they could live there for nearly four years. Of course, you've still got to pay the "all-inclusive" fee which is around $2000 per week. Wow. A bargain. I keep thinking they could probably have bought a "real" condo and actually have something to show for their money. And who on earth goes to Mexico and drinks Bud Light? But, I digress. We drank Tecate. There must have been another couple, but I apparently have forgotten them completely. And I'm out of kinds of beer. [edit: the other couple drank Dos Equis!]
Aventura Spa Palace was our first stop -- It's absolutely genormous. We found out later it's got a zillion rooms (1266). Huge. Totally huge -- did I mention huge? Really quite beautiful and lush, it's also an adults only resort.
We were the only two left, so we knew our stop was next: Xpu-ha Palace. It has a luscious open-air lobby with a soaring thatched roof. We were greeted with glasses of champagne. This is my kind of place! We also discovered we'd been mispronouncing the name for months. It's "esh poo HAH." The "sh" is really soft, but not quite just an "s".
Then we sat down with the cruise director -- that's not his title, but that's what he did -- and scheduled some of our tours for the week. They were included with the "all-inclusive" package, so we needed to sign up quickly while there was still room available. We also got signed up to hear the big Palace Resorts "sales pitch" in exchange for a bunch of free stuff: $100 in Resort Bucks, and $200 in spa services.
Then, it was off to our room. Xpu-ha has a lot of acres, but not a lot of units. 144, I think. There are clusters of villas, each with an upstairs and downstairs unit. We oohed and aahed over our in-room jacuzzi, then headed off to find some dinner. I knew this was an ecological preserve, but knowing and seeing are different things! We managed to find a couple of crocodiles, zillions of turtles, and some flamingos in their respective habitats on our way to dinner.
There are two restaurants and a grill on property. Of course, being an all-inclusive, we had our magic bracelets which got us everything, including drinks. Our favorite restaurant quickly became the Italian one (Ragazzi), and our favorite waiter was Filiberto.
Sunday
We slept a bit late -- we're on vacation! We re-visited all the animals, and discovered some more, on the way to and from breakfast. Our villa was very near the aviary and the deer park. Our only "planned" activity today was the big sales pitch. It took place at Aventura Spa Palace, so we planned to lunch there and try out their pool, and maybe beach, after the pitch. The sad thing is I dropped my camera in the parking lot (the Nikon that used to be Bobby's), and it hasn't worked since. Of course, I blew the most expensive part, the sensor. Thank goodness I've still got the Canon and it's still working great. Note to self: buy a neck strap.
We survived the pitch -- somehow 50 weeks went from $75,000 to 80 weeks and $12,000. I don't get the numbers, but the more I think about them, the less logical they get. I still don't get the bargain, when you've still got to come up with airfare AND that pesky all-inclusive fee every time you visit.
The lunch restaurant was over a couple of bridges over the pool(s?). The pools were packed and there was a DJ directing activities -- the one I saw on the way by was some sort of putting contest. Lunch was a lovely buffet with lots of choices, and of course, we had our magic bracelets which were good at any Palace Resort. After having viewed the zoo that was the pool, we decided to retreat back to our quiet Xpu-Ha.
It's my first experience with a swim-up bar, and they're really great. Whenever we'd get too hot, we'd just slide off the stools and swim a bit, then come back all refreshed.
Monday
Today we toured Chichen Itza (Chee-chen-eatza). Way bigger than Copan, and really in beautiful condition. I have no idea how the various restorations were done, but it looks truly amazing. We never made it to the old part -- took a wrong turn, and ended up at the hotel, then just ran out of time. It's a long drive -- about 3 hours each way, so we only had 2.5 hours total at the ruins. We had nearly an hour on our own after our guided tour.
We actually did turn on the TV once to see where Hurricane Felix was headed. I'm really glad we're not at CoCoView in Roatan. They got evacuated, and most of them ended up going home.
Tuesday
If this is Tuesday, it must be Tulum. Tulum is the only Mayan ruin on a coast. It was crazy hot and humid. We'd learned from yesterday, so each had brought a hand towel to sop up the sweat.
Our tour took all morning, so we'd scheduled some of our spa treatments for the afternoon. While K got a pedicure, I got a full massage and facial. My first of either. Very, very relaxing. The spa had the most delicious. light herbal fragrances wafting about, and the most soothing music I've ever heard in my life. I headed off to the aqua bar to wait while K had his scalp massage. We were both as relaxed as rubber bands after that!
We joined two couples we'd met on the tour this morning for dinner. They're from Tulsa, all went to high school together, and were celebrating their 50th and 51st anniversaries together. After dinner, we headed for the lobby. The ladies and I all sang Karaoke. Fun times!
Wednesday
We'd originally planned to schedule a couple of boat dives, but after three straight days of touring and activities, we decided to take a day off. We slept WAY late, then spent the day drifting from bar to pool to bar to lounge chairs to lobby to restaurant.
I had some more camera issues. Stupid ones, this time. I ran out of room on my memory card, so decided to go through and delete duplicate shots, fuzzy shots, etc. When I got home, I discovered I'd deleted everything. I have no idea how I managed that.
So I've got shots from Saturday and Sunday before I dropped the Nikon, and Wednesday through Saturday, after I erased the Canon. Completely lost the two most photogenic days. Hopefully, I'll be able to snag some of K's best shots later to share.
Thursday
Today was cenote diving day! I tell you, If I'd seen the DVD first, no way could you have gotten me down in those caverns. On the other hand, night diving should be no problem at all after this!
Picture yourself in ... say ... Carlsbad Caverns with stalactites and stalagmites and other cool rock formations. Then, picture that it's entirely full of water and you're swimming through wearing your scuba gear. There were no really tight squeezes -- I'd say even the skinny passages were no narrower than three or four feet. I always focus on not hitting my tank during those situations, which keeps me too occupied to be nervous.
The one place that very nearly freaked me out was the air dome. We swim up to this area where there's about 3' of air between us and the top (with bunches of tiny stalactites). It just felt plain wrong to take my respirator out and drift up there. That was the only time I was aware of the current, and it kept pushing me where I didn't want to go. That's the one place where I felt a bit claustrophobic and really felt like I was underground. Okay. A lot claustrophobic. Fortunately, I don't "do" panic.
We dove two different parts of the same system: KuKulKan and Chac Mool. Each dive took one tank and about 40 minutes. The freakiest thing was the halocline -- where salt and fresh water meet and mingle. It was like my mask had been fitted with frosted glass, or there was seriously funny gas in my tank. Fortunately, we'd been warned to expect it! By the way, the special finning technique referred to in the halocline article is a frog kick. I'd almost forgotten until I read it. Under normal circumstances, one uses a flutter kick, but the frog kick is less likely to stir up silt and mess up visibility for everybody.
After we returned from our excellent adventure and had some lunch, I headed off for a much-earned pedicure!
Friday
We were (as usual) the first on the bus, and the only "tourees" from Xpu-ha. There was a bit of confusion loading folks at Aventura Spa Palace, making us triply grateful we weren't staying there. After everything was sorted out and the bus was full, we were on our way. Today we'd signed up for the Paradise Snorkel trip. During the trip we got the sales pitch for all the other activities that were available, too, and that we could bill to our room. We ended up also choosing to ride ATVs and a Wave Runner. The snorkel part was only about an hour long, so we had a lot of time to fill. We rode the ATV (following a guide) for about 40 minutes, then followed another guide on our wave runner for about 45 minutes more. Both were fun, but I think the wave runner was coolest.
Our lunch at the Paradise resort was included, too. A couple of musicians came and serenaded us, and we got a couple of complementary (gosh, you look nice!) shots of tequila. Which I sipped and enjoyed! We took it easy on lunch, because we knew we wanted to have a large dinner and enjoy all our favorites one last time.
Saturday
Everything went smooth as clockwork -- we'd ordered a room-service breakfast to have out on the deck because of our early departure. We didn't get to eat too much of it; however, because we were scrambling to finish packing. We did manage to leave a bag of T-shirts up on the top shelf, but the resort is shipping them to us. We got to the airport and through security THREE HOURS before our flight, so we were able to enjoy a long and leisurely breakfast at Margaritaville, then watched planes taking off and landing for another hour or so. About half an hour before boarding, we went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to have a couple of drinks for "the road."
We had about four hours in Houston, so were able to enjoy a delightful dinner at one of our very favorite restaurants: Pappadeaux.
One of my bags (the big one, of course) took the scenic route home, but I got it back on Sunday. I'd last seen it in Cancun. When we collected our bags in Houston, it was nowhere to be found.
