Here is the pool that we lounged on most of the time - right smack in the middle of the pool. You never got hot because you were laying on the water - it was great!
There was lots to do. We swam, laid out, played Bingo, played shuffleboard and golf (I actually beat Darren once at each game), went on long walks through the jungle filled with wild animals (tried it at night - was the single most scariest experience of both of our lives), took cover from tropical storms, held a spider monkey, saw dolphins, sharks and a manatee, swam through an underground river made by the Mayan's, took tons of pictures of the Ruins, ate way too much food, saw lots of nightly shows and had the BEST time being with my BEST friend.
We stayed at a resort built around a Mayan village so everywhere you walked you would see these Mayan temples, alters, caves, homes, statues, everything... it was so cool. It even had an original stadium with pillars and everything where the Mayans would play fireball and some other game. We went to a "game" and watched the natives play in the stadium which was awesome. Basically they just built bleachers around it so that they could fit more spectators but it was all still in tact. Here are some of the photos we took of the Ruins near our resort and a few of the natives doing their traditional dances, chants and games.
After the picture above was taken - I went inside to take a look, only after waiting for a gigantic iguana to move out of my way, to be chased out of there by a massive bird. We both ran for our lives, and no - Darren didn't stop to save me.
Trying his best at modeling... not quite the photo shoot he probably imagined.
Part of the show... I feel bad because I don't have pictures of the heritage dances and such where they danced and sang, like the Mariachi band. I video clipped it all instead. There were about 12 different dances, all in different costumes, dancing to Mexican songs NONE of which we could understand but very beautiful.
What it looks like walking around the resort...
The golf course, well, sort of. It was more like miniature golf without all the lights, decor, traps, etc. A lot of betting happened on this green. Darren underestimated the putter in me!
Our beach front property...
The underground river. This is where we swam from the river down to the ocean in a underground cave they built to travel from the ocean to their village. It was very tight, sometimes extremely dark... only a few places opened up and you could see above - the trees and sunlight. It took 40 minutes to swim it and you could not imagine the hard work and years it must have taken. You couldn't escape because the walls of the openings where extremely tall. It was a little scary at times but very beautiful. In some openings they had alters were they gathered rain water and you could see how they tried to transport things. Too cool!
The largest greenhouse of rare and exotic flowers. This place was beautiful. I could have taken pictures of all of them but here are my favorites.
These are pictures of the wild animals I mentioned. They were free to roam around and half the time scared the crap out of us. They would just scurry across our path or fly near our heads or make interesting freaky noises. The iguanas were about the biggest things I had ever seen. They were everywhere and were huge. One time we took a narrow path to get back to our room and walked right into a tree with an iguana grasping onto it - right at eye level. So so scary - we both screamed and ran for our lives. The crab was so massive - we were just floating in the pool when Darren noticed the crab walking towards us. He got right in the pool within arms length from me. So scary again but cool to see one so big and up close. The macaws were everywhere too - mostly picking at each other but there were perches everywhere throughout the resort so you couldn't miss them. There were others animals too but more were too quick to take pictures of.
Funniest moment on the trip. The workers used these bikes that were used in the movie Nacho Libre - well Darren wanted to ride one so bad so he asked a couple of Mexicans if he could take it for a spin. I videotaped him coming around the corner yelling "NACHO" just like in the movie - it was so funny and everyone around was laughing but the best part was when the concierge caught him and came after him. Check out the video.
If you couldn't tell - we had the best time. Very relaxing, very beautiful, very humid - had never experienced that before.
Me and my best friend! Can't wait for the next trip!
