Ryan and I had a big adventure outside of Cancun in January. The area is called the Mayan Riviera and is filled with luxury resorts. We stayed at the Fairmont Mayakoba, courtesy of ResMed. I was one of a few corporate "President Selections" to join the President's Club, the top 15% of our sales force, who get an all expenses paid trip with the company President, CEO and other top leadership. It was the trip of a lifetime.
While it was hard to decide to leave the boys (Levi was only five months), Carol was so reassuring, and each time we called, Luke told us he was "too busy playing to talk," which was actually a welcome remark. And before you judge me too much, know that I took the four months before the trip to save 70 bags of frozen milk! Viva La Leche!
A picture of the property which has a river running through it - you could take boats to get to various destinations in the resort.
The first day ResMed rented a private beach complete with all kinds of activities - SeaDoos, horseback riding, ATVs, volleyball, hiking, and of course, lots of food!
You won't believe this part, but we rode right through the former Gilligan's Island movie set - this was the beach where it was filmed!
We had an AMAZING time on the ATVs - I was the trusting passenger!
We rode to a beautiful cenote - these are places where the underground river water has become exposed because the rock ceilings, which we know as the ground, break out and sink to the bottom, creating these water holes, which are considered sacred.
Here are some of my colleagues and their guests gathered around the cenote.
On another day we did an extremely adventurous excursion to a Mayan Village which we kick started with canoeing.
We then hiked out to a ledge where we zip-lined over a cenote named Caiman, or alligator, for what we thought was no particular reason.
Turns out there was a great reason why it was named after Alligators! And probably why our guide said don't fall in! Don't know if you can see the alligator floating over the fallen log . . .
Before going into the cenote a Mayan priest had to bless us first so that we didn't contaminate their ancestors holy water.
We rappelled 70 feet into this cenote where there are at least 2 ancient skeletons who were laid to rest at this sacred site. Mostly there were just fish in the clear water which was at least one hundred feet deep, and bats nestled on the ceiling.
After our Mayan lunch with the villagers, we went to Coba which was likely the most populated Mayan area, though the site has only been minimally restored so everything is very much in its natural state. This lack of restoration is probably also why you can still hike up the tallest Mayan pyramid. Above you can see Ryan and I stopping on our breathless hike up to snap a pic!
Here we are at the top of Nohoc Mul. Those trees that we are looking out on are like 70 feet tall, so I hope you are getting the feel for how high up this is! All you can see is Mother Nature!
That's all rain forest around. There are other structures in there, even small towns, but you can't see it, for the trees!
This is our friend, Tommy, who also climbed the pyramid with us!
The rope is very helpful. Mexico is clearly not as litigious as the US. This "safety measure" is not really very safe. Mexico requires that people use common sense about their skills and judgement - what a concept!
Here Ryan and I are on another pyramid.
This is a Mayan astrological observatory. It was my favorite structure!
This is what remains of a Mayan basketball court and hoop! They would run up these slanted walls to try and get it through!
These are our friends, Tammy and Tommy, in the Mayan tricycle, which was an efficient way to tour the ruins at Coba. (We are behind them in another tri-taxi.)
On this day, we did another tandem adventure. We saw the Mayan ruins at Telum followed by snorkeling at Xel-Ha. Above Ryan and I are posing in front of the small opening in the wall around the city of Telum. (Mayan people are smaller than us!)
This was probably a priest's home.
This was another observatory or watch tower which has evidence of star-watching as several of the holes align exactly with the sun.
Perspective of the once-bustling, port-trade city.
Here is a view of the Caribbean from the cliffs of Telum. I can't really put into words how beautiful the color of the water was!
This is a picture of Xel-Ha. It is where the underground river system of fresh water meets the ocean. It was such an amazing snorkeling experience. It is considered a "water park" but it is really an ecological preserve. You have to wear biodegradable sunscreen, if you where any at all. We snorkeled all over this area and where the ocean breaks come in (top left of this picture), I saw half a dozen enormous rays - at least four feet across swimming right below me. It was a little freaky! You can pay extra to swim with dolphins or manatees, but we made do with the zip-lines, lazy river and cliff jump watching.
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