Cancun, Part 2

August 27, Tuesday

Emily and I got up at 7:30 AM to get ready. Our meeting time was 9:05 AM but they asked us to be 10 to 15 minutes early. We were running a little behind and came down to get some food at about 8:45 AM. I told the porters if our ride comes to let them know we just went to get a bite to eat, and he informed us that we're supposed to meet them down the driveway and that started making me nervous. We walked over to the café to get a quick bite and thankfully they had a lot of nice things available just sitting out in the middle so we could easily grab a plate and have a few things. Emily wasn't very hungry and just had some fruit but I had some potatoes, eggs, and sausage. We ate quickly and then we left. It was 8:56 AM by the time we walked to the shuttle and they were already there waiting for us. We found out at the end of the day that they had waited for us for 10 minutes so I'm embarrassed about that but we did what they asked so it's not our fault.  We were the last ones to be picked up so we headed straight for the cenotes. They are in Puerto Morelos. The drive wasn't super relaxing because he drives really fast and it's pretty bumpy. 

The guy's name was Ader and he played some terrible music. Once we got to the jungle area, we lost phone service. I decided not to worry about my phone for the rest of the day. I had a waterproof holder for it but I didn't use it. All I took with me each time was my goggles. Emily and I left our valuables on the bus in my locked bag. Emily didn't take anything. Our first cenote was called fire. The first thing we did was shower off the chemicals off of our body and get life vests. We had to use a life vest all the time we were in the water which was good. 

We took a short waterslide into the first cenote. I was glad I brought my goggles because my face got wet immediately. I had thought maybe I could spend the day and not get my hair and face wet but that was out the window already. The water wasn't as cold as we feared it was going to be.  It wasn't warm, but it was bearable. 

We swam around some stairs and went up the stairs and got on a zip line with monkey bars. I was the last one to go. I was so afraid I was going to slip because my hands were wet and I couldn't get them dry. The lifeguard let us use his arm to try to dry off our hands but that still didn't help. They insisted it would be OK because there were grippers on it but I still didn't trust it. Thankfully, I did fine and got as far as I needed to then dropped in the water. Emily was afraid of slipping too but she did great. She went right before me. It was nice to have a cheering section already in the water waiting for me. There was a photographer with us all day and she got some good pictures of all the different things we did. 

Once we all landed in the water from the zip line, we had to swim 200 m. I kept thinking, that's two football fields which is kind of far. It was exhausting but we made it. 

We ended at a cave and got out on some stairs and went to a place where we could jump off. We watched everybody else jump off but Emily and I felt like it was too high and we didn't want to. After that, they had a little picnic break for us with fruit and pastries and drinks. Then it was time to go to the next one. The second cenote was called earth. This is the one where we repelled way down into the cenote. It was pretty scary and I tried not to look down but I did glance. It wasn't exactly like repelling because you didn't have to use your feet on the side of the hole or anything like that, you just rode the thing down in a sitting position so it wasn't too bad. I also didn't have to jump in, thankfully. 

However, that was the coldest water we were in all day. We assume it's because it was in a cave where no sun gets to it. There was also a place there that we could jump off that wasn't quite as high. I had no interest in doing that but Emily braved it and did it. She said it wasn't that high up but it was just that the water was so cold. 

Then Ader gave us a lesson about the formation of cenote. He said it was caused by a meteorite and he showed us where there was proof that the heat had burned the coral reef and we were underneath the coral. He also showed us the beginning of a stalactite. At one point, when we were riding to the next cenote, he played Welcome to the Jungle and Emily and I chuckled and I said loudly, "We're literally in the jungle," and people laughed. The third cenote was water. The first thing we did was kayak. Emily and I did great! I think everybody else was holding their paddles upside down. We passed one person and we could've passed the other but we were afraid to bump into them so we just stayed where we were. We had to kayak around a little island and then go back. 

After that, we went snorkeling. We had to go through this tunnel that had bats so he told us to be quiet. That was kind of freaky. We actually saw the bats. Then we got in to snorkel under the cave with stalactites and we got into a really deep pool. We swam around a bunch of lily pads. They had it closed off with ropes so we couldn't get close, but we were able to go underneath the water and see them pretty well because of the sun shining in. 

After that, it was time for lunch. They had a little buffet to make sandwiches and lots of lunch meat and vegetables and salads and things. we sat at a picnic table across from a couple in our group from Illinois and chatted with them for a bit. They were staying at Secrets: The Vine resort. The fourth cenote was wind. It had long zip lines going both directions. Once again, I was last. Emily decided to do wrecking ball style, where she put her foot in the swing and leaned back. 

He said the most boring kind was queen style in the swing but that's what I chose. I told him "aburrido" and he chuckled. That was fun and this time the water stopped me and I didn't have to jump in so that was nice.

From the other side, you could do the same zip line methods or you could also jump in. I wasn't interested in either of those options. Emily decided to do the zip line again and this time she did swing. 

After that, it was time to get ready and head back. Thankfully, they gave us time to go back to the van and get our things and get changed into some dry clothes. I had debated maybe staying in my regular clothes but it was nice to be fresh and dry on the ride back. They made a stop to drop off some of the people in our group because they were going a different direction. They were a nice family from Gibraltar. It was the parents and two teenage children, a boy and a girl. I had spoken to her on the shuttle bus earlier and she was talking about how they were there for like 10 days and she had something planned for every day practically. At that point, we were able to buy the pictures that the photographer had taken throughout the day and she let me pay cash so that was perfect. The ride back seemed shorter than the ride there. It was getting close to 5 PM by the time we got back to our room. I decided to take a shower and wash my hair and get ready to go to dinner.

Our reservation was for La Joya which was the Mexican restaurant that had a mariachi band. It was a beautiful restaurant! It was on the side of the hotel toward the street so they probably have people coming there that aren't staying at the hotel as well. People always look at me funny when they offer me a wine list or offer drinks and all I want is water. I know I'm wasting some of the value from what I paid but oh well. There's no way around it. 

They played Coco on the wall

They brought us chips and salsa and bread. Emily ordered barbacoa tacos for an appetizer and I ordered the al pastor ones. I got short ribs for my main dish and Emily got the fish. She was already pretty full and couldn't eat it all. Mine was delicious and I ate every bit. 

Mariachi

Emily didn't want dessert but I got one that said puff pastry with guava. It was OK.

Once again, I felt like I could do better on dessert. We stopped at the café and Emily got a brownie and I got an opera cake, which had a chocolate ganache topping and multiple thin layers, and we took it to our room. We sat on the balcony for a while again. 

There was a party going on right outside the lobby near the pool. Everybody was wearing white and we could see the screen said All White Silent Party. We thought it looked cool and wish we had known about it. We asked about it later, and they said it's for anybody at the resort. You have to get headphones and then you listen to the music so that's why it's a silent party. By then, we weren't that interested and we didn't bring white clothes. Emily turned on the TV and watched a little bit of Across the Spiderverse. Then Michael called and we talked to him for a little bit. We thought about getting room service but I also thought it would be nice to go to the buffet and see what they have for desserts, but really they seat you and it's a full meal and we weren't sure if they would let us do that since we already had dinner so we stopped at the café and I tried some banana split gelato and we went back up to the room and ordered room service. By about 10 PM, we turned on the TV and it was at the beginning of Live Die Repeat on HBO. We left it there and ended up watching the entire thing. For room service, we ordered two orders of French fries, chocolate ice cream and apple pie with vanilla ice cream, and two Coke Zeros for Emily. She's been spoiled with Coke Zeros this whole time. He came in and fully set the table for us, including a little flower, salt and pepper, ketchups, nice silverware and a cloth napkin, the whole works. He chatted with us for a little bit and I gave him a tip and we were pretty excited about our fancy little room service order. 

It was a perfect snack for the end of the day. I don't know what they put in that vanilla ice cream, but I think it's the best ice cream I've ever had in my life. We relaxed in our beds and played on our phones and watched the whole movie. We both said we don't know why we like that movie so much because we don't normally like those kinds of movies but that one is awesome. Another movie called Voyagers came on and we almost watched it but we looked at the bad reviews and read the synopsis and called it good and got ready for bed.