We awoke early to eat breakfast in the buffet restaurant, and as we were finishing the meal, our tour guide JJ arrived to pick us up. We were the first ones in our group to be picked up, and we got in the van and drove south to pick up the remaining people (10 others) at other hotels and resorts. It was raining that morning, so our plans for the day changed a bit. We were supposed to tour the Tulum ruins site first, then go on a Jungle Maya tour, but they switched it around so we did the Jungle Maya tour first. When we first arrived at the entrance to the jungle, we got out of the van and loaded into a large ATV truck:
We drove up a muddy, bumpy road until we reached the area where they do all the activities. Our first activity was to go swimming in a cenote. Cenotes (pronounced Say-No-Tay) are part of the underground water system in Mexico. There are several spots where sink holes have developed on the land above the underground river, producing beautiful swim holes, and the land has deteriotaed away to expose underground caves. We saw multiple Cenotes in this area of the jungle where AllTournative does one of their guided tours. We put on life vests, and were instructed to kind of sit in the water, lift our feet up, and lean back as we floated through a cenote (some of the spots were shallow and sharp, and they don't want people to get injured) We had to be fairly quiet, too, as there were bats overhead as we were floating!
We had to work our way through some narrow openings between stalactites, which made it more interesting of a swim, too. That cenote had two openings on opposite sides of the giant cave, which worked as an entrance and an exit. When we got to the end, we climbed out and walked back up some carved rock steps until we reached above ground. Our second activity, rappelling, was nearby. We walked a little ways, and climbed up some wooden steps until we reached the canopy that surrounded the cenote that was 40 feet directly below it. Josh and I were the last two in our group to rappel. I'd never done it before, but after watching JJ demonstrate it, and seeing everyone else go, it looked easy enough.
I was so wrong. It ended up being the worst part of my entire day. All the pressure is supposed to be on the back hand, but every time I loosened the grip on my front hand, my whole body would fall backwards instead of staying in more of an upright sitting position. So I would grip tightly with my front hand to keep my body upright, but since I was gripping it so tightly, I wasn't dropping fast enough or with any ease. On top of that, I was spinning around, and couldn't stop. JJ kept yelling to me that I was too tense, and the guy below me was yelling demands (in Spanish), and the photographer kept wanting photos, and since Josh and I went at the same time, I was delaying him from going as fast as he wanted because the photographer didn't want him to get too far ahead of me. It was horrible. I was sure that I was going to drop to my death. It took me so long to drop just a few inches every time. Eventually I made it all the way down, but my arms and back were so sore the rest of the day as well as the next day as a result of how tense I was and how strongly I held the grip! It would be okay if I never had to rappel again!
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| They made us do the kissy face a few times throughout the day. I won't show them all, but I'm posting this one because it could've potentially been my "last kiss"!!! ;) |
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| Josh made it look so easy! And he had to keep slowing down so that he wouldn't get too far ahead of me. |
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| Notice my body is in a totally different position than the photo before and after this one?! I couldn't stop the spinning!! |
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| This is my favorite photo of the series, because it captures the moment perfectly: Josh is laughing, and I'm cursing. |
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| Now, like Josh, the guy at the bottom is wondering if I'm ever going to make it... |
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| I actually bonked my head and my hip while spinning. Somehow Josh managed to stay in the same position the whole time, though. He thought this camera shot was funny because he's looking through my legs. |
When I finally reached the bottom, my whole body went limp and I could not stand up in the water. The guy took off all my rappelling equipment for me. I felt so light-headed and weak. It was ridiculous. I'm glad I made it to the bottom, though! The crew kept asking me "Are you okay? Are you okay?" Finally, I got enough oxygen back to my body that I could stand up and the photographer promptly took some more pictures of us inside the cenote that we'd just rappelled into, before we walked back out on a ramp above ground again.
Our next activity was ziplining. We had to put on different equipment for this, and Josh and I were a little behind the group because of how long it took me to get down (and then back up from) the rappelling activity. Everyone had already applied bug repellant and put on their ziplining equipment when we arrived, so we were at the back end of our group for all the ziplines. We went on 3 different ziplines, and we had to walk in between each one, and climb up a rickety tower at each stop. The first zipline we went on we were backwards. I went right before Josh; I screamed almost the whole way, but he made it look easy (once again), and did it mostly no-handed!
The second zipline was forwards instead of backwards, and was much better for me! I didn't scream once (but there's no proof since they didn't video record that one). On the 3rd and final one, we ziplined into a cenote. It was the shortest of the 3 ziplines (the first one was the longest and the second was the tallest). They told us to keep our feet up so that we would go further into the cenote before stopping. However, what we were not prepared for was having our faces fill up with water when our feet did hit. And when we did stop going forward, we had to swim to the end of the line before removing our cords, so that we wouldn't disrupt the next person who was ziplining in. When I ziplined in, so much water went up my nose as soon my feet hit the water, and I didn't want to swallow the water that I'd just inhaled up my nose, so I was trying to spit it all out as I was simultaneously trying to swim, and I couldn't see anything because I'd taken my glasses off and there was water in my eyes and it was dark inside the cave. I was so disoriented for a minute. Josh's turn was right after me, and he did much better than me of keeping his feet up and going further, but the crew guy at the end pulled the line down, which made him hit the water all at once.
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| I'm posting this kissy face because I was proud that I'd survived the ziplines! |
We snorkeled deep into a cave, and had two tour guides (one at the beginning, and one at the end) carrying lights so we could see. There weren't fish once we entered the cave, but you could see the cave formations both above and below us. There were some beautiful formations that we had to work our way around, and it was such a unique way to see a cave. Josh and I had never snorkeled before, but it was a good experience. Unfortunately, though, the tall Australian in our group ingested some water while snorkeling, and was sick the rest of the day.
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| This was our group, minus one girl who was already in the water snorkeling. I really liked our diverse group, which varied in both age and nationality: 1 guy was from Australia, 3 were from Georgia, 3 from Canada, 2 from Brazil, 1 from Argentina, 2 from Idaho (me & Josh), and 1 from Mexico (our bilingual tour guide) |
After the snorkeling activity was over, we walked to a nearby Mayan hut and ate a Mayan lunch. I wanted to take a photo of it, but we'd left all our clothes, phone, and camera in lockers at the entrance. It was yummy, and was the first authentic food we'd eaten since we'd arrived in Mexico. After lunch, we went on a little hike until we got to a spot where a Mayan shaman was waiting for us. Then we participated in a Mayan purification ceremony. We walked back to our lockers, changed into dry clothes, and drove back to the spot where the van was waiting. We were on a different ATV truck this time, and our driver was crazy! We bounced all over the place, and everyone in the truck was holding onto the bars for dear life! It was both funny and dizzying!
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| sitting in the back of the jeep waiting for our return ride |
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| Everybody's hands were tightly gripping the bars inside the jeep! |
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| I couldn't get a clear picture of how bad we were jumping-- but this is evidence of how much we were moving around! |
After we reached the van, JJ drove us to the Tulum Ruins, which was only about 10 miles away.
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| I loved all the beautiful foliage and trees. Everything was so green in Mexico! |
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| There was a giant rock wall surrounding the ruins, as a protection for the city. I loved these trees growing out of the wall ruins. |
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| The entrance holes in the rock wall perimeters were short. This was the tallest one. Josh had to duck in a few of them! |
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| Several of the ancient buildings have collapsed, but you can still see where the building once was. |
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| The openings that have huts over them signify royalty lived there |
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| JJ was our tour guide for Tulum, too, and he shared a lot of fascinating information with us about the history of ruins and specifically what is known about Tulum's site. |
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| This was the first time I'd ever seen an iguana, and I saw LOTS of them at the Tulum ruins! They were so interesting to watch! And they blended in with the surroundings, too, so it was like playing I Spy. |
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| This building is currently being renovated. |
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| See the face in the corner of the building--two eyes in between the horizontal lines, and a mouth below? |
Tulum is unique because it's the only ruins in Mexico that are built on the coast. We spent 45 minutes with our tour guide, and then we were given 45 minutes to do whatever we wanted. Josh and I wanted to see the beach first, so we walked down the long set of steps, and spent a little time along the ocean's edge. We didn't come prepared to spend time on the beach, though, so we just took off our shoes and socks to walk in the sand and water.
We didn't spend a lot of time on the beach, because we had access to the beach at our hotel, so when we were done walking in the sand, we put our shoes and socks back on (that was a little tricky trying to keep the sand off our wet feet), and we climbed back up the steps to visit the other end of the ruins we hadn't seen yet.
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| We both loved this tree that reaches out towards the sea! |
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| This was the biggest building on the site that's still in tact. |
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| Do you see the iguana on the steps?! |
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| This building was built with an access to the cenote below it. |
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| This is the cenote that it was directly built over! |
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| I'm even too tall for this entrance in the rock wall!! |
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| I thought it was so pretty how life still exists in these ancient, worn-down ruins. |
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| Josh patiently waited for me before leaving the ruins, because I kept stopping to take photos and read signs. When I came upon him on these steps, I fell in love with the view. I loved how his bright colors are such a contrast to the cold, hard grays all around him. He makes my heart flutter. |
Our group didn't even notice we were late, though, because they were all either getting drinks or looking at someone's dumb video on YouTube. I never stressed out about it (obviously, because I took my sweet time taking photos and walking slower), but Josh did--he hates it when I make him late!
We lounged on the beach some more. Josh read a book as I relaxed by people-watching and staring at the mesmerizing ocean.
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| I spy a pelican in its natural habitat! |
After a few hours, we got dressed up in some of our new clothes we'd purchased in shops along Quinta Avenida the previous day, and went down to eat dinner in the buffet restaurant. They had entertainment nightly, and after dinner on that night, they had an awesome Michael Jackson show, with great costumes, music, choreography, and dancers. The performance lasted about 45 minutes and was so enjoyable!
We both had an amazing day, and Josh's 39th birthday was definitely a memorable one that we'll both never forget!
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