We spent the last 3 days of our short trip in Playa del Carmen, about an hour south of Cancun. We stayed in this great place called the Shangri-La Carribe, right along the coast. Unfortunately, the weather ended up being unexpectedly cold, and so it wasn't "hang out on the beach and relax" weather. This was good in some ways, though, because we hadn't planned that sort of a trip anyway. If you know us, we don't take relaxing vacations (i.e. we saw all the major sites in Paris on a one day trip from London.) The above picture is the outside of our "hut." We were on the top floor. The other picture above is in our room, (I wanted our kids to see that we really did have a thatch roof.)
Day 2 we spent at XCaret. It is kind of a Polynesian (but Mexican of course) Cultural Center with the addition of a preservation center for native wildlife and Mayan culture. Anyway, we spent a full day walking from one area to another. We snorkeled through an underground river; saw giant turtles, flamingoes, black panthers, etc.; watched an amazing evening show full of various traditional dances, plus a retelling of the history of the Mayan and Mexican people. We also went snuba diving. It is like scuba diving, in that you swim under water using an oxygen tank, but instead of wearing the tank, it floats on a raft on the surface of the water. Paul loved it, I kept thinking about Shelly vomiting into her mask in Australia -- I wished I could go up for real air and had to concentrate on breathing the oxygen slowly.
Our last full day we spent on an Alltournative tour. We visited another ruin Coba (with the tallest temple in Mexico), a real Mayan village, Zip-lined across a river, canoed back across, and then rappelled into an underground cenote. A very tiring, but fun day.
Paul, before climbing up to the top of the temple. This is one of only a few that they still let you climb.
View from the top.
Before zip-lining.
Rappelling into the cenote. (For some reason, Paul is always the one with the camera.)
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