The next morning we rented a van to have for the rest of our week. We decided that it would be worth it, rather than having to pay for taxi's to go everywhere. Playa Akumal was just south of us, close to Tulum, and known for it's snorkeling. After the real high-tech rental car company, Kirt walked it to see that his reservation had been scribbled in the side of just a random lined notebook--but we got the van, so no worries, we headed down. The Christensen's had each brought their own gear, and we rented one more, so had three sets of snorkeling gear and decided to go in groups. The boys went out first. I was already seriously considering not snorkeling anyway, because of my awful sunburn. And when I heard that Delphia didn't want to go because she has clausterphobia with tight things on her face, and Emily didn't really feel like going, us girls just hung out on the beach. When the boys came back and said it was only a 4/10 spot for snorkeling, the decision was made. We just hung out. The boys went out again and seemed to enjoy it, but I was just happy enjoying the view from the sand.
They did get to swim with some turtles, which would have been cool. But not worth the risk of getting even more sun on my back.
Our next adventure was El Rio Secreto. The area is also known for it's underground caves. They are actually still discovering lots of them. The one we went to, El Rio Secreto, was just discovered in 2006, I believe. It was amazing! Our tour guides name was Jonathan, again. He spoke Spanish, English and French, so we had some French speaking people from Quebec in our group.
Everything down there is tied into the Mayan culture, and so we had to be blessed by a Mayan man before entering the underground caves. He had his smoking stick and was chanting. (I think he may have been actually cursing us, but who knows...) :)
It was seriously so cool. We got to spend the next few hours just wandering and swimming through these caves. It was amazing!
They won't let you take your camera down, but they have a photographer accompany every group, and then after you can buy individual pictures or a whole disc of your group. But it's nice because they already have the extra flashes and lights set up, and know the cool spots for pictures, so we got some good ones.
Some areas were too deep to walk through, so we had to swim...
Our whole group again. They were all so nice. It was fun trying to communicate. Jonathans first language is Spanish, he's from Mexico, but he studied in France for a year or so, and was taught English growing up, but there were still times where he had to ask us, in Spanish, what some things or words were,and we'd tell him, then he'd tell the Canadians in French what it was.
It was pretty cool, most of these stalagmites and stalagtites are formed from calcium dripping and hardening and then over time forming. And some of them are even formed from dripping over tree roots that shoot down. You can see the holes that the roots come down from, and the ground above us. It was pretty amazing!
Another day we'll never forget, and that absolutely wore us out! After our underground tour, we got to relax,the grounds above the caves were gorgeous, and we also got a nice buffet lunch--our in our case, almost dinner. It seems that most of the touristy places offer a nice buffet lunch! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment