Mexico Spectacular

Last night we went back to Xcaret for their 2 hour evening show. 260 performers show the history, tradition and mysticism created with joy, color, nostalgia and folklore to reenact history.
The first part is Old Mexico, starting with Lol-beh (flower on the road) a Mayan girl singing about the roots of Mexico. Then the Great Lords (leaders) gather at the court and proceed with the Ball Game, called Pok ta pok. It was fascinating as the 4 kilogram rubber ball must be in constant motion and is hit only with shoulders, elbows, knees and hips. This sport goes back 1000 years BC and is becoming extinct.Tributes were offered according to what villages harvested, produced and possessed and were taken by the winners at the end. Then they played 'Uarhukua' with hockey-like sticks, and a burning wood ball representing the sun. This game is 3000 years old.
Next came the Spaniards, and the merger of 2 cultures. The second half showed Metizo Mexico, the descendants of the European and natives comprising Mexico today. There were many dances and musicians, all easily understood as the Pineapple Flower Dance, Snadunga, Feather Dance, The Old Men's Dance, typical Mexican Stamping Dance, Veracruz Carnival Dance, Mariachi, polka with cowboys and Ribbon Dance. This is just like the kids did around the
Maypole. There even had horses and rope tricks. The Grand Finale reflected the Mexican essence through it's people, places, flavours, scents, songs and traditions and even had a parrot fly through. The costumes and entire program were astounding.
Today we went to the Pedestren Mall in Playa del Carmen. It's a tourist shopping area, higher priced that the little native places where we've been shopping and who do we run into?
Elska from Kitimat. What a pleasant surprise. Then back to the beach where I snorkeling out to the reef and saw amazing fish in all colours and stripes. Dinner at the palapa tonight and the food here is delicouos.

Xcaret Water Park - underground river

This huge park was created to promote love and respect for nature and Mexico's cultural heritage and it is magnificent. Xcaret (ish ca ret) means 'small inlet' in Maya and for over a thousand years it was a very important port and ceremonial center in the Yucatan Peninsula.
We looked at parrots, flamingos, manatees, Jaguar island and walked to the river entrance. Here we donned our bright pink life jackets and walked through a long winding staircase and cave to an open cenote and stepped into the river. We floated along on the current, about a mile, taking an hour or so. There were 7 of us floating together. We went through narrow high walled canyons, small openings to the park and viewers above, under the future insect house which had an amazing 30 x 30' stained glass roof way above us of hundreds of butterflies, made from 102,000 pieces of lead crystal, under waterfalls, through caves, short and long, with and without light, through a mangrove growth and finally into a lagoon by the ocean where it ended. You can see the tunnel where we came out. It was just a blast.
This complex is huge and it would take a week to explore it all. We through a Maya village, with
St. Francis of Assisi Church where mass is celebrated every Sunday overlooking the ocean, and
a Mayan Village Mexican Cemetery . These are very colorful here with ornate gravestones. It has a cave grotto on the walk where there were hundreds of lit votive candles and the shelves were comletely covered with white wax. There was a woman weaving, a man making baskets, a candlemaker in a shop and more. We passed the ball court, swung in hammocks be the sea and had a wonderful day.

Xel-Ha Water Park

Our Fantasy staff treated us to an early Valentine's treat today because we're busy tomorrow. So off to the palapa for a 'boil in a bag breakfast'. Joan and Barry will understand this! I, the egg hater, had pancakes of course with fresh fruit but it was a great breakfast.
Then off we went to Xel-ha,
(shell ha) a sustainable develpment water park and what a wonderful place. We explored a bit and then took a bus up river where we put our stuff in a bag, put on life jackets, picked up our inner tube, went down stairs into the mangrove plants and sat on the inner tube and off we went down the river. It took us about 1 1/2 hours as the river current moved us in the sunshine. As luck would have it at the end, the wind came up and we had to paddle with our arms like mad to get ourselves to the landing area because it started to push us back up the river. Took about an hour. It was so much fun, just loved it. Sure worked up an appetite.
I'm trying up keep up to date with our blog and there is absolutely nothing here. However, our wagonmasters Cecil and Brenda have friends in this park that used to be Fantasy Wagonmasters for caravans and they have satellite Internet, so he has opened his for all of us to use. However - I can blog my text and do email but so far I can't upload pictures, so we'll see.
I have gone to 'The Great Italian Coffee House' in Cancun, delicious iced coffee, walked up the street to a hotel that we'd parked in their parking lot on the beach In Veracruz - no hookups, and to an Internet cafe in a small town. It is really catch as you can. We didn't bring our tow car so I am dependant on others for rides so don't wish to impose. We're happy with that decision, it is bad enough driving here in a 40 foot without having a car behind.

Tulum Ruins

Woke to a thundering downpour so I was at Cecil and Brenda's bus at 7:15 a.m. as arranged, with a garbage bag over me and an umbrella. As people gathered, the rain stopped and we decided to go ahead, so we arrived at the ruins before the tour buses got there. What a pleasure. These are the most viewed ruins in the Yucatan and we had the place to ourselves and it was still cool. It was the site of 4 Maya cities, constructed in the 10th century. It is a totally walled city and dramatic, as it is the only one situated on the coast. These Mayas captured 19 shipwrecked sailors off Cosumel in the 1500's and all were sacrificed except the priest and 1 sailor because they were too skinny.
This sailor, Guerrero married an Indian princess and their children were the start of the 'metizos', todays descendants of European and Indian. Lots of great stone work ruins, iguanas basking in the sun, beautiful birds and great coastline.

Off to Paamul

A nice short drive today and here we are parked across from the beach and restaurant looking at the Caribbean sea. We spent the afternoon snorkeling in the bay and saw pale royal blue fish with 4 yellow lines on them, a school of translucent yellow and white ones and some pale green with pink lines on them. Clouds came in and we moved to the palapa for Cecil's Lo Country Boil - in the pot go potatoes, corn, sausages, and shrimp. Very good and very good company. Had a torrential downpour into the night. Here's our motorhome. I was on the beach in front of the restaurant by the swimming pool. Great food at the palapa restaurant. We had avocado stuffed with shrimp and a beef fajita which were excellent. You can see our motorhome. I took the picture from the beach, beside the restaurant and the swimming pool. Guess where we spend all our spare time!

Isla Mujeres

Off at 9 a.m. for a 25 minute ferry ride to the Island of Women. Never have heard why it's called this. We rented a golf cart for the day and circumnavigated the island which took about 1 1/2 hours. It seemed 1/2 mile wide and 10 miles long. We stopped at Hacienda Mundaca, a property constructed by Fermin Mucdada who was a pirate and slave trader in 1860. He acquired his fortune by trafficking slaves to Cuba to work in the sugar fields. He hid out from the British Navy and became enamoured with the Island, when he fell in love with an 18 year old island girl and established this hacienda and retired.
We saw many beautiful homes that Caucasians lived in and next door was the very poor slum hut area of the natives. These were no more that 200 sq. ft. This whitr house was actually bult as a conch shell but it was so bright it doesn't really show up well.
Stopped at Playa Norte at Bob's Beach for lunch out in the sand overlooking the blue azure ocean. Jackie and I swam in the crystal clear water which was warm and you could walk out for a half a mile. Out for a great dinner tonight at a seafood specialty buffet, where 2 birthday cakes arrived and Ron and Rudy were honored. Lots of fun.

Ron's 61st

Absolutely our worst driving day. We took the libre (free) road because the toll was $100 US and it took us 5 1/2 hours to go 132 miles. We went through 18 little villages which were interesting but they all had topes (speedbumps) one had 14. The children lined up at every tope and I threw pencils and pens out to them. this was greeted with Gracias and many smile. We saw the typical hut in this area. It's made of 2' tree sticks with a thatched roof. The government is trying to get the peasants out of these huts into concrete houses so we saw many people building their new houses.
We went through Mexican Cancun in a torrential downpour, which at least helped with the humidity but masked the potholes and topes. Much clashing of dishes.
got settled in our campground and went with Jackie and Bailey for a tour of Zona Hotela, the main drag of tourist Cancun. What a difference, all neat and sparkly filled with Caucasians in shorts.
Then we went for a lovely birthday dinner on the beach. Beautiful place and sunset and good time.