Mexico: Swimming Underground

For my last post on our trip to Mexico I want to share with you the most exciting thing that we did when we were there....
We swam in an underground river! So cool.

All over the Yucatan peninsula the land is a particular sort of limestone that does not hold water, so there are no above ground rivers and lakes, all of the rainfall sinks through into underground rivers and lakes called Cenotes. I had read about them years ago in National Geographic, so I knew that lots of scuba divers come to the area to explore the deep underground water filled caverns, and I knew that if we could I'd love to explore one as a family on our trip.

The one that we chose to go to was located in a park and was pretty easy to navigate, but even so we had to wear life vests and I had to sign a special waver being pregnant.

To get into the river we walked down through the jungle into a deep pool, where once you are in the water you swim forward into a dark cave, the kids were scared and the water was cold but with some convincing and hand holding we all got in and swam forward. The whole river took us about an hour to swim, there were little stops along the way where you could have your picture taken if you liked, but other wise we were just swimming along sometimes enclosed in a dark cave, other times the ceiling would open up and you could see the jungle with lots of Iguanas on the rocks all around.

Inside the cave we saw bats and all kinds of rock formations, it was exciting and we all felt like explorers. This was really one of my favorite times of the whole trip!
Once we had finished we were able to hike back along our route and peer into the caves at some of the openings which was fun to see where we had been,

At the same park we were able to explore more Mayan ruins on foot,

For the trip we bought the kids each a disposable camera in a waterproof case, which they carried everywhere and loved being able to take their own photos.

One of my favorite things was seeing how the vegetation was trying to reclaim the ruins, when we explored the ruins of Tulum our guide there explained that a satellite survey of the Yucatan peninsula in the year 2000 showed 4000 ruin sites still remain covered up by the jungle. Isn't that amazing?

At the same park we also shared some beautiful animal encounters. This dolphin really seemed to like the kids.

Everywhere we went the kids followed Iguanas around and the Iguanas watched them right back, very warily. All in all we had such a great trip, its been fun sharing it with you!

Mexico: Walking in Ruins

One of the best parts of our time in the Mayan Riviera was spending a morning visiting the ruins of the only Mayan city built right on the coast, Tulum.
There is something that gets me really excited about visiting ruins, I am intrigued with the unknowable message from the past that they seem to hold. We had the pleasure of being in Mexico on the Vernal Equinox which is the only morning of the year when, at sunrise, the sun's rays shine directly through the three windows at the very top of the high temple pictured behind us above. There was a big celebration at dawn on that day this year as 2012 represents the end of a long cycle of the Mayan calendar along with the beginning of a new cycle and a time of rebirth. We visited the following day so excitement was high at the ruins.

Our time exploring these ruins reminded me of our visit to Stonehenge in 2010, along with other trips before kids when I've felt deeply moved walking through the ruined cities of Machu Picchu, Teotihuacan, and the Roman Forum.

The city is entered through doorways in the 10 foot deep wall set up as fortification,

This was a thriving port city, with many noble homes and shops. Now these homes lie in ruin, with Iguanas crawling practically everywhere basking in the sun. The city was largely abandoned for unknown reasons around the year 1500AD, although the sacred sites and temple there were continually used for celebration and worship long after the Spanish invasion.

The sun was fierce, so we sought out the small bits of shade,

The kids were happy looking at the ruins for about a half hour, then they wanted to play spot the iguana, and complain about the heat!

The cliffs that the city is built on fall away dramatically to the beautiful tropical ocean below, just a magical sight,

and a popular beach, but we couldn't stay long with our babes descending into silliness. We soon left for some lunch, swimming and snorkeling.

Mexico: Playa Del Carmen

We stayed on the north end of the town of Playa Del Carmen which has a real bohemian funky vibe. Here's bit of our explorations in town,

This was the coolest lighting store ever, and I seriously wish that I could have brought one of the huge shells back with us!

The kids as Mexican wrestlers,

Jasper loving his Phoenix henna tattoo,

 And the prettiest public bathroom sink I've ever seen, we felt like mermaids.

Mexico: Lounging Around

That's what a big part of this trip to Mexico was for Frank and I, taking time to relax while the kids played or playing right along with them in the pool or at the beach.

Enjoying the breeze in the trees, and the sun on our skin. Few things relax me the way a day in the sunshine can!

Traveling with kids can be tricky if you want to relax, we've found that out the hard way when we get frustrated that they need our attention when we want to sit and read. So, on this trip we chose to stay at a resort (our first resort experience) that had a kid's club and lots of activities for kids...it seemed like that would strike a good balance for us and we wanted to try it out. Usually when we travel we like to be independent, usually renting a small apartment through VRBO, but we especially enjoyed that at the resort all of the meals were taken care of and all we had to do was show up when we were hungry!

What we found was that even though there we organized activities for the kids they were happiest just playing in the water.

Jasper tried snorkeling for the first time and loved it, so he spent hours perfecting swimming with his mask on,

While he spent hours searching for things in the water we relaxed on chairs nearby, I even got to read a whole book (Stephanie Meyer's The Host, totally recommend it as a beach read).

Another reason that I chose the place where we stayed was because it was in the jungle, with natural pools (called Cenotes) through out the property, lots of jungle trails and even Mayan ruins right on the hotel grounds.

In the evenings animals would come out in the jungle and it was fun to look around for them, we saw turtles, Spider Monkeys, Coati Mundis, Iguanas and Macaws. 

Mexico: Phone Hijack

So while I was busy coloring with Carys on our flight back from Mexico I gave Jasper my phone thinking he'd just play the couple of games that I keep for him on there, and this is what I found later....

Oh my goodness silly boy, I got a real giggle out of them!

I do remember him taking this last one, I should have known!

Mexico: Mayan Riviera

We just returned from an amazing week long trip here,

  here,

 and here...

enjoying the beautiful Mayan Riviera near Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

One of the big ironies of being unexpectedly expecting our third baby is that we had lots of big travel plans for the future. Really big plans, we even had a family schedule for the next 5 to 10 years all mapped out of where we wanted to go, places like Bali, Thailand, India and Central America. I love traveling and my kids definitely have the travel bug too, we drag "homebody" Frank along on our adventures, but I think he really likes it. All of our big travel plans will obviously be put on hold for a few years now, while we have number three this summer and probably until he is a few years old.

So, we wanted to take one last big trip just the 4 of us before I get too big and uncomfortably pregnant. I didn't want to travel too far, but we still wanted some place exotic enough that it felt like an adventure. Plus, I speak Spanish after spending part of my childhood in Argentina, so I love being able to use it!

Mexico seemed to have just the right balance of all of these things and we had a great time, I can't wait to share about our trip here this week!