The Blue Cenote

Before I get started on what was my absolute favorite part of our trip, I want to first talk about this picture of Michael and what I think of when I see it. Obviously he is quite the ham, which not everyone has been able to observe for themselves yet. Everywhere we went he would try to pick out the very largest and loudest colored sombreros and would then wander up to me wherever I was to see how long it would take for me to notice the hilarity. So funny! This is the only time I caught him in the act, and it was on the way to the Blue Cenote. I had stopped to buy a small rock turtle for my baby brother Dante, so this is what I saw when I looked up. The other thing about this picture has more to do with how wonderful Michael is in all things. I know all wives think that about their husbands, but let me tell you what was really happening in this picture. Michael was sunburned. Michael had a very high fever. Michael had the flu and was miserable. It was about 100 degrees outside with a like numbered humidity count. Did he complain? No. He made the best of the time we had and made sure I still got to buy Dante's turtle and take a swim in the famous Blue Cenote before we had lunch and headed out to the ruins of Chichen Itza. He slept almost the entire time we were on the bus so he would be able to keep up with our tour group. Yes, this is the same guy who went out of his way to make ME smile and laugh when he by all rights should have been resting the whole day at the hotel.

Reason 1 million and 14 why I love this man of mine.

Here's a little background on the Blue Cenote: First of all, a cenote is first and foremost: a sink hole or natural well. At 82 feet below the surface and 150 feet deep, the Blue Cenote (or Cenote Ik-Kil) is the largest in the Yucatan Penisula. Our guide also referred to it once as the bath of the Princesses, but I have not been able to find that title anywhere else since. This whole area is another eco archeological park, so once again you will not find me wearing any makeup, as that is not permitted. I don't think I mentioned that in my last post about Xcaret, but they are not joking around about chemicals and even insist upon you using biodegradeable sunscreens in most places.

At the entrance to the cenote, there is a small white post:

This is a neat wooden post near the stairs down to the cenote that reads

"May Peace Reign on Earth"in many different languages. I thought that was a particularly nice touch since in our group alone we had 4 or 5 different nationalities represented.

Here I am making my way around the cenote.

(I am the one in the back swimming away from the camera.)

There were lots of little black catfish swimming around in there! So cool! I kept tickling their little tails and they'd scurry away. Also, as you can see, the roots of the plants at the surface hang all the way down to the water.

Not the best picture(okay, not even remotely good), but it does hazily show the people on the balcony overlooking the sink hole.



A view from the middle balcony. Some of what you see coming from above is actually running water. It was truly stunning to behold, and the dropping water created a lauging, playful noise
as it joined with the water below. When I finally got down inside the water I had fun swimming through the falling water and around all the vines. There were so many different colors of green and textures of rock and plant in there.

Looking down the wall from our view on the upper balcony.

The water really was that blue.

It looked like Hawaii, and the water was as cold as a lake. So welcome!

Here is another shot from above that shows you where everyone clusters together at the bottom to swim and take pictures. The leaves on the right obscure the wooden steps I used to climb down into the chilly water.

This shot shows the falling water pretty well adjacent to the vines.

Anywhere you see a little light grey spot in the water there is water falling.



This is me, sunburned and totally exhilerated by my dip into the cenote.

(Please pardon my near nakedness!)

Our video is too long to load, so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c59DwL8TFtQ is a cool little video that shows the tunnel down to the cenote.

XCARET!

As most of you know, Mike and I were blessed to be able to go to Cancun, Mexico for our honeymoon. We went there with the primary goal of visiting the amazing ruins of Chichen Itza, and ended up discovering MUCH more to experience than even that!

Our first excursion was to an eco archaeoligical park called "XCARET".

Xcaret was AMAZING you guys!!!!!

We snorkeled through two underground rivers. I had never snorkelled before and loved it! There were fossilized shells and plants in the caves and walls, and the water was salty and cool. (A welcome change in the 100 degree, 100% humidity weather!Aiiiieeeeee!)Every once in a while we would also stumble across a hot spring and that was really neat. We would also go off exploring the little breaks in the rocks until we hit a dead end or started to get stuck. In restrospect it probably wasn't the most intelligent move, but we had a blast exploring and looking for fish. During one part of the first underground river we came out to find ourselves swimming under the canopy of a mangrove forest. Their branches blocked all but the most determined sunlight as we swam over their tangled roots. At another point in the second river we suddenly came into what had been a large cenote (Spanish for sink hole) which had been covered with a gigantic stained glass mural of butterflies. We couldn't take our good camera in the water with us, but bought a waterproof one. Those pictures have not been developed yet, but I will add them sometime soon. Here are what some of the fish looked like that we saw while we snorkelled:

We also explored XCARET's exquisite butterfly pavilion. It was neat to see the 6 inch caterpillars I have only ever seen in books and their cacoons and chrysalises. My two absolute favorite butterflies (the Zebra and the Queen) were also there!!!!!!! You guys may laugh, but I had not expected them and actually got choked up with tears to be so blessed as to see them. Two life long goals accomplished in a matter of moments. Who could ask for more? (Well, a picture would have made my day, but just to see them was awe inspiring. Their beauty was other worldy even though they never stopped flapping their gorgeous wings for a picture.) Here are some of the pictures that did come out pretty well though:

This is in the pavilion and my version of Heaven on Earth.

The ceilings were just as high as they appear; AMAZING!

Right next to the butterfly pavilion were the huge, man made islands for the jaguars and mountain lions. Even from quite a distance their size was intimidating and a little chilling. I kept wondering if they couldn't still jump that ravine if they really felt like it...? I had not expected them to be quite so very large, and was surprised to feel what I can only call a new found respect mingled with a little fear. They were pretty hard to catch on film, but here's what I've got for you. I suggest duble clicking on the pictures to enlarge them or you may never find them in these shots:

Here is a picture of part of the ravine separating us from our gigantic kitty friends.

Another animal I had always wanted to see was a manatee. (Another goal checked off my list!)They had a pair of them and were teaching the male tricks when we happened by. I think my favorite part was when the manatee would roll over. Such an absolute cutie pie! What a manatee won't do for some good vegetables and fruit, eh? He swam back and forth between the male and female trainers. Here he is:

There were birds everywhere we went: macaws, flamingos, tucans, conures, vultures, etc. Mike especially got a kick out of finding out what color a tucan's bottom is. The flamingos were acting like my high school theatre friends and me back in the day, but of course stopped as soon as I began filming...As for the macaws, they were as loud as you can ever imagine hundreds of them would be, but oh so pretty nonetheless. Hope you enjoy some of what we saw:

The next totally encredible animals I want to show you are the two different species of sea turtles they had there. Mike and I both love turtles, so this was such a thrill to be able to see them from the age where they'd fit in the palm of your hand to the age where their shells were the size of a small dining room table. Apparently the easiest way to differentiate between the two species is the length of the tail; One has a long tail and one a shorter. Here they are:

You know how in the scriptures the prophets sometimes say they "cannot write the smallest part"? This day was something like that, just not in a spiritual way (if that makes any sense). There was an enormous aquarium, a 2 hour night show about Mexico and its culture, actual Mayan ruins smattered about, wild monkeys in the trees, and huge wild orchids, too (see photo of Mike with a huge plant over his head; it's not in bloom, but it's an orchid!) . I wish I could show you everything we saw and experienced that day, but since I can't, here are a few last photos to hold you over:

This is Michael is his first official Mayan Ruin. Hm...guess they weren't 6 feet tall, too?

And here is King Michael with his crown of wild orchids.

A spider monkey that came down for a drink of water.

Check out these cats!

One of the performers from the Night Show we attended.


Here's another performer we randomly caught walking through the park.

My Handsome Hubby

This is me standing near a cool little cave we explored. It had stalagtites, different kinds of mushrooms and was very damp. What can I say? We loved it! It was our kind of place!