Cancun

After Preston's graduation, we went to Cancun with my brother, Nate and Michelle.  They were celebrating their tenth anniversary and Nate's graduation too!

It was such a perfect vacation and a perfect time of year to go. Spring Breaks were over but the summer rush hadn't quite begun.  It was absolutely wonderful!

Our hotel was right on the beachfront and we were able to often take walks on the beach and play out in the ocean.  We even did a little sea shell hunting too!  

It was so nice to have Preston's spanish speaking skills there as we used it just about everywhere we went, including the local grocery store!

On one of our first days there, we rented a car and drove to Chichin-Itza.  The Mayan ruins there are unbelievable and are in incredible shape for being centuries old!  On our drive there, we took a toll road that we figured everyone took.  However, once we passed the first toll of about $25, a police officer asked us to pull over before we continued.  (Basically, he saw that we looked American and had a rented car.)  He then asked Preston for his driver's license and rental car information.  Then he wanted our passports (which we weren't comfortable traveling around with so none of us had ours).  He then, in a round about way, asked Preston how he was going to thank him for not giving us a ticket for not having our passports.  HA! The crummy police officer just wanted a bribe.  Preston offered him about 50 cents in pesos, which he laughed out... but he accepted the two dollars we gave him to go along the way.

However, the ruins were incredible and completely worth the trip (and bribed police officer).  

They were so ingenious at that time in their use of architecture and keeping track of calendars and astronomy, etc.  This is a snake that on the spring equinox shows up in it's shadows all the way from the top to the bottom where the head lies.  

(Didn't realize tic tac toe was such an old game).

I guess we are a little taller than they were.

The Observatory.

For the Mayan, there was no difference between astronomy and astrology.  They observed the stars and position of the sun and based their calendar and architecture on these observations.  Also, the stellar constellations were used for prophecies, for political decisions and for predictions that concerned every day life.

This is the game field where they have two small rings on the side of each wall (if you look close you can see them).  The teams had to compete using any extremity except their hands and feet to try to hit the ball through the ring.  There are several theories about the ball game of the Maya.  Some say the winning team was decapitated; others say the losing team was sacrificed to honor the gods.  It is, however known that the ball game wasn't merely sport but always a sacred ritual.  (Kind of crazy if you ask me).

This wall of "skulls" was symbolized of the heads of the sacrificed people (mostly defeated warriors).

On our way home, we realized that we could completely avoid the toll road with a parallel highway that went through a lot of little towns (and speedbumps), but wouldn't cost us $30 in tolls.  So we took that.

On the way home, we stopped at a cenote. 

It was absolutely stunning.  

We did a little swimming!

And a little cliff jumping.  This is the good video of us jumping.  The other one was about two minutes long of me getting to the edge and then chickening out.  Yea, embarrassing!

The next day we went to a resort called Xel-Ha.  It was absolutely beautiful with lots of snorkeling, endless food, cliff jumping, zip lines, rope climbing, cenotes (which weren't as cool as the other cenotes), lazy rivers, etc.  

One of the best parts of the day was watching Michelle swim with the dolphins.  

Yea, they LOVED her!  

On our way home from Xel-Ha, we stopped at a local beach called Akumal that had five huge native sea turtles swimming about thirty feet out!  I think that was Nate and Preston's favorite part of the whole trip.  

Well, besides Nate's ride on this little bike!  I think he wants one, what do you think?

The boys victory yelp when they found the turtles.

Nate on his bike again!

The next day, we went to another beach called Puerto Morelos that wasn't far off of the reef.  So we went there and hired someone to take us out on their boat and out to snorkel for a few hours at the reef.  It was the most amazing snorkeling I have ever done in my life.  We saw some amazingly exotic fish and a few sting rays.  One sting ray was probably about two feet wide and had a stinger that looked nearly three feet long!  

The snorkeling was better then the resort that we went to.  

Nate under the boat!

Us after our snorkeling fun!  I'll be honest, I was FREEZING! But it was so worth it.

Oh look what Nate found! Another bike.

After our swim, we got a coconut to share for about a buck.  Coconut Milk isn't that wonderful.  At least when it's warm.  But now we can say we've had it.  After we finished the milk, he cut out the coconut for us to eat.  Preston liked that part.

Nate wanted to bring one of these home too!

Our last day there, we just sat on the beach a lounged about.  We were actually kind of exhausted from all the adventures we had and we knew we had a full day of traveling the next day.  

It was such a perfect trip and was a great "hoo raw" before we moved!  Congrats to Nate and Preston for your great accomplishments in school and your graduations.  Thanks for giving us a great excuse to go celebrate!