I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed you! But I had a wonderful time. Of course I'm going to tell you all about it. With pictures, and excerpts from the journal entries I hand-wrote.

Sam picked me up at 5:30 in the morning, thanks to the new security restrictions. She's such a wonderful person, she brought me coffee.

Of course, I stuffed the extra creamer she brought me into my pocket and promptly forgot about it, and since it was the powdered stuff in foil packets, it set off the metal detector at the airport, and I had to go through the full pat-down. Whee. But even with all that, I was still sitting at the gate a full two hours before my flight.

Oh, well. If we'd left an hour later, we'd have hit the morning work traffic, and then I might've actually been late. You never know. Better early than late, with travel.

The flights themselves were pretty relaxed. I had the whole row to myself on the flight into Cancun, which was awesome; I hadn't been looking forward to being squeezed in for two and a half hours.

First Sighting of Cancun

I pretty much breezed through customs, and Dad met me just outside the airport. He arranged transportation, and we headed into the resort and got me checked in. He and Mom showed me around a little bit, inside and out.

View from my room

To give you an idea how narrow the island is -- here's what you see if you go out the east doors of the resort lobby:

View from the lobby - east (ocean)

And here's what you see if you go out the west doors of the lobby:

View from the lobby - west (lagoon)

While Mom and I walked down to the beach so I could get my toes wet, Dad ordered us a batch of margaritas from the poolside bar.

They're not shy with the tequila, let me tell you. I had just the one, and by the time I'd finished it... I wrote in my journal:

We didn't do much, the rest of that day.

The whole time I was in Cancun, I think the latest I managed to sleep was 6:30. How pathetic is that? At least I got to see some pretty sunrises. Though the best was the very first morning I was there, because just as it was getting light, a cruise ship sailed across the horizon, all bedecked with lights. It was like a dream.

Cancun sunrise, complete with cruise ship

Wednesday was declared a "sit around and relax" day. We went to the pool for a bit, and then I couldn't resist swimming in the ocean some, though the undertow is a little strong. The beaches are marked with flags indicating the swimming safety level -- I never saw a green or blue flag, only yellows and reds. But the water felt wonderful.

Yep, that's me in the ocean.

Given the narrowness of the island, and the fact that all the restaurants are on the ocean side, and all the restaurants on the lagoon side, I got to watch a lot of gorgeous sunsets, too.

Cancun sunset

Thursday, we went to Xcaret (pronounced "ish-ca-RET"). After some initial trouble with the dinner tickets and a bus driver whose English was more or less nonexistant, we got to look around at the various exhibits. The Mayan village mockup was neat, and I wanted to buy some of the handmade crafts (they were making them as you watched, which was fascinating) but alas, I hadn't brought enough cash, and they didn't take plastic.

Xcaret - Mayan Village

The butterfly house was fantastic, too -- a narrow path through more vegetation than I could shake a stick at, but everywhere you looked, there were butterflies. The most beautiful one I saw was the size of my two spread hands, pale purplish blue with black edging. But it wouldn't stay still long enough for me to take a picture.

Xcaret - Butterfly House

There were lots of other animals. Assorted deer, wild boar, a tapir, a pair of mountain lions (one of which was either fat or pregnant), and a gorgeous, gorgeous panther.

Xcaret - panther

We watched a short presentation on Mexican costumes and dances (as they vary by region) and a horseback-riding/lasso demonstration. After that, we went on to the big show, which started with a little Mayan culture -- including two games, one of which was kind of a cross between soccer and basketball... sort of. The other was very much like field hockey, only the ball was on fire.

After that, the show dipped into history (the arrival of Spain and the Mayans' conversion to Catholicism). And after the intermission, there was an hour's worth of assorted costumes and dances, very well-choreographed and fun to watch.

Xcaret Show - The arrival of the conquistadors

Friday was the long tour day; we were to meet the bus in front of the resort at 7:30, and we weren't due back until 7:30 in the evening. Of course, a lot of that was eaten up in picking up passengers from other hotels and in travel. Tulum and Xel Ha are only about fifteen minutes apart, but they're a good hour or so from Cancun.

But by 10, we were at Tulum. That earned me my only real sunburn for the trip -- there's a walk from the point where you get your ticket punched to the gate in the wall that gives Tulum its name, and that walk is about half a mile, in a straight line. I had a visor to shade my face, but the right side of my neck and shoulder, and the backs of my arms and hands, turned red.

Tulum itself was fascinating, despite the fact that they no longer allow visitors to climb the buildings and everything was roped off.

Tulum - Fertility Temple

Our tour guide, Nicolas, was good-humored and funny. He showed us the carvings on the fertility temple -- the woman in the birthing position, the baby with its umbilical cord, the obligatory upside-down carving of the sun god... He eyed the young boy in the group and said, "How old are you? Eleven? You will learn it soon -- but not from me. You turn around and look at the columns there, sí?" And when the boy had turned around, Nicolas used the reflection off his watch to point us at the third carving, which was of, as he said, "The baby, nine months earlier."

Tulum is located on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Once in, they have a staircase down the side of the cliff, and you can go snorkeling -- one of the largest coral reefs in the world is just off Tulum's shore. But then you'd have to climb back up the cliff.

Tulum - Castle and Cliff

After Tulum, we went to Xel Ha (pronounced "shell hah"). Xel Ha is a T-shaped lagoon, about a mile in either direction. The lagoon is fresh water, but then of course spills into the sea.

We were well into the park when Mom realized she'd left her bathing suit behind. She was disappointed, but we got her settled into a beach chair with a margarita, and then Dad and I went snorkeling. From my journal:

Xel Ha - Pretty fish

But we didn't want to leave Mom alone too long, so after about an hour or so, we went and found her, and went in search of lunch. We'd paid for the deluxe admission tickets, which included all the food and drink you wanted -- just present the bracelet to be scanned, and the only limitation was that you couldn't pick up multiple alcoholic beverages at one time.

So we went to the Mexican buffet, and ate tomato salad, and sopapillas drenched with the wonderful local honey, and probably the best chicken molé I've ever had in my life, and drank margaritas while we listened to the live music. We must have sat there for two hours, and we had at least three or four drinks apiece. The extra cost of the deluxe tickets paid for itself right there.

We were on the bus for a good four or five hours, all told, and I spent almost the whole time staring out the window, even when all there was to see was jungle. Especially when all there was to see was jungle.

Saturday, we didn't do much -- we needed to recover from all the activities and walking around! We did laundry, and went shopping. We even got in a siesta. Matt called at 3, and it was really great to hear his voice, and talk (if briefly) to Penny.

We went to a restaurant called La Habichuela for dinner -- Carribbean cuisine, really marvelous stuff. When it was done, we were so full we decided to walk down to the bus stop and take the local bus back to the resort. We discovered that downtown doesn't really have bus stops so much as you see the bus you want and wave until it stops for you.

On our way back, we bumped into a couple of American guys -- in their early twentys, maybe? They had finished a 750ml bottle of tequila between them already, and had some more in a plastic water bottle that they were passing back and forth. They flirted wtih me a little bit, which only proves how sloshed they were, but it was fun. My parents tried to tell them about the restaurants in the area, which made me roll my eyes -- these guys were not in search of fine dining. They wanted to party. I showed them were to get off the bus, since most of the bars and dance clubs are all clustered together at the north end of the hotel strip.

Sunday, we mostly loafed around the resort again. We went to the "welcome" party that they throw every Sunday afternoon, and I drank a couple of rum-and-cokes that tasted like cups of rum that had once been in the same room with a bottle of Coke. Once those were in me, Mom convinced me and Dad to participate in the water-balloon toss (we didn't even get one throw in; the balloon was so big and overfull that it slipped from my fingers and splashed all over Dad's feet) and she got me to get up and dance. Somewhere on her camera, she has pictures of me in the conga line and doing the "YMCA."

After we'd done that, and gone swimming for a bit, we changed clothes and went to a tequila-tasting. We got to see a (badly made) film about how tequila is made, and taste three varieties -- silver/blanco, which is bottled immediately after being distilled and (according to the tequilier) the variety with the most agave flavor; reposado, which is aged from 6 months to a year in oak barrels, and is much smoother than the silver; and añejo, which is aged from 1 to 5 years, and was very smooth, as well as having some interesting flavors, almost like cinnamon or chocolate.

There also was a tequila creme liqueur (sort of like Irish creme, but with tequila flavor) that was very tasty.

Dinner Sunday was at El Conquistador, a members-only restaurant at one of the other resorts down the beach a ways, owned by the same company as my parents' place. They have a penchant for tableside-cooked meals and flames, but the food was beyond marvelous.

Monday, we discovered that the little ceramic pig I'd painted for a souvenier had gone missing, so we spent another hour at the painting table so I could make another one. Honestly, I'm almost glad; I think the second pig turned out much prettier.

In the afternoon, there was a taco party and another show, and in the late afternoon, it was windy enough that Mom and Dad got to go down to the beach and fly their kites.

Kite flying (Mom's is a goldfish; Dad's is a lizard)

Dinner was a Mexican buffet with fantastic food, and a floor show that was marred by a volume on the speakers so loud it was painful. I tried to take pictures, but the smoke kept foiling my flash.

Tuesday morning was the only day of truly bad weather I'd seen -- it was so windy and rainy I was a little worried that my flight home would be delayed or even cancelled. It was as if Cancun didn't want me to go. But the rain stopped and the wind had mostly died down by the time the shuttle arrived for me.

On my way home, shortly after we'd crossed over into the southern US, we were welcomed home by a series of shimmering rainbows, and I knew I was almost home.

--Liz