Cancun!

As a graduation present Dan's parents helped us afford a vacation to Cancun. It was extremely spur of the moment but it was a lot of fun. This was my first time leaving the country and it was an adventure. The only misstep that we had was that our luggage didn't make it. We had to make some adjustments but luckily it didn't affect our plans too much. We only had 4 days so we jam packed everything that we wanted to get done in those 4 days. Here is the view from our hotel.

The first day that we were there we went to go see some Mayan ruins. This was the top thing that I wanted to do so I was grateful that we were able make it happen. The hotel that we were staying at was giving a tour so we were able to go with a guide which was very helpful. He was Mayan and he was able to give us a lot of insight into the culture. The city that we went to was called Tulum. It was one of the only coastal Mayan cities to be built. It was a port city so it didn't have the same huge temples that the religious cities would have had. Luckily it was filled with lots of other incredible structures. Here are the highlights:



This is a palace where someone important in the community would have lived.


This a small temple that was dedicated to worshiping women. There were people there researching and excavating this building.

This is the main temple in Tulum. I still think it is pretty impressive.

The next day we took a ferry to Isla Mujeras. We rented scooters to get around the island and then had a snorkeling adventure.

I just couldn't believe how blue the water was, it was just incredible!


This was my first time snorkeling and I was pretty excited. We were the only ones at this location so we got to enjoy ourselves without a crowd.


There were so many fish! I will admit at first it was a little overwhelming but once I discovered that they would move once I started swimming it got a lot better.



This was an unknown creature when I discovered it. I thought it was going to come out and eat me! We took a picture of it and showed it to a local. They informed us that it was a lobster. They wanted to know its exact location so that they could go back and catch it for dinner.

The next day was dedicated to the adventure that Dan wanted to have the most while we were there. We went to Playa del Carmen (a city with a beautiful beach). Dan had researched these things called cenotes. They are basically sink holes (huge caves filled with water). You take your snorkeling gear and you get to explore the caves both above you and under the water. There were lots of bats in the caves as well but they avoided us for the most part. The water was a little cold but again we were the only ones there so we got the caves all to ourselves.



This is the entrance into the caves to where the water is.


These are the stalactites that were lining the entire roof of the caves.


These are the stalactites under the water.

While we were there we also found time to relax on the beach, eat some great food, release baby turtles in the ocean, and enjoy the flee market.



Overall we had an absolutely awesome trip. We would have loved for it to have been a little longer but it was still very worth it. I can't wait for our next trip!