We celebrated our ten year anniversary in 2021! I can't believe it. It doesn't feel like that much time has passed, and I definitely don't feel old enough to have been married for a decade. Time is a weird thing. We decided to go on a fun trip to celebrate, and ended up holding off until the end of July so that Amelia would be old enough for us to leave. We've been wanting to go to Mexico, and July and August just happen to be the best time to visit to swim with the whale sharks! It's also the worst time as far as how hot it is and the seaweed problem haha, but we decided to go with it anyway and we're so glad we did! It was an amazing trip and we are so grateful that we were able to go! It is beautiful there and we loved the time we got to spend there. We missed our babies terribly though, and decided that next time we just want to bring them too. Being a mom is hard because you just want a break and then when you get a break all you can think about is how much you miss your babies. Anyways, Mexico story time!
July 27:Phyllis came into town two days earlier to watch our routine and do some work with Rusty for the bookkeeping. This morning Rusty and I woke up to messages saying that our flight had been delayed an hour, so we slept in a little longer. Then right as we were walking out the door we got an email saying that our flight had added a layover (A WHOLE LAYOVER!) and we would now be visiting Phoenix before we made it to Dallas. That meant that we would miss our connecting flight to Cancun. We ended up having a whole bunch of problems, including me having one of the biggest panic attacks I've ever had, but we saw some tender mercies in that the woman that helped me gave us free vouchers for a taxi to a hotel and back the next day, for food, and for a plane right the next morning. It was definitely not how I wanted to start the trip, but it happens.
July 28: Flight to Mexico Take 2Today we woke up at the hotel and went to the airport to make it to Mexico finally. I was still feeling shaky after last night, but talking to our cab driver helped put me to ease. It wasanother tender mercy that he was so kind and friendly! When we got to the airport Rusty went and got a bunch of breakfast snacks for us with the food vouchers we were given. He brought all of the yumminess to me and we atetogether before we got on the flight. Flying over the water was so beautiful! When we got to the coast of Cancun I couldn’t believe the color of the water. I don’t understand how it can be that way, but it is real! We landed and went through customs and immigration and it was all much easier than I thought it wouldbe. The line was long, but we didn’t have to do anything crazy. We got outside and our ride was there waiting for us to take us to our hotel. When we pulled up I was so amazed; this place was just gorgeous and HUGE. We went inside and checked in and our personal consierge gave us a tour of the place. Then while they got our room ready we went and had dinner at the buffet and then sat down on the beach for a little while. I LOVE THE OCEAN SO MUCH. After that we went to our hotel and showered and played Nintendo for a little while. Sadly, I had another panic attack this night (I’ve never had two back to back before) but it was much smaller and more manageable than the other one. I did throw up but I was able to get some sleep that night.
July 29- Ek Balam, Chichen Itza, Ik Kil Cenote
This morning we woke up and got ready to be picked up for our first tour! A car came to getus and it already had two people in it that would be going on the tour with us as well. The driver’s name was Ernesto, and he was really nice and easy to talk to. The other couple was from Lehi and was also celebrating their ten year anniversary! This tour was through Alma’sLDS tours, so everyone was LDS, and it was actually really nice to have that in common with them. We drove for a while and then met up with another group coming from the Southand we got on a big bus all together. From there we drove to our first stop, Ek Balam. EK Balam means black leopard. It is a smaller complex than Chichen Itza, but I thought it was fascinating. There were two walls around the city. 2 percent of the whole population got to live inside the city wall, the other 98 percent lived on the outside. They were slaves, and they were not taught or allowed to learn how to read. They needed the rituals that only the priests could give them because they could read their books, and they needed them in order to get to heaven. That is what they hold over them to remain slaves. They believed that therewere three realms: birds/heavens, earth/snake, underground/jaguar. In their religion, they would not be reincarnated but they would be resurrected.
This path was called the because they took seashells and crushed them up and laid them on the trail. Then in the moonlight the trail would be lit up. They walked at night because it was so hot. There were so many caterpillars all over the trees! It was crazy!
This tree is a kind of special tree called ya shey. It was considered the center of the world. It was full of water, but they did not drink it because it was sacred. Every time they passed of these trees they would stop, kneel down, and pray.
The buildings were made from limestone bricks that were baked for 50 minutes, any longer than that and they would turn to powder. The mortar was the powder, honey, water and salt.
This is the back side that has not been excavated; this is what all of it looked like before it was done
This was a well. It was in a courtyard and it captured all of the rain in the whole courtyard and funneled it down to a cistern
This was the main temple, at the top is where they did sacrifices. They did five human sacrifices a year: two solstices, equinoxes, and the first week of April. They took a prisoner, one priest held his hands, one priest held his feet. The king took an obsidian blade and while the person was still alive the king would cut open the belly and chest and take a bite of the heart if it was still beating, and then drink some blood. If the heart was not still beating, they would get a new prisoner and redo the sacrifice.
About twenty years ago, excavators found a whole section that was hidden behind a false wall. It was in great condition because it had been so well protected, it even had some of the colors in the paint still visible. There were some really interesting statues, and some of the hands had been broken off. The Mayans came back and broke some of the things that were most sacred to them.
Views from the top of the main temple. All of the rolling hills are different ruins, the land here is completely flat.
This was on top of the round temple/observatory. The priest did baptisms there.
This temple had a rounded, circular top that they used for an observatory. There was a library here, but the Spaniards burned all of the books but one. One of the books discussed astronomy and they had a deep knowledge of how things worked. They knew that the sun was stationary and we revolved around it.
False arch . This was built in such a way that you could remove the keystone and the sides would still stay up. This was very typical of Mayan architecture.
After Ek Balam we stopped somewhere for lunch. It was a little buffet outdoors, and it reminded me so much of the lunch we had on one of our tours in Peru when we went to see Ollantaytambo. The food was pretty good! It was our first Mexican food. I got chilequiles, refried beans, rice, and some pulled pork tacos. For dessert we had rice pudding. While we were eating some people came over and did some dancing right in front of our table. They balanced things on their heads while they danced, and they were really good! We took a video to send the kids because we thought that they would enjoy that, and Phyllis sent a video back of them balancing paper plates on their heads haha. They were so excited about it!
After lunch we went to our main stop for the day-- Chichen Itza! I was nervous that it wouldn’t live up to the expectation I had in my mind. I do that a lot, and I honestly can’t think of a time that it didn’t live up to my ideas in my head. But this was another time that I was just floored by how amazing it was! We had really fantastic tour guides that explained everything so well. Here are some interesting facts about Chichen Itza!*It is actually hollow inside with another temple inside, which is over a cenote! What?!*There are 12 levels, 365 steps (91 on each side and one on top). It is a calendar that shows when you should plant certain crops. *The acoustics of Chichen Itza are really impressive, and important to the people. If you make a loud sound (like a clap) it sounds like a bird. If you speak normally, everyone around you can hear what you're saying because it amplifies your voice.*The Mayans had a technique where they used stones to make a chest. They cut part of it hollow, put a stone on top then a torch and another stone. This process would suck the air out and make the chest safe for everything inside, vacuum sealing it. This would be a great way to store books, which is what they found inside the one at Chichen Itza. It was pointed out that this may have been similar to what Moroni did with the plates.*During spring and autumn equinoxes, the shadow will come slowly down the temple side to make it look like the snake is moving.*There is a temple has a man laying on his back with his hands up. In spring equinox the sun rests right in his hands. Also for human sacrifices they would put the heart in his hands. Picturesque.*100,000 people lived here*They were called the Water magicians*Kukulkan was their god that they worshiped. It was a serpent and a bird mixed together.
*Chichen Itza is actually the entire compound, the main building that we think of is called El Castillo.
There was another group of buildings called the Temple of the Warriors, or Temple of the Pillars. Each pillar represented a warrior. With some scanning technology they have found that there are a little more than 2000. The square ones were for the leaders, had their picture carved on them.
This is the ball court. There were 7 players on each team. They would play until the ball goes through one hoop, one time and they could only use their hips. The ball was 8 pounds and rubber. One recorded game lasted 7 days! I thought it was really interesting that there was a similar game for the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas. The Aztecs killed the losing team but the Mayans killed the winning team's captain. They believed it was an honor because you were better than everybody and you would never get better. They would play when they needed a special sacrifice for a special blessing.
Another building with an altar for sacrifices. On the walls are some paint colors still. There are different warriors, a Mayan one, am Aztec, a Greek and a Roman. How would they know that? Crazy!
There was a whole building for where they would put the skulls of people they killed to intimidate slaves to stay in line. They even carved stones on the walls beneath the real skulls. The whole thing is really imposing.
For our final stop we went to a cenote called Ik Kil. This cenote is pretty popular, and it is so beautiful I’m not surprised. It’s like a big cave underground with an opening in the top so you can see outside. There were all kinds of plants and vines growing down, and you could jump from the side. The thing that was the most surprising to me was that there were fish everywhere! Swimming in just a few inches of water above the sidewalk, I felt like I would step on them. But they were everywhere! Rusty and I had a great time swimming and dunking each other, and we jumped twice too. The water was cold, but after we were so hot all day it felt great. Right as we were walking in, a storm started coming in. But we got to swim with no problems!
When we finally got home that night, George our personal concierge had filled up the bath tub
for us. It was so nice and relaxing! For dinner we ordered room service and just stayed in bed
and relaxed and watched the Summer Olympics. When we were walking back to our room we
saw this woman playing the violin wearing a huge red gown way up in the air. We took pictures
and made a mental note to look into what that was!
July 30- Scuba Diving Palancar Reef in Cozumel
Today we got to do one of my favorite things: go scuba diving! I definitely had underestimated how much of a pain it was going to be to get over to Cozumel, so I don’t know that we would dothat again from Cancun. We got picked up from our driver and a few other people were already inthe car. It turned out that was everyone in our group. A couple that was from Boise and a girl my age that lived in Cancun with her parents. We drove down to Playa de Carmen, which is about an hour and forty five minutes, and then we parked and got in line for the ferry. The ferry was about 40 minutes to get over to the island, and then we had to take another taxi to the marina where we finally got on the boat and then drove for probably 30 minutes to get the reef. HA. It wasa lot. And, fun fact, Nina (the girl my age) and I needed to go to the bathroom but the restrooms upstairs in the ferry terminal were all clogged full of poop. We tried flushing them but it just wasn’tworking. So, our driver Cesar told us that there were other public restrooms on the main level. You had to pay for them so he gave us each 5 pesos because we didn’t have any. Well, the stairshad a gate on them so I was just going to give up but Nina said it would be fine to hop over them.So we did and then hopped over the padlocked gate at the bottom of the stairs too. We paid andwent into the bathrooms (which by the way, never had toilet seats on them) but when we tried togo back up the stairs we got yelled at and were told that we had to go the way that the line was. We did that, but when we got the security check point the lady wouldn’t let me and Nina get past. Eventually she let me go (Nina told her that I had kids on the other side) so I went and got Cesarso that he could help Nina. He got a crazy protective dad face on when I told him what happenedhaha, I loved him. He was going to protect us for sure. In the end we all made it on the ferry and to our dive site.
Our dive instructor told us to call him Flash, and that was pretty much our first indicator that he was a weird soul haha. I was writing down notes on my phone about our dives so that I could write them in my dive log at home and he got mad at me like a teacher in school because I wasn’tpaying attention. I don’t like to get in trouble haha. We did two dives today, both drift dives whichis really fun. We dove out on Palancar Reef, which is the second barrier reef system in the world(second only to the Great Barrier in Australia). Something happened the first dive that I’ve never had happen on any of our dives before. The couple from Boise didn’t do the dive with us becausethe husband couldn’t equalize and the wife started to panic and shake at the bottom. So Flashstayed with them, but because of the current Nina, Rusty and I kind of went without him. That’s never happened to me, where we went on without our guide, but we all stayed together. It was a wall dive which was really cool because you just float next to it and look at everything as you pass. It is a fun trade to looking at reef structures below you. Well, I was looking at the wall at somethingand then I turned around and all I saw was Flash’s face haha! I screamed I was so startled. Then we did the rest of the dive with him. We did some really cool swim throughs in caves, saw two lobsters, lots of fish, two sting rays, and some really crazy sponge structures. Some of the sponges were large enough that I could have taken a bath inside of them! The second dive we saw some more coral and sponges that were crazy, two horseshoe looking rays, a puffer fish, andthen a big mommy barracuda. It wasn’t the craziest day of scuba diving, but any day scuba diving is a great day. We loved being out there and experiencing that!
July 31- Relax at Hotel Paradisus
Today we got to just stay at the hotel and relax! We were supposed to have one of these days our first
day here, but that ended up being eaten up by flying from Dallas. So this was our first day to really explore
the hotel and use what it had to offer. We got a bali bed right by the pool and went swimming in the pool
and over in this side pool that had beds made out of tile that were partly under the water with a great
view of the ocean. The activities staff brought different things out for us to do, so we painted hats and
little ceramic turtles for the kids. We would trade off and on from the bali bed by the pool to going down
to some chairs under an umbrella on the beach. There was a lot of seaweed during our stay, but today
was way less and we had clear water!
August 1- Swimming with whale sharks
I couldn’t sleep last night I was so excited about this day. This was the reason that we decided to come to
Mexico even though it would be really hot and have all of the seaweed: it is the best time to see whale
sharks. Our guide, Alejandro, picked us up from the hotel and we had a short drive down to the marina in
Cancun. We went to another hotel to pick up another couple but they cancelled last minute. Another
couple also cancelled, so it ended up just being six of us on the boat instead of eight. So that was already
looking good! Alejandro said that sometimes they have twenty whale sharks out there, which made me
so excited. He told me not to get too crazy about it because there’s just no way to know how many will
be there. But that this is the best time of year so to be hopeful!
The whole ride out there I was just nervous that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations or that I would feel
sick. I’ve never been that far out to the open ocean without ANYTHING around: no reefs, no ports,
no islands, nothing. We got out there and all I saw was 50 boats and my hopes started to go down.
This wasn’t like I imagined. There were so many people out there! But then I saw one and I just got so
excited! And then we noticed that the boats were starting to disperse and give each other a lot of room.
Turn out, there were about 100 whale sharks out there that day! This is very rare and very lucky, so each
boat got to follow one or two sharks and didn’t have to share with anyone else. And because we had
less people on the boat with us we got to do three dives instead of two! I couldn’t have asked for better
circumstances, especially because I only got sick for a little bit right before the third dive and then we left.
Ok, so swimming with whale sharks. It was magical. Rusty and I were told to sit on the side of the boat
and wait until we were told to go in. Then all of a sudden the captian starts yelling, “GO GO GO!!” and it
was so abrupt and stressful that you just flop in the water. For our first jump, when we landed we just
saw a shadow really far ahead of us. We started swimming like crazy and caught up to him and then
we got to swim right alongside him. I was in heaven! They are so graceful and beautiful and perfect,
and swimming next to them makes you feel small and insignificant but also so peaceful and lucky.
Then he turned around and his face was coming at me and I just straight up panicked haha! I know
he isn’t going to eat me, but he might on accident. These things are huge! Their caudal (tail) fins are
literally as tall as me. Even though you know they won’t bite you, there is something so intimidating
about swimming right next to them. Also, the depth there is 120 feet so I was also kind of scared
something else like a Great White would come and eat me haha. And then off to my right another
whale shark came up and I started swimming with her. By then our turn was over so we went back
to the boat and got to see them from the boat too!
The second dive we jumped right along the side of one and we were feeling more comfortable and ready
to go. I could look at those polka dots forever.
For our third jump, we jumped right in front of one. Its mouth was open as it was swimming towards us,
and both Rusty and I got a little nervous haha. I tried to go to the far side of the shark so that the guide
could get good footage of Rusty swimming with the shark too instead of just me. I went to the back of
the shark and tried to swim behind its tail, but it smacked me with it haha. So much for not touching
them, but it touched me so it’s not my fault.
After our third jump we headed back towards Cancun, stopping at Isla Mujeres on the way to swim and
hang out. I didn’t know we were going to do that, so that was a big bonus! The water is so clear and
beautiful and the ocean temperature is just crazy perfect. We swam around here for a little bit before
getting back on the boat and then driving back to our hotel.
August 2- Tulum and Snorkeling Akumal Bay
Today was our last excursion day, and to be honest I was not that excited about it. I mean, I was
excited but I thought it would be kind of a let down after the other ruins we had seen. But I was wrong!
Tulum was amazing, and our guide Mario was great. We had a two hour drive down to Tulum, and
Rusty and I enjoyed picking his brain and asking him all kinds of questions about what it’s like to live
in Mexico.
Tulum was fascinating. We had a really fun time and learned a lot! It was beautiful and the color
of the water was so breathtaking. Here are some things we learned about Tulum:
*Tulum means stone wall. Actual name of city is Zama, it means sunrise.
These three panels are so interesting to me. God was seen as all powerful, and He had a son who he sent to Earth. The panel shows the Son upside down coming to Earth, holding a jar of honey. Honey was incredibly important to the Mayans. They would trade it for actual gold. It was the key to eternal life. The life span outside the wall was 45-50, inside every day they received a drop of honey on the tongue. Their life span was 75-80. They believed that this is what made it so they lived twice as long (not the endless slave labor and lack of nutrition). The Mayans even put honey in their buildings because they intended them to last forever. The last panel is empty, and for years people thought that it had contained some gold or precious metal and people ransacked it. Then they uncovered a painting of the temple inside the temple of the Descending God in Tulum and realized it was always empty. It symbolizes a God without form. This sounds very similar to our beliefs of the Godhead. Pretty cool!
After Tulum, Rusty and I ran over and got some souvenirs for the kids and our families. Then we had a
delicious lunch of fajitas before we got in the car and headed to Akumal Bay. We went to a dive shop
and got some snorkel gear on and then headed out in a boat, but we stayed really close to shore.
They have areas blocked off that are sanctuaries so no people can go in, but you can snorkel
around those areas. We had a guide named Lupita that took us around out there. We ended up
seeing about six green sea turtles (and some of them were HUGE), lots of fish and coral structures,
and two really huge fish called pam pams? We also saw some rays.
We got home from Tulum kind of early, around 5. We showered and then went to a new restaurant that
we had been looking forward to! It was outside and had gorgeous views of the ocean, and was really fancy. We had sushi and ordered our main courses but they took SO LONG, like SO LONG, and the waiter never came back so we ended up leaving after a while. We got some other food and then went and hung out by the beach before going to bed.
August 3- Relax at Hotel Paradisus
This was our last day in Mexico, and it was a chill day relaxing at the resort. Rusty had found out
that there are some Bali beds that face the ocean and so he went out early to get those reserved.
We ordered room service for breakfast and ate them in our robes and slippers, then we went out
and read and drank virgin pina coladas in the bali bed. The rest of the day we took a nap, played
nintendo, went back out to the bali bed, and got lunch at the buffet. Then we tried out the swim up
bar before we went in and got ready for dinner and seeing the Aladdin show. For dinner we went
back to Blue Agave to get those tacos again. We stayed at the Aladdin show for about half of it,
just laughing and loving how poorly they were lip syncing to the English words. But their dancing
is really amazing!
August 4- Flight home
Today we woke up and it was bitter sweet. I have missed my babies so much that it has been
difficult at times to really enjoy where we’re at, but now that it’s over I’m sad. I don’t want to stay
longer, but I want to go get my kids and bring them back here with me haha. We got up and went
out to the beach for one last time and then were picked up from our hotel. On the way to the
airport I got a message saying that the flight was delayed, can you believe that, so we took some
extra time and got some candies and yummy Mexican vanilla to take home with us. We got lunch
at Margaritaville in the airport, which is surprisingly really tiny. Like 10 gates. Our first flight was
fine, we didn’t get to sit next to each other but we both just slept the whole time. When we landed
in Dallas they made us go through security again because they brought us to the wrong side of
the airport or something like that, so they took the vanilla :( ahhhhhhhhhh. Because of all of the
delays and going through security again we had about fifteen minutes before we boarded our final
flight. By this point we are ready to go home and see our babies! They had fun with their
grandparents, and when they were at my mom's Uncle Dave took Henry fishing and all his
dreams came true!
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