DAY EIGHT, NINE & TEN

Had a bit of beach life this morning then felt a bit dodgy during lunch... sure enough it was time to fall victim to Montezuma's Revenge. Stayed on the veranda for the rest of the afternoon. We came to the sad decision that O should go on Monday to the scheduled excursion to the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza on his own as I didn't think my hairtrigger stomach could be trusted on the long coach journey. So Monday was spent on the veranda, listening to my iPod through speakers and finally finishing the Michael Redgrave biography. Owen arrived back and dinner was had for a second time at the delightful Media Luna. Tuesday was spent mostly doing the iPod, book, hammock and zzzzzzzzing the hours away.... bliss. We finally roused ourselves for dinner at the fine Italian restaurant Da Bruno (which also had a nice loo!)

DAY ELEVEN

Last night we deceided that a second journey to Xcaret was definately on the cards! Once there I bit the bullet and agreed to go on a Sea Trek which involves a 30 minute walk along the sea bed - me? under water??? I blame the sun getting to my brain. On a small jetty close to the beach we were given little rubbery slippers to wear, were given a brief description of what it entails and then pointed towards the ladder that went down under the sea. You had to climb down into the water as low as possible, they put the oxygen mask down over your head and then go under. Owen went first and then it was my turn. The water was C O L D! I was hyperventilating as I stood on the ladder, he plonked the helmet on my head and the weight pushed me under.... I panicked a bit at first as suddenly all noise stopped and all I could hear was the hisssssssssssss of the oxygen in the helmet and me repeating "OHMIGOD OHMIGOD OHMIGOD". It didn't help that water was coming in under the helmet up to my mouth! Somewhere I remembered that you had to stay upright and any water would drain out so I did and the water went blubulubblelubble out the the bottom of the helmet. A diver guided my hand to the waist high metal rail which was driven into the seabed and sure enough I found myself walking down a slight incline following Owen along the bottom of the sea! It was great... strolling along with brightly luminous fishes swimming around and as usual with these things by the time I was really loving it we found ourselves back at the bottom of the ladder! I was buzzin' for a while after doing it. After that we had lunch in a large open-air restaurant and had a nice wander through the park. Sadly no Hola parrott - O was distraught - but there was plenty of time to gawp lovingly at the 3 tiger cats as well as checking out the Macaws and the bigger cats on Jaguar Island!.






This also meant a return to the wonderful cemetery mound and the opportunity to explore underneath it... a lofty 'crypt', open to the sky, with water running in ledges down it's walls. along the sides of the walkway into the crypt, around the paving stones you walk on and down into a round pool at the base of an enormous stone cross that towers above you in the crypt - all quite wonderous. The cool of the interior is in marked contrast to the heat of the monument path above. Off the sloping walkway are two side "chapels" lit only by the lights under gaudily-painted religeous staues in hidden niches - well spooky! I love this place - here are more of the delightful monuments...

After some serious shopping in the large shop there we headed back to the hotel. We again had dinner in the rather marvellous Ula-Gula restaurant on Fifth Avenue.

DAY TWELVE

Set off for the last excursion booked, a trip to visit the ancient city of Coba which is still in a process of being excavated by archeologists. A fairly long drive in 2 coachs was the order of the morning - sadly picking up a group of Californian twats from one of the hotels who provided an audio commentary to the rest of the day - mostly consisting of OH WOW MAN LOOK AT THAT TREE, THAT'S AWESOME MAN. BRO, DID YOU SEE THAT CRAZY TREE DUDE? I sat scowling in my seat, muttering abuse under my breath. We reached Coba just in time for me to have another purge of my innards! In the blazing heat we set off with our guide for the long walk to Nohuch Mul the tallest pyramid excavated at 138 feet high. I was knackered by the time we reached it's base but I had a reputation to uphold of climbing up big things on holidays so up I went. The steep steps are not smooth - just large square stones built beside each other so it was a bit of a workout climbing up them, hands on the steps ahead to steady myself. After a few breathers I found myself at the top in front of the tiny Temple Of The Descending God which was pitch black inside. The view from the top was quite breathtaking - the canopy of jungle trees broken by the top of a smaller Coba pyramid in the mid-distance. A nice man proved not too fluent in English but adept enough at taking photographs! With the help of a helpfully-placed rope at stair-level I managed to clamber down well enough although even with this to hang onto it was still a dizzying view.


And that was Coba! Then it was back on the coach for a short drive to a Cenote - an underwater freshwater pool - which was fine to wet the back of my neck with but after a few minutes I went back up the ricketty stairs to join O in the air-conditioned coach. We were then driven to a large-ish restaurant for a buffet lunch then onto Aktun Chen an unannounced stop but which turned out to be a good adventure. The underground caves are reached quite easily - we had fears there would be a vertinious walk downwards like the one in Thailand that Owen couldn't face - and walked for about 45 minutes through sometimes narrowing chambers of natural beauty. Stalactites, stalagmites and rock formations that look like weird sculptures if you stare at 'em long enough. Finally we found ourself in a beautiful cave standing on a bridge over a cenote which when he flicked a few switches was lit up with underwater lighting showing the rocks beneath the clear water. Very lovely. After that, it was back on the coach and back to Playa del Carmen - by way of one of the Californian stepping on an anthill getting on the bus HA!! - no wonder my blood sugar was 3.6 after all the schlepping today! Dinner at Media Luna again. A very nice day all n all!