DAY FIVE

A first proper excursion - shared with a plethora of very loud Spanish blokes who seemed to only want to go to the lap dancing bar CHILLY WILLY {aka Cheeeeeeely Weeeeeeely}. We went to Tulum which is an ancient Mayan city further down the coast from Playa del Carmen. It is quite a large site with several standing buildings extant none of which are available to get too close to.

They looked very impressive but I wasn't particularly engaged by it as the area was too large to get an idea what I was actually supposed to be looking at - I think the guide was particularly poor at this as he seemed preoccupied telling us all about the intricacies of the Mayan calendar and very little about where we actually were standing! The city was built on the edge of a cliff which made for a very picturesque location. There were heaps of tourist groups too which made it a rather bizarre experience - like little armies moving around the site trying not to bump into each other as well as the concomitant problem of taking your place in little queues to take photos of the best aspects!

After the heat of the exposed spaces of Tulum it was time to have a bit of a cool down. We then went to Xel-Ha (Xel pronounced shell) - a kinda aquatic theme park with animals! O was very excited about the concept of swimming with dolphins which is one of their trump cards, however when we saw what that entailed he went right off the idea as it was the dolphin having to do tricks with punters... all he wanted to do with paddle about with 'em! We wandered around a bit, made some new friends who DEMANDED pictures taken with us and eventually found a quiet inlet by the lagoon for O to have a swim and me to write some postcards. Thoroughly exhausted we dragged ourselves back and went for dinner at the under-lit (and slightly underwhelming) Mandarina where the waiter said he could sit us "either at the side or the backside". Bless.

DAY SIX

Another beach, ocean, veranda day. I felt a bit groggy later on - I think the excessive battering by the Caribbean waves had driven my blood sugar down. We went for dinner at La Cocherina where I had a rich Mayan Chicken and a jaw-dropping dessert of oranges and ice-cream. Wasn't quiet what I expected... the waiter had various sliced fruits brought to the table, oranges, strawberries etc. then doused them in rum, set them alight, then served them up with a dollop of ice-cream... totally delicious (and very bad for me ordinarily)!

DAY SEVEN

Wooo - a big day. Today we went to another theme-park Xcaret (sounds like uscaret) which we had booked through the Kuoni rep. We arrived to find no rep with our tickets, indeed no one had even heard where we supposed to be meeting them! We got in eventually and it didn't take too long for us to forget all the tsouris if getting in. What a place! Primarily another aquatic theme-park with swimming with the dolphins, snorkeling, underwater river swimming, etc. there are also many animal enclosures and areas for botanical preservation, several areas devoted to Mayan history and culture, a lovely open-air church overlooking the Carribean sea and an amazing Mayan cemetery with multi-coloured memorials spiraling up in a pyramid topped off with Ceiba trees.


We started off walking around a butterfly enclosure, set in a small valley with a net roof where the flutterbies can wing around to their hearts content and closeby a marvellous stained glass ceiling for what will be an insect house soon, we enviously watched the jaguars and pumas lolling about on their island, lazily looking about then nodding off again, strange manatees floating in their pools like large submarines, a big aquarium where we stared at the underwater windows watching the multi-coloured darting fish then onto big turtle pools. After a nice lunch we wandered round a tropical jungle trail, an orchid hothouse and a stables. We then sat and watched the Voladores de Papantla, 5 men re-enacting an ancient ritual where they climb up a huge pole, one of them stays atop playing a flute while four others twirl down by ropes to the ground joined by Mr. Fluter - and with no safety harnesses! If this wasn't enough they then climbed on a rotating catherine wheel/cross affair and rotated clockwise speedily! Them crazy Mayans!

Then we upped the excitement level by going to the Regional Wildlife centre - parrots and macaws, toucans, a creepy looking vulture and an oddly quiet mynah bird. We were both entranced by the green parrot who quite happily kept saying "HOLA!" to us then giggling away - only in the taxi back to the hotel did we realise we could have videoed him on our cameras to capture him in all his chatty glory - BUGGER!!

Then my heart missed a beat! A large cage with three sleepy tiger cats aka tigrillos aka adorable! They are related to the Ocelot, are nocturnal (which might explain why they were sparko when we were there) and only grow to about 2 foot long. They were in the big cage to get them used to their environment - I did try the door but it was locked!! One of them was asleep stradling a branch on the stunted tree within the cage while another was on another branch right up against the chain link fence. Luckily O pointed out that if I wanted I could stroke his tail. I did consider the fact that he was so small I might be able to drag him through the fence and stick him in my bag but thought otherwise and settled for a quick stroke!

Somehow Owen managed to drag me out of the area in time to see a re-enactment of an ancient Mayan fire dance with a well spooky man made up like a skeleton with skull mask and a guy with a painted blue face who for some reason reminded me of Pete Burns. Go figure. We stood watching this taking place on a raised island in a haze of burning incense which at one point was so overwhelming I really had to grip the fence otherwise I would have made an awful ker-splash when I passed out and fell into the river between them and us!

Then, as if the HOLA! parrot and the tiger cats weren't enough of a wow factor, we discovered the Mayan cemetery. A wide conical pyramind of 365 memorial stones circle upwards towards Ceiba trees stretching their flat branches across the sky. In postcards we saw later there was also a neon horizontal cross too but that's disappeared - probably a Hurricaine Katrina loss? It's amazing, practically all the monuments are brightly painted in dayglo colours - only in a Latin country - or feature some sort of statuary, minature church with tiny stained glass windows delightful in the flat late-afternoon sun or strange replicas of items - one shaped like a sports car, a bed, empty birdcages... We spent ages slowly walking around the circular paths as I felt a smile of pure pleasure spreading wider and wider. Time was also spent in the wonderfully air-conditioned shop next to it... indeed I bought a snazzy t-shirt in there that Tall Paul translated by text for me as saying "The Dead Hang Around Until They Are Forgotten Forever" - fun huh? Suddenly just where I would never have expected it, I have found a new favourite place! It did nothing to quieten O's bafflement about the Mexican preoccupation with death!

Hard to believe but there was still more as night fell - a huge spectacular show in the park's 6,000 seater auditorium boasting a cast of 300 singers, dancers, Mayan ball players, the Voladores swinging down their pole again... oh and the horses and parrots had co-starring roles too! The first act depicted the ancient Mayan marriage ceremony and infamous ball game played by 2 teams of men who have to hit the leather ball with their thigh through a ring at each side of the court. In real-life the one who scored the most would then be sacrificed to the gods! An incentive to miss scoring if ever I heard one. The first act closed with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. The second act was a bit different... a bit of an Around Mexico review with local dances and song styles. All certainly colourful and well received by the Mexicans in da house but a bit repetitive for us non-Latinos! Needless to say we were totally exhausted when we fell out of the cab back at the hotel but also very happy to have experienced so much fun stuff in a single day!