Exciting Xcaret

Today we had no set plans so dropped by our friendly tour agent, Brenda, for some advice (and to thank her for setting us up on the ATV's and horse riding).

We were thinking Xcaret, an eco theme park, and Brenda confirmed we had to go before we left. So we headed over for the afternoon and the evening show.

As soon as you walk in you see some of the beautiful wildlife and birds





We visited the butterfly enclosure which not surprisingly had heaps of lovely butterflys floating around, couple pics below





This is a shot of the Tour Captain consulting his team on the next move ...



... which turned out to be the aquarium. Some pics below, camera battery ran out before we could get a shot of the large sea turtles swimming around.







They also had some puma's lazing around.





Xcaret is a great spot to spend a day and the evening show was quite spectacular. Unfortunately we didn't get any shots since camera was out of action.

On way home we bought a hammock and couple of hammock seats so we can lie and sit in them when we get home, close our eyes and think of our Mexican vacation (if it isn't to cold outside).

Two days to go in Playa, then we head to our final destination - Oahu, Hawaii.

Special hello to Ellen, Jordan and Taylor back home because they would love Xcaret and all the animals that live there. Hope Lily is well and getting comfortable in her new home.

Tour Captain out.

Horse Whispering Harvy's

Today we headed off to Loma Bonita with ambitions and aspirations of galloping through the Mexican countryside and beach.

Well as soon as I mounted "Tweety", Sonia mounted "Marla", Sammy mounted "Century" and Brando mounted "Comanchi" we realised we had absolutely no control over these horses. As soon as we started out on our journey my horse and Sonia's headed straight into something that resembled a corn field for a bite of grass. Sam's went off the track and up a hill. Brandan's was doing much the same. After about 45 minutes we got to the beach and were about to get off but not before "Tweety" decided he wanted to have a bit of a gallop. I went from the back of the pack to the front in no time, bit like Kiwi when he won the Melbourne Cup accept I didn't have a smile on my face when we hit the finish line!









We rested at the beach briefly and Sonia and the kids rode horses out into the water and back, I opted to have a rest after my brief encounter with "Tweety".

Ride home to ranch went bit smoother for all of us, think we were starting to get the hang of it. We were all relieved to get back and get off the horses without any injury other than sore butts.

Was good fun, bit nerve racking, but worth it.

Tonight we had an amazing dining experience at Alux (pronounce Aloosh), a restaurant and lounge which is situated in a massive cave full of stalactites, fossils, etc.

Couldn't find a good weblink so check out the photos below













This last photo resulted from Sam playing a trick on me. I had kicked of my thongs (havaianas) under the table not long into the meal. When I went to retrieve them towards the end I was missing one. Sam had hidden it because she has learnt how frustrated I can get when I can't find stuff. Well after they had taken me to the limit the waiter bought my Havaiana back wrapped up in some foil shaped like a duck delicacy. Will have to watch my stuff for rest of the trip.

The restaurant is really a unique experience well worth a visit, we were actually surprised that it had not been more heavily promoted or commercialised.

No plans for tomorrow as yet, we are thinking about heading to Akumal which is about half an hour down the road to check out some ancient Mayan ruins and to have a snorkel at what locals say is one of the best locations for swimming and snorkeling. Here they have sea turtles and heaps of fish swimming around.

We'll see what happens.

For now, that is all, buenas noches (good night)

Tour Captain

Chillin With Cynthia In Cozumel

OMG (Oh My God) we had a beautiful day in Cozumel today, an island which is about 30 minutes from Playa by ferry.

We made arrangements to meet up with Cynthia, Sal and their gorgeous little girl Emma (16 months). Sonia met Cynthia recently through her online scrapbooking and Cynthia gave us some great tips on the area before we left Australia.

We got to Cozumel around midday and had a walk around the shops when Sam spotted something she had to have, a dreadlock rasta hat (like the one Kendra bought on Girls of the Playboy Mansion). Looks cool, hope she doesn't pick up any more rasta habits!



We also stopped by Fat Tuesday for some refreshments, where they serve up cocktails in large test tubes, your drink starts at "no problema" and finishes at "dain bramage".



After this we headed to the El Cid Hotel Resort and met up with Cynthia, Sal and Emma (Sal works at the hotel). The resort and surroundings were beautiful. Sonia and Cynthia got straight into talking scrapbooking and Sal set the kids and I up with some snorkels so we hit the water. Have included a picture of part of the hotel I took from the water.



Meanwhile Sonia introduced Cynthia, Sal and Emma to Vegemite - "the great Australian spread" full of vitamins. And to our surprise everyone liked it, so we suggested they take it to the next level, Vegemite on toast with eggs, once you've had it you will never go back.



Here is a picture of Sal taking some time out with the gorgeous Emma



Last picture for today is one of Sonia and Cynthia, two people who share a passion for scrapbooking but from opposite sides of the world. Well today was a beautiful day because they could share it in person together. They chatted about their cameras, about their designs, about their other scrapbooking friends, about their DH's (darling husbands) who are oblivious to all the creativity and detail they each explore and enjoy every day.



Four hours passed very quickly and before we knew it we had to head back to the ferry terminal for our ride home, but it was a real treat and trip highlight to meet Cynthia, Sal and Emma. We hope one day we can welcome them to Australia where we can bring out the big jar of Vegemite, not the small tube pack!

The ferry ride home was a lot different to the one over in the morning. Cynthia and Sal warned it might get a bit rough. Well, Sam and I put our hands up for the sick (barf) bags within 5 minutes and counted the remaining 25 minutes to the other side. No pictures of this experience but we still got home in good condition and great spirits.

Went to La Casa del Agua for dinner, recommended by Cynthia and Sal. Was excellent, Sonia and I had a chicken dish which was served with Spätzle (homed made german noodles). Don't worry Helga (Sonia's Mum) they were great but I still love yours. Topped this off with a Creme Bulee and coffee. We chatted and laughed with the kids all through dinner recounting all of our experiences so far, was great night.

After dinner we went for a stroll down 5th Avenue and I said I would give Sonia and the kids a lesson in haggling/bargaining with the vendors for a Mexico soccer shirt/jersey (my new #2 team after our Socceroos). I had already done my homework talking to Cynthia during the day, who suggested a price somewhere between 200 - 300 pesos ($20 - $30 US, and Australian now). So we went into a lovely older lady's shop, after we finished the small talk and settled on the shirt I liked best I asked "how much", she replied 550 pesos. I said, no, 300 pesos maybe (knowing at that point I had immediately lost any chance of getting it for 200 pesos). She replies, are you trying to make me go broke, 400 pesos. She really was a lovely lady and we were having a great laugh in the shop so I went for the mid ground of 350 pesos at which point the sale was made and I walked away the proud owner of my new Mexico soccer shirt with C. Salcido's name on the back (hope he is a good player? lady said he was good!). In the end I figure I got the shirt for the going rate recommended by Cynthia (300 pesos) and paid another 50 pesos for the laugh and fun we had with the lady. And for the kids there ended the lesson, Brandan is now going to go it alone in his quest for a Corona singlet (stay tuned to see how he goes).

To Cynthia and Sal, once again muchus gracious for a great day.

Need to get to bed, going horseriding tomorrow morning, everyone looking forward to it.

Tour Captain

Harvy's On Their Hogs (Yamaha ATV's)

This morning we were up and straight out the door for the ATV Explorer tour.

You can see us below on our Hogs. These things can move and kick up some dust. We weren't going to buy the bandana's but then when we saw the group before us return covered in dust we quickly grabbed one each, and they were well worth it. They keep the dust out but also gave us more of a "bandido" look.









After about 45 minutes of hooning around we made our first stop at a cenote, an underground river system. It was beautiful, refreshing and well timed.



Second stop about 20 minutes later was a cave full of stalactites.





After about 2 hours we got back to the start covered in dust (see Samantha and I below).





It was great fun and we all enjoyed it. Kids were lucky that this place allows riders from 12 years of age up to ride on their own, other places start at 16 years of age.

Obviously we all hit the shower when we got home to freshen up. The kids then hit the beach and Sonia and I hit the bar downstairs (right underneath our balcony). It's a trendy bar right on the beach, think its called Zenzi. Had a couple of Pina Colada's and then Fernando mixed us a "Desert Storm" which had Myers Rum (which Sonia and I both love) and couple of other spirits with some juice. Fernando is a nice guy, he spent 5 months travelling around Australia so we chatted for a while. Might become our regular for rest of our time here.

Hope everyone at home is well, talk soon.

Tour Captain

Para In Playa !!

This morning we awoke to a beautiful day and a beautiful sight from our balcony, a cruise boat had anchored just off shore.



We hired a couple of little huts right on the beach with mattresses to lie on for the day and spent bulk of the day just swimming and chilling out.



Samantha and Brandan decided they wanted to go for a parasail so we headed out on some jet skis to the boat and they had a go, see below.







Sonia and I were playing the typical worried parents at this point because the guy took them over the top of the cruise ship that had anchored out front, but all was cool, he did know what he was doing (or seemed to anyway). Didn't seem to bother the kids, they were waving at people on the ship.













After such a stressful day *LOL* we felt we needed to go out for dinner to relax a little.

Hit the shopping strip briefly where Brandan had his photo taken with some rather interesting and large reptiles, bottom photo is there to show how big the large one was which was sitting on his shoulder.





We then had dinner at a restaurant called Yaxche, which Cynthia kindly recommended, and it was delicious. This restaurant serves traditional Mayan cuisine, Sonia and I both had pork which was baked in banana leaves, beautiful. Sonia's expectations of me on the BBQ at home are increasing by the day, don't think fillet steaks and my famous lamb souvlaki's will cut it next summer.

Service was great and we even bought the standard dinner photo from the guy who comes round to each table because he brought our picture back on a small bottle of tequila!

And to close today's post we have added a link to the video of the kids swimming with the dolphins. Sonia (my IT guy) worked hard to figure out how to compress, reformat and upload the video, just the uploading took two hours, so huge credits to Sonia. Press "play symbol" and enjoy



Have made our bookings for ATV's tomorrow morning and horse riding on Wednesday, booked this through a lovely lady (Brenda) whose tour shop we visited today. Mexican people are so nice and friendly, we kept saying thank you and she would simply respond "no, thank you". We walked past her shop a few hours later and she was waving at us as we passed, you miss these things when you are caught up in the rat race.

Wonder what will appear when we walk out on our balcony tomorrow?

Blogger Scott - thks for the football update, you didn't mention that we beat the Pies, when I checked this on afl.com.au it made it all the sweeter (sorry Tony). We're back in the finals hunt!

Time for bed, have a big day on our mini Hogs tomorrow. Brandan says he is going to "rip it up".

Tour Captain out.

Swimming With The Dolphins

Its Saturday night and we have arrived at our third destination mid this afternoon, Corto Maltes condominium apartments at Playa Del Carmen.

Samantha is starting to pick up and feel better which is great because we have a new place to explore and its no fun feeeling sick when your on holidays on the other side of the world.

Have some pictures of the kids swimming with the dolphins yesterday, a small sample of the 300 Sonia took. There are a number of places that offer swimming with the dolphins but this location was Dreams Cancun, on recommendation of our helpful tour information guy.





















Also bought a DVD which the company make which is quite professional. Sonia (my IT person) is still trying to upload it to YouTube so we can post a link on the blog for all to see. It has great vision of both Brandan and Samantha being pushed up and along by the dolphins (like the first two pics shown above), the smiles on their faces are priceless.

After the dolphins we hopped on a ferry across to Isla Mujeres, a small island about half an hour off the coast of Cancun. We had a wander around and then hired a "golf buggy" for an hour, which is a very common form of transport on the island. Had only been driving for a few minutes before Sonia and I were disagreeing on where to go, how fast, in which direction, on what side of the road we should be on, etc, and yes, she had the map. Anyway we got back in the hour to recover Sonia's drivers licence from the owner and ferried back to Cancun. Was good fun.

We checked out of Ambiance Villas in Cancun this morning and made the short journey (about an hour) to Playa Del Carmen, and the agent was right they are both great beautiful places but quite different. Playa has a stunning beachside atmosphere with plenty of restaurants, bars, shops, etc all blended together and within easy walking distance.

We thought our apartment at Ambiance was great but were blown away when we walked into our apartment at Corto Maltes.

Its 23 healthy paces from the front door to our balcony which sits right on the beachfront, and the beach here is a surf beach so we have the beautiful sound of the rolling waves all day and night.

Sonia took some pics before the kids and I set about messing the place up.













We have quite a large balcony with great views out to the Carribean Sea (see below), and another island off in the distance, Cozumel which we plan on going to on Tuesday.







Plan for tomorrow is to visit the shopping strip to make sure there are no shops here that we haven't seen elsewhere on our journey. I have no doubt Sonia (and Samantha, she is just like her mother) will find them. They think the shopping here from an early sampling is way better than Cancun.

Also plan to book an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) & Horse Riding Tour for Monday which takes you Mayan jungles, beaches, and cenotes (fresh water swimming holes) amongst other things. All four of us will get our own ATV so kids are excited!

Hope the Blues have a win this weekend, bye for now.

Tour Captain