We lazed around by the pool a little. Dan participated in a volleyball game. There was a Mexican Fiesta on at lunch involving one of the chefs doing ice carving (with a chainsaw!) lots of great traditional Mexican food, Sangria – our new favourite and dancing. We had lots of fun!
We then headed back into the pool for some one on one basketball. All was going well until the ball took an awkward bounce and knocked an English couple drinks over and into their bag… oops! We gave basketball the flick and moved onto practicing our throwing of the ball used in the Canadian Football League. A Canadian lady kindly showed me how to throw the ball with spin and where to place your fingers. We were still probably only average at best.
We then decided to walk off some of the many drinks and good food we have been consuming and headed into the town of Playa Del Carmen. About a 30 minute walk each way with a quick interlude of juggling coconuts which gave the security guard a good laugh.
The town is still pretty sterile although we both though the markets and the people shouting at you to get your business again could be anywhere we’ve traveled, Egypt, Turkey, Thailand or Bali. It was nice to get out and do a bit of exercise. We didn’t buy a single thing either…. yet.
That night the hotel hosted an awesome Las Vegas show. Good dancing and music!
Posting on the blog may be slow over the next few weeks depending our activities and availability of internet.
We went through the obligatory tourist shop and had to do the obligatory tourist photo with our sombrero’s. 
We walked through a number of very average animal exhibits including a raccoon and wild boar and started to think that perhaps we had been boned by Mexico and Xcaret was going to disappoint. Still we powered on. 
Next stop the butterfly pavilion. There were all different species of butterflies in a large tropical enclosure. The blue ones were our favourite but were far too elusive to obtain a photo. 
We then saw some Jaguars. They were on a tiny island and had put tracks in the ground walking back and forth. It was quite sad to see really.
The day then got better when we spotted our first Iguana! This one was just sitting on the wall minding his own business. That was until we started prodding himn with a branch to made him run along the wall. Poor thing. We don’t think that he was too traumatized though.
Even better, we headed towards the coast and found some rock pools carved into the side of a limestone wall with the sea water crashing in from time to time. The water was relatively shallow (standing room) clear enough to see the floor and all of the fish swimming around. Even better though, because we had gotten there so early, we had it all to ourselves and enjoyed lazing around in the water. 
After a while we pushed on and found a large double hammock to laze in the sun and dry off in. We then headed off to watch a bit of a Dolphin show. You had the option of paying to swim with the dolphins and after watching a group in the water we were quite glad that we didn’t as the actual interaction didn’t go that long and it was more about the staff taking your photo with the dolphin. Still they are beautiful creatures to watch. Although, as I said to Dan they should be out swimming in the ocean somewhere, not cooped up and performing in a tiny pen.
We then saw possibly one the most boring animals on earth, a manatees. All it seemed to do was spin around in slow circles and eat lettuce.
We saw a few average looking ruins at the park. Nothing compared to some the ones we will see on our three week trip.
We also saw a caiman (crocodile) in a tiny enclosure not doing much at all, but Dan got a good shot of him.
We found some more hammocks overlooking the ocean and lazed in them for a while. 
Dan was in his element as shortly after we arrived a photo crew arrived for a model shoot so right next to us were theses gorgeous girls being photographed. For some reason he wasn’t too keen to leave! 
We headed off to the aquarium, interesting but we’ve been to lots of aquariums around the world and seen better than this one we thought. The highlight was seeing a bonefish - the speedsters of the reef. Check out "A River Somewhere".
We also saw some other wildlife including some cute monkeys. 
The last thing we wanted to do was take a swim down a large canal that snaked through the park. Basically, most of the park is made of limestone and channels have been cut through it including caves. You simply put on a lifejacket and float off along. The water was aqua and crystal clear and it was very quiet. One of the highlights of the day we agreed.
Later that night we went to another hotel try their bar. A great band was playing and we parked up at the bar for quite some time. Dan mainly drank his new holiday favourite, Pina Colada, but tried a few other drinks such as Melon Balls and Tequila Sunrise singing along with the band. A great night.
We then decided to do some kayaking. We shared a two person kayak, made a smooth exit out through the waves and we were off! All was going smooth and then Dan’s paddle snapped in two. So back to shore to swap it over (with the guy trying to charge us for it – I don’t think so buddy) and we were off again. After a while of paddling we stopping, led back in the kayak with our legs dangling over the side faces in the sun and thought the old catchphrase “this, is living”. We eventually paddled back in to lay in the sun again for a while. We then dove into another pool and sat at the bar in the water and had a drink and then into another restaurant for lunch. It seems that what to drink and eat are the hardest decisions that we have to make at the moment.
There are lots of wildlife around the hotel including these big rat like creatures (not sure what they are called - ratties perhaps?) and Howler Monkeys that hang out amongst the trees. We spent a bit of time wildlife spotting around the hotel.
We eventually headed back for a shower and pre-dinner drinks. The beauty here is you end up trying all of these drinks that you wouldn’t otherwise because if you don’t like them, you just don’t drink them. I tried a Raspberry Martini. Looked nice – tasted like crap. 
Off for another lovely dinner. We admired this display of fruit carvings. Very artistic.
That night we watched a Mexican special at the hotel. There were amazing Mexican dancers who did traditional dances to traditional music complete with costumes. They were excellent. The most amazing dance consisted of all eight of them dancing with beer bottles on their head then two with trays complete with beer bottles and full glasses without spilling any. The dancing was good fun and it we liked seeing a bit of the traditional side of Mexico.
The sun was shining off Dan's Canada tan like it does shining on the moon. 
Lucky the main restaurant closes at 10:30 for brekky but the poolside restaurant recognizes that there are some truly lazy souls out there and serves continental breakfast from 10.30am to 12.00pm. So we enjoyed lots of fresh fruits under the enormous thatched roof overlooking the pool this morning. 
By this time it was close enough to mid day so we pulled up our lounger chair beside the pool and Dan dived in to get a couple of drinks. 
Yep, the pool has a bar that has seats in the water that you can sit down and not have to leave the pool. How good is that!!
It was so nice to be back in shorts and t-shirts although we both realized how pale we have gotten. Oh well a month of this sunshine should fix that. 
We later found a gate into another Rui Hotel. Wow, we thought, how flash is this place. We didn’t realize until we tried to get some champagne at the bar that this was the hotel that we weren’t supposed to be in. Oops, never mind. I was quite looking forward to that champagne too.
At dinner that night we met a lovely couple, Wayne and Julia, who have just retired in their late forties (something to aspire too) from the UK. We ended up chatting for a couple of hours and headed over to the bar for the nightly entertainment, which was Karaoke. The people that sang were actually really quite good with only one or two very average people. We ended up calling it a night at 1.30pm in the morning. We realized we had been drinking 13 hours straight, but felt remarkably good. On the way back to the room we saw a Coati, which is an animal with a fluffy tail that looks a little like a raccoon. There were a few of them out and running through the lobby and the gardens. Alas, it was one of the few occasions that Dan didn’t have his camera on him and we missed a photo. Never mind, I’m sure we’ll see another one over the week.
We landed in Cancun around four hours later just as the sun was setting. It seemed that it had been a very long day of traveling so far, even though there is only one hour time difference between Phoenix and Cancun. Dan’s bag was first one off the carousel, mine coming shortly after. Customs consisted of a bag xray and then you simply press a button where a woman sits and if it’s green you go through and if it’s red your bags are searched. Very bizarre. Lucky we scored the green and we off in our pre booked shuttle to Playa Del Carmen. As we like to say this week, we are having a holiday from our holiday! We are staying at the Rui Tequila. It’s a lovely resort next to the sea and basically you can share all the facilities of the other Rui resorts nearby (except the Palace as we discovered). As we are doing an “all inclusive”, which seems to be the way to go in Mexico, it means we can eat, drink and use the water activity equipment wherever we like. What a great idea!
The food is also restaurant quality. We are going to roll out of here in a weeks time! The room itself is lovely with a massive bathroom and balcony overlooking the lush gardens, but really, it is a very sanitized version of Mexico and the resort is very similar to ones we have stayed in Phuket and Bali. So we are simply going to relax and catch the sun (nights are low twenties and days are high twenties for the rest of the week it seems) before we head off to real Mexico.
