27th November – Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

We actually had to get out of bed early this morning as we were spending the day out at Xcaret. Xcaret used to be an eco park. It still it is, but it is also what our Lonely Planet describes as a “Disneyland Eco Park” meaning that it has been set up purely for tourists. We decided to head out there on our own and do our own thing rather than joining one of the many tour groups out there. We caught a taxi – a scary experience when the taxi driver is doing nearly 140lm in a 80km zone and there are no seatbelts, but we made it there alive. We paid our $69US each for entry and started our day. First thing we saw were a number of "Scottish" macaws on their perches and flamingoes in their ponds. They were noisy but very colourful.

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.

The park does a realty good program with sea turtles where their eggs are removed off the beach and incubated. The turtles are then raised in captivity until they are big enough to go back into the ocean and hopefully have a greater chance of surviving. They had the turtles in different ponds dependent on their size from tin ones that must have been days old to ones a few weeks right through to massive fully grown ones. We could get so close we could touch their shells. 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.

So whilst we didn’t have great expectations at the beginning of the day we ended up having a great time making it back to the hotel as the sun was setting. We booked last night into the Steakhouse restaurant over the pool for a seven o’clock sitting. The meal was a set menu five course with the option of choosing your main. Dan went the steak and I had the sea and land kebab. We had a front row seat to watch the chefs run a production line of around 100 meals. Everyone at the tables was mesmorised. We both had a great meal too. For desert the chef lit up the cake with Sambucca and made flaming waterfalls. 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.