cancun Days 8, 9 and 10

thursday mario and i slept late and then we walked down and met his parents ... they upgraded their white hotel room to a red 1 bedroom suite ... then we walked around the property some and headed out to playa del carmen where we had lunch at a restaraunt that specialized in fajita steak ... some fine eatin ... and then we headed on down the road to xcaret ... http://xcaret.com ... we got there about 130 and mario and i had our swim with the dolphins scheduled for 330 so by the time we got to the back side of the park there was not a lot of time to do much before it started ... we went to the beach and swam around the dolphin tank and got a feel for what we were going to be doing ...

then we headed over to the dolphin tank and got signed up ... they split us into 3 groups of 10 people ... and since mario and i were so big they put us in the group with the 2 oldest and largest dolphins ... abril and alux ... the first thing they had each of us have the dolphins to a trick ... i made them sing ... mario had them roll over so he could scratch their stomach ... the would also stand up and twist, splash their tails and wave ... then half of our group got to do the dolphin push ... you turned on your belly with your legs fully extended and locked and the dolphins would each put their nose on your foot and both of them would push you across the pond ... kind of like you were flying .... then they lined us up and had the dolphins jump over us ... then we all spaced ourselves out and the dolphins swam amongst us and we were able to pet them ... then our group got to do our push ... that was really cool ... although when i fully extended my legs my nose was in the water ... but once they started pushing ... wow ... last they had each of us hold the dolphins head and take our picture with the dolphins ... mario had to do his twice because he was pulling the dolphin up out of the water ... some people will do anything for attention ;-)

after we finished with the dolphins we went to look at the pics and the dvd ... i decided i wanted both so we had to hang around for 20 minutes for the dvd to be ready ... by then, it was 510 and the "river" was closing at 530 so we hauled butt across the park so we could get in ... the sign said the water was 62 degrees ... luckily it wasnt that cold ... but it was very nice ... we were in the underground river about an hour ... in and out of the ground although mostly the section we picked was underground ... the water was salty - although not as salty as the ocean
...

we finished there and headed back to the front of the park to change into dry clothes and mario schlepped the wet ones out to the car ... then we went for the 3 hour Noches Spectacular - a sort of Mexican fiesta. it began with a history of mexico - from the mayans to the introduction of columbus ... and - as mario puts it - the destruction of our culture ... in any case - it showed the combination of the cultures ... they also played a game of mayan ball where the rules were put the ball in the hoop without touching it with your hands or your feet ... violations were self policed as people would go to the back of the pack ... mostly they threw their bodies on the ground to bounce the ball with their hip ... ouch ... then another group played hockey with balls of fire ... i think they were probably coconuts that were burning ... because on a couple of occasions the ball would literally split into 2 burning masses that would no longer roll ... after intermission there was different music and dances from around the country ... and during the entire show, we were served a 5 course meal ... muy fantastico.

then we headed back and mario and i had a pizza before calling it a nite ... i'm glad i dont have to get on the scales until friday - it gives me some time to lose some of the wait i'm sure i gained this week ...

friday was to be a "stay at the resort day" - mario and i got up and had breakfast buffet and then headed to the pools where we both proceeded to burn ... i was supposedly staying in the shade - so i did not put on any sun screen - and my legs are the color of bing cherry. OUCH ... of course we were drinking pina coladas and had one of the drink specials of the day which was bad - whatever it was ... and we had pizza for lunch ... then about 2 or 3 we decided to head to puerto morelos to see what was there and eat there as well - we went to the artists exhibits and i bought a quilt - but we didnt find any place there we wanted to eat - so we went back to the fajita place in playa del carmen and walked around until about 10 and did a little shopping along the way ... by the time we got back to the hotel i was in SERIOUS pain ...

today we got up, checked out and came home ... are thinking about heading to the pride parade tonite and willl probably go look for chinese foot in a bit ... all in all it was a nice trip ... i'm sure we'll go back - but next time we'll probably go in september - risking the hurricane season - but it's not supposed to be so humid ...

until next time ... hasta luego.