Monday, October 24, 2011

Cancun

The very first morning we were in Cancun, we had an appointment to talk to a man about a time share in the Villa del Palmar. This group of pictures are where a lot of the employees live. This will be torn down so they can complete the condos.
This is the inside court. There will be 3 when this is completed. The condos are in 3 U shapes.
This is in the very front of the inner court of the building. The condos you can see are being worked on. It is going to be a very beautiful place. But for us, it is to expensive and we really don't want to spend so much time there. You can exchange them for other places, but for us now, it is way to expensive.
Our next stop was Xcaret. This was a large amusement park with many different things. Here at the front were these flamingo.
Beautiful plants.
I thought the flower was so pretty so I took a close up of it.
The park was about to shut down, but there was going to be a big show that evening and that was the main reason we came here. These are a few of the costumes and people that were in the show.
A little closer so you could see them.
I wanted to take Delwyn's picture with some of them.
They were very scary people.
As we were walking to the show, the performers were out there so we could take pictures of them.
The women were all very pretty.
They were almost like mimes up there.
The show is about to begin.
This was a very interesting dance. They had the center pole and each dancer had an attachment to it and they danced around and the tie on the pole was very interesting.
Then they would dance and untie the knots. They were good!
Very colorful costumes. These were on their heads.
I loved this one. There were about 20 men dressed like old men and they danced like they were also.
When they took their head dress off, they were old men. I thought, they are really good at this business.
More pretty costumes.
This pole was about 50 feet high and there were 5 men on the very top of it. Then 4 of them fell down but were still hanging from the top.
The man at the top was dancing while the 4 on the bottom were swinging around and doing different tricks. It was amazing and very dangerous.
This was the finale. I didn't put in half the pictures that I took of this performance.
The next day we went to Chichen-Itza. This has many of the Mayan ruins. This is a typical Mayan home. The roof isn't palm frowns, but grass. This particular kind of grass was much stronger than the frowns. The side of the house is made of mud and grass. This one went through a hurricane and is still standing. In real life, it would only need moderate repairs after the hurricane.
Bill Morrell in front of some of the ruins. I wish I could remember what each of these are.
Thousands of columns have been found.
This is a picture of the grounds. They have to clean out a lot of grass, shrubs and trees just so they can see the place. There were a lot of people trying to sell us their goods.
In the performance the night before, they played a ball game where you hit the ball with your hips. Not your hands or feet. The place where they play ball is kind of like a football field with sides and the sides slant out. At the top of the sides is a circle that they try and hit the ball through. It was really something to watch. They actually made points while they were playing at the show the night before.
One of the ruins.
This is what the ruins look like before they dig them out. They are all underground until they dig them out.

This is the most interesting of them all, I think. This is the Kukulacan's "El Castillo" pyramid. You used to be able to climb to the top, but they won't let you now so they can preserve it. When you clap your hands around it, you hear an echo. But when you stand in front of the stairs in the middle of the front, where the people are standing, when you clap your hands, the sound is the exact sound of a very famous bird that lives there. It was very interesting.
More of the ruins.

It started to rain very hard while we were here. We got wet clear through. But when it stopped, after about 45 minutes, it was a beautiful day.
They had a buffet for everyone and it was really good food. They had American, Mayan, Mexican food and a lot of desserts and vegetables.
After we ate, we went to these pools that are below ground level. We didn't go swiming in them, but many people did. The water is crystal clear.
A man diving into the pool.
From another angle.
On our way home, our van driver took us to an old Chapel. It was nice, but you can tell it was build by poor people. Not like the ones in Spain.

This is the Chapel from the outside. There are a lot of baggers out front. There are a lot of people that stop and see it. It must be pretty popular.
Wednesday we went to Xel Ha, pronounced Shell Ha. These birds were all over there.
Looking out over the Caribbean Sea from the place we had breakfast and lunch. It was all included in the price. The water is so blue. We rode tubs down this area and then did some zip line riding. That was fun.
On the way out, we were tired but had a lot of fun.
We passed by where they were swiming with the dolphins.

A pretty building down there.
After Xel ha we went to Tulum. This is another Mayan ruin area. Our guide was LDS and his name was Limhi. He had other brothers with Book of Mormon names also. We were late getting there, so he ran all the way around. I thought I was going to die. It was so interesting. His views were definitly Church related.
It was a very green and pretty place. The ruins were a lot like Chichen-Itza but still different.
Can you see the face carved into the rock on the right?

A big Iquana in the middle.
So many interesting carvings.


You can see the sun at a certain time of year come right through the window in the middle on the top.
These windows and the box above are to represent Heavenly Father, the Savior, and the Holly Ghost. The first two boxes above the windows have carvings in them and the one on the right has nothing.
This is Limhi.
We are over looking the Caribbean Sea.

The water is this blue. Beautiful!

This is supposed to be the Tree of Life. There are many in there. It is hollow in the middle and I think full of water.
The next day we went to Cozumel. The beaches were white sand.
While we were there we went out to a submarine. It is coming out of the water so we can get aboard.
The pictures are not very clear, but this is under the water.
A lot of coral.
A fish swam by our window.
More coral and plant life.

These little fishes kept swiming by our windows. They are called Sargents because of their stripes.
On our way back to shore looking over the Caribbean.
Our last morning there, we went out to the beaches that were close to our condo. They keep everything very clean.
These are little grass shade spots for people to sit under.
Bill and Carolyn and Delwyn
I took this picture of a coconut tree right outside of our condo. We had such a fun trip. But like all trips, they must come to an end. I was ready to go home too.