Friday, September 21, 2007
Cancun Day 5: Adventure in Xcaret
Up until now the vacation had been fairly low-key. All that changed on Tuesday when we scheduled the first (and most expensive) of the free trips that we’d earned from listening to the timeshare thing. Xcaret (I hear the locals pronounce it “esh-caRET") is a theme park of sorts—not the kind with rides and roller-coasters. The best way I can describe it is that it is part zoo and part water park, with some Mayan cultural flair.
The part I was most excited about was snorkeling through some underground caves.
The brochures made it sound like it would be amazing. It was very disappointing actually. These weren’t actual caves. They were man-made tunnels and there was barely anything at all to look at. Just a lot of rough-textured concrete trying to look like a cave wall. Towards the end where the ocean fed into the stream there a few fish here and there, but that was it. The worst part was we had to rent the mask, snorkel and towel! You’d think they would be included in the cost of entry.
All the neat stuff cost extra, like swimming with dolphins or a snorkel tour that actually included things to look at. One thing we did decide to pay extra for was called Sea Trek. You wear one of these helmet things that sits on your shoulders. A tube runs from it up to a floating air compressor to keep it pressurized and full of air. It’s a little freaky and so completely cool I can’t seem to get over it. The weight of it sinks you to the bottom, allowing you to walk across the ocean floor. I totally felt like a spaceman walking on the moon. It was $45 extra per person (ouch!) but worth it, at least once. There were guys in scuba gear to guide everyone and make sure no one was freaking out. There were handrails down there that we held onto as we walked along their designated path, and at one point one of the scuba guys opened up some fish food and attracted huge smarms of tropical fish. It was awesome. Had I known it was this awesome I would have bought an underwater camera, if only just to capture ourselves on film looking like aquanauts. So unfortunately there’s no photo of this slice of awesomeness.
There were a lot of free things to look at, like tapirs, spider monkeys, and these jaguars:
(Click for bigger view)
There was also a butterfly farm. The big ones were everywhere and would often land on you. Here’s one next to a dead leaf. This particular one has camoflage with eye-spots that make it look like an owl when its weings are spread:
Inside the butterfly enclosure was this beautiful waterfall:
A few people have told me I have a Captain Morgan pose going on. If you look closely, a butterfly landed on my head just as the picture was being taken. (Click for bigger view)
There were also a few wild things running loose in the park. We saw lots of birds, a couple of feral cats and this guy:
The park also had a few Mayan ruins laying around. Here’s me pretending to be a rabbit coming out of its Mayan ruin hole:
(Click for bigger view)
And if you aren’t water-logged yet, you can always spend some time in their lagoon:
(Click for bigger view)
By the end of the day we were exhausted, from both the heat and the physical activity. All we could do was sit back and enjoy the scenery…
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