2nd honeymoon -- Day 2

Wednesday

As I noted in the previous post, Chichen Itza was the most important part of the trip. This was what U. had wanted to see for ages. But as he'd planned the trip and asked me for options, I had become most interested in snorkeling.

Our travel agent from Cancunmermaid had us scheduled to go to Puerto Moreles on Wednesday. How disappointed we were when she called to say that the wind was too strong, the port was closed and we wouldn't be allowed to go today. She assured us that we could try again on Thursday. In the meantime she booked us a chance to take a jungle tour. Now I imagined that to be an exploration through a jungle. After all, that's what it sounded like! But really it meant riding in caravan on personal speed boats to a snorkeling spot within the lagoon. (See the map on previous post to see the lagoon to the west of the hotel zone.)

It sounded a little scary. I'd never done it before and don't love to have a change of plans, but we went for it. One feature we've noted of Cancun tours of any kind is that no one tells you what you're doing unless they have to. So we went to the site and waited and waited until we were handed fins and a snorkel. "I've never done this before," I said. Instead of instructions I received, "Don't worry. You'll be fine." I was reassured at least to see on the tour a family with a child about 10 years old, an Asian family that had difficulty operating their boat, and a couple who was older than us. I figured if they could do this, so could we.

We were shown how to operate the boats and then sped out across the water, bumping off waves as we went. It was fun and U. enjoyed driving us. Finally we reached an area separated out with buoys. We were given goggles, and people in the boat next to us helped us figure out how to put on our gear. Then we slid off the front of the boat and jumped in.

The reef here was very shallow. We were warned that it was easy to stand on the ground, but that doing so would destroy the reef. "Don't touch anything!" the guide, Alex, warned. But the sea was calm and we quickly learned how to peer under the water. At first I was a little disappointed as the reef was shining with the colors I've normally seen in photos of reefs. Instead it was white with tiny plants waving on us waving with the movement of the water.

U. discovered he couldn't wear his glasses beneath his goggles. He had no real trouble seeing underwater, but was worried he wouldn't be able to stay with the group as we moved through the water, so we held hands as we swam together.

Suddenly I found myself screaming a little as something bumped against me. A school of fish was swimming through and they were all around, under, over us! It was startling, and then I wanted more. Alex handed us some kind of food. The moment we brought it to the water, the fish swarmed, nibbling even on my finger so I couldn't help screaming with surprise and excitement again.

We tried to swim on, but the current kept pulling us back to our boats, so I learned a lesson from U. that I don't always have to move on, but can just enjoy where I am. We went underneath again and again looking for fish and pointing and following them whenever we could.

It was absolutely delightful. Without a doubt, my favorite day of the trip. It was a relatively short excursion, but so good it wasn't worth doing anything else important that day.

Oh yes, come to think of it, we had to run some errands... one of our bags had been broken on the airplane and we had to search out a store to buy a new one, but that was all. We would have liked to have gone to the mercado also, an outdoor market near our hotel. But alas, you can't do it all.