We actually did it! -- 2nd Honeymoon, arrival and day 1

We've been planning for this for over a year.

We had the nerve to leave ND with her grandparents in Texas for almost a whole week while we flew to Cancun and celebrated our 10 year anniversary. She had a fabulous time, barely asked about us and is one of the best travelers I've ever met! (Thank goodness for travel playdough, Highlights puzzle books and $7.99 TV option on the plane! -- Yes, we used it.)

Sunday

We had a LOT of airport trouble. I don't want to go into details, but we were supposed to leave around 9:30 in the morning and didn't get to go until nearly 5. Don't want to think or write about the d, but ND was fine with all of it and kept busy and happy the entire time.

When we finally arrived, Savta S. had pasta and salmon for us to eat in the car on the way to their place. We repacked our things, separating ND's stuff and anything we were leaving behind from the stuff we planned to take including LOTS of food. (Nothing much Kosher in Cancun.)

To bed early, confused about whether to go to bed in this time zone's time zone or the previous, eager for the next day.

Monday

Said goodbyes and entertained last moments of worry that I've been entertaining since we first began planning this trip, but ND was fine. A hug and a kiss and she didn't look twice as we gathered our bags and headed into the airport. So strange to just be the two of us. Hard to imagine at first, and I think we both wondered if we would either get tired of each other during these days away. After the fact I'm happy to say that we didn't.

The flight left fairly early in the day, but it was a long day of traveling anyway. About 3 hours on the plane and then at least a half an hour to go through immigration, customs etc. on the Mexico side. It was pouring rain when we arrived and we needed to depend on shuttles and people we didn't completely understand to help us get where we wanted to go.

Cancun's only export is tourism. Most tourists stay on the long strip referred to either as the "7" or the "hotel zone." (Zona hotelera on the map.) These are enormous fancy hotels with private beaches and enormous hedges to block off the road from view. We had decided long before that we didn't want to stay there. Instead we stayed at El Hotel Rey Del Caribe downtown. Look closely at the map and you'll see near the top a street called Uxmal. (A German who helped me at one point when we were lost explained it's pronounced "Ooszh-mal.") Click on the link to the hotel and you'll see some gorgeous photos. They're all pretty accurate except that they do make the pool look slightly larger than it was. Also, there is no beach next to it, despite the beach photos. Who cares though?! It was one of the sweetest hotels I've stayed in my whole life. A family business with eco-sensitivity, large rooms, and a jungle in the courtyard! I very much enjoyed the little lizards that resided in there.

As a note about the hotel, though, one morning I was davening outside in the early morning on a platform above the spa that you can see behind the pool. I was just about to begin the amidah when I looked up and discovered I was facing a totally unacceptable-to-daven-in-front-of Mayan image. I took a step away from it to the right in front of a little cavern in the wall for a light fixture and heard squeaking. After having watched them swinging through the air already looking for bugs, I knew this was a bat. I finished my prayers indoors.

After we settled into the hotel we tried to go for a walk. The truth is there wasn't much to get to in that area, but we find a little bar next door at the Best Western. We had lemonades and made friends with Umberto who was very happy to serve us there as we determined the value of our money and tried to figure out how much wasn't too much for a tip.

Tuesday

This was the most important reason we came to Cancun... to see Chichen Itza. As U. describes, part of how we chose Cancun as the spot for our vacation was by drawing a radius around either set of grandparents on the map and seeing what there we already wanted to see. He had long been fascinated with these Mayan ruins and we scheduled them for our first full day there in order to guarantee the chance to see them.

It was raining, but we didn't mind at all. It meant it wouldn't be so hot, and also added a nice sort of melancholy to the day that felt very reflective.

We were signed up for a tour and a bus came to pick us up at 7 AM. The drive to Chichen Itza is only supposed to be about 2 1/2 hours away, but this trip took us also to a cenote and to a place for lunch. The lunch place was somewhat of a waste for us because we had to bring our food anyway, and there was also 45 minutes set aside there for shopping. We finished shopping quickly, the most important of which was a hammock chair I couldn't resist but which would later become a real pain to schlep.

The cenote, though, was another story. We arrived at a little farm that had the cenote on premises. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and for the entire ride had already been talking nonstop in English and Spanish, switching back and forth between the two so quickly that I couldn't always identify what he was saying. At the farm he pointed out all sorts of features including fossils in a stone near the entrance, different plants that produced antidotes to each others poisons and more. He talked and talked and talked and talked and finally brought us to the cenote with the words, "You have 15 minutes."

If there is any one regret U. and I have from this trip it is that that was all he gave us. We would have much preferred to have the time to change into our swimsuits that we'd been carrying during this time and to really explore down there. Instead we descended into the ground, allowed ourselves to be awed and, in my case at least, a little scared of the steep steps and the enormity of the cavern. We walked around the perimeter, carefully helping each other over the slippery parts, finally having our picture taken on the platform placed there for that purpose.

Much later we would also see 2 cenotes at Chichen Itza, the famous sacred one mentioned on the link above under "cenote" above. This cenote was used for sacrifice and archaeologists have found many bodies inside. We also saw another that I will refer to briefly later.

It was early afternoon when we at last reached Chichen Itza. We had been driving for miles through sparsely populated areas, now and then passing small buildings or shacks belonging to descendants of Mayans.

The park of Chichen Itza was itself very touristy. Every step of the way we were approached or called to by vendors with all sorts of crafts to sell. We kept hearing these frightening sounds that we gradually discovered were toys you blew into to mimic the sound of jaguars.

After we got through the initial tourist information spot and received our tickets, we came through, walking into a courtyard that led us directly to the famous main pyramid. We abandoned our tour guide, eager for time just to explore on our own and circled the pyramid, learning whatever we could by reading plaques or each sharing observations or memories of what we'd read previously.
After circling it once we explored the buildings around it too including the famous ball court and so on. The best part was searching for the observatory. The Mayans were some of the first really high quality astronomers and had made observations before anyone else about how to predict alignment of stars and planets. We had to walk quite a way to find it, however, and found ourselves going through a quieter and more secluded path in the jungle. We were not allowed to climb on most of the monuments, but there we found the old marketplace where we side-stepped up and looked around a moment and where a boy pointed us down the path towards the observatory.

Somewhere else along the path at one point, I saw a small boy and girl, probably siblings. The boy was maybe 7 or 8, the child closer to 4. The boy looked protectively towards the girl and was guiding her past a barrier that we weren't supposed to cross. I assume they were part of one of the families selling souvenirs and were on their way home. I loved the look the boy gave me, checking me over to see if I would notice he was going where I wasn't allowed to.

Along that path U. and I had a few moments all alone and found the second cenote I mentioned above. We could hear and feel the quiet aliveness of the place in a way that we couldn't with a tour.

Eventually the tour did catch up to us and the guide made a joke that implied he was offended by our departure, but we had gotten what we'd come for.

It was a long long drive back to the hotel and we didn't arrive until 9 PM. But we were satisfied to have fulfilled the first step of the journey.