Our fourth and final full day in paradise also happened to be the day of our 10th anniversary. We spent much of the day traveling to and from, and taking in the sites and sounds at one of the New 7 Wonders of the world--the Mayan temple city of Chichen Itza, Mexico. What an amazing place!
After taking a guided tour to learn more about the history, we walked around a portion of the site and enjoyed the beauty of the ruins, the colorful artistry displayed by the many local vendors, as well as the wild life brave enough to come out in the heat of the day. Though the day was partly cloudy, it was very hot and humid. Part way through our explorations of the park, a brief and sudden rain storm came through which cooled us off momentarily but also sent everyone running for cover. One of the pictures in the collage below shows some of the vendors trying to hold on to their wares as they are wrapped up in a big dust cloud.
After taking a guided tour to learn more about the history, we walked around a portion of the site and enjoyed the beauty of the ruins, the colorful artistry displayed by the many local vendors, as well as the wild life brave enough to come out in the heat of the day. Though the day was partly cloudy, it was very hot and humid. Part way through our explorations of the park, a brief and sudden rain storm came through which cooled us off momentarily but also sent everyone running for cover. One of the pictures in the collage below shows some of the vendors trying to hold on to their wares as they are wrapped up in a big dust cloud.
After our visit to Chichen Itza, our tour took us to visit Cenote Ik Kil. A "cenote" (say-NOH-tay)is an underwater cave or sinkhole. Due to the porous limestone shelf that the Yucatan Peninsula sits on, thousands of beautiful cenotes can be found throughout this Mexican state. The Ik Kil Cenote is located just a couple miles from Chichen Itza. Cenotes were once the only source of fresh water throughout the jungles of the Yucatan and were sacred to the Mayans who believed that these were the entrance to the underworld. J-rod and I did not have our swim suits with us so we just enjoyed the surroundings without getting in to swim in the cool, clear water of the cenote. After the cenote our tour continued on to a restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious Yucatan style meal and entertainment.
When we returned to the resort we headed straight to the pool to relax and cool off. After a refreshing swim we enjoyed a delicious anniversary meal that we had brought right onto our very own balcony so that we could enjoy the night view of the resort as well as the cool night breeze. When room service brought our meal, we noticed that they had included what turned out to be a YUMMY chocolate mousse cake on which the staff had written "Happy Anniversary!"
Towards the end of our meal, J-rod surprised me with "one last course"--a BEAUTIFUL pear-shaped, blue topaz (my birthstone), teardrop necklace and a pair of earrings too!! Throughout our marriage J-rod has rarely been able to pull-off surprises for me, so he was elated that this totally caught me off guard (it even made me cry...the good kind of cry.) Way to go sweetheart, you are the best! This week long anniversary celebration is one for our record books!
3 comments:
Way cool trip! Happy Anniversary to you guys!! 10 years thats great. I wanna see a pic of those earrings, they sound beautiful! Miss ya
How did I publish this post w/o including the last group of pics?? Thanks S for pointing it out...I've fixed it & now you can see what the necklace & earrings loo like. : )
We went on that same tour!!! Did you guys have that crazy bus ride down the little dirt road at like 80 mph? I remember that restaurant too! Did you guys buy the hot sauce bottle with your picture on it? I didn't get any jewelry though. Lucky.
Here's something interesting I learned on the Discovery channel... Scientists have theorized that the cenotes are supposedly vertical caverns that were formed by that huge asteroid that killed all of the dinosaurs. I guess they marked all of the cenotes in the Yucatan and they formed a huge circle like and impact site. It's and interesting theory. Dinosaurs are just one of those things we'll learn about in the next life, right?
Post a Comment