Thursday, August 21, 2008

Cancun, Cancun, Cancun!

Okay - so FINALLY! The pictures of our fabulous trip to Cancun! You were probably beginning to think since I didn't post pictures that we didn't have any fun... however, we had so much fun, I told Duke I would only go home if he promised to take me back soon! So, here goes it - I'll try not to make you too bored by the explanations, but that's half of the fun, right? :)



Beginning with the departure from the Denver International Airport! At this point, I still couldn't believe we were really going!




The first night we were in Cancun, we awaited the arrival of Brad and Carena so we just hung out, got to know where the food was in the hotel, walked around the pool and beach. After dinner that night, we decided to go down to the beach. It was around 9:00p.m. or so, and we were talking with Brad and Carena and we saw this "rock" by the edge of the water on the beach. As we watched it, we decided it was moving! No way ! what was it? We walked up to it and it was a HUGE Sea Turtle! WOAH! So, we tried to take some pictures, it was kinda hard because it was so dark, but we ended up seeing 4 coming in and out of shore and one was already laying her eggs on the beach.
It was pretty neat watching them come off and on the shore. Once they got to where the water wasn't assiting their moves, it took hugh flops to get them to move up the sand. Then, when they decided to go back, they would catch the water and "ride" the water back to the ocean! Pretty cool.


Touch or not to touch? I think Duke actually got his hand on it, but I thought that picture was pretty funny, we were so hesitant! The above pictures show how they get up on the sand and dig a hole to lay their eggs in. Come to find out, as we were finishing taking these pictures, we were told not to take any more - as you aren't supposed to take pictures of them. The flashes scare them so they won't come up and lay their eggs. We told someone at our hotel about it and they said it was pretty rare to see the sea turtles... it made us feel special - whether or not it was true! lol.

The first full day we were there, Duke and Brad golfed while Carena and I layed by the beach and took in some wonderful sun and overloaded on our "virgin" drinks!

Pictures of the hotel and golf resort.



So, after our morning at the beach and golfing, we had to go to downtown cancun to get some pants for Brad. One of the resteraunts at the hotel you had to wear pants at, so off to downtown we went. We decided to pass up all of the 'touristy' shops and go to "local-ville" cancun. And, lucky for us, on the way there, Tropical Storm "Dolly" rolled in to the city. Too funny. That meant down-poor rains, wind, flooded streets and soaking wet people!












Pics of the Tropical Storm!


The next day we were supposed to go on an all day excursion to Isla Mujeres, but we weren't able to because all of the ports were closed from the tropical storm and rough waters. So, we rescheduled the trip for Tuesday and decided to experience the "tourist" part of downtown cancun and do some bargaining at the flea markets.

This picture is pretty funny. If you can read it, it says " take a picture with the Jaguars" but the picture is of a crocodile! Couldn't resist getting my picture taken by it.

Duke did see a baby crocodile while he was golfing...







One of the many bus rides...












What beautiful colors!







Once we were downtown again, of course, it decided to rain on us again... okay it down-poored again! here's a few pictures of the fun in the rain!










Then, when since we were already soaking wet when we got back to the hotel, we decided to go play on the beach in the rain! here's a few pics of the fun... the tropical storm was not going to keep us from having fun!












Notice how no one else is around - yeah, we were the only ones on the beach this night!












We only wished we were on surf boards!

Amazingly enough, the next day we were able to go on our excursion to Isla Mujeres. So here's a few pictures of the fun that we had that day!









The boat ride to the Island.
And now for the Island fun! We snorkeled, went on a zipline and took a bike ride to a turtle farm.














The next day, Brad and Carena left. Duke and I went to Chichen-Itza to see the Mayan Ruins. Here's a few pics of the ruins.









So - because Chichen-Itza is now one of the "wonders of the world", you can't walk up and down the steps anymore. It was definately amazing to see the ruins. You could spend a few days there walking around to see everything. After the ruins, our tour took us to a swim hole which was pretty amazing. It's a natural water hole, absolutely beautiful. The pics below are of the water hole. We jumped off the ledge that you can see... boy was I scared!














The next day duke and I went to a mayan zipline throught the jungle and a mountain bike ride through the jungle to another natural swim hole. It was fun... and I was talked into going on the zipline upside down! wahoo!









And, now our vacation is almost over. The last day we were there we didn't have to leave until 2:00p.m., so we got up and enjoyed every second of the beach and ocean that morning!








And, here are a few pics of the hotel as well...










And finally, the Cancun airport - heading back to the U.S. ... we had tons of fun and highly recommend you all going to Cancun on a vacation!