Today was an exhausting, but really fun day. We used the car and drove down to Xel-Ha, about 30min south. We spent the day snorkeling with the family and it was really fun - I was amazed at how quickly the kids picked up on snorkeling. Really fun!
Rental car! If you feel comfortable doing it, renting a car is really the best way to see some things. You save money in the end (especially if you have as many people as we did) and it affords you the freedom to do what you want on your own time frame. The places we were going on Saturday and Sunday were a straight shot down the highway and were both big tourist destinations so we felt very comfortable driving it…..especially with GPS! Today was very hot and sunny. We drove south about 45 minutes to Xel-Ha….another huge, natural park in the area. Xel-Ha is an enormous inlet where there are many types of fish. All snorkel gear, towels, food and beverages for the day are included with admission. They also had inflatable tubes for floating around the inlet, various zip lines that allowed you to splash down into the water, a ropes course in the water, a kids play area out of the water in the shade of the trees, manatees, sting rays and boating excursions. We didn’t do any of the extra activities but we really enjoyed the snorkeling and floating about on the tubes. The inlet made for very minimal waves and the kids caught right on to how to use the snorkeling equipment. It was a lot of fun and also very tiring! They were also able to hold a small green parrot and a toucan at this place and have their picture taken and that was pretty cool. There were also two gentlemen playing a very large, wooden marimba outside of the food place near where we had set our towels on the beach. The girls were pretty excited about that. We tried to leave before they closed to avoid the rush of the crowd and to get back to downtown Playa del Carmen to go shopping. This is the one time I was nervous on the trip. I remembered from the last time we were there that some places and people seemed a little bit sketchy. We had a difficult time finding a place to park the van and happened upon a paid parking lot after about 20 minutes of searching. I was very nervous because they made you leave your keys with them (so they could continue to move your car and pack in more) but I didn’t like it. Jason said it would be fine and he was right. The kids were fascinated by the sights, sounds, smells and all of the different people we saw on the shopping strip. Jason and I both kept a tight grip on two kids each. There were very expensive, trendy stores sandwiched in between more humble, family-owned shops selling local wares. We settled on a larger souvenir store we had visited last time that had prices clearly marked and you didn’t have to haggle over anything. It was a successful outing and the car was not stolen and everything was just fine. The guys running the parking lot were about Dad’s age. They worked out of a tiny, dirty little office in the corner of the lot. As we walked to our van, we noticed the prices painted on the side of the wall by the office: 2 hours was 40 pesos……not even $3.00…..I just wondered and pondered upon these men who eked out a living at $3.00 per car. Did they know they might could charge more? It really struck me that they were Dad’s age and they were working at this job and probably would work at it until they were much older than Dad. But then I wondered if they had everything that they needed and if they were happy with this job and their home and their family and their beans and rice. They seemed happy enough. It gave me much to think about as far as not judging what it is that constitutes success or happiness in life.
Similar to the experience with the Dolpins, due to the water, we didn't take any photos with the iPhone. Instead, we have tons a great photos with the GoPro and we paid for the photos that they take for you. They are WAY too expensive, but the photos turned out great. We will include them in the photo book that we eventually pull together for the trip.
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