MEXICO~Day 2

On Monday morning we woke up early and went to the buffet for breakfast (which was amazing!). As we were sitting there finishing up, our guide came in looking for the list of people to go to Chichen-Itza. He was prompt! We gathered up our things and headed out to the bus. The ride there would take approximately 3 hours with a few stops along the way.

We listened to him talk for awhile as we rode (he said everything twice; once in Spanish and then in English). He was very knowledgeable and easy to listen to. Because he was so prompt in getting us out the door on time, our tour bus was the first to arrive at the scheduled stops. Whether that was the restrooms or lunch, it was nice to be ahead of the crowd! Our first stop was at a Cenote. Because there are no mountains in Mexico, they have no rivers. They do have underground rivers and our first stop was at a beautiful gigantic sink hole to swim in the 74 degree water. The hole was 147 feet deep and because it was full of minerals, it was very 'heavy' water. Sabrina and I decided that it didn't really sound like a lot of fun and we were happy to take pictures of Samantha and Bonnie swimming in the water. They were only in for about 5 minutes because of the temperature and the weight of the water, it's very hard to stay in much longer than that.

It never ceased to amaze me the level of poverty that was everywhere. I just love this old lady. The old people and the kids tore at my heart wherever we went.

This was a park in the middle of a small town. It was such a cheerful place compared to the rest of the town. It was just amazing to see so many people sitting around, like they really had nothing better to do!

Headed down to the water at the Cenote.

So beautiful! Sam and Bonnie are in there....way over to the left.

Beautiful Mayan dancers entertained us at lunch.

Amazing!

Any time we were outside, we were surrounded by young kids selling stuff! Pretty typical to hear them call out, "Hey beautiful Barbies!" or "Beautiful Princess', almost free today! One skinny dollar!"

This mode of transportation was everywhere!!!! I love it! A bike with a huge area to carry kids, groceries, etc.!! I was always amazed at how many people they could load on one!

Our super cute guide, Hector with a sweet little 11 year old Mayan boy. The boy doesn't like approaching people to ask for them to buy his stuff, so he comes to the guides and offers to sing the national anthem for their tour group in hopes that after he's done, people will buy his stuff. It worked.

The awesome Chichen-Itza Temple! As of 2004, they stopped letting people climb the stairs....too many accidents. We were so bummed. We were totally looking forward to climbing!

The day we were there was the Spring Equinox. At a certain time of day, the shadow on the temple looks like a snake coming down from the heavens and going into the ground. We waited forever to see it but it was sooooo hot and we were so tired of waiting.

After we got back to the resort that night we were eating dinner when we heard the most amazing sounds. We got up and ran out to find this band! They took us all down to the beach where they were having a beach party. We stayed down there and danced until the band went home! Ha ha, that was only 10:30......