Friday 23 August 2013

Chichen Itza ...

... Morning all - today is our last full day in Cancun.  It's been a brilliant holiday.  Beach Palace hotel is fantastic with the most gorgeous ocean front - the view from our balcony is fabulous!!  On the whole we've had fabulous weather, with only a couple of days totally washed out - almost literally.

Last week we went to Chichen Itza - one of the wonders of the world.  It's a long trip, but absolutely worth it.  Our guide was informative and fun - he took us around the ruins and told us about the history.  It was very good, but I would have liked a bit more time for photos.  A friend of mine visited Chichen Itza a while ago and told me that the climb to the top was worth it - sadly (or not) we can no longer climb to the top.  Here are a few of my photos:


Chichen Itza - absolutely magnificent Mayan pyramid
 



There were loads of iguanas around the place - this one posed just for me!!


I got out my long lens to take this photo!



The whole place is amazing.  Sadly, there are hundreds of vendors allowed inside the area to sell "authentic" Mexican products - our guide advised us to ignore them all as much of the produce sold there is actually made in China!!  Makes for pretty photos though!

On Wednesday this week we went to Xcaret (pronounced Ishkarett)- a magnificent park built in an area that was once a Mayan port.  It is now an archaeological park along with animal displays, areas to swim, including an underground river, and has fantastic shows too.  We swam the underground river - the water was cool but pleasant and I discovered that I'm mildy claustrophobic!!!  I really didn't like having the mask and snorkel on which was a bit sad as I didn't get to enjoy the views of the fish!  Kathryn LOVED it!!  Jonathan took some wonderful photos and if you want to check them out - here's the link to his Flickr account.  I've shared a few here:


Almost a picture postcard view - so beautiful!


Our darling daughter - Kathryn - so pleased that Jonathan managed to get this - she hasn't wanted to have her photo taken this year!


As you can tell - it was really, really hot!!!

Walking along the paths was really nice - so many beautiful plants and then we found this!!!  There's nothing here to suggest scale - it was about 2 inches! 



So for our last day here, we're going to enjoy the sunshine and pool, and then Jonathan has a massage and Kathryn and I are enjoying some girly time together in the beauty salon by having manicures and pedicures!  It's been wonderful.

Do check in tomorrow for the new challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - it's a goody!!  See you soon.

7 comments:

Sue Lelli said...

What an absolutely WONDERFUL trip! We went there when we lived in Texas so I really enjoyed seeing your photos!

Buffy said...

Looks like a wonderful holiday.
Thanks for the beautiful birthday card
Buffy xx

Vicky Hayes said...

Wow! We honeymooned in Cancun and it was the holiday of our lives. Your photos have brought it all back to me Deborah! We were able to climb to the top of the pyramid at Chichen Itza and there were no vendors there in 1993! We swam the underground river at Xcaret too and just loved it - coming out of the river into the bay was amazing and swimming through shoals of brightly coloured fish. I'm glad you've had such a fantastic holiday. Vicky x

Jackie said...

I have so enjoyed looking through your wonderful photographs, what a superb holiday :o)
Jackie xx

Tara Cardwell said...

What fabulous photos! Looks like you had a brilliant time - so glad the sun came out for you - was worried earlier on.
I'm with you on the snorkel mask - find it much easier to hold my breath and just open my eyes under water!
Tara
x

Bev said...

You look like you've had a fab time. I love the photos, except the spider! AAAHHH

Bev :)

Ardyth said...

Wow, I must have been there in the 'old days' because I climbed to the top. It wasn't hard going up, but coming down was frightening becuase the steps were very, very narrow (and steep!) Love these holiday snaps!

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