Riviera Maya

Oct. 30 - Nov. 7, 2024 -- at the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal Resort, Mexico

After several weeks of dark rainy weather, it felt great to get into the sunshine. But it was even more special to reconnect with four of my siblings and their spouses. It looks like all are keen on making this an annual tradition. It started last year when we thought to treat our special needs sister, Lara to a tropical vacation. Then it was just her, my eldest sister, Sylvia and me & Case. It was a real treat, seeing how much Lara enjoyed it and how excited she was. This time my brother, Rick and his wife Arlene (from the island) + my sister Shirley and her husband, Frank joined us.

Day 1, Oct. 31:

After an overnight 5 1/2 hour flight and an almost 2-hour drive to the resort, we were pretty tired and eager to settle into our rooms. But they weren't available till 2:00pm which meant a 5-hour wait. Not so nice.

We couldn't swim without bathing suites so we wandered along the beach.

These seagulls were all facing the same way.

Geranium-tree

Great-tailed Grackle bird.

A hermit crab clinging to a branch.

Snails.

This iguana was about 2' long.

A Willet + Ruddy Turnstone.

This iguana was about 1' long.

Fully dressed on the beach. The following days we migrated a bit to the right, where it wasn't as busy and there were more colorful fish to observe.

Great-tailed Grackle Pelican

The gang: Frank, Shirl, Rick, Arlene, Sylv, Lara & Case

Our home for the next week.

This resort is huge. It covers 1.5 square miles! It's divided into four catagories. We were in the most luxurious one.

The buffet served yummy Day-of-the-Dead treats which is celebrated Oct. 31- Nov. 2.

We had lunch at the Katok restaurant by the beach.

In the evening we checked out the alters at the Tulum lobby. Many Mexicans create these alters to celebrate their departed loved ones by filling them with momentos, photographs of them and offerings.

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Day 3, Nov. 2: Coba Ruins

The ruins to the right were not accessible.

The church, Iglesia is 24m tall and was built in stages, each one upon the preceding one from 300-600AD. The last modifications were made from 1000-1450AD.

The opening to the left led to the king's tomb.

The ball court was where the game of Pok Ta Pok took place, twice a year during solstice. The Mayan calendar has 18 months / 20 days per month. That leaves 5 days unaccounted for. It was in these 5 days and during the two days of solstice that a human sacrifice was made, following the game. Players were not allowed to use their arms or legs. The rubber ball respresented the sun, the courtyard the earth with it's struggle between good & evil, the sky was the heavens and the underworld was below the surface. The teams consisted of two or four players. The leader of the winning team had the privilege of being decapitated as an offering to the gods.

The skull in the center front of this photo is where the player would be decapitated.

This was the only structure that was round. Possibly because it was at a crossroads. There were 160 km of roads made with white rock and ground seashells (illuminated in the dark) that connected the villages to eachother. The Mayans did not use animals or items to travel. They walked.

The Ceiba tree was the tree of life for the Mayans. Not only was it the tallest tree in the forest but it's roots reached out the farthest, even breaking through limestone. The trunks swell because of water storage.

Blue Tooth Chanterelle

The 2 km walk in was flat but it was hot and humid, making it challenging to do anything physical in the unaccustomed heat. We were glad to get a bike ride back. The Mayan lad deserved a good tip after delivering 360 lbs.of flesh back to the entrance.

Most days we'd congregate at the beach between 3-4:00pm and then have dinner at 6:00pm.

There were 15 restaurants to choose from. This was the Mikado Japanese restaurant. We were entertained with this chef and his hand acrobatics with the kitchen tools.

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Day 4, Nov 3

Hibiscus Broadleaf Palm-lily

This large group of Coaties were being fed scraps from an upper balconey.

Agouti Coati

Both of these creatures were most active at dawn and dusk.

We left Lara with Case for the morning. He was nursing a sore foot. They had a grand time by the pool.

We hooked a Connective van and went exploring in Chemuyil. Rick had talked to some of the employees at the entrance to the lobby, asking where we could find a nice cenote to cool off in.

They sent us to their village, away from all the tourists. Just my cup of tea: getting off of the beaten path. We wandered through the small village, searching for the cenote, but ended up in a dark ally.

Most Mexican homes have metal bars in their windows and doors.

A Ficus tree. It was sad to see so much garbage outside of the resorts.

Most homes had their laundry hanging out to dry.

2-pic slider

Another Ficus tree.

Ahh. a nice cold drink in the most poplar restaurant in town. It was the only restaurant. Thankfully the waitress could speak English. She directed us to the correct location for the cenote.

We passed a field where the locals were playing baseball. Later we met a relation one of them at the resort.

Yay! We found it!

Cenotes are water-filled sinkholes formed in limestone. It is created when the roof of an underground cavern collapses. This cavern is then filled with rain and water flowing from underground rivers. There are thousands of them in this region.

It didn't take long before all three siblings were in the refreshing clear water. I had nowhere to change so I stayed the observer with my Fuji-film camera.

Bats were tucked into the ceiling, making high peeping sounds (echo-location) as they lowered their heads to check us out.

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Day 3: Tulum Ruins

The guy to the left caught me sneaking a free photo of him.

Yucatan Jay

The original colors of they village over 500 years ago. Mayans did not put value into gold or silver, but into nature and people.

The governor's house.

Tombs were built into the walls.

Notice the face at the corner.

The builder left his signature of sorts on this building: the reddish-orange hand prints.

The temple was where offerings were made.

This is the only Mayan village built facing the Carribbean sea. All villages were separate divisions, independent of eachother.

This home was built above a cenote.

Orange Pore fungus

Our children once bought a T-shirt for their father that said, "Everyone is entitled to my opinion".

Shirl was trying to get some underwater photos of the fish.

Royal Terns.

Royal Tern

We had dinner at the Dolce Vita, Italian restaurant. Delicious!

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Day 5, Nov. 5: Ek Balam Ruins

Cebia tree A stele that commemorated a new ruler in 840AD.

The twin towers of the mother, sun and the father, moon.

The Mayans traded for obsidian which allowed them to look at the sun which was one of their gods. Their most important god was Itzamna, the son of the Creator God, Hunab Ku.

The Royal Palace.

A Cebia tree with thorns.

This was the only pyramid in this part of Mexico that we were allowed to climb. Because of the firm foundations of limestone bedrock, these structures were in better condition.

2-pic slider of the king's tomb.

Some people weren't so sure about descending the very steep high steps.

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After Ek Balan, we went to the Ki'ichpam Xunaan cenote.

This cenote is 47m deep. We could not see the bottom of it.

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Day 6: Arlene, Rick & I were up at the crack of dawn (6:30am) to do a 5km sunrise beach walk.

The taxi driver told us it was the first time this year that they had fog. All in all, we were very fortunate with the weather since we were told it had rained the whole week before we arrived and forecasted rain the days after we left.

Little Blue Heron

Egret

Sea Moonflower

In Akumal we had a drink before taking the taxi back to our resort.

Once there we went to Katok restaurant at 9:00am where we met the gang for breakfast.

In the evening we had dinner steak dinner at Katok again. We'd gone shopping in the morning. Try buying 14 T-shirts for the grandchildren. It can get pretty confusing. Next time I'll write the sizes and genders down...

Day 7: We got up at 4:00am and took a taxi van to the airport.