Woozleweb: Our family trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Our trip started of as it always does with the flight. So that in itself was a tale of ups and downs figuratively and literally.
Our first flight was to Los Angeles at 8pm and arriving at 10.30pm, we can do it right? That is not so late.

All went as planned and we slept a little on the plane before we had to get off and find our connecting flight, and then the strangest thing happened. We found ourselves in first class, yep all five of us being brought drinks and enjoying a movie. We kept expecting somewhere to realize the mistake but they never did.


Here is Summer faking sleep in her first class seat.

So, we slept more than we could have hoped for but still when the plane arrived in Cancun at 5.30 am we were in pretty bad shape. As we walked out the door of the airport we were hit with the heat and humidity of 85 degrees. It was wonderful. We had finally arrived in the part of Mexico I always wanted my children to see. We took a pre arranged shuttle to our hotel and arrived just before 7am. Of course rooms were not ready until 2 or 3 pm so things were getting rough. Our clothes were too warm for Mexico and we were wiped out. Several of us crashed in the hotel lobby.

The hotel rallied for us and got a room all cleaned up by 10am. By that time however we had all rifled through our things and found swimsuits. Summer was the first to hit the water closely followed by Adam.

And the vacation begins...

Our room was light and airy with a view of the ocean, two queen size bed and a sofa bed for the kids to fight over. Summer and Adam rebelled against the usual rule that Matt gets the extra bed. Very very tired kids. They finally settled on a rotation system. Gotta love em. Right??

Adam quickly found the strawberry daquiris

Quickly followed by Summer

and then we found the pool.

We all slept hard, probably asleep by 8pm and slept without difficulty until 6.30am when we had to rally for the trip we had come here for. The visit to Chichen Itza, the famous Mayan pyramid, one of the seven wonders of the world!

We had an air conditioned coach to take us there and a fabulous guide who spoke easily and clearly in English and Spanish about the Mayan people, their calendar and their counting system. He then handed out displays of Mayan artwork, paper and obsidian and explained its significance.

The guide explained how the Mayans counted in base 20 as opposed to our system of base 10, he explained the lines and dots that symbolised their counting system and he explained how the Mayan people mashed up corn husks and leaves to make paper.

It was a long drive, about two and half hours, but the guide made it interesting. We also had a few stops along the way.
Firstly we stopped at a sinkhole also known as a Cenote for a swim.

I was so proud of Adam for jumping off the ledge 20 feet from the water. he was spurred on by the fact that Matt said he wouldn't do it. But of course once Adam had done it, Matt had to do it too.


Tom took this picture with his left arm as we left the Cenote to get dressed and back on to the bus.

It was here that Matt decided on his souvenir from the trip, he bought a small model of Chichen Itza's main pyramid, and then declared that he intended to collect a small model of each of the seven wonders of the world! Adam decided on a silver necklace that depicts his name in Mayan symbols. pretty expensive but he had money to burn. Summer was still empty handed at this time, but dont worry soon it would be her turn.

Back on the coach we depart for our next stop. More shopping and lunch. A delicious Mexican buffet accompanied by women dressed in traditional Mayan dresses danced for us while we ate.

A short video of the Mayan dancing we enjoyed during lunch.

It was at this stop that Summer found something she could relate too. Her Mexican Folkdance class that she has been taking afters school came to life. She has danced a dance called Viejitos (the old people) and there in the shop was the doll that looked just like the costume she wears for that dance.

Then she found another doll that she fell in love with, a doll with full skirt that looked just like her costume for the other dances she does.

After eating at the restaurant, hammocks were provided for us to rest. Actually I think they were on display to be sold but still. Here is the family posing in them :)

At 1pm we arrived at Chichen Itza, and what a sight it was to see, the weather was clear and hot, we walked down a long path lined with vendors on both sides with their chants of "very cheap" "almost free" "just a dollar" Soon though, this blurred into insignificance because there was that pyramid, standing majestically in front of us and you could tell the kids were impressed.

Once again the guide was amazing, explaining the number of steps on each side and that the four sides represent the seasons. The number of steps represent the number of days in the year. That inside this pyramid is another pyramid. Years ago, when you were still allowed to touch the pyramid, Tom and I had gone inside and seen it. Alas, that is no longer possible due to the wear and tear that the tourists caused to this amazing structure.

What followed was a tour of the grounds of Chichen Itza, we went to the ball court where we learned about Mayan sports. The engravings on the side of the ball court depict the the beheading that possibly occurred after the game, when the winner won the privilege of being sacrificed to their god. We visited a cenote where 27 bodies were found, thought to be the bodies of a whole family that were killed by invading Toltecs.

The "hoop" that the ball had to get through to win.

Carving of a played wearing full head gear.

Sacrificial table

We then returned to the main structure, to witness the effect of the Spring Equinox. Inadvertently I had scheduled our vacation to coincide with one of the most important times in the Mayan calendar, on the Spring Equinox, when the shadows fall in such a way as to make a zigzagging pattern from the top of the pyramid to the bottom where it connects with the head of a serpent. As the sun moves around it looks as though the serpent is slithering down the building.

It was then that mommy doted over her little beautiful daughter a little too much. Didn't she HAVE to have this traditional Mayan dress? In my defense I bartered hard for it.


Here she is holding the Ballet Folkorico doll she chose. The dress was all me.

After the educational tour of Chichen Itza it was time to get back on the bus for 2 hours, but not before a photo shoot with these guys.

We had done it! We had seen what we came her to see and it was magnificent. The rest of the time was pure relaxation, pool swimming, kayaking, water park, magnificent snorkeling (we took underwater cameras but the pictures really didn't turn out).

Our relaxation day after our full day at Chichen Itza was spent at the water park attached to the hotel.

It was at the water park that Matt spotted first an iguana and then a coati. A coati seems to be a racoon like creature, it looked very cute even as it crawled out of the trash can.