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Chichen-Itza Slideshow

!Hola Amigos!

It only took a year of planning, well, ten years if you count the fact that that was when we initially decided to do this, but I finally have an excuse for not posting to the blog for awhile. We just got back from a week in the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. Daniela and I Honeymooned in Cozumel (an island off of the coast of the Yucutan) 10 years ago this coming week. Since I forgot to load my camera with film on the day we explored the island, we realized we would need to head back. We were going to go for our fifth anniversary but La Seniorita Pecito (pictured, with the pink sombrero next to the handsome caballero in green and red) made that a little unrealistic.
We headed out from Bradley early Friday morning, and arrived in Cancun at about 5 in the afternoon. We rented a real pedazo de mierda Jeep with no effin' top and drove the metric assload of kilometers to our resort, just North of Playa del Carmen. For some reason, it seemed like a great idea tooling around the Western Caribbean with a Jeep Wrangler, with the top down and the wind blowing...
I knew it would be hot. I knew it would be sunny. I knew it might smell a little funky...
I didn't know that there would be a cement producing facility every 3k (about 1 3/4 miles) Apparently, in order to make cement and concrete, it is essential to constantly produce a thick fog of very fine limestone dust. Dust that somehow also smells like shit.
The resort we stayed at is called the Grand Mayan. It is a "sister" resort to the Mayan Palace. The two resorts are on the same piece of land, and are practically the same. Except that those of us in the GM could use all of the Mayan Palace's facilities, but not vice-versa. Yes, there was a bit of confusion. This place is big. REALLY FREAKIN' BIG!!!




See? Even the pool is REALLY FREAKIN' BIG!!!






Yeah, so how did a couple of skinflints like us get into digs like this? We were able to trade our week in our timeshare in New Hampshire for it. Believe it or not. We also were able to get another 20% taken off our bill by sitting through yet another wonderful timeshare sales pitch. Ugh, half a vacation day spent fending-off Sales manager after Sales manager doing everything possible to try to get us to spend (I swear to God, I'm not making this up) $200,000 for 2 weeks a year for 100 years. That's right. 200,000.00 U.S. dollars. 2,000,000.00 Mexican Pesos. This place was really amazing, but I could buy a house for that. And use it 52 weeks a year. And it wouldn't expire with my Grandchildren. At any rate, we got out of the sales pitch alive, and got a great price discount on our stay, and on a trip to Chichen-Itza which I'll get to later.

After getting the lay of the land, we ended-up spending about 2 1/2 days outside the resort, and 3 1/2 days in. The first day, Saturday, was sales pitch, pool, bar day. Sunday we ventured out to Delphinus The park that allows you to swim with Dolphins. Daniela and I did a Dolphin encounter before, in Roatan, Honduras. It was pretty cool. You stood around waist deep and the Dolphins would swim-up and you got to pet them. This was different. Here, they put you in a regular Dolphin pen. Here, you float (yeah, you have to wear a flotation vest) around while the Dolphins swim all around you. The staff shows you the signals and you get to have to Dolphins do tricks. (usual stuff, jump, clap a fin, make noises) The coolest thing, though, is that they have you float prone on the surface, then one (or two, yes I needed two) Dolphins push you along by your feet, fast enough to get you right out of the water. It was REALLY FREAKIN' COOL!!!







This is a bit better than the one in Honduras.






No, Daniela doesn't usually move that fast. There's really a Dolphin (or two) under her feet.










Dolphins are REALLY FREAKIN' COOL!!!!!



Oh yeah, even Alex got pushed along by one of her new friends, just like Mommy did above.

On Monday, we took advantage of suffering through Timeshare Hell by taking a chartered tour of Chichen-Itza Good thing, too, because it is about a 3 hour drive across the jungle to get there. Our plan initially was to drive there ourselves. I'm really glad we didn't. Also, the toll to cross from one Mexican State to another (Quintana Roo to Yucatan) is 202.00 pesos. $20. Yikes!
The tour rocked. It was a large, air-conditioned coach and included breakfast, a big lunch buffet at a Cenote (where we got to swim as well. I'll post more about that when I get the photos developed) at Ik-Kil. (the pics in the link are of the Cenote we swam in) Admission to Chichen, a tour guide who not only was a REALLY FREAKIN' COOL guy, but was also working on his PHD in Pre-Columbian culture. And, most importantly, all you could drink on the 3 hour ride back. We met a really cool couple from Wisconsin and I proceeded to get pretty shitfac.....
Chichen-Itza is as impressive up close and personal as it is in books and on websites. And Mel Gibson is full of shit.








Mommy and Alex take some pics (thank goodness for digital) of "El Castillo"









They used to rip still-beating hearts out of their sacrifices' chests at the top of those steps. Say "Cheese!"










Those Mayans were REALLY FREAKIN' NUTS!!!!







The "Superbowl" of the Mayan ballcourts. This was the 13th one. Wonder if it had the best commercials as well.





After the trek to Chichen, we slowed down a bit. Tuesday was spent over on Cozumel, which is about a 40 min. ferry ride from Playa del Carmen which is about a 20 min. car ride from the Grand Mayan. Pretty nice. Its changed a hella lot. The street-urchins selling their crap, however, remain the same. What was also the same was this little restaurant along the town square in San Miguel called La Cocina Mexicana a Los Dorados. We ate there a few times on our H-Moon and it still has some of the best damn enchiladas anywhere. The next two days were spent getting sunburnt and peeling around the two pools at the resort.
The last night we went to a Grande Mexican Fiesta at the resort. The food was awesome, the stage show was....interesting, and the tequila was free and a little too abundant. We sat with a couple who was celebrating their 50th anniversary. It seemed only fitting.




Cozumel












This pool just keeps on going...and going...and going....











There's even a pool on the patio of our room!









OI! Look at this little beauty.....












FIESTA!!!!





There's more, but I'll spare you for now. I'm going to host all the pics (including the various wildlife like crocs, flamingos etc) and link to it. I'm also working on a video, so check back in a bit, maybe I'll post again about how I'm going to get around to doing these things.....

Aw Crap, another month gone by....

Yeah, so I said I was going to try to be better about posting and here we go again. Another month between posts. So, what's been keeping me (us) so busy? Well, to tell the truth, not a whole hell of a lot actually. Two weekends this month were spent fighting-off various Spring-time ailments. Alex was sick one weekend, then Daniela and I got it the following. So two whole weekends spent doin' a whole lotta nuthin' Except eating rice, Saltines and broth. Blech!

We did spend some time visiting Family, though, so that was nice. One Sunday spent with Daniela's side, one Saturday with my side. Not much to report, everything's pretty status quo. Well, other than the fact that it seems the Arizona Daniels-Souder-Daniels clan will be moving to the People's Republic of Massachusetts soon. Good Luck! You'll need it *snicker*

We had a conference with Alex's teacher, Mr. Gowac. Alex is doing very well in school. She is reading at a 4th Grade level! She is also doing exceptionally well in Math, Science and Social Studies. But one thing...What the hell ever happened to Spelling and Penmanship? Things have sure changed in the last 30 years....

"But Paul," you ask, "Don't you have more boring skiing stories? Or can we finally move on?" Glad you asked. Looks like we may have gotten our final ski trip of the 07-08 season in last Sunday at Stratton. Yeah, we told everyone that we were headed there on Easter Sunday, but we took another look at our lawn which has been forlorn and forgotten since August and figured we should give it a little attention. Seeing as we will be heading off to Playa del Carmen, Mexico on the 11th, and spending everyday from now 'til then preparing... I digress. We had a free Stratton lift ticket that was given to us by Sam at Alpine Haus in Wethersfield Thanks Sam!! Not wanting to lose out on $78 (I know, can you freakin' believe it?) We headed-up on a beautiful, clear, sunny day. Awesome conditions in that they also got over 6" of fresh snow Friday night. Great way to end the season, everyone got a little of what they wanted. We all skied together, Alex and Mommy skied together, and Alex and Daddy got some time together, so Mommy and Daddy both got a few solo runs. Hopefully, after we return from Mexico, we'd like to try to get on the hill again, but that's not too likely. If this was it, it was a perfect way to end it. No pics, but I put together a little video of Alex's ski season. Most of it is from this past Sunday. Enjoy!!!






By the way... This is the Low-res Windows Movie version. I have a much higher res .avi file, but at over 560MB its way too big to upload. I'll try to upload it to YouTube. Leave a comment here, or email me if you want it.