Monday, June 29, 2009

We woke up excited to be in Mexico, had our fine included breakfast and went outside to check out the weaverbirds. There was a nest dangling from a tree with some fledglings in it, but here is an important tip: if you are going to take pictures in hot humid climates, make sure to wipe the fog off of your camera lens as you move from air conditioning to outside, otherwise your photos will be unusable! The kids were very worried about one baby who had flown the nest but was stuck on the ground. I’m sure the little birdie was fine! We checked out and took their shuttle back to the airport to get our car, where our luggage fit in the trunk no problem. The older the girls get the less junk we have to bring which is wonderful. We set off on our drive down to Akumal. On the way we stopped at the Crococun petting zoo. Genevieve enjoyed holding the macaw, and all of us except Charlotte enjoyed holding a baby crocodile, and all of us including Charlotte held the boa (her first time showing interest in holding a snake). We liked feeding the deer but were all a bit upset by the spider monkeys chained to the trees. These are forfeit to the government from people that were keeping them illegally, but why weren’t they in an enclosure instead of chained like that? We did like feeding the wild baby spider monkey that lives nearby, though.

We continued our drive through Playa del Carmen where there were a ton of topes (speedbumps) and traffic, and then to the Akumal Beach Resort. This is a little friendly all inclusive without all of the bells and whistles of some of the newer snazzier resorts, but I thought it would suit our family better that way. We checked into our room on the ground floor of building 500 which is right near the pool, and then went to have lunch. Okay buffet, nothing to write home about but the guacamole was really good. At lunch another guest told us where we should snorkel to see a sea turtle, so we went back to our room and broke out our snorkel gear (Mark and I, Costco sets for $40.00 each, the kids Speedo sets from Target at $20.00 each and snorkel vests from 101 Snorkel) and headed to the beach. Charlotte freaked out pretty quickly and so I went back to shore with her and Mark and Genevieve stayed out. They got back so excited!  Not only had they seen a huge sea turtle but they each had a “buddy” little orange fish that stayed right at their snorkel mask all the way out and all the way back. I was eager to see the turtle, so I headed out and immediately picked up “buddy” myself. My companion fish and I quickly found a small hawksbill turtle fairly close to shore eating sea grass. I watched him for a while and headed back. Buddy stayed with me all the way until I reached the beach! This was apparently not the same turtle that Mark and Genevieve saw, as theirs was larger and much further out. We showered off at the convenient showers and headed into the pool, where we stayed until dinner time. That night we saw lots of hermit crabs, including a really large one we called “Gigantor”. And so off to bed.

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