We have decided to visit Cancun this time and gave up Florida trip. The swine flu has impacted Mexican tourism heavily. The hotels closed for 5 weeks and currently only have 50% capacity filled. The weather is hot there and the hurricane season hasn't started yet. We signed up for a 7-days trip living in Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda Hotel of Riviera Maya.
We went to Chichen Itza (not chicken pizza which the tour guy commented), one of the seven wonders in the world. It's an overwhelming architecture which was built ~400 years AD. The Mayan intelligence to build the structure is well respected. It's a sacred city where mysterious pyramid of Kukulcan (kukul=feather; can=snake) has 91 steps. During March 21 and Sept 21, we can see the formation of snake shadow on the wall of Kukulcan. Snake is a myth God in Mayan believe. The structure was built where they aligned the sun's position, some other hints on the structure also suggests that they might already know a year with 365 days and has their own calender system. They also used their own way to track the mathematics symbols and calculation. We walked through the sacred path of the ancient Mayan priets and experienced the sound and acoustic effect of the pyramid. We stood at the center of the building with opening at the top, we clapped and the echo transmitting to the entire field. we're told that this is how the information was transmitted from high hierachy to low hierachy people. There is a ball court next to the pyramid. It was one of the games impossible to be played by normal human being. The ball is ~6lbs in weight and players only used hip and a bat to bounce the ball to the ring which is 20 feet high. The Mayans needs god superpower energy to play the game. The wierd part is the winning team would be sacrificed to the god. The losing team would chop the winning teams' heads. It's believed to be a priviledge and the players would be inherented within the same family. The damage done to the building was pretty massive. Many buildings have been destroyed quite badly, like the temple and astronomical building. The damage was done by the intrusion of Spanish to Mayan land and the fact that Catholics didn't like "Snake" related believes in the Mayan buildings. Also only a few years ago the government banned visitor to climb up to the pyramid. It is a good thing to preserve the ruin.
My knowledge about Mayan has been broadened after visiting Tulum. It's another historical ruin from Mayan. It's located on top of a cliff overlooking Caribbean Sea. It was an astronomical center as well as a very important seaport. The city was built few hundred years after Chichen Itza so the architecture design was improved. However, Mayan built this city in a very fast manner so design was simple. The only ruins remained are temple and the dwellings for king and rich people (i.e. dentist). Dentist was famous there to implant black stone onto rich people tooth. There is one structure where its hole would line up the Sun and the Mars together in every 52 years and line up the Sun in every year. The beach next to the ruin was very pretty. Over half of the visitors there would jump into the water for a break of blazing sun. The sun was brutal that morning and luckily we brought an umbrella. After walking out from the exit towards the van, there was a performance where performers flipped upside down circling a blue pole while music was playing. There was a legend saying that the ceremony was meant to convey message to the god for praying for rainfalls on the crops.
We went on to a snockeling adventure at Ya kul (Ya=fish; kul=nest) in Xel Ha city. It's found to be the largest natural aquarium famous for its excellent snockel and crystal water. The snockeling started on the soft water then moved to the sea water. We saw variety of colorful fish in the soft water. We didn't go to the sea water where the reef is located. I was quite sea-sicked by the high tide current and Sze Min was not comfortable to get near the deep ocean. We have fun browsing through the stones and cliff where fish is mostly hidden. After 2 hours of snockeling, I couldn't manage to control my sea-sickness and threw up near the drop off area. A swamp of fish surfaced and ate the jerking stuff I provided. Sze Min ended up taking pictures on the fish :) Both of us had a terrible sun-burn.
On the way home to the hotel, we have little fun conversation with the tour guy Azmanzur while we exchanged information about Spanish and Chinese. He is learning many different languages (chinese, french, japanese and more) in order to get a better paid job as a tour guide. This is a different world as people are working harder to get a better paid.
The food and drinks are all inclusive in the hotel. we have a blast just by trying out all sort of cocktails. The favorite drinks we both like are pinot colada and coco-loco. The wine is not really good here as it's free and they are either very dry or sour. Afterall, we found the food is awesome and the people around here are friendly. There are buffet style Breakfast, lunch and dinner served in Festival restaurant. The theme changed every day and we have had variety of selections. There are also Mexican, Italian, French, seafood and Oriental restaurants serving la-carte dishes. On the last day, both Sze Min and I have a lobster french cruisine. It's served on one whole piece cooked with wine. Since Sze Min is a vegetarian, I have her lobster portion for the dinner. It was too good! The salsa in the Mexican restauramt was the best and we were there twice. Italian food was ok only.
During the night, there are performances like traditional Mexican dances, karaoke, belly dances and etc. we spent half an hour a few days by watching the show while sipping the coco-loco :-)
During the stay, I truly enjoyed the slow pace living style while I still have internet access. Llying on the beach front, bracing the breezing air, looking up the coconut trees, sipping some cocktails, reading a book, taking a nap; I am sure I can live there for the rest of my life. Simple life is what I pursue and hope to have family around me. This short break is totally relaxing and well worth.
