The Honeymoon, pt 4

... some of the local shopping in Mexico.

... so many ornate handcarving everywhere we went.

... beautiful tropical flowers

... the "mexican chicken" (as the locals and Danny called it)

... the gorgeous beach!

We even took the opportunity to go snorkeling one day.  ... it wasn't quite what I expected, but I did, and Danny really enjoyed it.

... under the water was so much ... bluer than I expected, I guess I've seen too many movies.  and there weren't a whole lot of fish.

... some of the fish we saw.

... we got lucky once and saw a school of fish swim by.

All in all, we enjoyed our trip to Mexico.  Thanks mom and dad! :)

The Honeymoon, pt 3

After we went to Chichen Itza, our tour stopped for lunch in this little town.  One thing I really liked about Mexico was all the beautiful murals they put on all the buildings.

The buffet restaurant had these traditional dancer who balanced bottles on their heads while they danced.  It was pretty incredible to see how many bottles they kept adding and no matter how much they kept spinning, they never fell off.

After lunch, the tour went to see a nearby cenote (natural made sink hole).  The water at the bottom was clear and many people swam, but it was really dark and there were bats covering the ceiling, so Danny and I just looked on.  At the top of the cavern was a hole where a huge tree was growing and its roots were growing at the bottom of the cave, at least several stories down, and it's still growing now.  crazy.

Before they took us back to the hotel, we had a stop in Merida, the capital of Yucatan, and saw the Grand Plaza and the local cathedral.

We also got to tour the Governor's palace and see a series of murals about Mexico's history and culture.

The Honeymoon, pt 2

One of the days we were in Mexico, there was one thing I really wanted to do - a guided tour of Chichen Itza.  Aside from the couple hour bus ride each way that just dragged on forever it felt like, and several very loud and very hungover college kids in our group (luckily, despite their vocal concerns, none of them puked on the bus), the day trip was really enjoyable.  I'm so glad we got to go and see some of the largest and most famous of the Mayan ruins.  Especially from my (nerdy) architectural history student standpoint, it was so fascinating to see all these structures.  And even from a religious standpoint, while nothing specific was said, there was so much evidence that pointed to all these neat connections to the scriptures, Danny and I kept looking at each other during the tour and knew we were thinking the same thing about how cool it was historically.  And though nonchallant about it at first, Danny, being a history major, found it enjoyable too.

Temple of Kukulkan

... one disappointment of the trip, due to an accident several years ago where a woman fell off the top of the temple, people aren't allowed to climb the buildings anymore.  and due to some stupid vandalists who were caught graffiting on the ruins, people aren't allowed to be within five feet of the ruins.  *sigh* I was looking forward to climbing the temple, but oh well.  at least I got to see it.

The Great Ball Court

... our tour guide, this little guy named Turtle ... he'd say his name is this funny accent every time is what time to move on, hard to forget. ... oh and if you can't tell, it's raining in this picture.  The sky was pretty gray when we got there, then we had this cloud burst, lasted a few minutes and yes, we got wet but it cooled us off from the August heat.  And then, just a few minutes after that, the clouds were all gone and it was bright and sunny.  ... weather here was like that the entire time... very strange.

... details of the stone carvings in the ball court.

Venus Platform in the Great Plaza

Temple of the Warriors

part of an excavation site

El Caracol - the Observatory

The Osario Platform - the High Priest's Temple

La Iglesia in Las Monjas complex of buildings

Serpent's Head sculptures

... baptismal font(?)

Akab Dzib - The House of Obscure Writing

... always glad to see other tourist couples willing to help take a group photo in exchange for taking theirs.  it is so hard to get pictures as a couple when you're the only ones there.

The Honeymoon, pt 1

For our honeymoon, Danny and I spent 5 days in Playa del Carmen at an all-inclusive resort, Sandos Playacar Beach Resort & Spa.  It was a beautiful place, and had lots of great restaurants and scenery and activities, and best of all, we never had to worry about costs and such because everything was included.

... around the hotel...

... the view outside our hotel room.

... our hotel room - sooo luxurious and spacious!

... one of the pools next to our hotel room.

... some of the fountains throughout the resort ... and they had a family of cats that were sooo cute that scampered through the bushes.

... one of the buffet restaurants.