Playa del Carmen, Day 3

Xcaret – It has to be the required stop for anyone visiting this area.  It’s amazing!  It’s part zoo, part adventure park.  We saw spider monkeys, a tapir, pumas, jaguars, lots of iguanas, sea turtles, manatees, nurse sharks, stingrays, and butterflies.  We swam in an underground river, and then Michael and I did a dolphin experience, where we actually got to ride a dolphin.  Okay, I rode and Michael decided at the last second that he was too scared.  But he did get to touch them and swim with them, and he loved it.

There was a Mayan village set up so you could see how they lived.  The kids had fun in the hammock:

The jaguar:

Faith holding a butterfly.  She was so cute with these.  When they flew away she would say "Wow, so beautiful!" in this sort of hushed whisper voice.

The tapir:

Girls with an iguana:

We went to the night show, and had dinner there.  Dinner was pretty good, except Faith really was done for the day.  She hated the noise of the show, and didn’t want to sit still, and she kept screaming.  Oh, the screaming.  Somebody please tell me how to stop it.  She screams when she’s tired, having fun, upset, hurt, bored, etc.  Anyway, eventually Anna took her out because she was just beside herself, and she fell asleep outside the theater.  I thought the show was awesome.  They had papantla dancers, the dance of the old people, a Mexican Hat dance, and several other regional dances and musical numbers.

 

 

Highlights of the day: Faith's awesomely beautiful bed-head - it must be the humidity

Michael eating calamari (and liking it!!); me telling Lauren, “You’re beautiful,” and her saying, “Again!” over and over; Faith kissing Rosie goodnight and putting her to bed; Faith and Michael so excited about the hats Jeff bought them at Xcaret.

And then 10 minutes later looking like this:

The raccoon at lunch time (I swear, if a raccoon came right up to you in any restaurant in the U.S., it wouldn’t be cool – but here, it’s awesome)

The rush of riding on a dolphin.  That was seriously cool.