Mexico Day 2 - Xcaret

Today, on our first full day in Mexico, we packed as much in as possible. Early to bed, early to rise. The sun gets up at 6am here...and so do my kids. oy-vey! Fortunately that's 8am Ontario time, so it all works out, right?

The plan for today was Xcaret. It's like a natural exotic park with pretty much everything you imagine Mexico to be, contained within it's boundaries. We bought our park passes for the day, and headed in for some adventure. First stop? Macaw's!

Lucy was fascinated by the birds and waited patiently in line to get her picture taken with the Macaw. It was worth the wait.

After the Macaw's we spent a few minutes browsing the gift-shop where Lucy and Max got some great hats. I determined that on this trip I will definitely be buying a Mexican dress to use as a night-gown. Apparently prices are better elsewhere, so we'll shop around, but I'm set on getting one.

Inside the gift-shop was an entrance to a mine where we learnt about copper, silver and gold mining. Pretty cool - literally. It was nice a cool down in the mine. A nice break.

Then we headed back outside to check out some of the ruins. These were great and Max was fascinated with climbing all of them.

I'm really hoping we acclimatize to this heat because it is amazing. I was in some serious need of some shade...and I was insistent on the kids hitting some too. And having a drink. We tried to find a shady spot to watch the flying guys show. There was not much shade to be had, but we tried. They were pretty amazing.

After being in the hot sun, it was time for some indoor time. We headed to the aquarium where it was shady and cool.

Logan and Max both touched a starfish. And we saw plenty of fish.

Then it was outside to see the sea turtles in all their stages of life. They were amazing!

Plus, we got to see iguanas. They're pretty much everywhere I'm told, but it was cool to see our first one.

We decided it was about time for lunch, so we headed to a buffet where the kids enjoyed fruity drinks out of monkey heads...and Logan tried desperately to stay awake long enough to finish his meal. (The food was amazing and we were very happy to have 2nds, 3rds and more! Plus, with Tyler being as frugal as he is, we wanted to get bang for our buck, so we ate as much as we could handle.) We realized later that we probably could have kept the monkey heads, but we didn't know. Missed opportunity.

We found a nice shady spot under a Palapas where the kids, Tyler and Grandparents could swim and I could sit, relax and let my tired buddy have a nap. I had an awesome view:

After the nap, we headed to see the jaguars & panthers and then, to the highlight (for Lucy), the butterfly garden. Hundreds of butterflies that she was convinced ALL wanted a chance to be held by her. So we had to wait until she had gotten that chance.

Then, we made our tired way over to the front of the park to get ready for the evening show. We stopped and watched a horse show for a few minutes while Grandma and Dad got cash for dinner:

And then headed in to the show. These men, dressed up, lined the walk-way to the show and were all up for getting their picture taken, unlike Max.

Our dinner was LESS than desirable, but the show was awesome. (worst hot dog ever). They played some traditional Mayan games (this one, I can only describe as floor hockey only the ball is on fire)

and lots of traditional Mayan dancing. It was wonderful.

It was a late night, but worth it. On the way home, Grandma asked everyone what their favourite part of the day was. Lucy said butterflies and macaws, Max said ruins and sea turtles. I thought it was all awesome. But I loved seeing the beautiful ocean view the best. So far, this is not much of a relaxing holiday. I hope we can keep up with this pace!