Chichen Itza- Mexico

After graduation we decided to treat ourselves to a much needed vacation! My ideal vacation required warmth and a beach. Eric's ideal vacation required NO beach, just a jungle and a backpack. How did we end up married? Can you picture me traipsing through the jungle with a backpack?!?! We compromised and headed down to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico (oh, Eric also wanted a Spanish speaking destination). We spent four days in the jungle (for Eric) and four days on the beach (for me). Although, I admit the jungle was pretty fabulous!

We were both apprehensive to leave our kids. We knew they would be in good hands but we had never been away from Aila and had only been away from Kinsley for one night. Kinsley started calling my mom her "new mom" and me her "old mom." Eric spent the most time away from them since he was away at capstone in Memphis the week before. He went three weeks without seeing them and I went two. He really got homesick for them and wanted to email and skype with them everyday. It was cute but.... I AM ON VACATION!!!

Other than homesickness for the girls, some rain, and a few days "Montezuma's revenge," we had a great time and I have 1,000 pictures to prove it. =) Be prepared for the next few posts being overloaded with pictures!

Our first day was spent flying to Cancun and driving to Chichen Itza. The flight was eye opening... almost everyone on the plane got wasted (I should mention we left at 7 in the morning). Once we landed and were waiting to go through the immigration line, a 60 year old gay guy who was drunk as a skunk kept telling me how pretty I was and how I was too young to have kids. Ummm, weird. The first four days were spent with a tour group. We thought we would be on a bus full of people but we were pleasantly surprised when we got to our "tour bus" (van) and discovered there were only four people in our tour group (including us).

Chichen Itza
(The tour guide said most Americans call it "chicken pizza")A replica of a Mayan house. It kinda makes our fixer-upper not seem so bad.

These little guys were everywhere and they scared me every time. I have lots of pictures of iguanas.

Sacred Cenote- Well of Sacrifice

A Cenote is a deep natural pit or sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. As a form of worship to the Mayan Rain God, Chac, objects and human beings were thrown into the cenote as a form of sacrifice. (They have found artifacts of gold, jade, pottery, and human remains.)

Nunnery- this is where the women came to give birth. I found it interesting that they used water births.

The observatory is called el Caracol (snail in Spanish) because it has an interior staircase that spirals upward like a snail's shell. Scholars believe it was built to track and calibrate astronomical observations. Its windows enable the tracking of Venus, the sun, the moon, and other celestial events.Chac- the God of rain

Our tour group and chefs (Pam, Sarah, Me, Eric)

Our tour included a Mayan cooking class. I was really excited for it. I thought we would be chopping veggies, whisking unusual concoctions, dicing and slicing... but my expectations were not met. Perhaps, because we arrived to our class a little bit behind schedule (an hour). Everything was pre- mixed, sliced, diced, and marinated. All we had to do was throw our marinated chicken, flavoring (paprika, basil, garlic, pepper, onion, salt), and veggies in the center of a plantain leaf, wrap it, throw it in a pan, and then throw the pan on the fire.

Our Mayan lunch... it was delicious! Perhaps we should start cooking all of our food in plantain leaves.... it would be an easy clean up.We had a view of the observatory from our hotel. It was pretty to watch the sun set.
One evening, we went to a light show. It was pretty neat... probably would have been neater if I understood more Spanish (my headphones didn't work). Two words out of 10 doesn't really help. They Mayans knew their astrology... during the spring equinox the sun shines through the windows of the temple and creates a serpent light going down the side.
We loved staying here and were sad to move to the next place. We loved the beautiful jungle view from of balcony. We loved the waitstaff and how they quickly learned our likes and dislikes. One evening, while we were eating a meal outside, there was a large beetle, the size of a silver dollar, crawling on Eric's shoulder. Of course, I acted like a girl and shrieked, rather than flicking it off of him. Our waiter picked the beetle off of Eric's shoulder and tossed it INTO his mouth. Needless to say, the waiter got a nice tip that evening.

We had a love/hate relationship with the wild peacocks. Yes, they are very beautiful and fun to watch walking around the table but they also keep you up late at night and wake you up early with their peacock calls.