2013 -- week 23 -- a quick trip to mexico and another half birthday!

this week i got to check off two more things form my to do list -- crossing the mexican border by car and visiting a new mexican state, sonora. i think i'm more excited about crossing the border though, because it's my second border crossing in a month! but the best part of the trip was seeing tons of saguaro flowers. they're only supposed to bloom at night, but we were driving early enough in the morning that we still got to see them. and it was awe inspiring. these saguaro cacti are over 10 feet tall, probably over 100 years old, and the tops of each one were covered with delicate little white flowers. it was one of the coolest sights. i wish we'd had the chance to pull over and take some pictures to share with you!

you know how you're only supposed to eat oysters during the months that have an "r" in them? well, we broke the rules this weekend; we ate oysters in june. and they were awesome. because they were from a little oyster farm on the outskirts of puerto peñasco. it took less than two minutes from when they came out of the water to be placed in front of us, shucked and ready to eat. with a fresh lime and hot sauce, they were to die for. 

we ate six dozen in less than 20 minutes. fatties.

kitt peak is about an hour and a half away from tucson, so it's not a place we drive by often. but last weekend, we drove right by it, and couldn't resist the opportunity to pull over and take a couple of pictures. obviously these photos are totally posed because it's during the day and over 100 degrees, but how cute is my boo? 

what did you do last week? anything fun?

ps. bodanzalez boda is up and running for real now. check it out!

pps. i know i promised road trip posts, and i haven't forgotten about them, i've just been so crazy busy trying to get the wedding planned that i put everything else on the back burner. road trip posts will be ready soon. and so will wedding updates!

as the sun sets...

arizona has amazing sunsets. (check out some that i've witnessed here) but there are few things more beautiful than watching the sun set over a beach or from the deck of a boat. 

all of these pictures were taken during our trip to the mayan riviera -- i hope you enjoy!

  

where is your favorite place to watch the sunset?

virgin beaches and conch shells

after our night in isla mujeres, we spent the next morning sailing to isla blanca. isla blanca is not a legitimate island though; it's actually a super intense peninsula about 10 miles north of isla mujeres, that takes less than 2 minutes to walk across. the captain parked the catamaran a short distance from shore and we got to swim to shore and explore for a little. and it was magnificent: the beaches were empty and the water was cold but refreshing. 

on the following day we went to another island, a virgin island, with the most spectacular blue-green turquoise water. we couldn't handle swimming in the cold water, so the captain took us to shore in the dingy, and we spent the rest of the morning looking for conch shells and exploring the beach. in our explorations we found a snake, raccoon and ocelot prints, horseshoe crab exo-skeletons, tons of conch shells, and a tortoise skull. it was kind of crazy amazing. unfortunately we didn't take our cameras ashore so there aren't very many pictures; you'll just have to go visit it yourself!

the cairns of isla mujeres

 

our first night on the catamaran we were docked at isla mujeres -- a small island near cancun. so small we could walk from the marina to the other side of the island in less than fifteen minutes. (it's much longer than it is wide.) we only spent an hour or so on the island but on the far side of the island we discovered piles or towers of small rocks on the large, wave-battered rocks. at the time we didn't know why people had built these little statues, but decided we would each build one and look it up after the vacation was over.* regardless of what the little statues were supposed to mean, for me, at least, the statue was a little way for me to reflect on the enormity of the ocean and the fact that no matter what we do or leave behind the waves will own it all. 

*i still can't figure out why people build these cairns (rock towers), but they're a beautiful lesson in patience and the vastness and power of the ocean.

 

my rocks.

 

rcg's rocks.

the oldest church in latin america

last august some friends approached us about going on a vacation together. they had found a bloomspot deal for a 4 day, 3 night catamaran trip along the mayan riviera. obviously we were interested, but we were nervous. first, it was a lot of money and we had to pay the money up front for a vacation that wouldn't happen for another six months. so we did a lot of research and read a lot reviews so we could determine if it was a good idea. but there was a second thing i was personally nervous about --  i've never been on a couple's vacation. nor had i ever even met the couple we would be vacationing with.* (stress.) despite our reservations, we decided to give it a go. and i'm so glad that we did. 

* i did make sure that i met the couple before our trip though, and they're lovely. so much less stress.

 

before we went on our catamaran trip, we spent a couple of days in tulum seeing the ruins and the gran cenote, and a couple of days in puerto morelos, a small city near cancun. all the while wondering what our trip on a boat for four days would be like. we had an idea of the things we would see -- isla mujeres, deep sea fishing, and snorkeling -- but we really weren't sure of the specifics. but as we took our taxi to the cancun marina we were excited for the adventure.

at the dock we were introduced to dianne, our 45 foot catamaran, and the two men who would be manning it, a chef and a captain. and then we found out our itinerary for the next four days -- isla mujeres, isla blanca, the oldest church in latin america, and some snorkeling. awesome. 

wait, what? back up. 

oldest church in latin america? explain further.

according to legend, spanish pirates found a secluded lagoon on isla holbox and founded a catholic church in the same location as an old mayan swimming pool. the spanish built a large church using the old stones from mayan buildings that had already  been abandoned. 

 

on the third day of our catamaran trip we got up early and took a little dingy through the lagoon to la iglesia. we rode for approximately 30 minutes through less than 2 feet deep fresh water and mangroves sighting horseshoe crabs, eagle rays, and barracuda as we drove. the water was crystal clear, and the mangroves were close on either side of us as we rode. 

 

 

when we got off the dingy, we walked a short ways to a 300 year old house that backs up onto a old mayan graveyard. the ceilings were covered with soot from long forgotten fires and the floors were covered with hundreds of years of bat guano. 

we walked a little further and the jungle opened up to this view: 

the oldest church in latin america.

crazy amazing.

 

at one time, the church was built in the traditional fashion of a cross. but after years of neglect, the only remaining structure was the altar and chapels on either side. these buildings too were overrun with bats and their feces, but it was just so spectacular to see an abandoned, four hundred year structure that was still somewhat intact. and to know that we were standing in the same spot as worshipers from hundreds of years ago. 

 

the thing that was strangest for us was the fact that there is this amazing structure and the accompanying history and no one knows about it. i checked our guide book and there was no mention of this lagoon or the church, and it had clearly been abandoned for years. but why? why wasn't mexico attempting to preserve this historical site? a lot of local fisherman (and fish) go into the lagoon during hurricanes to escape some of the wind and crazy waves. and there was a path to the church, so people had been there recently, and our captain knew about it, so it's obviously not a secret. so why wasn't there some organization taking better care of the building? it's definitely an out of the way site -- you can only reach it by dingy -- but it's a piece of mexican history, one would think they would at least want to preserve it and learn from it, if not take that further and turn into a tourist destination and make money off of it. 

not all sinkholes are bad: the gran cenote

how many times have you started to plan a vacation or booked your plane ticket only to see your intended vacation spot every time you turned around? as soon as we knew we were vacationing near cancun it seemed like everywhere we looked there were articles about all of the cool things to see and do in the area. a couple of weeks after we booked our catamaran trip, we stumbled across an article about the spectacular cenotes of the yucatan peninsula, and we decided then and there that we had to go see at least one while we were on our vacation.

a cenote is a sinkhole that can be filled with fresh water or salt water. and the yucatan peninsula has tons of them. one of the larger ones, the gran cenote, was a short drive from tulum so we decided to check it out one afternoon.

 

the gran cenote is located ~3.5 km away from tulum proper or ~6 km away from the beach, so since we already had bikes (100 pesos a day), we biked to the gran cenote after we had seen the ruins in tulum. it's a bit more expensive than we would have liked (120 pesos each, or approximately $10) but it was definitely worth it. especially if you make a whole afternoon out of it.  

 

 

the gran cenote is a large, partially cave-like fresh water lake that was formed over the course of thousands of years by limestone eventually giving way and creating a sink hole.   some of the cenote is covered by a large, bat inhabited cavern with stalactites, while other parts are open to the sun. some parts are shallow enough to walk through, while other parts are rocky and deep. the most amazing part? how crazy clear the water is. it had this magical turquoise blue color to it and you could see everything; it was almost like looking through a glass bottom boat that's how awesome it was. 

we went to a couple of other cenotes when we were in puerto morelos as well. one was all underground -- you could reach it by jumping 15 feet or via stairs. and the other was open; again, you could either jump 30 feet down into it or walk down the stairs. both were 60+ feet deep. (we went to both of these cenotes as part of a packaged tour with kin-ha jungle tour. on this half-day tour you drive an atv to the cenotes, go on a zipline through the jungle, get a light snack, and swim in the cenotes for ~400 pesos each. not a bad deal.)