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Our Year of Adventure
David was awake early again - it was still dark at 5am but he decided that it would be a great opportunity to get up and walk down to the beach to watch the sunrise. Maria reluctantly dragged herself out of bed but was not disappointed with the early morning show. The moon was full in the darkened sky of the west with wisps of high cloud tinged red streaking across the sky above our heads. The sun eventually popped from the horizon just before 6am casting a bronzed glow across the sea. Within minutes the sun had risen a seemingly impossible amount, it was fully daylight and the beach was filled with joggers... It was time to leave the beach and find some strong coffee.
We were supposed to be snorkeling with sailfish today, but that was canceled because of the sea conditions. Whilst Aude is a friend, she is also the owner of O2 Mexico, a dive company in Playa Del Carmen, and we could leave the organisation of our water based activities up to her. So, on the suggestion of a trip to a cenote instead, it was easy to say yes because we knew it would be good. Cenotes or sink holes, caves and caverns abound in the Yucatan peninsula and were formed, if we remember correctly, during or just after the ice age. Amazing structures of stalegmites have formed over the centuries but now as the caverns are filled with (mostly fresh) water, they cannot grow any longer and thus extreme care is required when diving.
We were taken to the cenote Dos Ojos (Two Eyes) by Clement, a very experienced cave diver. Even though David wouldn't actually go into the cave system as such, it was very re-assuring to have a one on one guide with such experience when you are in a cavern that is 60m away from a surface exit. The first dive was a real eye opener - diving through flooded caverns full of stalegmites and stalegtites with glimpses of the cave systems going deeper into the earth.
Maria was snorkeling in the outer caverns whilst David was diving. Even being on the surface the view of the formations under water was out of this world and deepness of the color blue was amazing. Inside there was some beautiful birds that had similar colors to the kingfisher, but were about 2-3 times the size. Being a cave, bats were present too.
Back in Playa Del Carmen, we headed for Taqeria El Fogón for dinner, a very popular eatery with locals and tipped-off tourists. We needed to wait to get a table but it was definatly worth it. We ordered a couple of dishes off the menu and the next thing, our table is completely covered in plates of food and bowls of salsa...there was even a plate with 15 tortillas on it. Despite being exceptionally tasty, there was no way we could finish it all but we gave it a good attempt.
We were supposed to be snorkeling with sailfish today, but that was canceled because of the sea conditions. Whilst Aude is a friend, she is also the owner of O2 Mexico, a dive company in Playa Del Carmen, and we could leave the organisation of our water based activities up to her. So, on the suggestion of a trip to a cenote instead, it was easy to say yes because we knew it would be good. Cenotes or sink holes, caves and caverns abound in the Yucatan peninsula and were formed, if we remember correctly, during or just after the ice age. Amazing structures of stalegmites have formed over the centuries but now as the caverns are filled with (mostly fresh) water, they cannot grow any longer and thus extreme care is required when diving.
We were taken to the cenote Dos Ojos (Two Eyes) by Clement, a very experienced cave diver. Even though David wouldn't actually go into the cave system as such, it was very re-assuring to have a one on one guide with such experience when you are in a cavern that is 60m away from a surface exit. The first dive was a real eye opener - diving through flooded caverns full of stalegmites and stalegtites with glimpses of the cave systems going deeper into the earth.
Maria was snorkeling in the outer caverns whilst David was diving. Even being on the surface the view of the formations under water was out of this world and deepness of the color blue was amazing. Inside there was some beautiful birds that had similar colors to the kingfisher, but were about 2-3 times the size. Being a cave, bats were present too.
Back in Playa Del Carmen, we headed for Taqeria El Fogón for dinner, a very popular eatery with locals and tipped-off tourists. We needed to wait to get a table but it was definatly worth it. We ordered a couple of dishes off the menu and the next thing, our table is completely covered in plates of food and bowls of salsa...there was even a plate with 15 tortillas on it. Despite being exceptionally tasty, there was no way we could finish it all but we gave it a good attempt.
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