When we were done with breakfast we woke up to find a bunch of wind surfers cruising past our resort and Jason has now put wind surfing on his bucket list. It was really fun to watch them for a few minutes. The whole time we were in Cancun it was breezy and there were red flags all along the beach (which says it's too dangerous to swim). The breeze was actually a blessing because it kept the bugs away AND kept us cooler while outside.
We couldn't swim at our beach but we did enjoy playing in the waves.
Jason was more adventurous than I and would go further out.
Soaking up the sun on our last day at the beach. Of course we had our pina colada and strawberry daiquiri in hand.
That is our resort in the background.
I could not get over all the different shades of blue in the water.
Jason wanted to play volleyball the whole time we were there but never got the chance. Finally on our last day he was able to make it happen.
After soaking up the sun and playing in the waves all morning, Jason thought it was time for an adventure. He had this "brilliant" idea to walk to the end of the peninsula along the beach with sand that is super soft and hard to walk in so we could possibly go snorkeling at some reef he spotted on Google Earth. I was not too excited about this idea because it was super hot in the middle of the day, the waves looked choppy and dangerous since it was so windy, and we didn't even know if it would be safe to snorkel in the spot he picked out. Oh yeah, and we didn't have life jackets. Our resort didn't have any life jackets we could borrow so Jason thought we would just go into town and see if we could find some floaties to use (which was in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go). Luckily the guy working the resort gift shop suggested a little gas station store along our way could possibly have floaties for purchase. So we took off walking down the road in the heat of the day. We found the store and purchased some float rings and headed toward our hopeful snorkel spot.
(The strip of resorts along the beach. Ours is somewhere in the middle.)
(The strip of resorts along the beach. Ours is somewhere in the middle.)
Along the way we found this sweet Cancun sign. We stopped for a picture before continuing our trek.
When we got to our destination we were lucky and there was actually a lifeguard station there. The lifeguard told us that our float rings were a TERRIBLE idea because the current was too strong and they could easily be torn from our grasp. But he had some life jackets (just like the inflatable life jackets you can find on an airplane) we could rent as well as some flippers for Jason. I had brought Marie's flippers with us so I was set.
He told us to walk along the super rocky shore to a little patch of sand and start snorkeling there. The current would take us back to the lifeguard station, then we could get out, walk back, and let the current carry us again. As soon as we got in the water we noticed the current was fairly strong but pulling us the OPPOSITE direction from what the lifeguard told us. So we got out and walked back to the lifeguard station. He said "oh no! It always pulls that way near the shore, but if you go further out it will pull the way you want to go." We got back in the water at the station and stayed near the shore to let the current pull us back to the little patch of sand, then swam out further to try to catch the current going the opposite direction. I never felt that current happen. At best it was just more neutral farther out and so we didn't have to fight against the current. Oh well. We survived and it was probably the best snorkeling spot yet.
Jason trying some shallow diving.
There was plenty of fish and coral to see. There was shallow spots and deep pockets of water. Every time we got to a deep part I had Finding Nemo run through my head: "The drop off!!" and had a slight freak out.
The deeper parts had bigger fish, like this barracuda. You can't see it very well in this picture, but it was huge! And freaked me out because once again I thought of Nemo and how the barracuda ate his mom. So I snapped the picture and swam away fast. Jason just laughed at me because barracudas do not eat people. But I could see his teeth!
A small sampling of our sight-seeing:
In the shallow parts near the shore, there was a bunch of tiny fish that you could find in a fish store. It was fun for me because it felt a little like I was swimming through an a aquarium that I had growing up.
After a loop and a half I was starting to feel fatigued fighting against the current, and I could see that a storm was coming in so I called it quits.
But Jason wasn't done. He wanted to do one more loop before we packed up our stuff and trekked back to our resort. Jason swam around by himself for a bit and then the lifeguard waved him back in. Jason turned and started swimming back to shore before finishing his loop and he ran across a sea turtle! He said it was so close that he could have reached out and touched it. And it didn't seem scared of Jason at all. I am so glad he got videos of it. So cool!
We cleaned up a bit and headed back across the beach back to our resort just as a storm rolled in.
We packed up most of our things that night and hung up all our wet stuff to dry.
The next morning we had one last look out our window and headed to the airport for a bunch of lines and waiting again. It was a glorious vacation!
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