THE HEAT OF ADONIS

After we awoke on Thursday morning (7/19), I heard something hit our window.  When we had first arrived the day before, I noticed some beautiful little yellow birds in a tree right outside our room, and now one of those kept flying into the glass.  He wasn't hitting it hard enough to do him any serious harm, but it must have smarted some.  I couldn't tell if he was chasing insects, or just simply determined to penetrate the invisible barrier, but every few minutes or so he would slam into the window.

The Doctor and I had breakfast at the Adonis' cafe, and ate outside near the pool.  I got Eggs Florentine.  After we had ordered we discovered there was also a small buffet set up inside, with fruit, cheese, and bread so we helped ourselves to that as well.

When I checked in the day before, the desk clerk had told me they were at 15% capacity, and the place did seem pretty empty, but I didn't mind the peace and quiet at all.  There were a few other gay men, mostly couples (including a very young twinkish couple), and one man who seemed to be by himself, and was alone every time we saw him. There was also at least one lesbian couple, and a surprising number of what appeared to be straight people, both couples and singles. 

While we were having breakfast a slender man came over dressed casually but wearing a Dolce & Gabbana belt that probably cost more than all the clothes I had brought with me combined.  He introduced himself as Michele, and said he was the resort manager.  He said he hadn't seen us before and asked us when we had arrived, where we were from, etc.  He told us there was an opera group staying there, but they were leaving that afternoon, and things should "calm down" once they were gone.  I thought things were pretty calm as it was! Apparently most of the straight people I had seen were members of that group.

After we ate, we went and checked out the little Emporium.  It was mostly a gift shop, and though it had some hats and golf shirts with ADONIS embroidered on them, I was disappointed they didn't have any Adonis t-shirts.  They had some skimpy Speedo style bathing suits, which I showed The Doctor, and he picked out a couple pairs and spent several minutes trying them on.  He called me back to the dressing room once to ask if he looked better in the small or the medium;  he looked hot in both, and I really couldn't see a noticeable difference.  I believe he ended up going with the small.  I bought a few postcards with pictures of the resort on them.

We went back to the room, The Doctor put on his new swimsuit, and then we headed down to the Clothing Optional beach. 

There were two men already there, and another couple arrived a short while later.  This was a couple we had seen around the night before.  They were from England.  One of them was deaf, and he and his partner communicated through sign language.  He was attractive and had a nice body.  They went down closer to the water out of sight.  Some time later a woman also came along, but she sat discretely up behind us in the shade of one of the outdoor beds.

At dinner the night before I had told The Doctor that if he wanted to take full advantage of the clothing optional beach, not to worry;  I would not try to grope him, or stare, or take pictures (unless he wanted me to!), or otherwise behave inappropriately.  And he told me that if I wanted to take full advantage of the beach, I too should go ahead.  The other guys on the beach had all stripped down, and after we had been there awhile, I opted out of my clothing as well.  The Doctor never did, I am not sure if he was uncomfortable doing so around me, or just in general. I certainly hope I wasn't responsible for cramping his style, but as it was his suit left little to the imagination . . .

We stayed at the beach for what seemed like a couple hours at least.  It was very peaceful, just the sound of the ocean crashing against the rocks along the shore.  After awhile, The Doctor said he was going up to take a dip in the pool, so I asked him to see if he could get a non-alcoholic frozen drink for me at the bar.  When he came back he had a strawberry daiquiri and a pina coloda, and let me pick which one I wanted.  I took the daiquiri, and it was soooooooooo good, especially after laying out there in the hot sun.

Finally he wanted to go lay up by the pool, so I put my swim suit back on, and we both took a quick shower under one of the outdoor showers, then headed to the pool. 

It wasn't as quiet there.  Music was playing, and it was kind of loud and a bit erratic.  The songs would cut off right in the middle and another would start up, and at least once two songs were playing at the same time.  Michele, the manager, was still sitting outside of the cafe near the pool, and seemed to be conducting business from there.  The other guys who had been down at the beach also eventually came up to the pool, including the good looking deaf guy, who seemed to be shooting me fervent glances every time he walked by.  The opera group were hanging out by the pool too, until they left.

A waiter named Juan was circulating poolside, and he must have brought me at least half a dozen more strawberry daiquiris.  I couldn't get enough of them, and once I got it through my head I wasn't having to pay for them, there was no stopping me.  The Doctor ordered a veggie burger for lunch, and when it came it looked and tasted so suspiciously like the real thing that he had to verify with Juan that it was in fact meatless.  He really liked it a lot, and I ended up getting one as well. 

We stayed by the pool for a couple more hours.  I think this is the first time I can remember being on a vacation where I spent a whole day doing nothing but relaxing, and I have to say I enjoyed it.  Just laying in the sun, drinking virgin daiquiris, with occasional dips into the pool.  And though the Doctor's physique was attracting the majority of attention, I did get a few looks, especially from the deaf British guy who was not at all bad on the eyes himself.

Late in the afternoon the sky grew very dark, and the wind picked up.  The staff started rushing around taking down the large umbrellas, and people quickly began to abandon the pool and head indoors.  We went back to our room and it did rain for awhile. 

The Doctor had spent more time swimming than I had, and with all his time in the pool, he ended up with swimmer's ear in his left ear.  It really bothered him quite a bit the rest of the evening, and nothing he tried was successful at getting the water out.  As for me, I was beginning to realize I had spent too much time in the sun, and even though I had applied a sunscreen with an SPF of 150 a few times over the course of the day, I developed a pretty bad sunburn.  It was a spray on sunscreen, and apparently I hadn't applied it evenly enough, as the burn was sporadic and splotchy.  Some of it was on my upper torso, but the worst of it was on my legs, especially the top and inside of my calves.  The affected areas were beet red, and grew more and more painful as the evening progressed.  Considering the fact I had spent a good part of the day at the clothing optional beach, I was truly fortunate that some of my more delicate areas had been spared . . .

In spite of his swimmer's ear, The Doctor went to the gym for another workout, and then we went to dinner.  We ate in the Italian section of the restaurant that night. 

We got a tomato and cheese appetizer, and The Doctor got a pesto fettuccine dish, while I got the lasagna which he had had the night before.  Although the portions were small, everything was delicious. 

I washed it all down with a few more virgin Strawberry Daiquiris.  Juan, who had been our waiter poolside during the day, also served us that night.  He was very attentive, and it didn't take him long to figure out we didn't drink.  But when he brought me my first Daiquiri at dinner, he put it down with flourish and said "Mucho alcohol!"  It took us both a second to realize he was just kidding.

When we left the restaurant, we could see the hot British deaf guy and his partner having a nice romantic dinner in the gazebo overlooking the ocean.  Apparently they had arranged to be served there, as we could see a waiter tending to them.  In spite of the deaf guy's wandering eyes (at me!), the two of them made a very nice couple.  Earlier in the day at the pool they had often been in each other's arms in the water, and appeared to be very much in love.

On Friday morning (7/20), The Doctor still had water in his ear, and my sunburn felt like my skin was on fire.  Even worse than the pain was how hideous I looked.  I would have preferred an even burn, but mine was more splotches of bright red here and there.  Looking like that, taking off my shirt was out of the question, especially around the guys at Adonis.

We ate breakfast again by the pool.  Our waitress was a pleasant Mexican woman named Victoria.  She took our order, but explained that there was no buffet table that morning; that was only something they did when they were busier and had more guests . . . Apparently the day before was what they considered to be "busy", but now that the opera people were gone, things had slowed down for them . . . While I was in the bathroom, Victoria told The Doctor that when she was not having a "quiet day" she liked to ask the guests where they were from and what they did, but today she was having one of her quiet days, so she didn't ask us anything . . .

Our plan for the day was to visit the ruins of Tulum, but we made a quick stop first at a nearby grocery store to try to find something for The Doctor's swimmer's ear, which was really bothering him.  The store had a good sized pharmacy (or "farmacia"), but we couldn't find anything associated with the ear.  He finally asked the girl at the counter.  She didn't speak English, but he was able to get his point across enough for her to be able to tell him they didn't have any "drops".  I pointed out some Q-tips, and helped him find some rubbing alcohol, and when we got back to the car, he spent several minutes working on his ear with that, but it didn't provide any immediate relief.

The Tulum ruins were just a short drive from Adonis.  When we got there, I dropped my new camera when I got out of the car.  It separated a little along the joining seam at the top, but didn't seem to affect it otherwise.  I did begin to wonder if I had ended the curse of my sunglasses only to start a new one with cameras . . .

I had been to Tulum once on a cruise a few years ago.  It is a modest collection of ruins concentrated in a relatively small area (compared to Chichen Itza), but the location on a cliff overlooking the ocean makes it a beautiful and unique site.  As my guidebook pointed out, while not as impressive as some ruins, the ancient inhabitants must have been very smug with themselves when it came to the view.
 
Having been there once already, I didn't take many pictures.  The Doctor took some, but it didn't take us long at all to walk through the complex.  Once I went to take off my sunglasses - the pair I had bought at Chichen Itza to replace the ones I had given to the young boy - and again the arm broke in half!  I had hoped my deal with the boy had broken my sunglasses curse, but apparently it had not.  And considering I had almost broken my camera too, I was beginning to fear my luck had only gotten worse!

There were several tour groups at Tulum, but I thought I recognized one of the guides as the young man who had been our guide when I had been there previously.  He looked very much like him, and what he was saying when I walked past him sounded almost exactly like something our guide had said to us.  I stopped to watch him to try to figure out if it was in fact him.  He glanced at me once, but kept talking, and then finally looked at me again and said to his group "Do we have a stowaway?  Yes, I think we have a stowaway."  He was referring of course to people who attach themselves to guided groups to get a free tour.  While I admit to having eavesdropped a couple times at Chichen Itza when a guide was within earshot, I never actually followed a group, and none of that had been my attempt now.  I was a bit embarrassed and offended by his comment, which I thought was rude and unnecessary.

Once we had seen all we cared to of the ruins, we descended the wooden stairs down to the beach, which is rated one of the ten most beautiful in the world.  We spent some time in the water, but kept a wary eye on our belongings left on the shore.  Once in Australia The Doctor had everything stolen while he was in the water at Bondi Beach, and ended up having to walk through downtown Sydney to the police station wearing nothing but a Speedo.  Considering how much he likes showing off his physique, I imagine he rather enjoyed that part of the experience, and I am rather sorry I missed it.  In any case, it has left him cautious about leaving things unattended, and the Tulum Beach would have been an easy place to fall victim to such a crime again.

The waves were bigger here than they had been at Isla Hobox, and I almost got swept off my feet a couple times.  The surroundings were beautiful, and it would have been easy to have spent the rest of the day there.  Unfortunately, I wasn't  feeling all that great, and was concerned about making my sunburn worse.  And as lovely as it was here, I think we were both eager to get back to the luxury of Adonis.

(I'm too sexy for this rock!)

We did leave finally, and when we got back to Adonis, I went straight to The Emporium and bought my fourth pair of sunglasses since arriving in Mexico.  I was alone, as The Doctor had run back to the car where he had left his money.  As I was going in, the British couple were coming out.  The attractive deaf guy looked at me as we passed, and after a few paces I turned to look back only to find him turning to look back at me . . . 

Back in our room, The Doctor worked again on trying to get that pesky water out of his ear.  I crashed on the bed and dozed off a little.  When I awoke I told The Doctor I thought I had heat or sun stroke.  I was really feeling lousy.  He was concerned, but not so much but that he decided to go out to lay by the pool.

(The Doctor at the pool . . .)

I joined him after awhile.  He was in the sun of course, but there was no way I was going to do that again.  I was trying to figure out how to put up one of the large umbrellas, when someone came over to help me out.  I thought it was one of the staff at first but it turned out to be Michele, the resort manager.  He was wearing only a swimsuit, a tiny little pair of black shorts, and showing off his pierced nipples AND pierced naval.  He explained it was his day off, and he was spending it relaxing by the pool.  He had seemed to be doing the same the day before, I guess the only difference between a work day and a day off for him was what he wore while lounging poolside. 

After he got the umbrella up, he asked if I wanted anything and I told him a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri would be nice.  Soon Victoria came over with my drink, and was horrified by my sunburn.  I had kept my shirt on and just a regular pair of shorts, because even though I planned on staying out of the sun, I was quite embarrassed by how hideous the sunburn looked, but she could still see how badly burned my calves were.

A little later we ordered lunch.  The Doctor got another of the suspicious tasting veggie burgers which he really loved, and I got some nachos.  I made sure Victoria understood I wanted no meat in the nachos, and no alcohol in my steady flow of Daiquiris.  "No meat, no alcohol", I told her, and she said "That's good!". 

After we ate I dozed off under the umbrella and slept really hard in spite of the loud music.  When I awoke The Doctor was no where to be seen.  I thought maybe he had snuck down to the clothing optional beach to exercise his option without having to worry about me gawking.  There was a small island in the middle of the pool with some small trees on it, and I thought perhaps he was in the water on the other side of the pool out of sight, but he was gone for so long that I guessed that was not the case or it seemed like he would have swam back around eventually.

A bit after I woke up a cute young Mexican guy came swam over.  He introduced himself as David . . . or maybe Michael.  The Doctor had met him the first day in the gym, and described him as Adonis' version of Julie McCoy - a reference to the cruise activities director on "The Love Boat".  He had a very hot, trim, atheletic body, and was very easy on the eyes.  He had a ball with him and told me he was trying to get a water game started but everyone just wanted to relax and no one wanted to play.  He told me they were having a "show" that night at the resort's club at 11:00 and said that I should come.  The way I felt then I wasn't even sure I would still be alive at 11:00! 

He apparently succeeded in getting the game started as I could hear a great deal of shouting and spalshing.  Most of it was on the other side of the little island, but once in awhile it would swing into view at the far end of the pool.  The hot deaf British guy was there with his partner and probably four or five other men.  I am not sure exactly what the object of the game was, but it appeared to be simply to just to try to get the ball away from whoever had it, maybe some sort of Capture The Flag, though I couldn't really tell if there were teams or it was just every man for himself.

Once when the game came into view from behind the island, I was surprised to see Doctor was playing!  Somone was trying to wrestle the ball away from him, and he was putting up a valiant effort to hold on to it.  Another time he again had the ball, and the whole gang seemed to attack him unitl he was in the middle of a cluster of men all grabbing at him . . . more at him then the ball, or so it seemed to me.  And once I saw him one on one with another guy who had him in a bear hug from behind, again under the pretense of getting the ball away from him, but it appeared he had other purposes in mind.  Considering The Doctor has a strict "NO TOUCHING" policy as far as I am concerned, I was just a little jealous that everyone else was getting piece of him while I couldn't.

I stayed at the pool for awhile longer.  The deaf British guy again kept sending me interesting looks, and would frequently float by staring at me pretty intently.  But we exchanged nary a word. 

(Nice view of the pool . . . and the hot deaf guy!)

After it appeared The Doctor had no intention of getting out of the water and rejoining me, I finally gathered my things and went back to the room. 

He returned eventually.  In addition to his water sports activities, he had spent some time talking with Michele.  Michele had told him that he had been critizied for spending so much time out by the pool on his work days, but he said he felt he could get a better sense of what was going on and what needed his attention there than sitting in his office crunching numbers.  He was a little peeved that a former guest had even referred to him in a TripAdvisor.Com review of the resort, saying "Michele the resort manager is pretty worthless".  He had come to the resort to replace the previous manager, someone who was straight, and though not a homophope, really didn't have any insight into gay sensibilities.  Michele had made several changes to make the resort more appealing to gay men, and I believe he told The Doctor the clothing optional beach was one of them.  He asked The Doctor how long we had been together, and The Doctor of course had told him we had known each other for over 25 years, but were just friends, and not a couple.  I hope he made it very clear that that is HIS choice and NOT MINE!!!

He also found out that Mark . . . or David . . . the cute activites director had only been working there for three days.  He talked with him a little too, and Mark was asking him about his workout routine, how often he worked out etc.  He obviousl y was in great awe of The Doctor's body.  He told The Doctor that he wanted to bulk up and put on another 20 or 30 lbs, but both The Doctor and I agreed that he certainly didn't need to do that, and look just fine with his trim, atheletic build.

That night we had dinner at the Asian section of the restaurant.

We ordered a salad with seaweed on it, and got vegetarian sushi rolls for our entree.

Juan was our waiter, and at the end of our meal he brought us a rather lengthy comment/suggestion form to fill out, covering our stay and experience at Adonis.  I am not sure how he knew personally that it was our last night, but it seemed to be something of which he was aware.

During our meal The Doctor said he needed a "reality check" and wanted to know if I was upset over his afternoon frolics in the pool.  I told him, first of all I apparently had no right to be upset, since we are not in a relationship as he is so quick to point out to everyone, and second, it did seem that everyone else gets to touch him except me.  I also explained to him - and he should know this about me by now - that part of my feelings over the pool incident had more to do with my inability to feel comfortable joining in that kind of activity.  Even if I had been feeling better physically, I would not have been as at ease as he in engaging in such carefree social behavior.  He has no trouble at all meeting and interacting with people in any setting, whereas I am far more shy and reticent.  Heck, I couldn't even muster a smile or wave at the deaf guy who had so obviously been cruising me almost since our arrival.  The Doctor had little to say in response, other than that was where he had figured my mind was at.

(View of the pool from our table at the restaurant)

After dinner we took a walk to the end of the promenade and stood a long time just listening to the waves crash on the rocks beneath us.  Lightening was flashing off in the distance, though it never seemed to get any nearer, and closer to us some lightening bugs were doing their best to put on their own display.  It was, in a word, very romantic . . . just without any romance . . .

The night before, he had decided to go for a walk after we had gone to bed and had gone out by himself. In one corner of the resort, he had discovered another army of Leaf Cutter Ants hard at work.  After we watched the lightening for some time, he took me searching for the ants, and with some effort we did find them, though I am afraid we may have stepped on some of their contingent in the process.  We studied them for a bit, and then went back to the room.

I was more than ready to go to bed, and I assumed The Doctor would be too, so I was surprised and a little disappointed when he poked me almost flirtatiously with his water bottle and asked if I was ready to go "clubbing" with him at the resort club.   I certainly was not up for it, but he really wanted to go, so he went by himself, and I called it a night and turned in.

JOURNEY TO ADONIS

(Apologies if you received this as an unedited copy.  This is a cleaner version with pictures.)

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Wednesday morning (7/18) at breakfast I turned on my camera only to find a blank screen.  The Doctor looked at it and said it looked like it had gotten water in, probably the day before during the rainstorm at Chichen Itza.  I felt like I had traded in the curse of the sunglasses for the curse of the camera.

When we checked out of Villas Arqueologicas Chichen Itza, I asked the man at the front desk if there was a Walmart or some place where I could buy a new camera nearby.  He said there were no Walmarts, but that Villadolid,  the next town over on our way to Tulum,  had a store in the center of town that sold cameras.  He also suggested trying the gift shop at the main entrance to Chichen Itza, so we went there first.  They sold film, but no cameras, but we did pick up a couple of souvenirs from the vendor market outside the entrance.

When we got to Villadolid,  we did see a Fuji camera store on the corner.  It took us awhile to find a parking spot;  The Doctor wanted to drop me off, and join me at the store after he had parked, but I didn't relish the idea of going in alone.  After driving around a few minutes, we finally found a spot on a back street, which, although not exactly dangerous looking, didn't look exactly savory either.

We started walking toward the camera store, but on the way I spotted a store called Coppel, which looked like it carried electronics.  We went in, and sure enough there was a camera section along one wall.  I found a couple cameras I liked, but the first sales person who came over didn't speak English.  He walked away, and I thought he had gone to find someone who did speak English, but no one ever came.  We found another clerk, and asked him if he spoke English.  He didn't either, and when I tried to ask if anyone in the store did, he just shook his head.  He went back to the cameras with us anyway, and turned out to be as helpful as he could under the circumstances, opening the display case, and letting us look at the cameras.  When I picked out the one I wanted, he wrote down the information, and took us back to a service desk, gave someone the slip, and indicated we should wait in the checkout line.

When it was our turn the lady asked for my name to type into her computer.  I wrote it down for her, but she couldn't read my writing, so I showed her my driver's license.  For some reason she couldn't seem to see my last name on my license, so she entered me as "FRANKLIN FRANKLIN" in the computer.  We then went to the next counter to pick up the camera.  This clerk did speak a little English, and took the time to take the camera out of the box, show me the warranty, and even program the camera's menu to English for me.  He showed me how to take a picture, and then handed the camera to me to try, so I took his picture.

Finally we were on our way again.  We wanted to find a Cenote that we could swim in, and Alejandra had told us there were two near Villadolid, so we went in search of one of those.  The Doctor was using his GPS again, and I had my phone on, but neither one seemed to be very helpful.  We kept turning down dirt roads that kept getting smaller and smaller, passing very crude and simple homes where the residents stared at us with curiosity, and would usually end up at a dead end.  Finally we abandoned the idea of finding that particular Cenote, and decided we would continue on to Tulum where we knew there were other Cenotes, or if we passed any along the way we would stop then.
 
In trying to get to to Tulum, the Doctor's GPS somehow led us down another dead end road with a church at the end and a lot of children outside, mostly all girls I think.  They too stared at us in surprise.  It looked like some sort of school, or possibly even an orphanage  There was a big sign on the church which said in Spanish "No Photographs".

Finally using the GPS on my phone we got back on track.  We passed a flock of vultures along the side of the road, and I could see they were feasting on the carcass of a dead dog.  I was actually surprised we didn't see more "road kill" dogs, as dogs were everywhere, sometimes even napping in the middle of the road in the smaller towns. 

Just a ways past the dead dog, we saw a sign for Cenote X'Lakaj.  We pulled onto a dirt road that led us to a little house at a dead end. 

A man came out and looked at us questioningly, and I said "Cenote?"  In Spanish he told us how much it cost to get in, which in the end required him pointing to the correct bills in my hand in order to conduct the transaction.  We parked the car next to the only other vehicle in the driveway, a pickup truck with a dog sleeping underneath it. 

We followed a path until it branched off, one way leading to the Cenote, the other to an overlook above it.  From there we could see there was a couple sitting down on the steps leading into the water.

We followed the other path down to it, again coming to another division, one of which led to the "Cueva De La Virgen", which I assume means "Cave of The Virgin".  We walked through what turned out to be a rather short and airy cave, and followed the path a ways out the other side.  We came to what looked like the someone's backyard, and the thought of wandering onto the property of a drug cartel convinced me that we had gone far enough, so we turned back.

As the Cave Of The Virgin was the closest thing to a dressing room, The Doctor went in there to change into his swim suit, and I walked on down the stairs to the Cenote.  The couple were still there, and eventually The Doctor came down and tested the water.  I had decided to wait for him to let me know how deep it was before I put on my bathing suit, and as it turned out it was pretty deep, except for the area right next to the steps, so I opted not to venture in.

The Cenote was truly a beautiful spot, but the water was quite murky, and had a primeval feel to it.  The Doctor told me later that he had no fear swimming with the Whale Sharks and the Devil Rays, but not knowing what might be lurking in the water of the Cenote out there in the woods freaked him out big time.  The fact that the couple weren't getting into the water was not especially reassuring to him either.  Still, he got in and swam around a little.  There was a big thick rope lying across the surface of the water from one side to the other, and he swam out to it, but I saw him quickly back away from it.  He said it was covered with little spiders, and he had no desire to get any closer to it.

Just a short distance from the steps going into the water were another set of steps coming out along one side leading up to a little perch or ledge.  He swam over there and climbed out. 

He called to me that it looked like there was another path coming down to the ledge from above, so I found it and made my way over and watched him swim from there for a few minutes.  Than I had him come up to where I was, and with my new camera we did an impromptu photo shoot, taking a whole lot of "beefcakes" style photos of him in his snug fitting bathing suit.  He seemed to be really getting into it, and I know I was certainly enjoying myself. 

Three young Mexican guys arrived, coming along the back path from where I feared a drug cartel might be set up.  They came down, bringing with them some loud music. The Doctor took another swim, and then we made our way back up the steps.  He went to change again, and was gone so long I began to wonder if he was desecrating the Cave of The Virgins in some way . . .

(Me at Cenote X'Lakaj)

When we got back to the small parking lot, the pickup was gone, and the dog had relocated himself to the shade under our car.  When she saw that she was about to be disturbed, she crawled out and meandered down the road to another shady spot.  I tried to make befriend her, but she only eyed me with lazy suspicion.

Back on the road we traveled a short distance before again realizing we were again off course.  We had to go all the back to Valladolid where we had stopped earlier to buy my camera before getting on the right road, but after that we did pretty well finding our way. 

We stopped at a convenience store to stock up on junk food, and on a whim I bought a lottery scratch ticket.  It was a promotional lottery ticket for the movie "The Avengers".  I scratched off the numbers, and of course had no way of knowing if I had won or not as it was entirely in Spanish, but as I had three matching dollar amounts The Doctor thought it looked like a winner.  I went back in and gave it to the guy and he gave me my jackpot, a grand total of five pesos . . . which is about 37 cents in American currency.  Since that was what I had paid for the ticket, I bought another, but that one was not a winner, so I just kept it for a souvenir.

When we crossed over from Yucatan into Quintana Roo, we went through another of the many check points.  This was the only one at which we were stopped.  The military official asked us where we were headed, and what our nationality was, then waved us on. 

Finally we arrived in Tulum, and without too much trouble, we found our hotel, the Adonis Tulum Resort. 

The three hostels we had stayed at so far, as well as the hotel at Chichen Itza, had all been more than satisfactory and each had had its own charm and unique appeal.  But Adonis was an all inclusive resort, and a gay one at that (but also "straight friendly" so anyone is welcome) so we knew we were going to be in for a treat.  Still, neither of us were prepared for just how nice and luxurious the place was until we finally arrived. 

We had to drive through a gate, where an attendant told us to pull up in front of the main entrance.  There someone took our car and parked it for us while we went in to register.  At the front desk we were offered a cocktail, which of course we both declined.  There was a slight problem, as when I had made the reservation I had somehow made the mistake of only making it for one person.  I became aware of this just a couple days before leaving the states, and had sent an e-mail to the resort to rectify the situation, but never received a response.  The guy at the desk said there would be an additional charge; as it was all inclusive, and all our food and drinks were included, this was to be expected, though he didn't tell us how much  more it would be, and I was concerned it would be much more expensive than we might be comfortable with.  He said someone would contact us the next day with the details.

They needed to see both our ID's, and while The Doctor returned to the car to get his, I asked the desk clerk how business was.  He said it was usually a busy time for them, but they were currently at only 15% occupancy.  He told me the resort had been a family resort until about a year and a half ago, when it became a gay one, and that he had been working there for three months or so. 

After The Doctor returned with his ID, the clerk put black plastic bands on both our wrists to identify us as guests, and another staff person led us to our room and gave us a brief tour of the resort on the way. 

The whole property was breathtakingly beautiful.  Sitting right on the ocean, the resort consisted of several two story villas, each containing eight hotel rooms.  A stunning infinity pool was in the center of the resort, with beach chairs and tables surrounding it, and even a bar with bar stools submerged just below the surface of the water, so one could swim up and get a drink without ever having to leave the pool. 

Just above this bar was the gym/work out center. On the opposite side of the pool was a two story building with a casual dining cafe on the first floor with tables spilling out to the poolside area, and a more elegant restaurant on the second floor.  Also near the pool were four small hot tubs.

Palm trees lined the walkways with comfortable benches and chairs sprinkled throughout the grounds. A nice gazebo was positioned on a rise overlooking the ocean, and a promenade ran along the ocean side of the resort.  Our building was just across a fenced off area that led into the clothing optional beach, though anyone on the promenade had a bird's eye view of this, and it was also clearly visible from the large floor to ceiling windows of the gym.  This beach area had beach chairs, and even a couple of outdoor beds for laying in the sun.  There were a small ocean fed pool here, but the water didn't look very clean in it.  A red flag served as a warning not to enter the ocean as the surf was pretty rough. 

(Clothing optional beach from the promenade)

There was a nice outdoor shower area here, as well as another up by the infinity pool.

Our room was on the second floor of  Villa 5, the Ek Balam Villa. 

The room was spectacular, and had a lovely hot tub in it. 

There was no balcony, but the hot tub area was all windows from the ceiling to half way to the floor, and the center windows could be slid open. 

The bathroom was almost as big as some of the rooms we had stayed in earlier on our trip.  It had two sinks side by side, and a long closet with two pairs of slippers and two bathrobes waiting for us.

It was obvious The Doctor was in love with the room, and for the first time on our trip he unpacked EVERYTHING he had brought and made himself right at home, and I followed suit.  After settling in, we went out and explored the grounds a little more, and then The Doctor decided to go for a work out in the gym.  I stayed in the room and took a shower, and after he returned and showered, we went to dinner.

The Adonis web site had said the restaurants had a "dress casual" dress code, but the guy who had escorted us to our room had told us there was no dress code, just "no sandals".  The restaurant was one large room that had been divided into three  smaller "restaurants", each with its own menu - Mexican, Italian, and Asian - though we were told we could mix and match from the each of the menus if we wanted to.  That night we sat in the Mexican restaurant. 

I ordered quesadillas, while The Doctor ordered lasagna from the Italian menu.  We were both a little surprised at the diminutive size of the portions, though the presentation was quite lovely, and the food delicious.  I also ordered a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.

(The Doctor and his Lasagna . . . )

(. . . and my dessert!)

After dinner we walked a little along the promenade. When we we went back to the room, The Doctor filled the hot tub, which seemed to take forever, and then he soaked in it a long time before we turned in for the night. 

A DAY AT CHICHEN ITZA ~ or ~ BREAKING THE CURSE

Our ride from Chiquila to Chechen Itza on Monday afternoon was pretty uneventful but certainly not uninteresting.  Shortly after starting we passed a rather bizarre sight we had seen on our way in - a naked, one armed doll hanging from a tree.  We had seen various other items hanging from trees - tires, soda bottles, etc., and I wondered if they were some kind of road sign for the locals, though I have no idea what they could have meant.  The naked doll however, was especially creepy.  I missed it the second time  we passed by, but The Doctor saw it, and commented about it.  I mentioned I had wanted to get a picture of it, and he asked if we should turn around.  I told him no, but as there was no one coming in either direction he made a U-turn in the road and we went back.

He slowed as we neared it, and I was able to get a couple good pictures of it. 

We had just rolled a few feet past it when suddenly three or four large vultures took flight from right next to the road. A few more followed, and it was obvious there was something there attracting them.  Then we spotted some sort of dump right on the edge of the road and I could see all kinds of bones strewn about.  Mostly fish skeletons - though pretty good sized fish - and at least one animal skull, possibly from a dog or goat. 

Then further back off the road I could see a large tree that was absolutely full of vultures. 

We stopped once to get gas at a little gas station with a small convenience store.  It was "full service" and the attendant filled the tank for us.  There were only a couple of cars ahead of us, but when we left there was a good line waiting for gas.  It had only one two sided pump which I thought kind of small for a station on a highway that was well traveled.

We passed by several military and police check points but they always waved us through.  At one, the armed guard was intently watching a young man scrub down his car, almost as if he was inspecting the work. He didn't notice we had stopped at first, but when he did he motioned for us to keep going.  We decided he must have thought our car was clean enough to travel on his stretch of highway.

There were numerous speed bumps, usually upon entering and in small towns along the way. 

(These signs indicate a speed bump is ahead.)

Again, some of these had people stationed next to them selling things.  One little boy even held out two turtles as we drove by. 

For awhile we were behind a pick-up truck with a load of good sized pigs, probably five or six crammed in pretty tightly.  Whenever the driver would hit a speed bump or a pothole, all the pigs would bounce around and get pretty jostled.  After one bump, one of the pigs ended up wedged in between a couple others and couldn't extricate himself.  He was quite unhappy about his plight and started squealing loudly.  I imagine he cried wee wee wee all the way home . . . or where
ever it was thosepigs was headed . . .

The Doctor's GPS did a pretty good job of getting us to our destination, though we did have to consult my phone a couple times, and we always had Alejandra's hand drawn map as a back up. The Doctor commented that in the states his GPS map screen always showed other things along the root we were traveling, such as towns, other roads, the names of rivers or lakes etc.  But here our route was often just a road of purple against a field of gray, indicating that there was nothing worth mentioning anywhere nearby. 

In one small city that we went through, his GPS told us to take a right, which we soon realized had us going the wrong way down a one way street.  He slowed to pull over and turn around, and an oncoming car flashed his lights at us and gestured wildly.  We turned around and tried again, but the GPS kept telling us to go down that street.  We ended up traveling on a parallel road for awhile, but it seemed to keep trying to get us back to that one street, often telling us again to go the wrong way on one way roads to get there.

In the end we arrived at our destination.  Though we hadn't gotten lost to speak of, it did take us close to four hours, so apparently Alejandra is something of a speed demon, as she said it would take only two. 

Our accommodations in Chichen Itza was a hotel called Villas Arqueologicas Chichen Itza.  When we pulled in, the place looked deserted, almost abandoned.  There were only a three or four cars in the parking lot, and no one outside. 

(Entrance to Villas Arqueologicas Chichen Itza)

We parked and went inside, and the lobby too was empty except for the one woman at the front desk.  I gave her my confirmation slip, and she studied it for an uncomfortably long time.  I couldn't tell if she didn't read English, or if there was some sort of problem.  Finally she asked me what my name was, which of course was right in front of her on the confirmation. Then she went into a back office and showed it to someone else. When she came out she gave me a registration card to fill out, then went into the office and came out with a little tray with two small glasses of some kind of fruit juice for me and the Doctor. 

Once we were registered she went into a litany about Chichen Itza, giving us all kinds of information about admission fees, hiring tour guides, hours of operation, etc.  I was kind of tired, and it was a lot to process.  Finally she called a young man, who led us to our room and we got settled.

(Our room at Villas Arqueologicas Chichen Itza)

Though the hotel still seemed almost eerily empty, it was actually quite nice.  There is a restaurant, a very nice pool, even a library with a pool table and a very small collection of books, and a small boutique.

(The Library)

 Our room was just steps from the pool.  The restaurant has outdoor seating along one side of the pool, including a small pavilion type structure with a thatched roof with several tables in it. 

There are two floors of rooms which surround the pool area, but of course the pool itself is open air and out under the sky.  The hotel is built around a few very large trees that are incorporated into the buildings design, growing right up out of the hotel.

 In America, I am sure they would have cut these ancient relics down to build the hotel, but here they use them to add to the ambiance.

After settling in, we went out to have dinner in the restaurant.  We sat in the pavilion over looking the pool. There were a few other diners, but the place still had the feeling of being more or less empty.  It was very quiet and peaceful, different from the business and activity of the hostels we had stayed in up to this point.  The only sounds were various exotic birds calling out, birds whose songs were very unfamiliar to me.

The restaurant had a prix fix menu, or you could order ala carte, which is what we opted to do.  For an appetizer I ordered  gazpacho, which came as a bowl of chilled tomato soup and a side dish with the rest of the ingredients for me to add myself. 

The Doctor ordered a green salad that had avocado in it, and was supposed to have cactus as well, though it didn't appear to when it arrived. He ordered a pesto fettuccine and I got macaroni with an Arrabbiati sauce.  For being in Mexico, we seem to be eating a fair share of Italian food!  We were also served bread in a cute little basket with sombrero cover.

(The Doctor's Pesto Fettuccine)

WiFi was available, but only in the restaurant and pool areas, so after we ate we sat out there for a couple of hours.  The birds had mostly gone to bed, but there was still something making quite a racket.  We had heard it earlier and thought it was a bird, but now I wasn't so sure.  It was very loud and sounded like a goose honking, but with faster and shorter blasts.  It seemed to be coming from a corner of the pool, on the ground which led me to believe it was not a bird.  I went in search of it, but whenever I got close it would go silent.  Finally I determined it was coming from under a grating next to the pool.  I can only guess it was some kind of frog.

Tuesday morning we awoke and got ready for our day at Chichen Itza.  While I was outside waiting for The Doctor, I happened to notice a streak of red dots running up the top of my left thigh.  They looked like little bite marks.  Later in the day The Doctor noticed he had some on his legs as well.  We had no idea what had caused them, but were concerned we may have encountered some bed bugs. 

In the outside courtyard of the hotel there are a couple of those S-shaped chairs designed so that two people sit side by side but facing each other.  A little girl was out there with her mother waiting for their father to load up the car, and she noticed something on one of these chairs and called out to her mother excitedly. They both seemed quite intrigued by whatever they were looking at.  I went over after they had moved away and saw a hole in the chair with some very long black hairy legs sticking out of it.  I showed The Doctor when he came out and he said it was a tarantula.  It freaked him  out a little.  Turns out the man who has no problem swimming with Whale Sharks and Devil Rays is a bit of an arachnophobe

From our hotel Chichen Itza was just a ten minute walk up a road that took us in through a back entrance.  We bought our tickets though there was no gate, and no one ever asked to see them, so it would have been quite easy to just walk right in.  There were some guides hanging around offering their services but we declined.

Chichen Itza pre-dates Machu Picchu by roughly 800 - 1,000years.  Whereas Machu Picchu's ruins are in a heavily concentrated area, the remaining structures at Chichen Itza appear to be spread out over a larger area.  We spent good parts of two days at Machu Picchu and didn't see everything; we could have easily spent another day or two there, but we saw pretty much everything at Chinchen Itza in a single day.  This is not to say Chichen Itza is not impressive, but it is certainly not impressive in the way Machu Picchu is.  Machu Picchu's location and design are both beautiful and breath taking, whereas it is the sheer size of Chichen Itza's structures that are awe inspiring. 

Coming in through the rear entrance, the first thing we saw was the Temple of Xtoloc, named after the nearby Cenote Xtoloc.  Cenotes are large limestone sinkholes popular for swimming, but the two sinkholes in Chichen Itza were of course not available for that purpose.  But it was the first one we had seen so it was kind of cool. 

(Temple of Xtoloc)

We next came upon the remains of a funerary structure, a sort of crypt used for storing human remains.  Across from that was a small pyramid that the sign said had been built over a deep chasm.  I was a little disappointed when I had read in my guidebook that tourists were not allowed to climb or enter any of the structures at Chichen Itza.  This is one I would have been curious to see the inside of. 

We were both surprised to see men working around the pyramid, mowing the lawn and raking.  I guess I thought this was the sort of thing that should be done after hours.

 Across from this pyramid was the "House of the Grinding Stone" and the "House of the Mestizas" which the sign said had most likely been the residences of those in charge of the upkeep and maintenance of the Ostuary complex.  So maybe the men mowing the lawn were the ghosts of the original grounds keepers. . . ?

The next thing we saw was the Observatory, which was one of the more impressive structures at Chichen Itza, and again one I would have loved to have explored. Part of the roof has been destroyed, but it is still a massive building. 

The Doctor needed to find a bathroom, so we walked back past the pyramid and found a little guest shop with facilities.  I looked in the gift shop, and was happy to see they sold sunglasses, should I need to buy another pair that day.  The Doctor came out, and we sat at one of the tables outside and drank some water.  I noticed a pretty little yellow inch worm or caterpillar crawling along the table.  I picked it up and helped it over to the leaf of a nearby tree.

Continuing our exploration we next saw a temple where some sort of fire rituals are believed to have been performed, and then a small one chamber church, adjacent a very large building described as the "convent of the nunnery". 

(The Church)

The nunnery was another enormous building.  Toward one end was a gaping hole that looked like it might have formed around a window or a doorway. I would have loved to climb up and peer into the darkness, or better still go inside it. 

(The Nunnery.  I was very intrigued with the cavernous opening to the left of the trees)

We had seen several iguanas already, and there was one near the convent that had a tail that had a long tail that looked very different from the rest of his body.  The Doctor, who at one time had worked at a pet store, told me he believed this was due to the iguana having lost his tail at some point.  They grow back, but will look different and don't "match" the rest of the iguana.

Finally we headed over to the centerpiece of Chichen Itza, the great pyramid known as the Temple of Kukulkan. 

Kukulkan was a Mayan snake god, and he is depicted as a long serpent running down on either side of  the steps at the front of the pyramid, with his great head at the base. 

Each side has 91 steps, for a total of 364 steps, but adding the final step at the top which joins all four sides gives a total of 365 steps.  The pyramid is certainly a magnificent and awe-inspiring sight.

I was a little put off at first by the numerous workers who were busy restoring the pyramid.  They were a distraction and spoiled the view of the spectacular image before me.  But as I watched them, it became easy to imagine the workers who had built it 1,000 years ago.  Some of them even kind of looked the part, and I thought it would have been cool if, since the work needs to be done, to at least have them dressed as the ancient workers would have dressed.  Give the site a little more flavor.

We studied the great pyramid for awhile, and then walked around looking at the various ruins around it. Eventually we ended up at the ruins of the Northern Colonnade.  This vast structure had once had a roof supported by a multitude of pillars and columns, and those are now all that remain.  I set up my camera with a timer on of the broken columns and was able to take a couple pictures of The Doctor and I sitting on another column.

Along the many pathways that connected one section of Chichen Itza to another were tables and tables of locals selling souvenirs.  Here the people were VERY aggressive when it came to making a sale.  There was a continually chorus of voices calling out to the tourists things like "English or Espanol? Come look amigo, I give you best price.  Which one you like? OK to touch. Only one dollar." And my favorite line, which was "Almost free!" I am pretty sure that at one point one of them had called me "Hey, Mr. Clean", and another had referred to The Doctor as "Muscle Man".  In addition to these vendors - and there most have been literally hundreds of them - there were also children and adults walking around among the ruins carrying handfuls of wares which they were trying to sell.  Walking along the vendor lined paths was akin to running the gauntlet, and the roaming vendors could at time be annoying.  There was nothing like this going on at Machu Picchu!

While the Doctor and I were posing for our self portrait with my camera two young Mexican boys, both "roaming vendors" came along.  We had encountered them just a few minutes before when one of them called out to us.  Trying to determine with which language he should address us, he said, as most of the vendors did "Espanol?  English?", but then added with a grin "Mayan?".  We both got a kick out of that.

Now the two boys came over to where I had set my camera up, and the one who had spoken to us earlier - he was the older of the two - leaned down with his hands on his knees and watched through the viewing screen as it snapped the two pictures.  I was a little wary that he might try to run off with it, but he just smiled as if approving of the picture.  When we went over he started in again with his sales pitch.  He had a hand full of little stone carvings.  Vendors were usually announcing these as one or two for just a dollar (American).  When it didn't look like we were interested, the boy pointed at my head, and said "Sunglasses for this?"  I said "You want my sunglasses?" And he said "yes", and held up one of the carvings to offer in trade".

Considering my history with sunglasses, The Doctor and I both laughed, but somehow it seemed like the right thing to do.  The carvings were worth a dollar, I had paid $15.00 for my sunglasses (just two days before) so the little con artist was definitely getting the better end of the deal.  But I couldn't resist, so I gave them to him and selected a miniature replica of  the great pyramid in return.  Maybe offering up my sunglasses as a sacrifice to a young descendant of the ancient Mayans would break the curse that seemed to be connected to my sunglasses.

The boy seemed quite pleased with the transaction and put my sunglasses right on.  I asked if I could take his picture and he said yes, and I got a great shot.  The boy really knew how to work those glasses!

(Did trading my sunglasses for this replica of the Temple of Kukulkan break my sunglasses curse?  Only time will tell . . . ).

A little later we saw a portion of a facade that had come from the Palace Of The Sculptured Facade.  A couple of the panels looked like Tic Tac Toe games, a square box with smaller boxes inside filled with x's and o's.  O appeared to have won both  games . . .

The only ruin that we were allowed to do any sort of "climbing" on was that of the Market.  A wide staircase of a dozen or so very narrow steps led up into the area that had been the market, and those we could climb.  Going up them wasn't much of a problem, but they were so narrow that going down proved to be a bit treacherous. You practically had to put your feet sideways in order to prevent a spill.  If all the stairways were like that, I can understand why they were off limits, especially the Kukulkan pyramid.

One building, the Temple of the Warriors, had a small section of panels where I could see traces of blue and red paint.  It appeared to have maybe been the original coloring, but I am not sure.

In the early afternoon, some dark storm clouds rolled in, giving the great pyramid a mysterious and ominous look.  There were even flashes of lightening in the sky. The whole feel of the place changed, but the Doctor and I both loved the contrast.

We had experienced a slightly similar situation at Machu Picchu, where we had visited on one day that was sunny and clear, and the next day when the mountain was steeped in a mysterious fog. It gave us a chance to experience two very different contrasts of the ruins. In just a matter of a couple hours, we were able to experience the same thing at Chichen Itza.
                                    

The wind picked up and it felt like the temperature dropped 15, maybe 20 degrees. Eventually it began to rain, lightly at first and then a little harder.  The roaming vendors who had earlier been selling stone carvings suddenly produced rain ponchos and began hawking those to the wet tourists.  For the most part we didn't let the rain deter us, but did occasionally wait under a tree for a few minutes during the heavier parts of the storm. 

Shortly after it had started to ran we found the Ball Court.  It is a long stadium, flanked by two walls on either side. 

At the top of each wall near the center of the court is stone ring.  Apparently the object of this ancient sport was to get a ball through the ring. 

Some evidence suggests this had to be done without the use of your hands, although some illustrations show a bat type object being used.  Some art work even suggests the game was played by bouncing the ball off your hips and into the ring, but that seems almost impossible, especially after seeing the height and relatively small diameter of the ring.  I am not much of a sports enthusiast, but I did find this game interesting.  On either end of the court are two elevated temples.  I heard one guide explaining that the reddish color on the back wall of one of the temples, was in fact the original paint from when the building was constructed.

Running up the ends of each side of the sloping outer wall of the ball court is another stone snake, and I heard another guide (or maybe the same one) point out that it was a rattle snake as evidenced by the rattles that can be seen on its tail. 

We followed the "White Path", an ancient man-made avenue, now lined with vendors and their wares. 

This road led to Cenote Sagrado, a beautiful limestone sinkhole.  Legend had it that it had been used to offer human sacrifices to the rain god.  In the early 1900's it was dredged and many artifacts were discovered, including human bones belonging to both men and women of all ages. 

Across from this Cenote was a gift shop. They sold sunglasses . . . so I bought my third pair since arriving in Mexico.  I also bought a t-shirt, and some post cards and magnets.

After this we went out to the main entrance.  We had come in through the back entrance which was very small by comparison.  The front entrance had a large gift shop and some smaller stores, and a restaurant, which we stopped at for lunch.  The menu included a dish called "Chichen Itza Chicken" which we both found funny, as we had called Chichen Itza "It's a Chicken", as a way of remembering the name before we came.  I ordered a dish consisting of hard boiled eggs wrapped in soft tortillas and covered with a pumpkin seed sauce.  The Doctor just got a virgin Margarita.

After we ate The Doctor used the bathroom, and when he returned he took me back in to the men's room to show me the sink.  It was one long solid counter top surface, with only a narrow slit running along it for the water to drain into, no sink bowl at all.  Neither of us had seen one like that before.

(The Doctor washing his hands at this unique sink)

Outside the bathrooms was the old machine used to dredge Cenote Sagrada.

We went back to the great pyramid and walked around it some more, and than found a place to just sit and contemplate it.  We were comparing the red streaks on both our legs which we were concerned might be bed bug bites.  I took out my cell phone to look up info about bed bugs, and discovered there was a message on my phone from The Doctor's phone.  He had left it with someone at his office, as it is their emergency phone line.  We listened to it, and it was from one of his staff who was calling due to an urgent problem about not being able to process the payroll without one of the Doctor's passwords.  The Doctor tried to call back, then sent a text.  Unfortunately, due to being in a different country and without having a roaming plan, my phone couldn't make or receive calls to or from the US, though it would save incoming messages.  But by texting, he was able to learn that the problem had been resolved since the message that had been left earlier in the day.

We spent the rest of our time at Chichen Itza making the locals happy by buying some of their merchandise.  I bought a beautiful blanket with a scene on it of a muscular Mayan Warrior shooting an arrow at eagle.  The young man I bought it from was absolutely giddy with glee over the sale, and was even singing when he ran off to find me a bag to put it in.

 Earlier in the day, we had heard these creepy ferocious growls that sounded like a wild animal.  We soon discovered they were actually sounds being made from a whistles shaped like a Jaguar, and the sound is supposed to resemble a Jaguar's scream.  It must be a subtle marketing ploy, because after listening to them all day, I finally caved in and bought one of those as well.  I also bought a nice phallus made from obsidian, a black rock that produces a gold sheen when left in the sun.  I have to say though, that of all my purchases, I think I am most fond of the little replica of the great pyramid I traded my sunglasses for.

The vendors were always calling out their great deals, "Two for one dollar", "Everything just five dollars", "Almost free!"  At one table there were some lovely wood carvings painted a beautiful blue with gold highlights.  The vendor was calling out "Just five dollars", and as I had been admiring them all day, I decided to buy one.  When I got to his table of course his five dollar bargain was for some other smaller items on the table.  The carvings were $30.00.  As I started walking away, the price began dropping until he called out "I give you two for ten dollars!"  So I went back again.  He asked me which two I wanted, and when I picked them out the price suddenly went up to two for $30.00.  I reminded him he had said two for ten, but he claimed the two I had picked out were larger (there was no noticeable difference that I could see) and had more detailing than some of the others.  I was a little angry that he was trying to jerk me around so I walked away again.  He began calling after me  "OK, OK my amigo, two for ten!  Two for ten!" and then "OK, I give you three for ten".  Even the vendor next to him, told me "Go back, he'll give you three for ten."  But I kept walking.

So many vendors had calle me "amigo" during the day I told The Doctor that I had so many friends in my whole life!

On the way out of Chichen Itza we stopped at another gift shop near the rear entrance, where I bought some more postcards.  Than we sat outside and got some ice cream.  I got mango and coconut.
Back at the hotel we checked on the tarantula.  He had come out of the hole in the seat and was resting at the base of the chair. 

We sat by the pool for awhile, and I wrote out some postcards, and then the doctor went for a swim in the pool. 

We went back to Chichen Itza that night for the evening laser light show that is projected onto the great pyramid.  It was in Spanish, but you could rent a listening device with an English translation to the narrative. 

They had chairs set up, and we sat and looked at the pyramid as it got darker until the show began.  I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by the whole thing.  Considering the technology available today, the effects were not that great, and for the most part the designs cast on the pyramid had little to do with the narrative.  Lighting that was supposed to create the effect that Kulkukan is crawling down the pyramid (something that happens naturally at sunrise on the spring and vernal equinox) didn't really seem to work.  Some real lightning in the background, and even a few lightening bugs flying around were more interesting to watch.  The narrative was fairly informative, however.  One thing that I found interesting was that the Mayan painted the young children blue before throwing them into the Cenote Sagrada as sacrifices, and that the captain of the loosing team in the game played in the ball court was sometimes beheaded . . .

On the way out after the show, we noticed a couple watching something intently on the sidewalk.  It was pretty dark, but with the light from my cell phone we were able to see long procession of ants marching across the sidewalk, each carrying a piece of leaf about the size of a finger nail.  There were thousands of them, all working very industriously. 

The Doctor followed the path back to the tree where they were getting the leaves, and we could see the line of them coming down the trunk.  Later I discovered a second contingent marching up the trunk on their way to gather leaves.  We watched them for quite awhile, and they were far more interesting than the laser show we had just watched.  I couple of them crawled onto my sandals and bit my foot. They have quite a bit, and they dig right in and don't let go, I had to pull them off.  Before we left them,  I took a piece of leaf from one of them.  He didn't want to let go of that either, and it was a tug of war between the two of us, but in the end me being bigger and slightly stronger gave me the advantage.

We took a wrong path on our way back to our hotel, and ended up at another one called The Maya Land Hotel.  Our hotel was certainly nice, but this one was far more elegant.  I checked the menu out of curiosity, and they had a dish made with Squash Flower, although I prefer the sound of Squash Blossom.  We sat in their lobby relaxing for a few minutes before heading back to our hotel and going to bed.