Splendid Xel-Ha

After getting a very early breakfast at our Azul Beach hotel, we were promptly picked up at 7:20 a.m. by the Xel-Ha shuttle and driven, for about one hour, to the Xel-Ha eco-park near Tulum, Mexico.

We arrived at Xel-Ha at 8:20 a.m. as the park was opening. We initially considered signing up for Sea Trek - an underwater walking adventure, but it was unavailable. Inna also considered signing up for "Swimming with Dolphins," but she reconsidered due to the high price (Inna has done it twice at Xel-Ha).

Once inside Xel-Ha, we stowed all of our gear in the convenient lockers in the Dolphinarium section of the park and applied sunscreen.

Since we decided to start with the river snorkel, we walked to the bicycle lot, where free-to-use bicycles were located. We rode our bicycles for about 10-15 minutes to the river's source. For those with items that must stay dry, Xel-Ha offers a delivery service (you can place your items in a bag and have them delivered to the park). Since all of our items were waterproof, we did not need to use this convenience.

We picked up our snorkel, fins, mask, and lifejacket and entered the refreshing river. There were many tree branches all around, and there was not much to see in the water except for rocks.

Eventually, we drifted toward the Cliff of Courage, where Alex and I dove in (feet-first) from a depth of 15 feet (5 meters). Here is a video of our jumps.



I was the first to jump, and Alex followed me. It was an exhilarating jump and a lot of fun!

Alex liked the jump so much that he jumped a couple of times. Here is a view from the top of the Cliff of Courage. It's not that scary!

We enjoyed jumping off the Cliff of Courage and the subsequent jump.

After putting back our fins, mask, and snorkel, we continued our leisurely snorkel to the Trepachanga  - or the rope obstacle course. Alex and I both tried to walk on the two ropes without falling in. Alex eventually succeeded (with lots of support from Inna).

Here is Alex navigating the rope course, or Trepachanga, as it is called in Spanish.

Here is a video of Alex and me trying to walk on the Trepachanga.



Some of the other rope obstacle courses were quite challenging. Neither Alex nor I was able to complete the next one.

Eventually, we turned our attention to the exciting over-water ziplines.

Both Inna and Alex could zip simultaneously, eventually ending up in the water. These zip lines were a blast to ride.

Here is a video of our ziplining fun:



After ziplining, we decided to return to the river's start and try rafting instead of snorkeling.

We enjoyed the rafts, but they were slow, unwieldy, and less fun than expected.

After returning to the zip lines, we decided to return for lunch. It was close to 1:00 p.m., and we were all getting famished.

On the way to lunch, we stumbled upon the Manatee habitat. We stopped by for a few minutes to look at this wondrous creature. Only about 1,000 species remain, the majority living in South Florida and Mexico. Manatees are the only known vegetarian mammals, eating up to 10% of their weight per day.

The manatees were not doing too much, so we continued to lunch.

There was a ten-minute wait to get into the main cafeteria. We were led to a table and offered drinks, so I ordered Margaritas for Inna and me. They were pretty good, though they had little tequila (I could not taste any liquor).

The lunch buffet was acceptable - the same caliber as the one in Xplor or Xcaret. Nevertheless, I found some edible items, like Russian Oliv'ea Salad and ceviche. Alex's burger had no meat - apparently, Xel-Ha ran out!

Three margaritas later, we decided to eat enough and continued our Xel-Há adventure with a nearby snorkeling session. We were hoping to see some colorful fish.

Once we picked up our snorkeling gear, we entered the murky water. It was not as transparent as we expected (the ocean looked a bit rough). We could not see much, although Inna lucked out and spotted a stingray (we saw dozens of these in Bora-Bora).

Getting bored with snorkeling, we decided to try the Tarzan swing, also known as Chuck Kay's Flight. Here is a short video of our exploits.



Alex had a delightful time swinging on the rope.

We had a lot of fun with the Tarzan swing.

On the way back, we decided to stop by the famous Mayan Cave,

The Mayan Cave is reachable by swimming into an underground cavern with circular holes in its ceiling. The water is quite chilly, as if it comes from an underground river.

Eventually, we returned to the Dolphinarium, near which lots of hammocks were set up. Both Inna and Alex wanted to rest from the day's activities.

We had a fantastic time at Xel-Ha, but were a bit tired. It was nearing closing time (6:00 p.m.), so we changed and returned to the hotel shuttle. The ride back to Azul Beach only took about an hour.

Xel-Ha Report Card

Positives

• Fantastic ziplines
• Fun snorkeling down the river
• Chuck Kay's Flight (Tarzan swing) is a lot of fun
• Very relaxing hammocks

Negatives

• Mediocre lunch buffet
• Water is quite murky near the floating bridge for snorkeling (and not much to see)

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Exciting Xplor

How much fun is the new Xplor adventure in Cancun? We were about to find out.

At 8:40 a.m., the Xplor van picked us up from the lobby of our Azul Beach hotel. From there, we drove to another hotel, waiting twenty minutes for other passengers to arrive. The driver almost left, but a Spanish-speaking couple showed up, and after a lot of negotiation and phone calls, they boarded the Xplor Park shuttle.

The drive to Xplor took another hour, and we arrived around 10:10 a.m. Getting in an hour earlier would have worked much better. We were dropped off, given a wristband, and told to meet the van at 4:45 p.m. (right before park closing). In retrospect, this time was too early for us, as we only finished at 5:30 p.m.

We got in line for the park to get our helmets and locker keys. Helmets were required due to the hanging stalactites and stalagmites.

Checking in took us almost half an hour, as the entrance was crowded with long lines. We also pre-ordered our photographs and purchased a pair of water shoes for Alex, who didn't have any. The water shoes proved very important, as walking on the rocks barefoot would have been painful.

Once we changed and stowed all our gear in the assigned locker, we decided to try out the Amphibious vehicles since the lines to the famous zip lines were long. (There was a sign showing wait times for all of the attractions. Zip lines stayed perpetually RED.

The designated amphibious vehicles are John Deere mini-Jeeps. They were extremely loud (they could use better engine muffling, as they sounded like bad lawn mowers) and seriously underpowered (with only one forward gear and one reverse gear).

Here is my GoPro 4 Silver video of our ride:



Nevertheless, I enjoyed driving these Jeeps, splashing through mud holes and dark caverns. Driving ATVs was much more fun at our previous Mystic River adventure, but these Jeeps were safer. Unfortunately, Alex was not allowed to go since he was underage (18 minimum). He probably enjoyed splashing through the creeks.

Our next activity was river rafting. We walked (it seemed like forever) through never-ending caverns of stalactites and stalagmites to an underground river where small single- or double-person rafts floated. Inna chose a single raft, and Alex and I shared a double raft.

We were given small hand paddles to propel the raft forward or backward, and we chose the 30-minute route to explore.

The passages were relatively narrow, and we had to watch our heads to avoid hitting hanging stalagmites. It was a bit boring, and we quickly grew bored. The paddle through the many caverns took a really long time.

After returning, we decided to skip the raft #1 route and switch to the river swim. Here, we were fitted with life jackets and swam in a cold underground river with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Despite the cold, it was fun to swim around and explore the underground caves.

We were unaware that there was a heavy rain shower above ground. Alex hurt his knee on one of the rocks and stumbled a bit afterward. The last cavern on our swim was a giant Cenote, with water cascading from all sides.

It was a truly spectacular sight! We were completely wet and cold, so we stopped by the lockers for towels.

We decided to get lunch as we were cold and hungry (and it was past lunchtime). The nearby El Troglodyte restaurant had freshly prepared entrees, and we enjoyed trying ceviche, salads, pizza, pasta, and countless other well-prepared dishes.

The freshness and quality of the prepared food were much better than in most American theme parks (including Disneyland).

After warming up with a hot mocha and hot chocolate, we tried the famous ziplines. We walked toward the entrance and stepped into a long line. Eventually, we put on harnesses and waited in another line to start the first zip line from Tower 1.

From there, we zipped to the next tower, sometimes singly and sometimes paired up. On some zip runs, Alex and I dashed in tandem; on other runs, Inna and Alex zipped together.

Some zip lines were very long, and others were a bit shorter. The very last zip line is unique: it crosses a falling stream of water and ends up in the underground river, right in the water. We got totally soaked on our last zip line run.

Since zip lines were very slow, we finished at 5:00 p.m. - right when the park closed, and 15 minutes past our shuttle time. We didn't complete all the attractions in the park, but we'll do better next time.

Here is a GoPro Hero4 Silver video of our ziplining adventure:



If we had to do it repeatedly, we could have skipped the river rafting and the amphibious vehicles and done more zip lines.

Our hotel shuttle was long gone by the time we finally returned to the park's exit. We had to scramble to find a taxi that takes credit cards. We finally secured one, but his credit card machine did not work. We went to our Azul Beach hotel and used the ATM there, which dispenses dollars, but the taxi driver wanted 700 pesos for the ride.

To top it off, the safe in my hotel room, where I kept my ATM card, stopped working, so I needed the hotel's help to open it. It took a while to open the safe, and I was finally able to withdraw cash to pay the taxi driver. It was all very vexing.

The lesson learned is to be prepared to take a taxi back and stay in hotels closer to the main attractions, such as Xel-Ha, Xcaret, and Xplor.

Xplor Report Card

Positives

• Fantastic ziplines (but with a very long wait)
• Amazing underground caverns with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere
• Swimming in the underground caverns (exiting in the large Cenote) is quite fun
• Excellent lunch buffet 
• Most of the activities are underground (so Xplor can be fun even when it's raining outside)

Neutral

• Amphibious vehicle driving is quite dull (and they are extremely slow and LOUD)
• Rafting in the little hand paddle rafts is not very exciting
• The photo package is expensive and takes photos randomly in places (many wrong photos)

Negatives

• Long wait times for some activities (especially ziplines)
• Hotel Shuttle pick-up at 4:45 p.m. is too early when Xplor closes at 5:30 p.m. (we missed ours)

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Adventures in Tulum and Mystic River

What does an authentic Mexican Cenote/ATV experience feel like? We were about to discover when we embarked on a combined Tulum and Mystic River adventure.

Exactly at 9:00 am, the Mystic River van picked us up from the lobby of our Azul Beach hotel. The driver stopped by two other hotels: Azul Sensatori and Valentin. From here, we drove about an hour to Tulum, where we would spend about 90 minutes touring the archaeological grounds of the ancient Mayan city.

I thought about skipping Tulum altogether because I regarded the city as a minor archaeological site, but I was mistaken. There were a significant number of Mayan temples, houses, and other buildings left over.

There were also a lot more tourists than I expected to see (I would have expected such crowds at Coba or Chichen-Itza)

None of the Mayan buildings were very tall or large, and they pale in comparison to Roman (e.g., Pantheon) and French (e.g., Notre Dame) buildings built around the same period (or even earlier).

However, it was interesting to see the ancient Mayans' construction methods. The uneven stones and the use of cement to hold the rocks together were immediately evident. Most of the buildings were not very tall or grand, and some of the door openings were very short, as if to suggest that the Mayans were not very tall.

Tulum was one of the principal seaports of the Mayans and was protected by walls surrounding the city on 3 sides. The walls were not very tall and were crumbling, but they still stood erect. Ancient Mayans used to ferry goods such as jade to all parts of the Mayan Empire aboard large canoes that hugged the coast.

After walking around the ruins, we returned to our designated meeting spot, where some high-flying acrobats performed daredevil stunts. They jumped off a tall pole and spun around.

We headed to an authentic Mexican restaurant nearby in downtown Tulum. For lunch, Alex ordered a "burger", Inna a "fish taco", and I had a "cheese quesadilla". The lunch entrees were well-prepared, and the chips were good, too, though the spicy sauces were something else. The most pungent sauce was out-of-this-world hot, hot, hot!

After lunch, we finally arrived at Mystic River, Cenotes, and ATV Adventures. The tour staff explained how to operate the Honda semi-automatic ATV, although Inna felt intimidated. We initially considered Inna driving solo while Alex and I would ride together on another ATV. However, Inna did not want to deal with the shifting, so she decided to ride on one of the tour guides' ATVs.

This Honda ATV has an automatic clutch, so upshifting or downshifting can be done at any time. The left-hand lever (a clutch on most motorcycles) works as a rear brake (like on a bicycle). Here is a brief video of our ATV adventures:



It also had a separate rear brake pedal (like all motorcycles), but we were told not to use it as it could lock up the rear tires.

Initially, we rode the ATVs to the first public Cenote, where we enjoyed the cool, clear, refreshing water and jumping off the cliff. After the hot, dusty ride there, swimming and relaxing in the cool water was nice.

Alex decided to take a few jumps off the cliff and enjoyed the cool, refreshing plunge into the Cenote.

Here is a brief video of jumping and swimming in the beautiful Cenote:



After swimming around some more, we decided to get out and dry off to prepare for the next leg of our adventure.

We continued our ATV adventure to the next Cenote, where zip lines were set up. We rode two separate zip lines: the first as a trial zip line and the second into the bottom of a Cenote.

Alex was adventurous in the first zip line ride and decided to ride upside down, like Spider-Man. He enjoyed the sensation of being upside down (for about 6 seconds).

Both Inna and I rode the zip lines in the standard position.

The second zip line ride was more exciting. It was pretty eerie riding into a dark cavern where I could barely see anything, then splashing inside. I wish I could have done it multiple times!

Here is a brief video of ziplining on both ziplines using my GoPro4 Silver camera:



The crew also recorded a nice high-definition video of Alex, Inna, and me riding the zip line. It was a lot of fun!

After splashing, we got our snorkeling gear and snorkeled in dimly lit caves with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere.



Swimming with all these sharp objects on the ceiling and all around was pretty impressive.

There were even bats on the ceiling, as this area is usually dark, though the tour set up artificial lighting for us to see.

After finishing the snorkeling, we changed and got a snack at the nearby shack - some hibiscus-flavored tea and authentic Mexican banana-leaf baked tamales. The tamales were quite delicious and hit the spot after all of our ATV/Zipline adventures. The tour's photographer also showed us the photos and videos he had taken, and we decided to purchase them, as they were reasonably priced (about $50 for all the photos and videos).

On the return trip, I asked Alex to try riding the ATV. He quickly adjusted to using the gas and brakes but had difficulty turning the ATV's handlebars. He really enjoyed driving the ATV and thought it was a lot of fun. He is now even interested in trying dirt biking.

Mystic River & Tulum Report Card

Positives

• ATV Driving is a lot of fun!
• Fantastic ziplines (but you can only go once)
• Amazing underground caverns with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere
• Swimming in the underground caverns 
• Authentic Mayan lunch buffet 
• The staff photographer is fantastic 

Negatives

• Tulum had no tour guides to expound on the ancient Mayan civilization.
• Can only ride zip lines one time

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