Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

So this is the last of the pictures I’m going to post, at least for now, so I haven’t presented you with everything — I’m omitting many fun things, like the “giant Mexican hamsters” (little capybaras basically) and monkeys that were all over the resort, or the other tours we did.

But I really have to include what was the highlight of the trip for me, a rafting trip and then a long swim through a couple kilometers of incredible natural underground river. Last time we were in Mexico we had a great time at Xel-Ha, and this time Nefarious and I went to sister resort XPLOR (and the Caitlin and her went to also linked xcaret the next day which sounds amazing as well). Later in the day we did a ton of zip lining which as I said was the death of me, although tons of fun, but we began by exploring the underground rivers.

The entire peninsula is a mix of limestone and coral which was originally under the ocean, which is why it’s so flat. 65 million years ago there was a huge asteroid strike in the Gulf of Mexico (the same one that significantly contributed to the end of the dinosaur era) that raised it up out of the ocean. This violent even also caused a myriad of caves to form, many of which became underground rivers. The entire area is essentially hollow. Anyway, we began by taking a small two person raft that we paddled by hand, and then finished the second half of the journey in life jackets without the raft. Because we were there so early in the day (a rainy day, not that this matters underground) it was completely deserted and it was just us in the cave adding to the wonder of the spectacle.

The caves were incredible — I’ve never seen anything like it. Stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Not the sort of thing you’d think you could ever experience so easily. I can’t recommend it highly enough. There are lots more pictures after the break.