Mexico Espectacular

After spending a day at Xcaret Mexico I can say Loren and I are "espctacularly" tired.  It was so much fun!  We enjoyed an adventure filled extravaganza  of the culture of the Maya and the history of Mexico.  There was a surprising amount of Mexican visitors at the park.  Almost like the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, Disneyland and Sea World were combined into one park.  We kept joking however that the branding put Sea World to shame (as Sea World has a complete lack of branding what-so-ever), and it was a lot less safety conscious than Disneyland.  Corporate criticisms aside, then park was everything we expected and more.

We managed to canvas almost the entire park in one day.  A feat my well traveled mother-in-law might argue is very hard to do.  As we had spent all of the previous day snorkeling we opted to wander around the park exploring.  We looked at tropical animals, though we chose to stick mostly to those living on dryland with the exception of the manatees.  Loren got to see his peccaries, we saw a tapir, leopards and loads of parrots.  There were more lizards roaming freely than you could shake a stick at and we even saw an Agouti crossing the path on a nature hunt through a densely planted area of the park.  

One of our favorite animal exhibits though was the Mariposas or butterflies.  It was amazing, more like a fairy world than anything.  There was one particular butterfly with blue wings that seemed to be attracted to my feet (or my blue nail polish).  One of them landed on Loren's sandals too.  Orion mentioned he wanted most to go to Mexico to see the butterflies so we made a special trip to film them for him.  it was so magical to see them fluttering everywhere and have them fly through our range of vision. It was very magical.

We had fun taking in most of the park's cultural aspects.  We attended a demonstration of the Ritual of Los Voladores.  It was pretty incredible to watch the men first climb the high pole and then to spin or "fly" back down on ropes going around the pole thirteen times a piece.  On the Mexican Cemetery mount the Mexican flair for color was out in full force.  

After touring the Hacienda and the equine area we were all set to attend the night show.  Just as the name promises, it was quite the spectacle.  We were treated to a game of the pre-hispanic ball games of the Maya as well a crash course in Mexican history through Cortez and the cultural folk dances and music of the various regions.  The whole production was in Spanish, however the flow was easy enough to follow even though we could not understand the narration.  We loved it.

Due to the porcelain quality of my skin I am very cautious about sunscreen and coverage when venturing outdoors.  Today we discovered the only part of me to show any indication of sun.  I was meticulous making sure that all of my porcelain hide had been covered when snorkeling yesterday.  This was in part thanks to the admonitions of my brother and his unfortunate sun experience while snorkeling here last year.   Loren neglected one swath of gluteal flesh and I have a burned crescent on my back side.  Loren has been teasing me all evening like Achilles I have only one part of me didn't get "dipped in the river."  Ouch!