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Published: February 2nd 2008
Little Brother
Entrance from the insideIf you travel to Mexico and don't know Spanish...the road signs with the "E" crossed out means
No Parking. We picked that up along the way...it could prove useful.
Today was one of the most incredible days of my life.
Today. I'm sharing it with you, but unfortunately the only photographs of the best parts are the ones stored to memory. I thought I should warn you in advance. Today I met two retired men - Bill from outside of Toledo, Peter from Canada, and one middle aged Mexican with shaggy naturally highlighted hair from long days in the sun named Sergio. Today.
Alex and I dove the Chac-Mool Cenotes - Little Brother and Kukulcan with Bill, Peter, and Sergio.
It must have been the summer after third grade going into fourth when my Grandma took me to the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. I don't know how or why it was offered for me to join my Grandma on this trip she was taking with her teenage girl scout troop, but somehow I found myself in the passenger seat of her car on my way south to part of our country I had
The divers
These are the three studs (Bill, Peter, and Alex) I dove with and the dogs we fed. not been to. Grams has been a girl scout leader for longer then most of you have been alive and it was a royal treat to join her. I had a rock collection growing up and here I was, standing face to face with this beautiful cave that I had no idea how to even appreciate at that age.
Now I'm 22...I still have that rock collection packed away somewhere, I couldn't possibly part with it, and I have wonderful memories of that trip. There I am...air strapped to my back, mask on my face, fins on my feet and I have the opportunity to do the unimaginable. I'm in a similar cave with amazing rock formations, fossils, pillars...only this time...there's no flashing cameras, there's no restrictions, there's no shuffle of people walking about....because this time...this time the cave is submerged in water.
It's myself and four other people untouched by gravity floating about and taking a good look at the ceiling, the floor, the walls...cat fish swam toward the surface of the water, but other then that there were no creatures to distract us. Parts of it looked like it could have been the Little Mermaid's city
in ruins, where large and small pieces of the cave rested on the bottom. We surfaced inside where the air is breathable and could not get enough of the growth of the cave, the roots of trees growing through the thick rock toward the water, the only light coming from our flashlights....I could have stayed down there for hours.
The water was so clear you couldn't visibly tell you were underwater until you were low enough where the salt water mixed with the fresh water. If you've ever mixed oil and water, you would know exactly what this looked like. It was so unreal to see, literally, a line where the two met and then when part of your team swam in front of you, to watch the two mix, but not blend into each other, creating this warped and extremely blurry water that you can't really get your bearings in. If you swim to the side of the mix, you can see the curvy line of where the waters are splitting blurry from clear and if it gets to be to much you just swim up or down into the salt or the fresh where everything is clear
Divers
with Sergio, the dive master again...the salt water below was much warmer so that was usually my choice.
After two dives we made our way back to the car where we ate awful soggy sandwiches that tasted absolutely wonderful after a day of diving and not eating. I fed most of mine to the dogs that considered the area home. Unlike most of the random dogs we saw in the area, these were quite picky about what you fed them having the benefit of divers constantly coming through and throwing them their scraps.
We made it back to the resort where I became increasingly crabby and in need of some real food. We went to the health bar for smoothies and fresh juice with salad and an asparagus sandwich.
We checked on the crocs to see how they were doing to find three of them on shore hanging out together. That didn't last long. The dominate croc started to hiss and in a matter of minutes he was charging at the others who quickly scattered. Australia? Pfffffttt....we saw more action at the resort in Mexico!
Saturday, January 26, 2008 Our last day. I thought for sure we would
just lay around and do close to nothing, but we had a hankering for lobster. After spending a good chunk of time in the pool we went back to Playa Del Carmen where we went on a lobster hunt. We made an excellent random pick of places to go where they prepared my lobster dish right at our table. Soon after our meals were completed, four men on guitars and bass came to our table to serenade us while we ate. We finished the night in town with ice cream and made our way down the strip to the beach. We sat for a short while in the sand with the stars above us and the waves crashing in front of us.
It was our final night and we realized we had a total of four beers the entire stay and not one shot of Tequila...we were in Mexico! I'm off blood thinners! We had to at least
try the tequila. Once we were back we headed to one of the ritzy bars we didn't visit during our stay and through the course of the evening taste tested four different kinds of Tequila...or was it five? I don't remember
but soon after we hit the pool before bickering our way back to the hotel room. You know tequila sometimes sounds like a good idea, unless both parties are drinking it...then it usually stirs up a bit of a ruckus.
Before we knew it, it was six a.m. and we were popping Ibuprofen before heading to catch our plane.
Back in the states, the doctor gave me a prescription for some kind of cream for the random all over rash and itching and said I should try using Baby sun screen since we don't know if it's the sun or the block that's causing this uncomfortable reaction.
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Until Curacao!!
and here's where we went:
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Mike
non-member comment
Wow!
These are amazing! And just for the record, the worst fights I've ever had with a woman in my life were when we were both drinking tequila.