The daylight view from our hotel balcony was spectacular! The blindingly white sand four floors below us, the various blues and greens of the quiet Caribbean surf, and Mujeres Island spreading across the horizon dazzled our eyes.

After breakfast at 100% Natural (Eric loved the mushroom, spinach, and bean burritos) we hopped a bus to Playa Linda; the beach that runs tour boats to Isla Mujeres. Mujeres is a small, finger shaped island five miles long and a quarter mile wide eight miles across the bay from Cancún. It is this old pirate haunt that reduces the size of waves arriving on the hotel zone beaches. We paid tourist prices for the boat ride to Mujeres. Had we driven to nearby Puerto Juarez (just north of Cancún), we would have taken the boat locals take at less than half the fare and time.

While waiting for the small motor boat to depart, we played on the beach. Curt enjoyed scoping the few topless babes on Playa Linda. Missy, who was going bottomless along the water's edge (i.e., no sandals on) was nipped on the toe by a crab in the sand.

The boat ride to Mujeres was a rocky and damp 40 minutes. A middle-aged woman on the boat with her family loved Eric. She kept calling him "baby" and "so handsome". She would touch his face and caress his chin. In many places in Mexico, Eric was called "baby". He didn't like that, however, he was almost always the youngest person at the tourist sites we visited. It seems foreigners don't consider bringing their young ones to the Yucatan and locals prefer not to spend their money taking them to tourist spots.

On Isla Mujeres, the tour sharks were in full bloom to the point that Curt yelled at one. We walked a short distance away and one of the guides came over to us and gently explained that we basically have no choice but to take a tour boat to reach the snorkeling waters. One could rent a golf cart or moped to explore the island but we were there primarily for the water festivities. We paid $25 for the three of us (a "deal" since we were the last chance to fill up a tour boat) for a three hour tour of the snorkel and tourist water sites.

At the first site, a five minute ride from the dock, we snorkeled for 30 minutes with the tour boat guide and group (about eight other people; none of whom spoke much English–they were Germans and French). The tour provided snorkels, goggles, fins, and life jackets. This is typically the case for such tours. We brought our own equipment (except for life jackets) as we wanted to be confidant of fit and quality. (Besides, who and how many other people had used the communal snorkels?) Missy is an excellent swimmer, Eric a good one who recently and easily learned how to snorkel, and Curt, though practically a non-swimmer, is a confident and highly competent snorkeler.

The snorkeling we did here and throughout our vacation was fabulous! We swam in the midst of hundreds of beautifully colored or camouflaged fish. (In the photo there are more than thirty fish!) Some were nearly three feet long. In our excitement each of us would point out a particular fish that caught our eye, only to realize the other two of us were pointing at fish that caught their eyes. We brought three disposable, underwater cameras for our trip and could have used a fourth.

It was interesting that no one on this tour nor on any of the other snorkeling tours we would take asked to use a bathroom. Hmmm.

After snorkeling at the first site, which included viewing an underwater religious statue, we got back aboard our boat and headed southeast along the coast. The ride seemed to last a long time and though the coastline was pretty, we were itching to do something more than look at things. The language barrier prevented us from getting our "What next?" questions answered. Thirty minutes into this boat ride, Missy looked at Curt and sang, "A three hour tour" from the Gilligan's Island Theme Song. That cracked us up–Eric too after it was explained to him–and it was a line we found opportunity to use repeatedly during these two weeks.

We eventually reached Garrafon Underwater Park at the southeast end of the island. Missy, Curt, and only two others opted to snorkel here. (Perhaps they, like us, didn't realize this was our last chance to snorkel on the tour). The water here was even clearer than at our first stop (a visibility of nearly 100 feet!) and there were larger schools of bigger, though less colored and varied fish. The surface beneath the sea at this stop was basically void of plant life, limiting the variety and type of fish that would live here.

As we headed back towards the dock, we stopped at a small "park" for food and entertainment. The latter consisted of an opportunity to swim with a non-human shark and giant sea turtles. Eric was handed to the guide in the turtles' pen and was allowed to see and pet the several hundred pound turtles. Then he was taken to the shark pen where the guide grabbed a four foot long gato shark (harmless to people) and held it in one arm while holding Eric in the other. There is no charge for this adventure, the guide works on tips. We tipped him $5 instead of the usual $1 and in gratitude he took Eric back to the sea turtles and let Eric ride on one's slippery back.

The lunch that was prepared for our group was a fish based one. We separately ordered french fries and rice (the only vegan items on a very limited menu) and also ate freshly made warm, soft corn tortillas.

After lunch and a little play time on the local beach, we went back to our boat, which went back to the island's dock, where we went back to our first boat, for a ride back to Cancún. The weather had gone from bright sunny skies to a drenching rain (isn't this what happens on "a three hour tour"?) The small boat bounced quickly over the choppy waters and we got soaked from the sea as well as the rain. At the dock, we went running through the rain looking for a bus stop. That was a mistake from which we would learn. Just after we got on the bus after ten minutes in driving rain, the rain stopped and the sun returned. D'oh! When on the east coast of the Yucatan, wait out the rain; it won't take long. A few stops after we boarded, a woman got on wearing a tong bikini and a large mesh "covering" that covered nothing. Ah, public transport.

Back at the hotel, Missy napped while Eric and Curt built fossilcastles and snorkeled along the beach behind the hotel (they spotted what they believed to be a small shark along the sea bed, camouflaged to match the sand). The beaches along the hotel zone have names. The one behind our hotel, Playa Caracol, was our favorite one to visit. Its sand seemed finer than the standard tiny sand grains we played on throughout the Yucatan. Despite the typically intense sun, the sand on Yucatan beaches does not get hot. There are two reasons for that. First, the sand is white so it efficiently reflects the sun's rays and is less heated by them. Second, the sand is not sand. The beaches are actually composed of trillions of tiny fossils called disco aster, which are hollow and allow air to pass through and cool them. Though the beaches are fossils not sand, we will routinely refer to them as "sand" in this diary as we did on our vacation. Technically inaccurate, using the word "sand" makes for a less disruptive read. When wet, the Yucatan sand can be packed into a ball. Like snowballs, these sandballs (fossilballs?) will maintain their shape even when thrown. A hundred meters up the beach, a 2-on-2 US volleyball tournament was being staged. Curt and Eric watched them practice for a bit.

We dined at one of the many Italian restaurants we saw. (It's not that there are many Italians that frequent the Yucatan, we heard no Italian spoken, it's just that Italian food is a popular common denominator for tourists.) Eric had gnocchi, his favorite food during our time in Europe. The $30 dinner pushed us over the $100 a day we typically project to spend during a vacation. Eating in the Cancún hotel zone it's hard to eat inexpensively.

Back in the hotel, we found a small lizard had made its way into our room. We caught him and set him free on our balcony (to go visit someone else's room). Eric hoped it laid eggs so we'd have more lizards. Lizards abound on the peninsula, though usually where there is a lot of greenery and sun.

We watched some of a Bruce Lee film fest, Missy read, Curt did some laundry (traveling light, we brought only four days worth of clothes to wear), then we watched the end of the New York Yankees win over the San Diego Padres in the first game of the World Series.
 

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