Cancun - Day Four

While we were in downtown Cancun on Sunday night, we got suckered into talking to a guy at a tour kiosk. We were kind of in the market for a tour anyway, so we were okay with giving in to his eager sales pitch. We were only interested in one tour however...Xel Ha, an ecological water park (pronounced by the locals as "Shell Ha"). My cousin, Katie, went there last spring, and said it was a must do. All the local sales men liked to push a similar ecological water park, Excaret, over Xel Ha, but the trip advisor reviews favored Xel Ha over Excaret. And since Katie was on the Xel Ha side too, we decided to go the tried and true route of Xel Ha. And we are SO glad we did.

The price to get into this park is $79 at the door. It's no small fee, but it includes all-you-can-eat food for the day, lockers, and towels. To book a tour that gave you transportation to and from this place was $130 at our hotel...that means they would pocket $100 between a party of two for a one-hour bus ride there and back...kind of outrageous. After some bartering on Eric's part, our downtown Cancun tour kiosk gave us a price of $90 each. We booked it for Tuesday.

After a serious of buses, and an hour long bus ride with a tour guide that talked Spanglish non-stop, and annoyed Eric to no end, we arrived at Xel Ha. It was gorgeous, and clean, and well operated. We dropped our stuff off at a complimentary locker, and then did what any fat American would do...hit up the buffet. We knew we were in good hands when the hostess squirted sanitizer from a giant bottle into every guest's hands that entered the restaurant. This place was impeccably clean and obviously health conscious. They had maple syrup, and peanut butter, and chocolate milk, and chips AND salsa AND guacamole all at the same time...all the things which our resort sorely lacked. This was the vacation food I had dreamed about. And it tasted at good as it looked. Finally a place that knew how to feed a crowd!? 

After breakfast we perused the grounds and ended up at the ziplines. They were awesome. They had three zip-line platforms, with 3-5 lines on each platform, and you could zip from platform to platform It was zip-line heaven. Most of zip-lines were swings that you would sit it, then you'd zip down into the water and flail off, wherein they would pull the swing back up for the next lucky zip-liner.

They had a couple lines that you just held on to with your hands until you felt the need to fall into the warm turqoise water. After seeing all the 40-year old moms do this one, I decided it couldn't be that hard and I gave it a try. The moment I left the platforms my poor arm muscled were ready to drop me. But not wanting to be the fat girl that plunges into the water 1.2 seconds into the ride, I willed my hands and muscled to hang on until I was at least half-way down the line. I made it that far and willed my muscles to hold on just a little longer to make it to the end. I surprised myself and ended up making to the normal drop off point, near the end of the line, but then and there I decided two things... 1) I probably shouldn't try that again, and 2) I needed to do some weightlifting!?

After getting our fill of zip-lining we visited the manitees...they're big and slow and eat cabbage. Then we found the bikes...our favorite! We biked along the cutest little paved path through the jungl-ey forest, and ended up at the top of the river, where you start your snorkel or tube-ride down. We still had our shoes and camera and a few items that we obviously couldn't snorkel with, and we were kicking ourselves for not dropping them off at our locker before making it this far. But don't worry, Xel Ha had thought of this scenario, and they had a baggage drop where you put everything you can't take down the river into a bag, and then they take it to the bottom and you pick it up when you're done. Genious! So, we dropped off our stuff, picked up some snorkels and fins, and snorkeled our way down the river. It was awesome!

After our snorkel trip we picked up some lunch at the fast-food buffet, where I was able to get a delicious hamburger without waiting an hour for it. And where were I, again, had plenty of chips, salsa, and guac. And where I had my first helping of self-serve soft ice cream since arriving in Mexico. It was heaven.

After lunch we spent some time in the hammocks, and then took a walk to the other side of the park, which we had yet to explore. Over there, we found stingrays, and caves, and cenotes, and rope bridges, and more gorgeous jungle. We ended up at the top of the river again, and decided to tube down the river this time, instead of snorkeling. It was a lazy tube ride at the end of a lazy day, and it was lovely.

We had the best time at Xel Ha and couldn't recommend it enough. It reminded me of Disneyland with the way the grounds were so impeccably clean and maintained, and with how helpful and happy the staff were. The lagoon was breathtakingly beautiful and the activities were so much fun. But then again, we love zip-lines, and snorkeling, and biking, and tubing, so it was right up our ally. Best day of the trip...hands down.