Playa del Carmen Vacation

I can't tell you how many times I agonized back and forth about whether or not we should stick with our vacations plans (which were booked before we realized the extent of my dad's health problems).  The whole thing hinged on Sarah being able to stay with him, though, so once we  had confirmation from her, we decided to go for it. So glad we did.  Lots of amazing experiences were  had by all, and I could not have picked a better hotel than the Sandos Carocal, since it is an ecoresort, with animals both roaming freely on the property and living in cool habitats AND its own swimable cenote and series of waterways and trails and Mayan ruins AND a waterpark and club for the kids!  I could go on.  And oh yeah, best part - all inclusive.  I also didn't know it tends to attract pretty much everybody but people from the US.  That is maybe 10% of their clientele.  We met people from all over the world.  It was pretty awesome.  It was also so cool to see the kids playing with other kids who spoke a different language, and how it just didn't matter.  The language of play is universal!

It was really hard to narrow down which pictures to share.  We were there for a week after all!  Pretty sure I still overdid it, but I love to have a record of this kind of thing in blog form.  :)  Here is the Youtube version, which includes video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDr-_YAhEE0

On our way!  Waiting in the airport....

First walk out to see the beach area.  Not bad!  

Cenote you can snorkel in - wow! 

First coati sighting.  Turns out you can see them pretty much all day every day lol, and night. 

This was right on our balcony!  Sadly had no desire to use it as a cuz because it was so bloody hot, even at night!  But it made a nice mini pool for the kids.

Good times at the waterpark.  It didn't have any huge slides, but it was just the right speed for our kids!

Daddy shark

Parrot food stealing, naughty coati - hey that rhymes!  Bet somebody  has marketed that! 

Mayan site Muyil - right off the road yet only recently found due to the dense jungle!

Another beautifully preserved structure at Muyil.

We sat lots of these big, beautiful tarantulas at Muyil.

Taking a rest at Muyil

Later that day at the Grand Cenote.  Actually two cenotes connected by a cavernous passage you can swim through.  Filled with bats!  Magickal! 

At the big pool, Akasha jumping in to Daddy. 

Lots of iguanas around the property! 

One of the monkeys that live on the property.  Hard to get close ups of them. 

What the snorkeling was like in front of the hotel.  Not the best I have ever seen, but it was free and easily accessible.   

One of the Mayan ruins at Sandol Caracol.

Lots of cool statuary all over - this Ganesh was in front of the Asian restaurant. 

Proof we got in the water together once lol.  

Never knew where you were going to spot a coati!

Probably my favorite photo of the whole trip, especially because it took alot of overcoming fears to get Akasha out in the sea.  She has a life jacket AND her floaty.  :)  And the underwater viewer I made her because she has never been able to tolerate the feeling of goggles. 

But it was all worth it because she was sure she saw Mavis.  See the letter I sent to Clearwater Aquarium below for explanation. 

Awesome little restaurant right next door to the Akumal Ecological Center.  I had just asked, "Who saw a sea turtle?!"

Orion participated in the Animal Keeper program - one of the highlights of the trip for sure!  He was the only English speaker in the group, and the guides had limited English, but they did everything they could to help him feel welcomed and included. 

Orion's job was feeding the peacocks. 

Getting ready to feed the donkeys. 

Orion's favorite - taking the hairless Mayan dogs for a walk!  Their names were Peck and Bosh (sp?) which meant "dog" and "black" in Mayan.   The staff seemed very amused by this lol. 

Somebody wanted to head to the beach! 

My favorite eco tourguide, Noemi, here talking about the sacred Ceiba tree. 

A lovely moment of sibling love. 

Romantic Boat Ride (hotel's name for it) with Jesus, the Mayan Warrior.  Irony much?  Who actually turned out to be from Oregon!

Saying farewell to the peacocks.

Saying farewell to the burro brothers. 

We left early enough for the airport to make a stop at Crococun Zoo.  So glad we did as it was definite highlight of the trip!  Anybody for crocodile petting?  

Snakey boy!

Biggest snake I have ever seen in person! 

Walking through the big croc area.  Akasha mostly rode on Daddy's back but agreed to get down for this photo.  Doesn't look to happy about it though does she? 

The monkeys are free roaming and hang around because they feed them.

Feeding the deer. 

One last shot that we bought at the photo store on the way out of the hotel.  Couldn't resist this one! 

Winging it home! Strange but pretty cloud formation at sunset.

Letter sent to Clearwater Aquarium after we got home:

I wanted to write and share a couple stories from our recent family vacation in Playa del Carmen, so you would know of yet more real world examples of how your work is making a difference in the world.  My daughter is 6 and just adores both of your movies.  She asks to go see Winter pretty much every day.  She can be rather fearful of things in real life, so we weren't sure how parts of our vacation would play out, but thanks to the movies she was inspired to get into the ocean at Akumal Bay and visit with the sea turtles.  She has sensory issues and doesn't tolerate wearing a mask, but I made her a viewer out of a coffee can, Saran wrap, rubber bands and duct tape!  She declared one of the turtles the "Real Mavis", and I had no way to prove her wrong.  :)

But something much more amazing happened.  We considered taking her to one of the places where she could encounter dolphins, but I was pretty sure there were no rescue places in the area.  You never really know how much a young child picks up from a movie, so I asked her, "Do you remember in the movie about how they had to release Mandy even though it meant they might lose Winter?  Do you remember why they did that?"  She immediately answered in a very emphatic way, "Because she was perfectly healthy!!!"  My husband and I just looked at each other and blinked.  OK then, I guess the message got through.  I said, "That's exactly right, and the people around here keep dolphins in captivity that *are* perfectly healthy, and I don't feel good about giving our money to places like that.  What do you think?"  She agreed with me and said she did not want to go see dolphins if it meant we would be supporting people who didn't release healthy animals.

Just... wow.  What good work you are doing!  Even my husband, who was sortof ambivalent on the subject at first, ended up understanding the issue better, after helping to research dolphin companies in the area.  When he read about how they capture the dolphins and split up the families, he realized what an awful practice it is.   So in closing, I would like to say THANK YOU for doing what you do.  If the movies had this impact on my 6 year old, I can only imagine how many other people they have touched.  One tiny drop, an infinity of ripples.

Hoping to see you in 2015,
Lisa Prague and Family