Sitting on the bus, guess who should get on but the couple fused at the mouth! We had to sit behind them once again as they kissed, mooned at each other with lovey eyes, and stroked each other's face. We were surprised that they came out of their room in the first place! (And no, this isn't the story I'm referring to from the previous post about why you should remember me talking about this couple... it is just to serve to set the stage for what happens the next day.)
After a 30 minute bus ride complete with PG-13 show, we arrived at the park, called Xcaret. (Will and I continued to call this place "ex-carrot" until it finally sank in that the correct pronunciation is "ish-ca-RET." Who knew?... I mean other than the Spanish-speakers.) After just 10 minutes in the park, we realized that the place was everything that it promised. I mean it was really, REALLY amazing. Just inside the gates we saw some domestic animals, iguanas, deer, and got to hold some parrots... and that was just on our way to get to the underground river float. That turned out to be quite incredible. We got our neon pink life jackets and descended a series of paths and tunnels to get below ground level where there was a nice, 62º river. We got in and the current carried us through tunnels, occasionally opening up to jungle above us or a recreated Mayan village. In fact we even got our picture taken with a Mayan Jaguar Warrior! (I'm sure his real Jaguar Warrior ancestors are rolling in their graves, but, hey, it made a great photo-op!) Near the end, we even got to float through a mangrove swamp. It took about 45 minutes to float from the start to the end, where the river empties into the ocean. We got out and just stayed in our swimsuits to dry them off, as that's what everyone else was doing. We felt like little kids running around like that, but I guess it added to the enjoyment.
After the float trip, we got to see some dolphins, sharks, and manatees before getting to the sea turtle enclosure, which was impressive. Unlike American zoos and water parks, there weren't any guard rails or barriers so we could just climb down the edge of the enclosure and pet the gigantic turtles, which we did. Also in the sea turtle enclosure were some sharks. Deb and I overheard a little girl pointing at the sharks and yelling "¡Mira! ¡Mira!" and we assumed that "¡Mira!" was the Spanish word for "shark." When I asked Margaret, our resident Spanish expert, she laughed and told us that "¡Mira!" is the command form of the verb "to look." Oops. Although that knowledge didn't keep us from calling all the sharks we saw after that "miras."After seeing a bunch of other stuff like a butterfly enclosure, Mayan village, colonial-era village, and some pumas, jaguars, and panthers, we went see the caballero show. There was a restaurant along one side of the arena and we thought that it would be a perfect way to see the show without being crowded by a ton of people AND we could eat. The restaurant was a Mexican buffet that was meant to highlight all the different cuisines of Mexico. Once we all got our first tastes of the food, we completely ignored the horse show.
The food was unbelievable. No gorditas, chimichangas, or nachos there! We had fresh, made-on-demand tortillas to make a whole host of different traditional tacos including barbecue beef, mushroom, mole chicken, green chili pork, and my personal favorite barbecue lamb. There were all kinds of enchiladas, including one with mole sauce instead of regular enchilada sauce, and refried beans with roasted corn stirred into it that changed how I will ever enjoy refried beans again. The salads were all interesting, including prickly pear, cactus, and ceviche that had both shrimp AND octopus. THEN we got to the desserts... lots of cakes, puddings, and candies. They even had my favorite drink that I discovered in Mexico City: cafe de olla which is equal parts coffee and cinnamon and delicious. We kept going back for more and more and more. We ate so much we all felt sick afterward, but not regretting anything. It was one of the most memorable meals in my life... something that I doubt I'd ever get at an AMERICAN theme park. (Not to disparage hockey puck-like hamburgers or anything.) We knew the meal was special when several hours later we were still talking about it and wishing that we'd eaten more. And then again the next morning, remembering the foods we'd eaten and wishing we were back at the restaurant. Yes... it was REALLY THAT GOOD!
After the meal of the gods, we got to the grand finale of the day. There was a show that featured the cultures of Mexico. The first half included a Mayan culture extravaganza including a ceremony, an exhibition game of that sport the Mayans played by hitting a ball with their hips and the losing team was executed (although in this version, the winning team just got a giant necklace and a dog.) That was followed by an exhibition of a sport that makes ice hockey look like croquet: FIRE hockey. Yes, two teams of men dressed only in loin cloths and headdresses run around barefoot with sticks bat around a rubber ball THAT IS ON FIRE! Don't step on THAT! It was pretty impressive. After the conquistadors came and brought Catholicism to the area and destroyed Mayan culture, the show shifted into various musical and dance traditions from around Mexico. It was really cool to see the variety and intensity of all the dances and songs. A couple of the drum-based numbers were so loud and rhythmic that the baby was kicking Margaret so much she was having to constantly shift herself to keep from getting hurt! The show concluded with a tribute to Mexican patriotism, where we learned the appropriate response to the cry "¡Viva Mexico!" as every time the announcer said it, the crowd screamed back "¡Viva!" That became our cry of agreement for everything... It IS useful, for example: "This Diet Pepsi is great!"... "¡Viva!"As we stumbled back to our hotel after an entire day at Xcaret, we were so thankful that America has similar places that can showcase its rich and varied culture... like Universal Studios, Olive Garden, and factory outlet malls.
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