Thank goodness that Josh was feeling much better. His fever was gone and he had the energy to go on the excursion with us.
Our excursion was on the mainland so we caught a ferry from Cozumel Island to Playa del Carmen.
We went to the Rio Secreto (Secret River) in Playa del Carmen.
It's not too far from the town but was only discovered in 2006 because of the dense rain forest in the area. The river cavern is about 8 miles long and we toured less than 2 miles of it.
Our tour guide was Rodrigo. They keep the tour groups to 10 people maximum and run a few tours at a time in different areas of the river.
Before we went down into the ground, a Maya man did a small ceremony to ask permission to enter and blessing our journey.
And down we go.
The only lights in the cave were our headlamps and the flash of the photographer.
The photographer placed off-camera flashes in specific locations to light our family photos. This picture looks bright but it was very dark in there.
In this location, Rodrigo had us sit in the water, close our eyes and turn off our headlamps. After about 15 seconds, we opened our eyes to complete darkness. We sat quietly and listened the the sounds of the cave.
As we turned on our lights and looked up, we could see this mass of stalactites hanging from the ceiling. It looked like a natural, massive chandelier to me. They named the area "the heart".
Some areas of the river were too deep to touch bottom so we had to float along.
The water was absolutely crystal clear. It was also a bit chilly so we wore wetsuits.
We spent about 90 minutes down in the Secret River. The whole cave was absolutely stunning. Everywhere you looked was breathtaking. The time went by too quickly.
We ate a homemade, authentic Mexican lunch after our river tour. There was rolled tacos, rice and beans, tamales and a delicious lime soup that I still think about and have tried to mimic at home twice already.
Carley caught a quick nap on the way back to town. I think she was a little tired.
We made the mistake of walking along the tourist shop street. "Familia, it's my turn. Come and look at my store." We didn't end up buying anything.
We should have been playing on the beach instead of walking the shopping area. The weather was cloudy and windy but still quite warm. By the time we got to the beach, it was time to get back on the ferry to Cozumel.
The weather got worse. We started sitting outside on the ferry but moved inside once it started raining heavily. The view from inside the ferry was sea, sky, sea, sky, over the course of the trip. Thank goodness we had taken our Bonine that day.
Once back on the boat, Carley went to her Camp Carnival to have dinner with kids. Afterwards they played games. She hung out there until 9:45 when it closed.
Walt and I got to drinking.
Walt, Josh and I had dinner together. Then we hung around on the pool deck playing chess and watching the ocean go by.
The mellow evening was a perfect end to a fabulous day. I think this was the point we started getting the hang of vacation.
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