The Bubble and Beads Tour, October 2010 About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Douglas! Love the pictures and the costumes! Fun times with all that drink and food!

[lauriep]

You two look great in your costumes! Sounds like Craig did a really good job with his karaoke turn. So great that the Cruise Critic crowd was such fun!

[pamcarey]

Great update! Sounds like a really fun day with a fun group of people!

[Mickey Mama]

Great costumes! It sounds like y'all met a great group of people on your cruise. I can't wait to read the next installment.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by chezp

What a fun end to a great day! Kudos to Craig in doing the karoake - sounds like it went quite well.... I must admit I had my heart in my mouth reading that, after what you said about him and alcohol!

Yeah, I didn't know how it would go because I really wasn't paying attention to his sobriety level. He just is not a drinker. It affects his body rather adversely and sometimes disrupts his sleep for days at a stretch. He is definitely cautious and I knew that he would be careful. But as I described a little goes a long way with him so there was the potential for this to be quite the entertaining debacle.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great update Douglas! Love the pictures and the costumes! Fun times with all that drink and food!

Thanks! Since we will be in NOLA for Halloween we will be getting more use out of those costumes. I think we should have better pictures of us in them then. We shall see. I haven't even looked at editing those pictures yet, cropping and such.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by lauriep

You two look great in your costumes! Sounds like Craig did a really good job with his karaoke turn. So great that the Cruise Critic crowd was such fun!

Lauriep, we truly lucked out with the Cruise Critic crowd. Joy is a veteran Carnival cruiser. She said we were the most fun group she has ever come across in all her time cruising.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Great update! Sounds like a really fun day with a fun group of people!

That's exactly what it was!

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by Mickey Mama

Great costumes! It sounds like y'all met a great group of people on your cruise. I can't wait to read the next installment.

Thank you so much! There were all sorts of great people we met on this trip. Craig was very happy that we didn't have anything like the "alpha tourist" experience that we encountered in Peru. I think he might have been a little leery of this meeting of the Cruise Critic people, but we both felt they made the trip even better for us.

[DouglasE]

Craig dancing away in the Hollywood Disco alongside the winner of the costume contest, the Charm School Drop Out





When we got back to our room we were greeted by tonight's towel animal:



Thursday, October 28, 2010 - Cozumel Revisited


It is a wonderful, beautiful morning as our ship docks safely into Cozumel, Mexico. Now since this is the second visit to Cozumel I could have gone with my original plan to visit the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum. I guess I just didn’t feel like spending a day separated from Craig. I mean we spend so much time apart I felt it was important to get as much face to face time as I could. Craig had decided on a Carnival sponsored excursion to the Mainland of Mexico. The description sounded appealing to me and I decided to book the same excursion via our room’s television. While this is a handy way of booking shore excursions, the set up is very awkward. It seems to take quite a bit of time to move your little cursor on the screen. Be patient because I think it is worth it to avoid a line at the shore excursion desk.

We grabbed a quick breakfast on the Lido deck and then got prepared to disembark the ship. Once again the early risers got off early. We were one of the first people to arrive on board a ferry that would take us from the island of Cozumel to the mainland of Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. We patiently waited and checked out the other ships that were docked at Cozumel. Today, we were neighbors to the Carnival Ecstasy and Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas. On the ferry, the staff had various ways to part the passengers from their pesos. There were all sorts of tacky souvenirs to buy as well as snacks and beverages. Not the least of which were shots of Tequila. It’s a little after 8 am and I just wasn’t up to having any tequila just yet. I mean I had read on the message boards about how choppy and rough the ride over to the mainland can be. Who needs to compound that with alcohol? Besides Craig and I lean toward the frugal side and weren’t about to spend money at this point. Eventually, we load up the ferry with folks and speed our way through the waters of the Caribbean Sea to make our way to the vacation destination of Playa del Carmen.



Carnival Ecstasy and Triumph






Radiance of the Seas






Craig and I aboard the ferry to Mainland Mexico





As we begin our journey we get an up close look at the Radiance of the Seas. The use of blue-green glass is very appealing to me. It appears to be slightly smaller than the Triumph. Craig and I had gone up to the top deck of the ferry where we are exposed to the fresh air and can get a clear view of our surroundings. After we have been onboard the ferry for a bit we are greeted by a young man in his early to mid twenties. He greets us all warmly and then takes out a guitar and serenades us as we ply the waters making the trip go all that more quickly. For me it was a fun ride and I did not experience any motion sickness at all. Craig didn’t experience any difficulties either. I was lead to believe that the trip would take about 45-50 minutes, but I think we got to Playa del Carmen in about 30 minutes. We easily found our contact for our excursion carrying a sign and we formed two lines to head into the resort town. There were about 14 of us. As we marched our way to the beach resort of Playa del Carmen I noticed the huge long lines of people waiting to start their journey to Tulum. I always prefer small tour groups, the smaller the better. So I was happy to note that I wasn’t going to be amongst the mobs of people sure to invade Tulum from the Radiance, the Ecstasy, and the Triumph. I figure that the three ships combined meant that about 6700 people were visiting the Yucatan from these ships.



Radiance of the Seas:






Our ferry ride entertainment

[DouglasE]

Views from the ferry looking towards Playa del Carmen:









My first impressions of Playa del Carmen were extremely positive. I told our guide and Craig that I was all ready to move here. He laughed and said that I could get a job very easily here and that I should do just that. It was very tempting. I think the sun and the temperatures in the low to mid 80’s just helped my whole attitude. Playa del Carmen had serious charm. As I write this in the midst of a cold winter I yearn for a lazy day at the beach. Our guide tells us a little bit about Playa del Carmen as we make our way to a van.

The van loads all of us in and we get whisked off down a very modern, multi lane, wide highway (route 307 for you savvy travelers). We take this highway for about 10 minutes. Then we exit off and suddenly we are immersed in a jungle. While the road isn’t paved like the highway it is fairly sizeable and clear. It is definitely more hospitable to motorized vehicles than the road we had taken in Roatan to Upachaya. But on either side of our van is a dense, lush greenness of vegetation. Since we are on a small road our speed isn’t as fast. It takes us another ten minutes and then we are all dropped off at our destination.

Ground transportation for our excursion



This is the home of Rio Secreto Reserva Natural. They are a 100% Mexican owned organization. I was not aware of this secret destination before and now I get to share it with you. I’m sure it will not be a secret for long. They really should come up with a different name for this place. Originally it was called Pool Tunich. I think they should have just kept that name, but Rio Secreto is more dramatic and probably would draw more interest from travelers like me. We are here to explore a cave and cavern system below the earth’s surface. Most caves found in the Yucatan are underwater, and if you want to explore them, you must receive specialized training in cave diving. I don’t know about Craig but I have never gone diving and do not have diver certification. So I would not be able to explore most Yucatan caves. However, Rio Secreto has more than 7.5 miles of semi-sunken cave mapped out with 15 natural outlets located in different areas. An underground river flows miles beneath the earth and we will be traveling along the river to uncover the wonders of this cave and cavern system.



The first thing that happens is that we say good-bye to our driver and are handed off to the Rio Secreto staff. They divide us into two separate groups of 7 members each. To ensure the environmental sustainability of this national treasure they limit the amount of visitors that go through at a time. We all are asked to use an outdoor shower to wash off sun block, soap, and other surface stuff on our skin. Next, we are provided a locker to store our personal belongings including my t-shirt and camera. Before the trip I had purchased a personal storage container that hung around my neck. In it I stored my credit & debit card, my identification, some cash, and my sail and sign card. That I kept on my person. We were given water shoes and a helmet with head lamp attached. There were different versions of the head lamp and we all played around with ours to see how they operated and made sure they could work. The final step before we entered the caves was to be outfitted with a wet suit. The river that we would explore has waters that are quite cold. The wet suit went over my swim suit and storage container.

Our guide has been exploring caves like these around the world for 15-20 years. He barely looked older than 30 so he must be quite a bit older than he appeared. His English was very good and it was easy to understand him. He explained that the Rio Secreto was discovered only five years ago and has only been open to the public for the past two years. In order to be able to maneuver through the river and the caves safely and not to disturb the environment with our touch we would be joined by a professional photographer who had the equipment that could take great pictures in settings that had hardly any light. Think of it as a Disney Photopass photographer documenting your exploration of a Disney park. This segment of my story will have the best photographs of the entire trip.

Before we journey down, the photographer takes a group shot of us in the jungle. A path has been laid out to safely walk through the jungle. Our guide tells us that we should not touch anything because there are poisonous plants in this jungle. Think of a horrific case of poison oak or ivy. Plus, there are various critters living in the jungle. Just stay on the path and don’t touch!


The Rio Secreto tour group




Our guide leads the way:

[DouglasE]

Earthen stairs lead the way through a hole in the ground. We descend into the dark and make our way into the cavern system. Our guide told us this was exactly how this was discovered. Some guy just found a hole in the ground and went below. Rather unsafe idea if you ask me!



Craig enters the cave system with me right behind him





We travel along a shallow water way. Why did we need wet suits for this, I wondered. We carefully make our way to a cave that is immense. It is littered with stalactites. You have the ceiling of the cave that has water that falls drip by drip. The drips of water carry calcium carbonate or limestone. When the drop falls, it leaves behind a thin ring of calcite. Each drop that forms and falls deposits another calcite ring. Eventually, these rings form a very narrow, hollow tube commonly known as a soda straw stalactite. Soda straws can grow quite long, but are very fragile. If they become plugged by debris, water begins flowing over the outside, depositing more calcite and creating cone shaped stalactite. The same water drops that fall from the tip of a stalactite deposit more calcite on the floor below, making rounded or cone-shaped stalagmites. Given enough time, these formations can meet and fuse to create columns. This takes like forever to form. So the caves and caverns that we are seeing today have been in the making for literally thousands of years. But we are among the first lucky few who get to see these amazing sights







Limestone is a type of absorbent rock that results from a sedimentation and fossilization process started tens of millions of years ago on the floor of the sea. Limestone originates from the remains of mollusks, coral and other marine reef life. It is so hard for me to grasp how long it took to create the sights that I now get to enjoy.

[DouglasE]

We learn about the stalactites and stalagmites, the columns and other formations like drapes or drapery and curtains. These formations look pretty much like the everyday items from which their names derive. We also see examples of formations made from water splashing called popcorn.





















Eventually, the river widens and we take a step forward and the water becomes deeper. The water gets deeper and deeper and when I stand it comes up to my chin. One of our fellow explorers is not adept at swimming. Our guide leads her along with a floatation device. So even if you can not swim don’t worry about it. She had just as an amazing time as me. One of our tour members was celebrating her birthday today. She was incredibly exuberant and thought this was the most incredible birthday gift. All day long she just exclaimed how amazing this exploration of the caves was. She was right. It truly was amazing.











popcorn!

[DouglasE]

Besides the rock formations we discovered wildlife living in the caves. We saw bats fly out of a hole in the ceiling. We saw fish with no eyes. We saw quite a number of unique wildlife lurking in the dark. When I say dark I kid you not. At one point our guide had us sit in a lake like portion of the river in a large cave. We all turned off our headlights. It was utterly pitch black. We all were completely silent and all we heard was the drip, drip, drip of the water. The air was cool and comfortable. I did not feel claustrophobic at all. Although, we did have a number of tight squeezes as we made our way through the rock formations. Truly, I do not recommend this if you are very sizable.

The blind fish







Our tour through the system went on for about a half mile and lasted for a couple of hours. At one point our guide demonstrated how important it was to wash ourselves before we explored the caves. He shone a flashlight onto the water to pick up all of the itty bitty bits of sediment floating in the river. Basically, it was a film of limestone skimming along the surface. He then wiped a finger across his face and gracefully touched the surface of the water. The sediment was repelled and moved away quickly in a quickly spreading circle. That’s just from the naturally occurring oils on your skin. It floored me how just our presence disrupted the natural ecosystem. The Rio Secreto people are very, very concerned about trying to preserve the integrity of these caves. Environmental sustainability are bywords here. Some of what we saw looked to me like something from a science fiction movie set on an alien world. At one point we saw stalactites shimmering in the light of our headlamps. This was because the light was captured by the tiny droplets that were on the surface of the rock. The cones just shimmered in the light.

[DouglasE]

We made our way back to the surface and the jungle colors were vivid. We had spent so much time in the darkness that the jungle seemed to come to life. Once we got back to headquarters we returned our water shoes, wet suits, and helmets. We changed back into our street clothes. My swim suit that I wore as shorts were completely dry due to the wet suit. I never was uncomfortable at all. The water just seemed cool to me. I never was shivering. When I opened my storage container everything was just fine. The paper money was a bit damp, but just fine, not soaking wet at all. It did a decent job of protecting my valuables. At this point we were lead to a room that had numerous computer terminals where they could identify the pictures that were taken so they could create a CD of pictures for you that featured you. There were all sorts of souvenir packages that you could purchase. I chose to purchase a CD of the pictures that were taken from our exploration plus pictures of the wildlife that we saw in the jungle and in the caves. It was a bit on the pricey side. However, I feel it was worth it. If memory serves me right it was roughly $50-60 USD. While we waited for the CD’s to be made we were treated to a lunch made with locally produced food and beverages. At the same time we filled out a questionnaire about our experience to give some feedback. I had a bunch of local fruit and made myself a simple sandwich. There was a serviceable pasta salad. I enjoyed a local beverage that reminded me of a coconut drink. They also gave us a shot of a local liqueur. One of the souvenir packages included bottle(s) of this liqueur. The birthday girl bought three whole bottles! She definitely has celebration in mind today. Craig purchased a sport shirt that wicks away moisture with the logo of Rio Secreto on it. I would have loved to get one of those as well, but I spent more money than I had planned on the CD of pictures as it was.





Soon after lunch we all loaded ourselves into the van. Just before popping in I made sure to give my guide a tip for his amazing work. I wish I could have given him more money but I had only brought so much.

Our journey to the center of the Earth was a-mah-zing! If you are planning to go to the Yucatan I highly encourage you to plan a trip to visit the Rio Secreto Reserva Natural. They have different tours available. We were on their shortest tour. If I were arranging things independently I would make arrangements for a longer tour. It was that wonderful. This was my favorite excursion by leaps and bounds.

NEXT: “Craig, I think this is a security officer and he is telling us in his not so polite Spanish that we are trespassing”.