I thought you would all like it best if I spread out my vacation posts instead of bombarding you with ten posts all at once. The only other thing I really want to share with you is the awesome excursion we did while we were in Riviera Maya. While we enjoy staying on the resort to relax most days, the Husband goes a little stir crazy and needs to get out and do something. The four of us all wanted to do an excursion together, so we chose something that would be safe for Dani to do as well since she’s pregnant.
We booked an all day snorkeling excursion with Mayan Adventure, and I highly recommend it. Our shuttle came bright an early at 8:00 AM, and Jesus was our guide. He cracked me up with his “Jesus jokes” and about how we were in good hands since we were with him. He had us laughing all day long. He did tell us people can recommend him, so if you ever go on this tour, definitely ask for him.
The thing I really liked was how small our group was – there were 8 of us in total, so we were able to have a very personalized tour. The tour included three snorkeling locations, and the first stop was to the ocean! We drove about a half hour, and when we arrived, we got our gear, and headed to the water.
We actually bought the CD of pictures they took throughout the day and there were also some stock photos on the CD as well – since I didn’t bring my camera with, we figured it was a good idea. This was the first place we snorkeled –our guide told us it was about a two mile swim roundtrip, which blew our minds! It really didn’t feel like it was that long. At this location, we saw a lot of different fish, a few sea turtles, and a sting ray! It was pretty cool to see those sea animals up close and personal.
After we returned from our two mile swim, we headed to our next location, which was a cave.
It was fresh water – and FREEZING! It was really neat to see all the stalagmites and stalactites, which we learned grow one inch every 100 yeas. The water went down incredibly deep and there were rocks that seemed to go down forever.
After we spent about a half hour in the cave (you couldn’t spend too much more time in there than that – it was cold!), we stopped for some lunch. Mayan Adventure has a restaurant on site, and the food was absolutely delicious and authentic. I filled up on veggies, rice, guacamole, and refried beans.
Our last stop wasn’t as much of a snorkeling site as it was just plain fun. It was a fresh water pond that was incredibly deep – they had a zip line into the water as well as a 20 foot jump.
We were given about an hour to swim/play around, which I spent most of my time basking in the sun.
The day was incredible, and I’m really glad we lucked out with such a great guide!
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Authentic Mexican food is the best! Looks like some beautiful scenery.
ziplining wedgey!
What fun! Great picture of you two!
Great pictures! Sounds like a great time.
It might just be the picture - but you and John look so much alike! That’s good - you’ll know what your children will look like!
I seriously almost couldn’t read this post—- I want an adventure and a vacation soooooo bad!
That all sounds so amazing! Once in a lifetime experiences!
Okay, if I wasn’t DEATHLY afraid of snorkeling (long story) I would be bookmarking this excursion. Did you guys do any others? We definitely want to do some when we are there.
It’s all so serene and natural. Sometimes I’m sad that we don’t have anything that breath-takingly brilliant a little closer to home (North America has very picturesque places, but nothing there’s just something about the tropics, you know what I mean … but I guess that’s what makes it special)!!
This all sounds like so much fun - especially the pond with the zip line and jumps! Although to be honest I’d probably be too scared to jump from that high!
This sounds like such a fun excursion choice! I haven’t been snorkeling since I was a kid!
Love reading all your recaps. So happy you guys had such a great time !!
that looks amazing!
AAAHAHAHAHAA omg I would have been making Jesus jokes all day! That’s fantastic, and the pictures are gorgeous!
haha I’m pretty sure we were - my favorite was when he was driving and started singing “Jesus take the wheel” or asking us if we’ve ever seen Jesus walk on water. Fantastic.
This seriously sounds like SO much fun! I’m craving a vacation now! Beautiful photos!
Do it! Preferably to Chicago!
That cave looks amazing! I was in the same area a few months ago and we were considering that same excursion. We ended up deciding to go to the pyramid at Coba, but this one looks like it would have been an awesome choice as well!
That sounds like a good one as well!
Those are gorgeous pictures!! I would love to go snorkeling some day, especially in a place as beautiful and scenic as where you were:) And those cave pictures are amazing; I love being inside caves and seeing all the stalactites and stalagmites-they are so fascinating.
Love going on excursions when traveling, especially when they just pan out, you luck out with a great guide, and you see things you’d never see otherwise. Looks fabulous!!
That looks amazing!!
Oh wow… That looks like it would be so much fun! And not to mention the scenery is gorgeous. I’ve never been snorkelling, but it’s on my list of things to do. And you and the hubs look great together
That does sound like a fun trip! I don’t know how I would feel about a two mile swim in the ocean, though! We went on a kayaking/snorkeling trip in Hawaii, and I was so paranoid that a shark would get our kayak…or us!
Sounds like such a fun trip! Such pretty photos. I’m a scaredy cat and would probably be a little afraid to jump from that high up
Such a cute picture of you two!!
Hey there! What a nice review
Thank you very much for sharing this with the world!
I love the Riviera Maya. We stayed in Puerto Adventures and traveled around to a couple places in the area.
Spooooky! I think I might be scared to swim in a cave:) I swam in college, but two of my biggest fears are deep water and dark water! Haha.
great blog, keep it up!
That looks like such an awesome trip! I’ve been dreaming of a vacation for a while now. I seriously need to just buckle down and plan one!
I did the same exact Mayan excursion when I was in Mexico a few years ago! It is SO much fun and a great experience! Did you see all the bats in the cave when you went? There were hundreds when we were in there! It was a little scary haha. The zip line that we did was the only difference. Ours had two and the first one was through a jungle and the second was into this cave of FREEZING water. I’m pretty sure it was in the same area as the first cave because both were very cold lol. It looks like you guys had a blast!