Isla Mujeres October 5th, 2010

Isla Mujeres (Island of the Girls)

Two theories why this is named the Island of the Girls.

#1. When the Spainards found this Island they only found it full of women. All the men were fishing and the women were left alone.

#2. The Mayans worshiped Mary, the mother of God. They had Idols everywhere. It was one of the first things the Spainards saw on the Island. When the Spainards came they wanted to get rid of the Mayan's pagan ways, so they replaced them with theirown pagan Idols. They broke all the statues of the Idol Mary and replaced them with the famous Catholic Statue of Mary that was later adopted by Italy.

The whole name of the Island sounds a little worldly. Well, it was one of the worldliest tours we took. It was very fun, but I'm glad to have the standards in the church that we have.

The morning we did the tour the wind was tremendous. It was our last day of vacation or we would have waited for a calmer day. There were 5 foot swells the entire way to the Island. Mike stood with me at the front of the boat and I couldn't turn my head to the left or right, but I did pretty good as long as I looked forward. The boat ride to the Island took 1 hour.

We had people on the boat from Italy, England, Colorado, Texas, etc. It was a very friendly crew especially by the end of the day. They served free drinks, and Mike and I were the only couple aboard that didn't take full advantage of the service.

About fourty minutes into the tour they stoped in the ocean at a huge coral reef. They let us go snorkling. Mike loved it. My mask didn't fit right and my eyes kept filling with salt water. Personally riding those 5 foot swells didn't help my motion sick condition. The swells would also crash over my snorkle and I get a mouth full of salt water. It was beautiful though.

When we stepped off the boat at the Island, along the pier, before we had even walked on land, we had the opportunity to hold a Nurse Shark of $1.oo. He weighed about 160 lbs. Mike makes it look like it weighed 20 lbs. It was extremely aggressive and got away from everybody but MIke.

This is me with the shark wrestler. I can't believe how much work this man had to do. He had to swim after this shark about 25 times and wrestle it around as he handed it off to all the tourists. Less than 10 people aboard wanted to hold the shark. It was a fighter. This man wouldn't let me hold it by myself being pregnant. I thought it was kind and gentle of him.

This is a view of our boat from the buffet we ate at for lunch. There were about 27 people in our crew. Lunch was delicious. Rice, beans, tortillas, chips, salads, yum.

One of my favorite things about Mexico is the food. The salsa is so incredible.

The tour said it included an activity call the Spinnaker. Mike kept asking if we would be able to do this activity after lunch. They said that the wind was too bad. Usually they did this activity close to the shore of cancun where we boarded, but they didn't have permission this particular day because of the wind. Because of Mike's persistance they agreed to ancor the boat off the shore of Isla Mujeres, where no one could see us, and let Mike try out the activity. Of course Mike dove right in the water and up in the air he went. He even did a beautiful back flip to get off. Only about 5 or 6 people tried this activity. It looked awesome.

Mike, catching some major air.

Mike, taking advantage of some lemonade during the ride home. We were given an hour to go shopping while on the Island. We got Taylee the cutest little green dress and Tate a cute dolphin T-shirt. Shopping was a clostraphobic experience. They are quite the business men and women.

The ride home was not the greatest for me. I was doing fine until I went down below the deck to view some pictures. It took me a good 5 days to recover from the motion. The Italian sat and smoked a cigar the whole ride home and I just couldn't appreciate the beauty for a couple hours.

October 6th 2010. Taylee's Birthday, and the day we left Cancun. We called Taylee up and she was so cute. Tate and Grandma Debbie taught her how to show she was 2.

Our flight didn't leave until 4:30 so we were able to play 18 rounds of golf before we left our motel. By the 18th hole I was exhausted. You had to walk the course and it was so hot, but very fun.

Leaving Cancun is always sad, but thinking about the next adventure sure makes life exciting.