Porter Family

The crocodile pier. Before reaching Coba, Juan Carlos stopped us at a crocodile pier. Sure enough, there was a crocodile. They are pretty intimidating that close. Mike kept wanting me to get closer for the picture.

Mike didn't get much closer than I did.

Pretty powerful creatures.

This was a scared building in Coba. Carlos told us a frightening story and showed us rooms that were no longer safe for anyone to enter in. He said, when you entered the rooms the feeling was so dark. Everyone he ever talked to felt the same way. The anthropologists and archaeologists have a theory that these rooms were where the priests would take women and not return for days. They were trying to create the perfect breed. Well, anything contrary to the way of the Lord leads to destruction. This lead to their destruction. There was a lot of jealousy because almost all of the offspring was of royal blood and they all felt like they deserved the throne.

Over Mike's left shoulder is an opening where you could get to the rooms I just mentioned above, but they will not allow anyone to enter because it is so dangerous now. Carlos doesn't ever want to enter again. He's not a bit sad.

These are archaeologists still working and digging on this structure that we're looking at. They are still finding many new finds.

This arena is where royalty played the ball game. If you'll notice, it is shaped like an upside down pyramid. Temples are shaped like right side up pyramids. Pyramids signify the way to get to heaven. An upside down pyramid leads to the underworld. The ball game a very deadly sport, but not so much for royalty. When a prince plays the game and wins, he only has to self inflict himself and give up his blood to the God. He sticks a dagger through his privates signifying posterity. So on the wall of the arena is a carving of a prince doing just that. SICK! It's unreal how the truth can get so twisted.

This is a picture to show the vegetation thriving and how it just engulfs a village here. Trees grow right on top of the rocks.

Here is a little creature that is much like a raccoon back home. He was very friendly. This lady had a drink and this creature came right up to her and started drinking straight from her bottle.

Mike and I at the top of the temple in Coba. It is the tallest temple in Mexico, next to the temple that Richard Hansen just discovered which could possibly be Zarahemla. I was thinking seriously about not climbing until someone said they were closing it to the public in two months because it was so steep and too many people were falling off. They had a huge rope going up the middle of the stairs to assist people.

At the bottom, Mike went around the side and began rock climbing up the side of the temple. Carlos hurried and called him down. He told us a story of two tourists who did that in Tolum and were thrown in jail and had to pay $900.00. Carlos didn't want to see that happen to us.

This is looking into the two rooms in the top of the temple. The inner room being the holy of hollies. There are usually three images carved on top of the temple that show Heavenly Father, KulKulcan (Jesus), and then the third image is blank (Holy Ghost).

This is a look at the side of the temple through the trees. I think Mike got a good picture of the temple on his cell phone.

This is a building where people came to pay taxes for using the roads. They Mayan build all there roads about two feet off the ground and they were completely level. They were incredibly well constructed roads. This prevented the roads from being flooded. Carlos showed us a scripture in the Book of Mormon that talked about the highways being level and built up. This city was so huge that we had to rent bikes to ride on their highways. It would take forever to just walk.

A cool building. We got to see some Mayan writing. Carlos showed us some of the similarities between the Mayan writing and the engravings on the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith had sent to Charles Anthon. We saw how Joseph wrote "Caractars" at the top of the page. When Charles Anton asked who was translating, and realized Joseph was the one who spells "Characters" so wrong, he was very offended that such an unlearned man was trying to translate.

They have bicycles there where you sit in a cushioned seat and a man from Mexico peddles you around. Carlos doesn't have to pay for those rides, but we did. He tried to get me to pay for a ride but it was too expensive. When I choice to ride my own bike, he decided to ride his own also. I have to admit, it was the most uncomfortable bike I have ever sat on. It had absolutely no padding in the seat. It sat funny. It was so old and rusty, and my hands smelled horrible after holding the handle bars, but it was awesome ridding a bike throw the Mexican jungle, in the heat of the day, being 5 months pregnant. Carlos complained the whole time. He kept saying he wasn't use to having to do all the peddling. His complaining made me all the stronger.

The Cenote

The entrance to the Cenote

Juan Carlos took us to a Cenote that was underground in a stalactite and stalagmite cave. It was absolutely fascinating. A cenote is like a spring that comes up out of the ground so it is fresh, crystal clear, beautiful water.

This picture is facing the wrong way, but the staircase went down forever. I was breathless after ascending out of the Cenote.

I left Mike about 45 feet above the water to go down and get a picture of him jumping. Look at all the stalactites. Incredible!

More formations!

Mike diving from about 25 to 30 feet.

Mike jumping from about 45 feet. Juan Carlos told us that the last time he dove off of this very platform, he couldn't hear anything for two weeks.

This was a couple from Sweden. They were there before us. He had jumped from the 25 foot platform and was complaining about pain. He was dang funny. After he saw Mike jump from the 45 foot one he said, "You know, you have to prove your manhood when you see another guy jump from a place you wouldn't even think to jump. I should have left while I was ahead." He climbed up and took quite awhile to decide if it was really worth it or not. I hope he didn't get too hurt. They left the second he got out of the water. I don't think they wanted to wait around to see what else Mike might do.

The "what else" Mike did was threw me in the water.

After a romantic swim.

Tolum

Post Classical Tolum
Post Classical era means a time when the Mayan's were facing extinction. They had used up all there resources, killed all of their kings and rulers, been forced to leave there cities and find new places to live. The stones they used to build their buildings were not so perfectly shaped. They were just put together to try and survive. They painted there buildings blue and red. Blue representing life, water and sky. Red representing blood and death. Two things that help you return back to your Heavenly Home. We are just entering Tolum and it was beautiful. I think it housed a community of 50,000 people.

Juan Carlos is explaining the extinction of the Mayans and the defeat of the Aztecs. First the Aztecs were forced to leave their own land in the North because their king thought they were a very low class people. He lead them for years towards the south. Soon they found a place that was covered with poisonous snakes. The king left them there hoping to cause their extinction. Years later the king returned to find a people thriving. They had eaten the snakes to survive and they concurred the land. When the King came to visit the Aztecs pointed out an eagle eating a snake. They had had a vision of an eagle eating a snake and knew this was a sacred place. The Mexican flag has an eagle eating a snake. Cancun actually means the nest of snakes.
The Aztecs began to rule the Mayans. Aztecs represent the eagle and the Mayans are represented by the snake. Years later a ship of Spaniards wrecked in Mexico. There were 6 survivors. Two survivors watched as four of their crew members were sacrificed and eaten as part of their religious service. (Eating the flesh and blood.) One became a servant and the other a slave. The servant saved the King from the mouth of a crocodile and was granted freedom and the hand of his daughter in marriage. He was the first to create a new breed. The other slave learned the language of Mayan and Aztec both and years later he escaped.

The escaped slave returned to his native land and led another expedition to America. Because he knew Mayan and the Aztec language he was able to communicate and become allies with the Mayans who wanted to overthrow the Aztecs. The Mayans helped the little Spaniard army defeat the great and powerful Aztecs.
Tolum was the first city the Spaniards sailed to when they began to concur Mexico with the help of the Mayans.

The building on the far right has the smallest hole chipped out of it's middle. During Winter Solsa and Summer Siesta the sun shines through the hole making a beautiful light show. The Mayans were incredible scientists and architects.

This is a painting on the inside of a wall that has not been too eroded from the sun's light. It is the mother Mary.

The painting is inside on the wall where you see the opening. This building has a two faces on the east and west corners of the building. The face above Mike's left shoulder represents Christ with a smile. The other represents Satan with a frown.

During the Post Classical Period, the Mayans build next to the sea shore to sustain life. During the Classical Period they built right in the middle of the jungle and used wood and lime stone to sustain a right looking city.

There is a reef that starts from Tolum continues to Guatemala. The biggest reef in the world. The Mayans used it as a wall to protect them from invaders. They cut a passage through a particular spot in the reef so they could go out to sea and fish or whatever. You could see where the passage was from the city because the waves crash over the reef and there are no waves where they cut the reef. From the other side, they had to wait for a certain time of night and the light through the building I showed you earlier acted as a light house showing how to get back home. The Spaniards see the passage from their side. They had to be let in and shown the way to the cit

The temple sits to my right shoulder.

The light house.

I can not remember how many entrances their are to this city, maybe 7, but it is just as Jerusalem is set up. There ancestors came from Jerusalem. The archaeologists not of our faith can not figure out why all the Mayan cities are set up just like Jerusalem, but they've definitely noticed the similarities to mention it a lot.

Beautiful Tolum. It was huge. An LDS archaeologist named Richard Hansen, from Pocatello Idaho, recently discovered a city that they have only begun to excavate. The base of the temple is bigger than the outer wall of Tolum. It is taller than any Pyramid in Egypt. He thinks it could possibly be Zerahemla.

This building is actually the home of a priest. It resembles a temple with an alter outside and two inner rooms with a holy of hollies. Carlos explained that the Mayans were in such apostasy at this time that the priests were building houses for their own connivance so they could perform all the temple ceremonies at home, without going to the temple seven times. Let me tell you, those priests were in mighty good shape if they had to climb to the top of the temple seven times a day. Those were the tallest, steepest stairs.

Leaving Tolum

Look at how the trees and vegetation is so abundant and just grows in the middle of the path, on top of city walls, etc.

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.