Mexico - Day 6

And here we are, our last full day in Mexico. It was another "my choice" excursion and I had booked us to drive dune buggies through the jungle with Rent Buggy Playa del Carmen. I was super excited for this but when we got there and had a look at the dashboard of the badass machine I'd be driving, I was a wee bit apprehensive. And, big surprise, there were only 4 of us booked on the tour!!!! For anyone considering a trip to Cancun/Playa del Carmen - go in mid to late January and book the morning excursions!

Once we fired up our mini-monster trucks, pulled on our goggles and pulled up our bank robber style bandanas, we headed out ... onto the HIGHWAY. Sweet Jesus, have they not seen us drive? And these vehicles don't have turn signals, power steering or very good brakes. I see why they made us sign a waiver before we were allowed to begin. 

After about 1/2 a kilometre we turned off onto a dirt road and headed into the jungle. The bandanas are an important piece of safety equipment. As it hadn't rained much for the past week, things were DRY. Dust managed to work its way under my goggles, in my clothes and every crack and crevice you can imagine. However, half the time I didn't wear mine because my goggles kept fogging up as if I was wearing a thick wool scarf in -30 weather instead of +30!  We did however manage to find two small puddles which we skirted on the way out but deliberately sped through on the way back. I didn't come all the way to not get dirty. And get dirty we did (click for video).

After about an hour, we were deep in the jungle and pulled off into a hidden spot just off the side of the track we were following, just big enough to squeeze the three buggies in. We hopped out and headed off into the trees along a barely visible trail, slowly heading downhill. About five minutes later, we ended up here. This was the the second most beautiful cenote we visited (in my opinion) - its hard to compare some of them but it was very close between this one and the underground bat cave cenote we visited on our zipline tour with Selva Maya Eco Adventures. Different but both surprising, relaxing and peaceful. Look at those colours!

There was no where to change as you're literally in the middle of the jungle, so we just stripped down and let the mosquitos have their way with us. Mommikins was the last to get changed and just as she was stuffing her girls into her bathing suit, three local men came down the path to go swimming. Pretty sure at least one of them got a good look but what are you going to do?! We swam around for about 45 minutes, had a quick snack and headed back to the buggies. 

Instead of going directly back to the starting point, we took a detour into what many would call a slum. Extremely poor locals were squatting on government land - we were told that they were so poor and receiving no help from the government whatsoever, the children have no school, births aren't registered and families are building houses literally out of anything they can find. The first stop was at a local market where for a few $$$ (100 pesos) we could purchase a small bag of food to hand out. Mommikins and I picked up two bags each (we had been hoarding our pesos for some reason...and spending our USD all week). 

A short ride later, followed by local children, we stopped by a large group of women and children waiting our arrival. The poverty was striking enough and tugged at your heart; however, the small size of our group, which we had been overjoyed at earlier in the day, broke your heart when you saw how many people were hoping to receive something. Normally their groups are a lot larger which means more help. As it was, it took a lot not to shed a tear or two. 

A couple of the kids had made bracelets for us which they tied on our wrists and others were selling brightly coloured dream catchers to help out their families. We were also introduced to Maria, a school teacher who volunteered her time to teach the children what she could given the lack of resources. We were so moved by the children (who kept hugging us and had the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen!) that when we got back to Canada, we emailed the company to see what we could to help out more.

An emotionally and physically draining day for both of us. This was a fun, exhausting, exhilarating week. To finish off our holiday, we decided to try the Brazilian restaurant at the resort, Fogo de Brazil. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to enjoy this as I generally don't eat a lot of meat when I travel, and I'm notoriously picky about meat even at home. Sure enough, I didn't enjoy any of the meats on sticks they had to offer with the exception of some sort of sausage which was fairly tasty. Even Mom who tried all the meats wasn't impressed until the very end when they brought out some sort of steak which she raved about. I was thrilled by the salad bar which was easily the best in the entire resort. Part of me wishes we had tried the restaurant earlier 'cause I would have eaten my weight in veggies. Mmmmm.

I posted this pic earlier - it was dessert at Fogo de Brazil. A banana crepe sauteed in rum I think with berries and vanilla ice cream. I almost died it was soooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Sigh, I will miss you banana crepe. You stole my heart.

The next day we hung around the resort until pick up to head to the airport around 3ish. To avoid the heat and humidity until we headed home, I hung out at the Elephant Bar near the check in and had a nap on the couches. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell anyone. A great trip and a wonderful introduction to Mexico.