Quintana Roo, Mexico

A map of our travels... we arrived in Cancun, Mexico on April 9, 2008 and flew home from San Jose, Costa Rica on June 11th, 2008.

These shots are from Xcaret theme park, an hour south of Cancun. The park is so expensive ($130 US just for admission, $165 if you plan to eat and use the bathroom!) that we went to a timeshare presentation and pretended to be interested just to get "free" entry to the park as a gift. It was worth it though, because the park was amazing...underwater river, snorkeling, gardens, dolphins, hammocks, animal preservation projects and a Mexican cultural show and village.
Sadly, it was owned by a large corporation and (according to a couple of waiters we met at the park) doesn't pay it's employees well. This is a recurring theme we noticed throughout our travels... foreign-owned businesses are the backbone of the tourism industry in Central America, which minimizes the financial benefit to the local population by putting them in subordinate roles, working for expats. We tried to support local busniess as much as possible, but found these services to be less reliable and less aware of what a tourist/backpacker wants (not in every case, we found some great local-owned businesses). Many of the foreign business owners we spoke to chalked it up to the locals' inability to travel which denies them the understanding of what travelers want.
The animals are all from the area and in the birds' case, they are part of a captive breeding program that's helping stabilize the population of some endangered species. They also grow tons of herbs, mushrooms and native plants and flowers.

Pumas in love... the breeding program in action ;>)

Even the urinals were wild!

"Portal to Heaven" there was a cool room here that carried sound...you could speak softly into the corner and hear it on the opposite side of the room.

Amazing fruit! (this is the 'before' picture of Bonnie's tan)
Isla Mujeres shipwreck

We saw this Chihuahua many times on Isla Mujeres, but never without her miniskirt.
Isla Mujeres has amazing sunsets...and you can watch the pelicans dive-bomb for fish in the video below.



With Raul at Siete Bocas cenotes. Roots around a cenote.
We did swim in them, though we used the ladder instead.
Sergio, Raul and Bonnie in a treehouse. Bonnie says "tweet tweet."
Spotted him just in time!