Since sitting on the beach just isn’t our thing, we have ventured to exploring the various cenotes in the area.  Cenotes are sinkholes.  The majority of the Yucatan Peninsula sits on a bedrock of limestone.  All of the rivers are underground and travel through the limestone.  As a result, cave diving is a big hit here.  The cenotes are holes in the limestone where the water is exposed and where the the cave divers enter the cave systems.  In addition this is where some of the only exposed rock is to be found.  The cenotes around Playa del Carmen are often set up as little parks for people to go and swim in.  Often times there is nice natural landscaping and pathways set up to take you from one location to another, usually in a slightly run down sort of way. I’ve been trying to climb at each of the cenotes.  Luck has been variable with what I’ve found.  In each case there seems to be something preventing it from having decent climbing area.  The first cenote we visited was a random jungle one off the road.  We walked for about 5 mins down a tiny trail.  I was promptly stung by a bee, and we both tromped through a patch of stinging nettles.  It was an instant disaster.  We ran away. Another prohibiting factor is having to swim through water before getting on the sharp limestone.  This is a quick recipe for cuts and scrapes. The rock seems to be either chossy, slimy, fragile, or featureless.  Sometimes you can find all of these characteristics. In this photo, after getting cut on the sharp rock, there was a big iguana waiting for me in the crack just above my hand. I survived with my fingers, but it gave me a little scare. Climbing that little piece of rock was way harder than it looked. It took me half a dozen tries.

Zane has taken to catching fish with plastic bags.  I know it’s sounds strange, but the fish are pretty tame and so he is able to get the plastic bag underneath them and scoop them up.Many of the cenotes feature jumping off points with a leap of 12-15 feet.  After some encouragement Zane has taken to enjoying jumping off of these.One of the amazing things about the Cenotes is how clear the water is.  Sometimes you can’t tell if it’s 2 feet deep or 15.  Once underwater, you can just about see across the whole pond.  The Dos Ojos Cenotes featured all sorts of underwater stalactites and cave features, lots of small fish, and beautiful rays of sunshine sparkling into the water.  It was pretty amazing.  Under the water, you could see cave divers with their lights swimming through the caves.

We went to club/bar for an ex-pat halloween party this halloween. Very nice people. See if you can find us in the photos.

Click here for the Halloween Photos

I (Jason) turned quite a few heads while walking through down town.

Fuera del Servicio means “waiting to be fixed”.  This is a sign I see everywhere.  In fact I think the term could apply to the whole Riviera Maya.  I went to use the bathroom at the ADO bus station tonight and there was a sign on the door that read “Fuera del Servicio”.  A large number of the machines at the gym that we work out at have paper signs taped to them reading “Fuera del Servicio”.  In fact the same machines have had those signs on them for the entire month we’ve been working out there.

It often seems like everything is broken here.  After a little time here I have begun to understand to some degree.  Things just aren’t built with much forethought in mind.  Of course the roof will leak if the drain is placed at the highest point.  The motorcycle breaks, the washing machine stops working, it’s just one thing after another.

This statement could apply to much more.  There is so much building going on in Playa del Carmen that “Fuera del Servicio” could mean awaiting to turn every square inch of this place into a condominium complex.  I think “Fuera del Servicio” could apply to the entire coastline having every square inch of the coastline filled with hotels and resorts.  For these last two things to occur, I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long.

I wrote this article while waiting for a plane to Monterey.  It was a major challenge to find the correct booth witch didn’t open until just before the flight time.  Upon getting to the gate, we found out that the flight was cancelled because there was not enough people on it.  The direct bus from Playa del Carmen to the Airport was no longer running so we had to go into Cancun and switch buses.  The cell phone would not work, even though it had a good signal so we could not call the people we had arranged to pick us up at the airport.  We arrived home at one in the morning wiped out, and demoralized.  Another “Mexico Day”.