Vacation Day 4

Apologies for taking so long between vacation day posts. Sometimes life gets a little hectic. But back to Cancun (especially for all of you who look outside and see lots of snow on the ground!)

Having covered quite a bit of ground and adventures over days 2 and 3 of our vacation, day 4 was set aside to relax and enjoy ourselves. In other words, being in the sun and next to the ocean, it was a day for going outside, laying around, and in general, catching our breath and letting our bodies relax. We slept late that morning, which was really needed since the previous two days had involved a lot of walking and activity (17,000 steps one day according to Carrie's pedometer).

So our morning, once we got going, consisted of lounging out by the pool. However, on the way to the pool, we met a friend. Okay, not so much a friend, but something kind of cool to see. This little black bird was munching on a chicken bone in the portico outside our room. He didn't seem too afraid of people, since he let us get pretty close, and even seemed to pose for Carrie. We wondered if he was a native species.

But then, it was time for some serious relaxing. The pool was great, but both of us can only lay around for so long. So, after about two hours of reading and jumping in, we headed across the street for lunch. You may recall El Shrimp Bucket, which was our destination for lunch. They had a pretty nice buffet, and so we filled up on some great Mexican prepared seafood. There was a decent breeze coming in off the lagoon, so we ended up moving tables from the patio to inside the restaurant.

After lunch, we decided to take a little walk along the beachfront right in front of our hotel. The nice white sand was warm under our feet, and our hotel, like all the ones along the water, had lots of places to lay around. Here's how our hotel looked from the beach. Looks pretty big, doesn't it?
We walked along the edge of the water and let it splash on our feet. However, the beach here is not like what you may expect. Usually, when I think of the beach, I think of the sand being fairly flat all the way up to where it meets the water. However, here on the island, right before the water was a large drop-off of about 7-8 feet. The bottom of the drop-off marked how far ashore the waves would come, and on the side, you could see where lots of people would write their names. We even saw some kids building forts and the like in the sand up against the wall. As you look at this picture, that's the reason that I seem to be so far underneath Carrie. She stood on top to take this picture of me wading in the water.

The island curved around as you would make your way up to the top of the 7. In this picture, you can see all the resorts and people looking to the north from our hotel.
As we walked, we started to notice a lot of seashells. Carrie began to look for some nice ones, and we would rinse them out as the waves would come in. I ended up with a pretty large pocketful by the time we headed back to our room.

One of the things we enjoyed as we stood in the water was how the waves would wash the sand out from under our feet as the water returned to the ocean. We probably stood there, feeling it move right from under our feet, quite a few times, just to feel the sensation. Water is truly a wonderful sight, and a very powerful force.

That evening, we really did relax as we just hung out in our room. At one point, we turned on the TV for a few minutes and got taken in by a show we had never seen before. It was called "The Conveyor Belt of Love." A conveyor belt would bring in a guy, and the 4 girls who were choosing had to decide if they wanted to "keep" him. We watched for about 20 minutes, and laughed at how unique some people are, and what they would do for their 15 minutes of fame. Personally, I'm pretty glad that I don't have to do something like that for people to notice me.