Cancun is a beautiful tourist resort that everybody knows. We are so excited to get the opportunity to visit Cancun with an exchange of our Westgate timeshare unit. Oct. 27th Saturday, we left home around 1PM, took the US Airways flight at 3:30PM, to get to Charlotte NC, but got delayed there for almost 2 hours. The direct distance between Florida and Cancun is only one and half hours’ flight. But it took us about 10 hours to get there.
From the cabin's window, I watched the star-lit night sky, recalled my first trip from China to Jacksonville 18 years ago. Charlotte was the connection city then. Time flies and it is not easy for us to start enjoying the international vacation after so many years' hard work. Oct. 28th Sunday, the daylight saving ended for the summer in Mexico, this is one week earlier than the US. For the time being, there are 2 hours time difference between Cancun and US EST. In the morning, we woke up to be stunned by the extremely beautiful ocean view from our master suite sliding doors. (The previous night, we arrived at our resort too late to see anything beyond the gorgeous pools and resort buildings.) We walked along the sea shore on the one of the most impressive white sand beaches in the world. We felt that Cancun is even more beautiful than Hawaii. This is why we met so many Americans who return to their home resort here year after year, some for more than two decades. And Royal Mayan Resort where we stayed is the best resort we have ever exchanged during our 15 years of timeshare ownership. We have two full luxurious units with elegant Mayan patterns carved on the doors, the floors are paved with artistic marble tiles and the blue sea can be seen in almost all directions from our unit. We were very much thrilled with the high quality of our first vacation day here in Cancun. Oct. 29th Monday was a windy day. It was sunny in the morning, but cloudy in the afternoon. This was not related to the hurricane Sandy, which would make landfall in that evening. Hurricane Sandy is America's biggest storm in 70 years. Our hearts went out to Mendy who is living by the Hudson River. We contacted her and got to know she already evacuated to a safe place and worked from a friend's home.
We left on Saturday and all flights were canceled on Sunday due to Hurricane Sandy. So we could still come to see the scenery and have the nice weather on the beach in Cancun. We took a bus ride to downtown. On the way, we observed the exotic plants, resorts, shops, restaurants, etc. We had a Mexican style lunch at a busy shopping area. We really felt lucky because we could enjoy all these while people were suffering at places stricken by Sandy. Oct. 30th Tuesday, we had a one-day tour to Chichen Itza, where many Mayan ruins exist. The best known of them is “El Castillo,” also known as the Temple of Kukulkan, with a look similar to the Egypt pyramid. However, it is not a burial place of mummies. Instead the structure and the hidden structure inside (a temple inside temple) express the contents of two different calendars. The outside temple has in total 365 steps for the 365 days in the Mayan calendar, while the hidden temple is for Haab calendar, which has 18 months. The cycles of the two different calendars would meet completely every 52 years. El Castillo in Chichen Itza is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. For a thousand years, the slanting rays of the setting sun have played a spectacular shadow and light game with this great Mayan pyramid. During the equinoxes, at the appointed hour, the shadow of the Feathered Serpent, Kukulcan appears on the northern stairway...and vanishes. (http://www.world-mysteries.com/tok_anim1.swf), (http://www.world-mysteries.com/chichenitza_sn.htm). The ruins there demonstrate the advanced architectural achievements of the Mayans, as well as their knowledge in mathematics, geometry and astronomy. The Mayan calendar also gives the prophecy of the “final day (12-21-2012)” of the world. It is very meaningful for us to visit Chichen Itza in 2012. Oct. 31th is American Halloween, and it is also a very special Mexican festival: Día de muertos (Days of the Dead). In this unique cultural celebration, deceased relatives are remembered and honored in cemeteries and family homes. Festivities take place throughout the country. On this special day, we visited the Xcaret which is a majestic archaeological park located in Riviera Maya, Cancun in the Mexican Caribbean Sea shore. This special event had added a lot of mystic flavor to Xcaret park. For examples, there were a lot of chrysanthemums and skulls around a playground decorated as a cemetery. And near the main entrance there was a tomb stone displaying how many days remaining before the “final day” (as predicted by the Mayans) would arrive. 
The Xcaret is also a popular water park, where people can have all sorts of fun such as visiting a coral reef aquarium, a butterfly pavilion, swim and dive in underground rivers, beaches and natural pools even with dolphins and have countless attractions and activities that will make you live magical experiences. We stayed in the park whole day and enjoyed a two and half hours’ show at night, with more than 300 actors on stage, resulting in a musical journey through the history of Mexico since pre-Hispanic times to the present day, with all the colorful costumes, folklore and dancing. At Xcaret, one of the best Cancun attractions, we enjoyed ourselves while discovering the natural and cultural wealth of Mexico. It is worth mentioning that, while we were on the tour bus, my elder brother called from China to inform me of my niece Xingxing's giving birth to a boy. He is the first one from the 3rd generation in the family from my point of view. For my mom, it means 4 generations living together in the family. It is noticeable that the boy was born exactly one year after his parents’ wedding. Nov. 1st Thursday, we had a fun & romantic getaway by joining the Columbus sunset lobster dinner cruise. A group of tourists including newlyweds on their honey-moon, old couples celebrating their anniversaries and birthday celebrants set sail for an enchanting evening on a classic Spanish sailboat, in the picturesque waters of Cancun’s Lagoon at sunset. People savor the tantalizing flavors of fresh lobster and steak, and drink in the soft sounds of a live sax. After dinner, people danced on the deck under lighted sign of Love. It recreated the most romantic moments of everyone’s life and brought sweetest memories to us. This was indeed an unforgettable evening. On the other hand, sunrise in Cancun is equally impressive. I recalled that we had to climb the mountain and walk a long way to see the sunrise at Lu-Shan Mountain during my college years. Now, from the comfort of our master suite, we could watch the rising sun jumping out of the most stunning coastline every morning. We trekked the waves on the sea shore under sunrise and sunset glow quite a few time to expose ourselves to such magnificent scenery. Nov. 2nd. The Mayan Museum of Cancun is next door to our resort. The opening ceremony was held on Nov. 1st and the president of Mexico came to cut the ribbon. That was why we saw a lot of soldiers and policemen around the museum on that day and the day before. So we got lucky to get a chance to visit the museum before we left Cancun. It is a very modern construction with a huge garden. Its displays concentrate on the early histories of the Mayan people, their arts, religions and the Spanish conquest. By the way, the Spanish language is the most widely used in North-America, Mesoamerica and South-America. Spanish is the official language on this part of the world except for Canada, USA and Brazil. We learned several Spanish words such as: ¡hola (hello), amigo (friend), buenos días (good morning), ¡muchas gracias (thank you very much), viva (cheers), adios (good bye). And I learned a Spanish sentence years ago when I visited a Spanish family: mi casa es tu casa (my house is your house) :) Nov. 3rd. We can hardly tear ourselves away from this beautiful resort and sea shore. We are leaving the white sand beach, blue ocean, golden sunrise, the sea wind and waves ... behind. And we are returning to the sunshine state from the "Sun Country". Before we came to Cancun, people warned us of the dangers of drug dealing and other crimes and asked us if we were afraid. Now, after a week visit, we know that it is safe if you are smart enough in tourist Cancun even though drug dealing has found its way into this area. Compared to the border areas of Mexico, it is still a lot safer in Cancun and that is why many American tourists keep coming back year after year. We have heard stories about the father of an old lady: he visited Cancun every year till his 90's and he asked his ashes be thrown to ocean in Cancun. We will go back to Cancun again with my mom, Jason and Mendy sometime later, so as to eliminate the pity this time for us to fail to bring them along. |
