Cancun - Part 2

One of the days that we were in Cancun, we went to X-Caret.  It is a type of theme park similar to Marine World before Marine World had rides, but with some "experiences" you can pay extra money for:  swimming with the dolphins, snuba, sea trek, and various snorkeling outings.  There is also a "river walk" and lots of other animals and sea creatures to see.  There is a museum/house furnished as it might have been in colonial times and various entertainments.

We first went up in a tower-type ride that gave you a 360 degree view of the park:

The brightly colored buildings housed a museum that had rooms made up with antiques from the Spanish Colonial period

There was a greenhouse with some exotic flowers:

A butterfly pavilion:

We saw wild boar

and exotic birds:

There were cougars,

interesting entertainment, re-enacting Mayan traditional dances & ceremonies,

and caballeros.

This horse actually posed for me!

The surroundings were beautiful:

This was a traditional cemetery and looked so brightly colored that I thought it was just a model, but there were actual names and dates on the plots....

We went on a sea trek to a depth of 20' and looked really goofy:

In the evening there was a program in a huge arena that was like a mini opening ceremonies of the Olympics with songs and dances, costumes and pageantry that illustrated the history of the Mayan people.  It was difficult to get good pictures, but here are a few:

 These musicians could really play the bottles!  It sounded like a lot of marimbas.

 One of the performers

Dancers wearing some traditional costumes

The day before we came home, I went for a walk on the beach early in the morning.  I was hoping to see the pelican that I had seen the first morning that I had walked on the beach.  It had been about a mile down the beach, but I hadn't had my camera with me.  This time I was prepared.  And the pelican was considerate, because there he was right on the beach in front of our hotel.  Not long after I got out there, more pelicans joined him and at one time there were four of them.  They would soar high into the air and then turn and dive swiftly down into the water.

 These two did a synchronized dive, wingtip to wingtip.  I gave them a 10!

These next two pictures were taken as the pelican lifted off the water to start the dive again.

I felt like they were putting on a show just for my camera!