surprise adventure #2

Yes, I have a couple of vacation posts left...
I'll try to keep them picture heavy so you don't have to read a lot.

On Monday of our trip it was the Foulk's turn to take us on a surprise adventure.
They rented a car (brave!) and we drove south along the coast to see the ruins of Tulum.

Iguanas everywhere!

They paid for us to get a private guide, and he told us some fascinating things about the place.

They call this the "Temple of the Descending God."  It was so neat to hear what they said about the Mayan people and their gods and to see how it lined up with what we know from the Book of Mormon.

For example, the temple had three squares at the top with their gods in them.  The first square was the "all powerful god," the second was the "descending god" pictured upside down, and the third square was completely empty. Our guide said they don't know why the third box is empty.  He suggested that maybe someone had stolen the god statue out of the box before the ruins were discovered.

I wanted to tell him that we know what that box is for!  (The Godhead)

The beautiful and extremely crowded beach at the ruins.

It was incredibly hot and humid.  Kent does not like to be sweaty,

but he was a good sport

(maybe I forced him just a little),

 and he posed with me for the pictures.

And yes, he just carried that sunscreen around the whole time we were there.
Traveling without a diaper bag does have a few drawbacks.

Note: In this picture Kent is actually just pretending to be walking away. He was actually holding perfectly still.  I kinda really love this picture.

They have a traditional display/dance/ceremony where men climb this tower and then tie themselves to ropes and hang upside down while it spins around until they reach the ground.  It was pretty cool--that guy up at the top is playing a shrill flute and a teeny tiny drum.

As we watched, though, two other men dressed in the traditional costume walked around and asked for tips for the performers.
We literally had no cash with us, and we told them, but they stood in front of us  with their money bowl out and didn't believe us.  I finally motioned to my yoga pants and said "I have no pockets and no purse.
We have no money."

These men were dressed up all crazy and wanted you to pay them to take your picture with them (see the cash in his hands?)
There were also guys with iguanas and monkeys you could hold to take a picture with...but again, no cash.
Not that I would have paid for a picture with a monkey anyway. I was tempted though,
I mean, a monkey!

After the ruins we drove to the beautiful town of Tulum.
Tropical and lush. 

Alli took us to a vegan all-natural all-local restaurant in Tulum.  Complete with moccasin-wearing table waiter and bamboo plank flooring.
We might not have told the men that it was a vegan place until we were already there....but they really liked it!

The drinks menu, and "a secret note" for each of us...which turned out to be just the food menu.

Mango, papaya, pineapple, and mint juice.

After eating, we went to Akumal beach, ate ice cream, and then snorkeled with sea turtles.
Akumal beach was our favorite area from the whole trip.
It was beautiful, tropical, family friendly, and within half an hour of snorkeling we'd seen four or five big sea turtles.  There were people all around the beach trying to sell snorkeling tours to see the sea turtles, but we went out on our own,
and it was a good thing we did, because the people who paid to go on a "tour" were snorkeling right alongside us while we all saw the exact same sea turtles.
We were very glad we didn't pay to go out there.

This is the last real photo we have from our vacation.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Alli's camera was found swimming in her "waterproof" camera bag.
We also spent some time in the water looking for some misplaced (inadvertently lost) snorkeling gear.
At least it was on the last day and our last adventure!