Last (best) day

I couldn’t bring my camera to our outing today, but never fear! I lifted images off of the internet that show exactly where we were and what we saw.

Trip one:
Akumel for snorkeling with sea turtles, a barracuda, parrot fish, giant sting rays, coral reefs, and an enormous green eel. The eel was coiled up inside of a coral cove, but you could see its mammoth head and neck near the opening. The guide asked us, “shall we continue?” to which I responded with my solo chorus, “YES! Let us please continue!!!” I swam away from that as fast as my flippers would let me.

After forty five minutes in the ocean, I felt cold and very ill, but I did emerge with a shifted paradigm. I had no idea how interesting snorkeling could be! To be honest, I didn’t even feel that scared of being eaten by a shark, even though we were out deeper than I have ever swum in a body of natural water.

Here are my copied pictures:

Akumal beach where we snorkeled.
Akumal beach where we snorkeled. The sky and water and sand looked exactly as they do in the picture.
We saw so many sea turtles! They were everywhere. The babies were so cute.
We saw so many sea turtles! They were everywhere. The babies were so cute.
We didn't get quite this close, but the turtles were very friendly and not scared of us at all.
We didn’t get quite this close, but the turtles were very friendly and not scared of us at all.

Trip 2:

We went to two cave pools that looked like this. They were called, "Dos Ojos."
This is one of the pools we visited. The pools are called, ‘Dos Ojos.”
The caves where we snorkeled. I was so cold that at first I just sat on that ledge, but Kim from our little group (we went with just Abe's boss, Lucas, and his wife, Kim), convinced me to come in.
The caves where we snorkeled. I was so cold that at first I just sat on that ledge, but Kim from our little group (we went with just Abe’s boss, Lucas, and his wife, Kim), convinced me to come in.
This is what I saw when I entered the pool.
This is what I saw when I entered the pool.

It was amazing. I have never seen anything like what I saw today.

After the adventures and lots of good times visiting with Kim and Lucas, we headed back to the resort to spend a couple hours on the beach reading…and ordering food. The food came right to our lounge chairs by the ocean. It was not only magical, but also a little windy and cold. So as soon as we ate our food, we headed to our room to warm up and get ready for dinner.

The farewell Qualtrics dinner was set out on the beach. We ate a bunch of fish that the deep-sea fishing group caught today, and I got to visit with some of my favorite people from the trip.

And now to finish packing. Tomorrow we will be back in Salt Lake with our girls!!