Settling in...

It is clear as the days go on that we are settlinginto vacation mode. Despite pleas from the children to go to cenotes and wavy beaches, we have been happy here in Akumal. We finally discovered that if you can stop watching sea turtles and move down the bay, there is an enormous amount of colourful corals and so very many fish. There are some of the largest reef fish that I have ever seen, including one parrotfish that was enormous. There are also lots of rays including eagle rays. We have seen huge groupers too. Heather has also done some good snorkelling in Half Moon Bay which is where we are staying. I find it a combination of too wavy and too shallow, and prefer more water between me and sea animals, huge eagle rays in particular. But Heather has been enjoying exploring. There are actually a large number of turtles which hang out in the surf in front of our hotel so even if one of us is hanging with the kids by the pool, you can still enjoy turtles. Jason has seen 8 turtles and feels that is enough so hasn't done much snorkelling in the last couple of days. In truth, I think he is pretty freaked out by the rays and the groupers. Keira has been refusing to snorkel, with a laissez faire kind of attitude of "seen one turtle, seen them all". Today however she was inspired by the appearance of the underwater camera and went out with Heather to be rewarded with many turtles and rays including a small juvenile ("baby") turtle.
We have been lucky here to be beside a lovely Canadian family with a son almost exactly Keira's age, with a strong interest in Lego and a fun-loving two year old daughter. The kids have had lots of fun playing in the pool, at the beach and going between rooms to establish kids only clubs.
Yesterday, we did make a brief foray to Akumal pueblo looking for a chicken dinner and then onto to Chemuyil, which is the town we will be staying in at the end of our trip. it seems to be a cute little town. We played at the municipal park and were joined by a 5 year old girl. Throughout our travels, people told us that today was a holiday but couldn't tell us why. Finally I resorted to google for an explanation. It was the marking of the Dia de la Constitucion. In very-Mayan Yucatan, i have read that someof the more government-type holidays are not marked with any great fanfare. The 5 year old in Chemuiyl had a pinata though, to the great envy of our kids!

Today, we spent the morning at the beach, the afternoon at the pool and in the bay, with a brief return to the beach for a swim. After supper, as the kids played with our doors wide open, we were treated to a brief yet impressive parade of tarantulas. keira of course was fearless in the face of the large hairy spiders but Jason had a reasonable reaction of horror.
Tomorrow adventure starts and we head off the grid to our camping tree house adventure!