December 31st...Goodbye 2011!!!!!

Saturday December 31, 2011 - easily one of the best days of my life!!!!

We definitely said goodbye to 2011 in style as today we swam in an underground river, played in a cenote, snorkeled around the corral reefs in Akumel...followed up by a quick trip to the beach, a special new years dinner (including champagne, giant shrimp and lobster) and ending with one heck of a lot of fun "new year's" bash!!!! 

The day started pretty early as we had booked a tour with the Mayan Adventure Tour Company. We met our van and tour guide in the lobby at 8am (no small feat for THIS family….Chad and I are good – as for the other two – it was like trying to wake the dead!). However, we made it (and were actually even about 10 minutes early). 

This tour was recommended by the Sun Wing representative at the hotel, and even though a bit pricey at $99 per person, it was well worth it. The pamphlet promised small groups (no more than 14 people) a bilingual guide (ours was Nacho), lunch (BBQ Chicken…which was VERY good) and a great day (which it certainly was).

The tour consisted of 3 different adventures; the underground river, doing zip lines and cliff jumping in a Cenote (basically mother nature’s best effort at a swimming pool here in the Mayan Peninsula) and snorkeling on the second biggest coral reef in the world, near Akumel

As evidenced by the pictures we had an absolutely tremendous time – all of it was simply off the charts cool. (The only downer was when Nacho told us the reef is brown because it is basically dying….and that he did not think future generations would have a chance to view the reef because of this. Hopefully this generation figures out a way to save these natural treasures before that happens?)

The underground river (it was about a 25 minute drive "back" into the jungle)

The river entrance

The water was CRYSTAL clear

Getting out at the Cenote

Mother nature's swimming hole - it was stunning!

The zip line was a hoot!

Again the water was so clear it was amazing

even Heather jumped!

Jord in fine form!

Lunchtime!

Anyway, the day trip was, in one word, absolutely fantastic (OK two words)!

The "tour company" also took pictures all day - and many of these were so stunning that we decided to buy the disc ($40US). Unfortunately we left it in our hotel room (we are going to try and e-mail the company to see if we can get another copy) :(

We got back at the resort at about 3:30pm, which was perfect timing as it gave us a couple of hours to head down to the beach for some more sun and fun!

Jordyn doing Zumba on the beach

My beautiful ladies!

We got back up to our room at dusk (5:30ish)...in order to start getting ready for fancy dinner and  new year’s eve party.

Supper was a “special buffet” and had everything from lobster to lamb, avacodo’s stuffed with crab, to every single kind of meat you can imagine. I managed to limit myself to only 4 plates of food, 1 plate of desserts and 16 or 17 glasses of red wine (serious exercise and dieting is in my near future!)

During dinner, Heather and I got visiting with a really nice couple from England, so the kids took off and went to the party. We followed up about 1 hour later…and what a party it was!!!!!

THE New Year's Eve Party!!!!!

In this case the pictures speak for themselves (see below)…I think it is safe to say we all had absolute blast!