Climbing pyramids, swimming with dolphins in Riviera Maya
Published Saturday November 21st, 2009
CANCUN, Mexico - Hand in hand, my daughter and I started climbing and counting steps ... 118, 119 and, finally, 120.
We'd summited Coba, the tallest pyramid in Mexico's Riviera Maya.
While only 42 metres high, the climb is over uneven stone stairs hand-placed by Mayan labourers trying to get closer to the gods some 1,200 years ago.
A lot of adults in our tour group couldn't make the ascent, so it was gratifying to reach the top and view the accomplishment through the eyes of my seven-year-old daughter Grace.
She was awed by our climbing prowess, the 360 degrees vista of surrounding jungle and the scariness of peering down the steep series of steps we'd have to descend.
We found out we'd almost missed this thrill because the pyramid had just re-opened early after a six-week closure for renovations.
Mexican officials are also toying with the idea of permanently closing Coba to clambering tourists because it's such an important archeological site.
The pyramid was part of the Coba Mayan Village tour (US$110) my wife, daughter and I did on a one-week holiday to the Riviera Maya - the Caribbean Sea stretch of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula bracketed by Cancun to the north and Tulum to the south.
The region is also the most accessible to Canadians with Transat Holidays flying non-stop to Cancun from 18 Canadian cities.
Better yet, starting at about $870 per person (all taxes and fees included), a week-long flight and all-inclusive accommodation package is about half the price of what it was last season.
Mexico's tourism industry has been hard hit by the recession, swine flu and competition.
While that's a challenge for airlines, packagers, resorts and tour operators, it's great for bargain-seeking travellers.
And Mexico hasn't changed through it all.
It's still the sun-soaked escape from winter that Canadians are looking for, complete with luxurious all-inclusives, fascinating and fun excursions, friendly people, nachos and tequila.
After our pyramid antics, the Coba Mayan Village tour took us to an authentic Indian settlement.
In transition from ancient to modern culture, they live in thatched roof huts with TVs.
It's where Mayan matriarch Eleutheria taught us now to make the Mexican staple food tortillas.
Her nimble fingers scooped out ground corn soaked in water and lime and worked the glob into perfectly flat and round tortillas with a dizzying finger-press-and-palm-shaping motion.
We did our best to follow along with lumpy, irregular-shaped results that still tasted good after quick flips over the fire.
Then we were off for a swim in a cenote, which is the exposed section of an underground river.
Revealed after a hike, the cenote lay there in the twilight flat and so clean that you could see the bottom.
The Mayans believe cenotes have special cleansing and healing powers and are very proud of them.
Lucky for us they are willing to share them with tourists.
The cenote theme played out again at the end of our Rancho Bahia horseback riding tour (US$68).
The dip in the fresh, clean and cool water was welcomed after trotting along jungle trails and climbing an observation tower.
More water play ensued at Xel-Ha (pronounced Shell-ha), which just happens to be the world's largest natural aquarium formed where the Caribbean meets inlets, underground rivers and cenotes.
General admission of US$75 gives you access to snorkelling, river rafting, hiking, caves, cliff jumping, rope swings and rope walks over water.
Grace also opted for the US$109 extra of swimming with dolphins.
Not to be outdone, the luxury resorts we stayed at - Grand Melia in Cancun and Gran Bahia Principe near Akumel - have spectacular white sand Caribbean beaches and elaborate pool complexes.
As all-inclusives the package price not only includes hotel room, but all meals and drinks, kids' club and many activities.
Steve MacNaull was a guest of Transat Holidays.
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