Xcaret, Mexico--"Day Six: Cool Moments as We Part"

At long last, we come to the end of my travel log of Xcaret. I know it felt as if it would never end, but now it has! On our last day, we knew we'd have to catch the shuttle bus early for our flight, so we took a leisurely late breakfast and wandered around and did a little shopping.

The night before, we had a fabulous dinner at the Mexican restaurant at the resort and got to witness a few memorable things. The first was seeing the nightly ritual of the hotel, Mayan Indians dressed in complete costume and full body paint, floating on a canoe down the river that went through the lobby of the resort, chanting and blowing smoke from a pipe. The whole resort stopped during this ceremony and everyone stood silent. It was really an amazing moment.


Indian Ritual through the Resort River

Later, after dinner, we passed by two men playing bottles and it was really fun and interesting to hear the tones they got out of them, just by filling them to various levels and striking them with a drum stick.


Bottle players our last night in Xcaret

Well, about this time on the trip, my son had his last stage dance with the kids mini disco. My daughter seemed to let us know she was ready to go home too, in her own unique 1-year-old way.


My daughter's way of packing up to leave.

This trip was unique in many ways for me. I'd never flown with my kids. They had never been somewhere tropical and exotic in their lives. And, my husband and I have never been on such a relaxing, unscheduled vacation before either. It was interesting to see how each day ended up, with nothing really planned ahead of time.

We had our bickering moments and, I'll admit, at times I wondered if we'd made the best choice to take the trip. I have always loved to travel, mostly because I never did much growing up, and I love to see new things. But, my daughter is still very small and it was a very hectic time of year to leave. In the end though, it was less about me getting to go somewhere different, and more about seeing new things through the eyes of my children. That turned out to be one of the most special gifts I got out of this trip. And that's enough to have me looking forward to many vacation travels to come!


A trip well worth it--look at those smiles!