Mexico Vacation 2010: Day 6

In February my wife and I took a week-long vacation to the Riviera Maya- the Caribbean Coast of Mexico. We stayed at the Bahia Principe Akumal Resort about an hour south of Cancun. Through this past week I have been blogging about the trip and our experiences.
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I took the day as one of rest and reflection. In some ways I think I continued to avoid the events of the day before. Sometimes the soul just needs to get out of the wind of the world and allow the dust to settle.
So for the first time this vacation I slept in- which was still 9:15 after going to bed at 10:00. I didn't feel any worse for wear so I headed out.

A little way down the road from the lobby was this observation tower, built like everything else, in the tropical/Maya manner. I admit that I had a moment of hesitation after the previous day's events, but I decided to climb up and see what pictures I could get.


I took these first two panorama shots of the Coba lobby.





Then looking out toward the Caribbean you get a full sense of the ecological green area around the resort. This whole area along the coast was basically accessible only by boat until the 1960s. They appear to be working hard to keep the ecology from being too mangled. I am not sure how you can do that with all the tourists that go through the area every day, but they are doing a good job, it appears.


I did some more walking and came at another look at the Akumal lobby.


We then headed up to the "shopping" area of the resort. There were the regular inside shops in the building in the left picture. (We needed some medical supplies for my wife's wounded hands.) on the outside were the "vendor" type shops attempting to look like an outside market. I always love the colors. A closer look will show all kinds of stuff though, from the "Hear - Speak - See No Evil" monkeys to skeletons and models of El Castillo.

Back down to the beach area at the Akumal lobby. and more time to rest.

I think I went back and took a nap after that.

It was refreshing after yesterday. I needed the sun today to continue the recharging of my winter batteries. I think I have pushed my limits on this vacation- and had my limits pushed by other stuff happening. Above all was that mortality moment on the gravelly path at Chichén Itzá. The awareness comes breaking through that life is not always what we think it will be. Around each turn could be the "black swan," the unexpected and unpredictable. 

That may very well be a part of travel when done at its best. It may even be what one could expect in the midst of the ruins of a once vital peoples. They passed. This too shall pass. In coming face to face with the passage of great amounts of time we realize our tiny lives are but a drop in the bucket. What then is the meaning of life if it all ends like this?

Heavy duty questions! Not something easily dealt with in the lazy tropical atmosphere of the Riviera Maya. 

Supper tonight was another masterpiece of gourmet cooking - and presentation. When presenting the meal the wait staff even choreographed their moves- placing the plates down, taking the covers off. Food as show. Food as a way of avoiding the deep issues.

That made me sad today. Wanting to go home to some semblance of comfort and familiarity but certainly not wanting to go back to the cold. Do all travelers get to this point of wrestling with BIG issues? Or do they use travel to avoid them? I know for me the answer is probably "Yes" to both.

And the day comes to an end.