what's simple is true froo and I have posted our trip photos here and here. I will post more videos later, but for now, you can see a cool dolphin-jumping one here.

The trip started out as quite a blur of activity. I was very pressed for time, trying to get my school work done, and not really having time for things like sleeping and laundering. froo had her own issues getting out of Calgary, with a flight that had to turn around over Saskatchewan after one of the plane's engines died. She was forced to spend an entire day in the airport waiting for her re-scheduled flight to Montreal, which was also delayed.

Devin and I had driven to Montreal, I checked into the motel, and we had some time to kill so we found a nice Irish pub near the University of Montreal (a very french part of town). We enjoyed some good pub snacks and pints before heading to the airport to pick up froo. Alas, we were still too early (at 12:45 at night!), and had to wait for another hour before she was due to arrive. We took turns dozing.

Finally, we were settled in for a brief sleep at our motel and Devin was back on the road to Ottawa. Nobody slept much or remembers much of that night or morning... We were shuttled back to the airport in the wee hours, there was some snacking, some haggling with Air Canada ("how do you intend to get back into Canada without a passport?" Jebus, with my other proof of citizenship, mebbe..?), and then I was falling over in my seat half a dozen times before we even took off. We both got a bit of sleep on the flight, thank goodness.

Cancun: HOT and sunny. 32 degrees or so when we landed. Espectacular. Hotel: also fabulous. So big and so many mouths to feed that the buffet had to have a lot of selection. I ate lots of salmon and seafood. They even had a well-equipped gym and I managed to get three workouts in. Gotta maintain the bikini bod!

But the weather didn't remain as great as we would have liked. We had those nice first two days, but then we had cloudy days and some pretty chilly (for Mexico) evenings. After our shopping adventure in the town of Playa del Carmen on Friday, we went out on two organized events on the weekend. On Saturday we took a ride on a catamaran up the coast for some snorkeling and then Sunday was spent at Xel-ha.

We were freezing our bikini-wearing butts off on the catamaran. The whole group was doing their best to bundle up in towels; my strategy was to stay low and avoid the wind, so I sat on the floor, not on the seating provided. We were all so chilly we couldn't imagine voluntarily going into the water by the time we got to the coral reef. But once the boat stopped moving we warmed up and since that was the whole point of the outing, we donned our gear and got in the water. I had some trouble getting the breathing-through-the-mouthpiece figured out, but eventually sorted myself out and enjoyed the sights. It wasn't the most professionally-organized tour I've been on, however, and I think there were lots of people not so pleased with the customer service provided by this rinky-dink operation.

So when we woke up super-early for our 7:30 pick-up for the Xel-ha trip, we were dismayed to see the weather looking a lot like that of the day prior. On this tour, one of the first things your guide does at the park is take you to get snorkeling gear so you avoid the line-ups later in the day, but froo and I opted to risk it and headed off to find something warm and caffeinated to drink. We were pretty sure this day was going to be a write-off given the gusty winds, cloudy skies, and not-so-hot temperature. We found ourselves a quiet spot on the water, put on all the layers we'd brought, and sat down in an attempt to find "inner warmth and outer peace". Eventually the sun peaked out and the day warmed up, so we headed off to participate in some activities. We biked, we floated on tubes down the river, we had a nice lunch (more seafood for me), we watched the dolphins perform, we trekked out to the beach and soaked up the sun, we kayaked on the "Black Lagoon". We did not snorkel, however. It turned out to be a good day indeed.

Monday and Tuesday both started out cloudy but cleared up, so we made the best of it and did some poolside tanning. froo managed to get a little crispy the last day, not realizing the UV rays were getting her pretty good through the clouds.

And that about covers it. It was a relaxing and refreshing getaway in a lovely part of Mexico. And now my head is peeling. That part-line is so hard to protect!  | ¶ 6:26 p.m.