This morning I woke up to a knock on the door from room service. My bed was so comfortable that I completely forgot I pre-ordered a bowl of oatmeal and berries the night before. I ate on my balcony that overlooks the ocean, watching the sunrise. A rosy pink glow started in the crease where the ocean meets the horizon. Over about 15 minutes, the light turned orange, then yellow, then a golden color as the sun crested above the water into the Caribbean sky…paradise.
After sipping my coffee throwing on a bathing suit, sneakers and cloth shorts, I headed downstairs. There I met my tour guide from Alltournative, a Mexican adventure tour company, in the lobby. We were headed for an adventure day near the Coba, old Mayan ruins about an hour and a half drive away from Cancun. I climbed into the back of the van and we set off down the bumpy, back-country Mexican roads to our morning stop near a Mayan village.
We kayaked in huge, flat bottomed kayak across a small lagoon and through a river channel to the jungle. From there we hiked to a small Mayan village where a Mayan elder performed a purification ceremony (essentially praying over our bodies with white incense smoke) to cleanse our auras and our souls. Being outsiders in their habitat, it was interesting to be welcomed in this way, and it made me feel much more accepted into their environment. After our ceremony we were allowed to climb down into their underground cave, called a cenote, filled with filtered fresh water for swimming.