We decided on day 3 to make day 4 a little mini adventure, even though day 5 will be a bigger adventure.
We’d done some research before leaving and had noted that a place called Punta Esmerelda was a good starter cenote for kids, so we set up to make a trek out to it.
Desayunos de la casa were had, although I think we need bacon. I laid out all of our adventure stuff on the floor and packed it up into 2 good sized backpacks, and out we went.
We walked up the street a couple blocks and were hailed by a cab. (you don’t hail cabs here, they hail you). Miranda and I had discussed taxi negotiation beforehand, and she was to be my “foil”, but she capitulated quickly and I couldn’t recover, and we didn’t haggle at all. 200 pesos, about $14CAD for about a 15 minute drive.
At Punta Esmerelda, it was lovely and not at all touristy. The first thing we saw was a big sign saying “FEE”, which turned out to be an acronym for the “Foundation of Ecological Education” >.> We’re just used to everything costing. (the bathrooms, for example, are $5MX, about 35 cents CAD). We found a place to put our stuff in the shade, and got changed into swim stuff and braved the cenote.
It didn’t go super well.
Ava seem uncomfortable in the sandy, semi-cold water (it was warm enough out that the water was nice). I took her to the ocean for a bit and we played “it’s going to get you!” and she laughed up a storm, while clutching to me desperately. After the ocean we walked back to Miranda, and she stayed clutching to me until I think she realized Miranda was nearby and then she transferred to her and stayed there for a good long time.
We’d already set out in a semi-bad mood, plagued with little things like Ava locking out the electronic lock on our door, our condo concierge being absolutely useless and THEN trying to sell us a tour we hadn’t asked about, and HUGE winds at the beach, and the place felt a little bit disappointing, so although we’d thought to spend the day there (or at a couple nearby cenotes), so after this list of issues, it was time to pull the rip cord and go home.
Back home, a nap was attempted and failed.
After nap, back to pool #1 again! I mentioned a family staying nearby, and they have like…8-12 children between them and the children are constantly in the pool. Hilarious, but they take up a lot of space. At one point they were all in the hot tub and Miranda and I wanted to go there and couldn’t because there was no space.
Once space cleared up, we joined another couple in the hot tub and had a great conversation about places we’d been to, places to eat and kids.
As for the pool, I think spending time swimming every day is really coming along nicely for Ava. She’s learned that she can push her arms down and raise her mouth out of the water to take a breath of air, so now I literally don’t have to do anything to keep her safe except watch that she doesn’t muck it up! (or get tired and be unable to complete it). I’m super excited for whatever skills she puts together over the next little while!