Once Laura got off work she met us there. We found a restaurant that had Korean pancakes. We were going to have dinner with Chris later so we didn't want to eat too much, but we still wanted to try the pancakes. We ordered two for the three of us and that ended up being way too much food. The kimchi pancake was super good. With the food came a number of small dishes with things in them that were also very good.
Once we were done there we headed back to Laura's place to meet with Chris. We ended up just going for a long walk, stopping to get Boba tea and eventually stopping at a pita joint and getting some really yummy felafel.
-Miranda
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Joe was getting antsy again and wanting to travel a bit again, so we decided to head down to southern California to visit Laura in LA and Sarah in Twentynine Palms. We didn't want to deal with driving down to the Cities so we decided to take the direct flight from Duluth to Las Vegas. The airline that does that flight though is pretty annoying. It nickels and dimes you for everything. The only think "free" is your personal carry-on. The larger carry-on you have to pay for, so Joe and I took just one bag and then we each had a personal carry-on. Also, when we did the online check-in, it showed our seats and we were nowhere near each other, oh but you could buy your seat and be able to sit together then!... Wow... They don't give anything out on the flight either. Not even water. It did leave on time though, so that was good.
Once we arrived in Vegas we rented a car, drove down the strip and found a hotel.
-Miranda
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For dinner that night we decided to walk down the road to see if there was another place that might have food farther down. The place we were staying had a pretty small, sketchy looking kitchen and the food was expensive. We did find a place about a mile down. We were told to find a table upstairs. The view was amazing. A 360 view of the sunset, the ocean and the biosphere. Dinner was also great.
The next morning, Mom and Papa watched the sunrise, then we headed out back in to Tulum for breakfast. Mom, Papa and I all had reservations to go to the Tulum Monkey Sanctuary (Joe had already been there with his mom the previous week). The tour was great. Lots of storytelling and views of spider monkeys. Their ultimate goal is to be able to release the monkeys back into the wild, but some won't be able to be released for one reason or another. Those that are at the point of possible release stay in Monkey Island. This is a fenced off area where they can run around. It's fenced to prevent predators from getting in. The monkeys are able to get in and out themselves. It was very interesting. They also had some rescued horses, parakeets and a dog. At the end of the tour, there was a cenote with a hole to jump in. Of the 9 people in the tour, 7 of us jumped. Mom didn't, but Papa and I did.
While we were doing the tour, Joe got the rental car washed. He picked us up once we were done, and we headed off to Playa Del Carmen to return the car. We got there with plenty of time to spare and had no problems with the return. We stayed in a hotel that was nearby the bus station.
That night we split up. Joe and I had a goal of finding an only vegetarian restaurant. After quite a walk, we did find a falafel and lemonade restaurant. The food was good.
The next day we mostly relaxed before hopping on the bus to the airport then catching the plane back home. Fortunately, we missed the insanely cold weather. At least we came back to 20's and even 40's instead of below zero temps.
-Miranda
This is Mimi. She was raised by a human, so she mostly walks upright and doesn't really know how to act like a monkey. She's been learning though.
This poor lady was owned by someone that fed her chocolate when she "acted up" and Coca Cola when she was "being good".... She and another female are so obese that when the people got her they thought they were having twins, but apparently they're still bigger than what they would be if they were pregnant.
One of two baby monkeys that were born on Monkey Island.
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After getting up in the morning, we headed back out on the road. We didn't stop in Bacalar, just passed on through. We arrived back in Tulum and decided to stay at the same hotel we had previously stayed at. We basically relaxed for the rest of the day. We did go check out the Casa Cenote, which was basically a mangrove river. The current was pretty strong, but once you got past the first bend, it got better. There were a lot of herons along the river. Towards the end we even noticed a Green Heron bringing sticks to its mate, where a nest was being built. Very fun.
On Tuesday, we decided to go check out the biosphere and see how bad the road was heading down towards Punta Allen. Right after paying, the road we awful! Potholes everywhere. Jeeps and some other vehicles could zip on by us, but we were worried about doing damage to the dinky rental car, so we took our time. Our hope was to find a path heading to the estuary.
Eventually we decided that doing a boat tour would be the best way to actually see some birds. Nearby where we found we could stop, there was a place to stay that called itself a "campground". Basically you stayed in tents, but in the tents was a full sized bed and a lantern (that was it). We dropped our stuff off there and went on the boat tour.
Our captain was great. He really knew his birds. We got to see a lot of variety and he also took us to the area where manatees hang out. At one point he was zipping along down rivers through mangroves and stopped the boat all of a sudden. He had spotted a crocodile while going by an opening. It was a pretty amazing spot. The tour was expensive, but lasted 3 hours and felt worth it.
-Miranda
I could post so many photos... I'll keep it to a minimum though.
An eating area at the campground that overlooked the beach.
The tent.
An osprey nest with a young one hanging out on it and an adult.
A roseate spoonbill and young.
The crocodile. You can see the body underwater.
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We got up bright and early so we could walk the trails that the place we were staying had to offer in the hopes of seeing some wildlife. We heard lots of birds and saw a few. At one point, Joe and Papa went one way while Mom and I went a different way. Papa ended up seeing what we assume is the butt of an Agouti. The Howler monkeys out in the jungle started calling at one point also. They were too far from the trail to see though.
After a small breakfast, we started down the 60km road to the ruins. We were hoping to see a Jaguar, but knew that the chances were very small. We didn't get to see one, but that's all right. We did get to the ruins and headed down the trail to check them out. I climbed to the top of one of the first ones because we didn't know which the "big" one was yet. After reaching the top, I soon discovered I was definitely not on the big one. Papa, Joe and I climbed the two big ones. One was slightly taller, but the first one we went up was a bit more impressive. It had a number of different tiers and a larger foot print. The climb up and down were tiring, but the view was awesome.
Once we were done with the ruins (about 3 hours) we worked our way back up the road. We spotted more birds and at one point got to see warthogs crossing the road ahead of us.
Once we were off that road and back to the highway, we made our way to the closest town, which was Xpujil. Joe and Papa found a place for us to stay there. Our thought was we would either stay there or keep driving and make it back to Bacalar. We were all pretty tired though, so more driving didn't sound like a good idea.
-Miranda
Many of the paths had trees going through them. Pretty fun.
The more impressive big ruin that we climbed.
Papa working his way up to the top.
An Oscillated Turkey. Not a great photo. It was already getting dark.
A Roadside Hawk.
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