Monday, June 23, 2014 - Mayflower Ruins and Antelope Falls Hike

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. this morning a bit early as breakfast doesn’t start until 6:30.  We had French toast, English muffins and fresh baked bread today.  After breakfast it was off to see the Mayflower Mayan ruins and hike to the waterfall.

We met at 7:00 a.m. and there were three vans.  We had 6 passengers in our van, our family of four and Nancy and Jeff who are from Virginia.  

The Mayflower ruins were covered, and I can’t really say much for our tour guide.  I can’t even remember his name, that is how unengaging he was.  It was Alfonso or Alonso or something like that.  I am not sure if it was our guide or what, but the Mayflower ruins are nothing to write home about.  It also seemed that our guide was not local and didn’t really know a lot. 

The hike up was really hot.  There are apparently 1044 steps.  It wasn't that difficult, except that it was so hot and humid and we had long trousers on (not really necessary) and we were soaked through with sweat.   We did see some interesting things on the way though. First we were told about the Paulo de Hombre plant which means "stick of man" and is used for making Viagra!  Our guide had us each take a bite of the leaf, and told us it gets "better" the longer you chew.  He was teasing, as it really gets "bitter" the more that you chew.  We all spat it out.  We continued on the trail and he showed us this giant termite nest.  He said we should eat them as they have a carrot / minty flavor and will take away the bitter taste.  Then he proceeded to put his fingers in this hole and the termites crawled on to his fingers and he ate the termites!  There were two other brave souls who tried it, including David!  I gave it a miss.  David agreed that they tasted like minty carrots.  Eewww!

Then we saw these gorgeous caterpillars.  They are about 4-5 inches long.

We stopped at a view point, but only for a few seconds.  Enough time to quickly snap these photos.

Then our guide took off again without even letting us know or asking us if we were ready. We had just taken our water bottles out for a drink! I was not really happy about that, but then he was going so fast that we caught up with the group in front of us.  When that happened, we were on a narrow part of the path with a drop down where we had to hold onto a rope.  Our guide was up ahead and by a tree so he had a place to sit down.  He just sat down without finding a place for us to sit, so we had to just stand there dripping with sweat while we waited for the other group to get moving.  It would have been so much nicer to just stay longer at the view point where we had places to sit and could get our water out and have a drink and have more time to take pictures.

However, the hike up was gorgeous, and there is a lot to be said for being in beautiful surroundings.

When we got to the top, we were rewarded with this fabulous pool and waterfall.  It was so beautiful, and the water was crystal clear, just amazing.

We met this great family of four from Portland, Oregon.  Chris (mom), Larry (dad), Grace (14) and Grant (12).  Chris offered to take these family pictures for us.  The first one we were falling off the rock we were standing on.

We took pictures of their family and swam around and had a great time.  We didn't even want to get out in order to hike back down!

Actually, the hike back down was easy.  It was pretty fast going, but still we were able to see things.  There was this HUGE spider in its web.  Our picture of the spider from the front side didn't turn out.  Jeff put his camera around the back side to get a picture.  When he did this, he hit part of the web, and it amazed me how strong the web was. This picture, taken by Jeff, is a little smaller than actual size.

We got back around 12:30 p.m. and changed clothes and went to lunch.  During lunch, Marissa from Adventure Life called and said they will take care of the Scuba issues, so we can go scuba diving one day.  I have to say, I have been very impressed with Adventure Life.

After lunch we were going to bike to town, but we were too tired, so we just sat outside in the shade and read.    I just took a shower and so did Danika.  Jason is in and David is next.  Then it is off to dinner.  The kids started ordering off the kid's menu... ughhh! However, I have to say, I tasted this grilled cheese and it was awesome because it is made from fresh homemade bread!

What a lovely setting for dinner...

While we were at dinner, Adventure Life sent a bottle of red wine to our room with a note apologizing for the mix up and wishing us a lovely stay.  How classy!  I highly recommend them!  http://www.adventure-life.com/


After dinner Danika went back to the room to read while Jason played Monopoly with his friends, Grant and a 14 year old boy named Chris.  We hung out at the bar with Kathy and Jim (Chris’s parents) and Malcy (from Scotland).  A very nice evening.