Riviera Maya Vacation {Part 2}

I want to start out by addressing something I meant to in my last post: safety in Mexico. The reason I didn't say where we were going until we got back was because some people kept telling me how dangerous Mexico was, and I didn't want to have to defend our decision...or start worrying we'd made a wrong choice - ha! Seriously though, when I talked to my travel agent about it, she said the areas we'd be in are perfectly safe. The majority of the problems going on seem to be in Mexico City, which is a 24 hour drive from where we were, and then the border towns, which is about a 4 day drive from where we were. The resort felt completely safe, and even when we went out we felt safe. So my advice is this: if you're uncomfortable at all, just don't go. But I did want to share our experience. On to the rest of our trip!

The resort we stayed at offered free 15 minute photo sessions, with no obligation to buy - plus one free image. We decided to take advantage of it, mostly because it'd be fun, and also we haven't had any real pictures done of just us since our wedding day. 

Some of the poses the photographer had us do were so funny...we couldn't stop laughing! It's just been awhile since we've posed for pictures I guess and just felt silly. But we're so glad we did this!

The jumping pictures were hilarious of course. The photographer said he's never seen anyone jump quite like me...not sure what to make of that comment! I look like I'm about to break into a herkie here....a little high school cheerleading stuck in my system I suppose.

We were definitely laughing so hard right here. Patrick was making jokes non-stop. All of these pictures of us were taken by and copyright Adventure Photography. Great memories for sure! Now on to one of the coolest things I've ever done...
We had the AMAZING experience of swimming with whale sharks! That is Patrick's hand you see at the top left of the picture. He got a lot closer to it than I would! I was taking the picture so I wasn't too far away though. :) They were HUGE but so beautiful and neat to watch. Whenever Patrick saw this excursion, he jumped at the opportunity to do it. I, on the other hand, was not so gung-ho to begin with. Yes, whale sharks are harmless, but they are HUGE and intimidating! I wanted to just go along for the ride and watch Patrick swim, but they were going to charge me the same either way, so I caved to peer pressure and went for it. 
The whale sharks swam pretty fast, so you could keep up with them for a few minutes but then it got exhausting for me and I'd fall behind. I like this picture because you can see the legs of a couple people floating by it, and it shows how huge these things really are. 
That is Patrick right there with it. He didn't touch it, because you're not supposed to, though he did come very close a few times when it would suddenly turn or something. Patrick took the camera at first, but he was so close to the whale sharks that he wasn't getting good pictures. Since I preferred to stay just a little further away, we decided it'd be best that I take the camera. :)

That's Patrick on the top left....again, he's not touching the whale shark, just very close. :) And that is our guide on the bottom right. He was my life saver! Though these are harmless, it was still a little scary for me just because they are SO huge. He held my hand and got me close to them. I didn't want to hold Patrick back so I was glad the guide did this for us until I got comfortable!

There were only 10 people on our boat, and they'd let us swim in groups of 2, along with the guide. There were probably another 30 or so boats out there of people swimming with the whale sharks, but the day we were there we saw at least 100 whale sharks so there were plenty to go around! In the top left picture you can see one if you look carefully. The captain of the boat would get us close to one, then yell, "go, go, go!" and you'd jump in and swim for your life. The way they did it really gave me no time to think about it because when they said go, you had to go right then! 

I'm so glad I did this though. After a few times, the nerves wore off and I was able to actually enjoy it. They said there are only 2 places in the world you can swim with whale sharks (without scuba diving), and they are where we went and Australia. The season is from May - September I believe. So our timing was perfect! 

Well that concludes our trip recap. We definitely will be going back, and staying a little longer next time hopefully! And a MILLION thanks to my sister Rachael for keeping Manny, along with her 3 kiddos, so she had 4 kids 4 and under...yikes! We appreciate it sooo much Rach! :)