Here is an outline of our trip...



D-1 March 31, 2003

We arrived at Cancun around 4pm after a stop in Mexico City. As soon as we got off the plane, there was a local woman handing out small plastic bags filled with maps, coupons, brochures about Cancun. After we got our bag, we were sorta clueless as to how we would get to the hotel, but on our way out of the airport, there were these guys behind this stand yelling for our attention...they asked us if we needed a shuttle to the airport, $9 USD per person...we said, "OK!". Now we were on our way to the hotel with a bunch of other strangers in this Ford van going like 70 mph on a local road...crazier than Korean drivers. We pulled up to our hotel, which had a traditional Mexican theme going on from the design. Service was good, bed was bad, but the view of the ocean from our room was awesome! So we settled in, pulled out the map and directory from our little plastic bag, and planned out what we would do for our trip. We decided to relax at the hotel and go out for dinner since we were both tired from the flight. When we headed out to eat, we were unsure about how to get around, so we just walked down the road (only 1 road going through the "hotel zone") to Cafe Salsa in the J.W. Marriot hotel. The service was good, food was good. BTW, if you're tight on $$$, don't order appetizers at most of these restaurants because almost all of them serve chips and salsa. We almost didn't eat at Cafe Salsa after Gyju looked at the menu posted at the entrance....she said, "why is it sooo expensive?!". I didn't think it was all that steep. But then Gyju realized that the prices were in pesos, not dollars (1 dollar=10 pesos). After dinner, we came back to the hotel. Joe called up an aquarium nearby and reserved 2 tickets for swimming with dolphins! We went to sleep early since we were beat from the long flight.



D-2 April 1, 2003

Skipped breakfast and took a bus to La Isla Shopping Mall at 10:30AM for our swim with the dolphins. Gyju was so excited to swim with dolphins...she kept talking about it even before we left Chicago. So we waited by the dolphin pool and saw 4 dolphins swimming around. I was getting psyched, but Gyju seemed to be less enthusiastic all of a sudden. While our group went through a short orientation, I couldn't help but notice the dolphins playing around, maybe even fighting a little....and Gyju seemed to be uneasy as she watched them out of the corner of her eye. Well, we all put on our flotation vests and headed down the stairs to the poolside. The group was split in 2, one group would have a free swim with a pair of dolphins in the middle of the pool, and the other group would be at the shallow end with one of the staff and a dolphin as they got an up close look and an educational talk. Gyju and I started out with the free swim...so we waded out to the middle of the pool and the dolphins would swim past us so we could pet them and rub their backs and bellies. Then I heard Gyju shriek..."I don't like this! Get away from me! Can I stop? I want to get out." Apparently, Gyju thought she would be swimming with cute, gentle dolphins...but they were bigger and less cute than she anticipated. Anyways, I found all of this hilarious as well as the rest of our group, particularly this couple from England swimming with us. The dolphins were pretty gentle and swam slowly, but in Gyju's eyes, they were moving like lightning bolts or something. She would flinch everytime they came near her.....hahahahahh!!! Ok onto the educational portion of the program...so now we're all standing in shallow water, and a dolphin is in front of us, just floating, not moving, yet Gyju is afraid to approach. There was a part where each of us got to feed the dolphin a fish, but Gyju declined since she was convinced that the dolphin would bite her fingers off. And when we each got a chance to bend down and raise the dolphins nose to our cheek as if receiving a kiss in front of the camera, you guessed it...Gyju wouldn't let that muzzle with sharp teeth near her face. Now, for the final part of the program, each of us got to do a foot push (this is when you float on your stomach with legs straight out, and two dolphins come up behind you and push each foot so you go flying across the pool.) Of course, it was Gyju's favorite part of the program. She actually had the BEST FORM out of all of us. Instead of her arms stretched out, she covered her mouth and had a bewildered look. People actually really liked that much.
* Gyju said: "the pool water was so gross.. and there were 5 dolphins, not 4 of them. again, before we went into the water, they were FIGHTING each other. I saw their scratch marks on their skin and i became afraid of to touch them. Even if they were HUMONGOUS, I was not afraid of them, I just felt gross swimming in the dirty water." *

[Gyju's writing]
After we were done with it, we ate McDonald's. It was pretty expensive. Anyways, we came to the hotel and we went out to the beach right behind of our hotel to get tanned.
We had dinner at our hotel since we were too lazy to go out. We weren't too hungry so we had pretty late dinner around 8:30pm. I really did not like the restarant.
The food quality was not bad, but after we ordered our food, the M.C. came out and started the "show". You know the "show" when almost naked women and men are dancing in various costumes. Our table was right in front of the stage, that's why I just could not eat when the naked old Mexican hairy men shaking their bodies. grrrrooooossss!!!

ok.. i need to watch movie now.. i'll write more tomorrow about our trip.