We went to Xcaret today which is a huge Eco-Park that has dolphins, manatees, flamingoes, parrots and fab restaurants and underwater caves.

So today I over came a childhood dream AND a childhood fear.

I swam with Dolphins and I also snorkeled an underwater cave which was terrifying but fabulous at the same time. 

The Dolphins were adorable, beautiful and so very friendly.  A spanish lady told us before we got into the water that we should stroke them with our flat palm as they have very sensitive skins and nails can scratch them.  They also said not to touch the face, especially the eyes.  This was all taken in and then off we went one by one (there was about 6 in our group) into the water.  We all lined up with our legs straight down then 9 dolphins swam directly at us and then went below the surface.  They then turn around and swim right towards our backs and then jump up over our heads.  It was wild, I was hysterical.  We then went individually and had a very contrived photo taken with this one particular dolphin.  I wasn't very happy about that as I'm sure they mustn't enjoy it.  So I asked the woman and she said that it isn't always the same dolphins.  Some are off in the other part of the water park just chilling whilst their colleagues are working to keep the tourists happy.  The last part is getting to float in the water while they come and say hello.  It's amazing how pushy they get with each to grab your attention.  Your not supposed to swim to them as they come to you which is bizarre when an 8ft fish swims head on towards you.  I loved it though, especially when they turn over so that you can rub their bellies.  Myself and Morpheus were quite nervous at first but got really into it later.  I didn't want to leave, I could of stayed and watched them forever.  My childhood dream finally came true.

Now the underwater cave was a whole different experience.  I'm not quite claustrophobic but I'm very nervous in small spaces, so the thought of getting into a narrow tunnel of very very deep water was nerve racking.  The whole journey through the caves took us about 20 minutes to do with small stops in between.  Morpheus had foot cramps all the way through but he managed to get through.  Then again the most annoying thing I found was the fat people in front of us who didn't have flippers on so were just sort of bobbing about in the lanes getting in my way.  There was this one guy who kept stopping and looking around which is the point I suppose to look at your surroundings and view the inside of the caves.  This was not my choice as I really just wanted to get through the caves with as much speed and dignity as possible which I managed to do as I sped past doing my 'Man from Atlantis" impression.

The whole experience was pretty frightening but I am sooo glad that I did it.
  (Palm Tree leaves in Tulum)

The park is enormous so we walked for a while afterwards with soggy knickers until we hit a restaurant called Peninsula which served the best chicken fajitas I have ever eaten in my life.  Even better than Plate Heads which is hard to do as his rock!!....

There was a traditional spanish show on in the outside theatre later which was brilliant.  Not normally my kind of thing but the Mexican people are my absolute favorite at the moment and we were honored to watch some pretty impressive performances.

So today was definitely the best day yet.  I only got an hours worth of sun this morning but who cares, I've got my base tan and that's all that matters.

I think Santino is finally losing it.  He was supposed to come with us today for a day of joy and to get away from the restaurant.  But when we went to pick him up he was doing his nut about not having any hot water in his apartment and that his landlord said that it's "not my job" to fix the problem.  Anyway he was out to kill someone today.  I get the feeling that Mexico isn't working out the way he wanted it to.  For example this is how nuts the guy is, he decided the other day that the end of the road should be closed to prevent cars parking outside his restaurant.  Now this is fine and I'm sure that if you speak with the local council or whatever they have here that they will consider it and so forth.    Oh no not Santino, he goes to another street, steals another "no entry" sign and puts it on his street.  Not just leaning up on its own stand, he actually digs into the concrete and erects it in the ground.  I'm telling you the guy is about to pop, we need to get him out of here pronto but I think he should stick it out and suck it up.  Also I really want to come back here so it would be good if he was still here but I doubt that's going to happen.

So tonight we went to "Little Saint" to show Santino our prized pictures of us posing with the dolphins.  I thought he'd laugh but he thought they were great.  Even though he has the restaurant and works very hard I think he should definitely take time out to go to Xcaret and relax, he'd enjoy himself, I know he would.

The restaurant was pretty busy again which is good, also Debbie and Bryan were there again.  They go as often as we do.  It's funny because they have been visiting Mexico AND this particular restaurant for the past 5 years, so they knew the previous owners.  So I wonder what they think of Santino AND his food?  I wonder if they continue to go because of habit more than anything or whether they genuinely like the restaurant and Santino???  I wonder!!

We didn't have a late one tonight as we have our scuba diving tomorrow which I am petrified about.  God what if I panic and make a fool of myself??