Friday, July 30, 2010

XPLOR 2010

This humongous mosaic heart pulsed a regular heartbeat for the entire time we were on the grounds.  Because it's in a cave, you can readily hear the beat and instantly know which direction to walk to get back to the central core.  All the water activities branched out from here along winding paths. It is off this area you would access your lockers, washrooms, gift shop and was an excellent spot to meet up with the rest of your party.

We started our adventure with the amphibious drive.  We weaved in and out of caves, under a lot of the zip line paths and through the Mexican jungle.
Here we are hand paddling our raft underground.  The pathway was lit by underwater lights.
As you can see we are right up against the stalactites formations.  They request you don't touch any or them as it halts their growth.  However we did paddle crooked and I got my head jammed under one!  Hence why you must put on and wear your helmet as soon as you get onto the grounds.
After some of the tight passages I was quite happy to get back into the open.  The air is surprisingly fresh, the water cool and the silence is broken only by the sound of your paddling and sound.
So after we proved to ourselves we aren't the best paddlers, we walked about 8 minutes to the swim launch point.  Here everyone has to wear a PFD and their helmets. We also wore swim shoes which proved smart as at some points you could touch the bottom and the formations aren't very smooth.
Because I'm a non swimmer, the others easily went ahead which gave us more time to enjoy the whole surreal experience. Again the route is marked by underwater lights and along the route for those who may be claustrophobic there are guides stationed to help reach the closest emergency exit.
Unfortunately this is the only photo of us on the zip lines. When you consider the physics of it all, our different weights, staggered start times, the fact that we arrived in the water landing zone at the same time is quite amazing! 

This is someone else zipping along above the tree tops.  Despite me fear, I'm amazed I didn't utter a sound once I got hooked up.  Now going up the stone steps on the main tower was another matter entirely.




We came, we saw and we conquered!

3 comments:

Felicity said...

Excellent!

Karen said...

What an experience! Such a fun and beautiful tour!

Margaret said...

Oh my goodness - what a fantastic experience this must have been. I love the heart - it is amazing. Must say my heart missed a beat when you wrote that you aren't a swimmer. I'm not either and I don't think I would have dared attempt this adventure. Glad you are not the chicken I am. Wonderful pictures.