Ear trouble

The first leg of our flight back to Australia meant that we had to leave Playa del Carmen by 4am in order to drive to Cancun, return our rental car and catch our flight. At just after midnight the night before, Paul woke with a very painful ear. Knowing that it was only going to be worse on the flight, he went out to find a 24 hour pharmacy and hopefully get some medicine. After first coming back with heart medication, he made a second trip to the same pharmacy and came back disheartened that he wasn't able to get anything to help with the pain and pressure.

Nevertheless, he decided to brave the flight, and we woke two very sleep boys and headed up to Cancun after a pretty sleepless night for the two adults. On the descent into LA, Paul was in sheer agony, and nothing he could do relieved the pain and pressure. Once we landed, I rang up Monica to see if she had any suggestions for a doctor that Paul could see.

Monica and her sister were amazing! They arranged for Paul to be seen by a doctor they know well just as soon as we could get through immigration and customs and organise a rental car. Thankfully we had none of the difficulty at immigration that we feared and were promptly given approval for another three month stay.

The doctor confirmed that Paul had a very severe ear infection with a lot of pus and blood pushing against the ear drum. Paul was convinced that he could struggle through our flight to Australia that evening, so the doctor prescribed heavy duty antibiotics, pain killers and steroids for the flight.

Later that afternoon, Paul was still in agony and while we were killing some time strolling around Venice Beach, Paul's ear drum burst and started oozing all sorts of yuckiness. Unfortunately, this didn't offer the relief he had thought it might, and finally Paul decided that it would be best to postpone the flight back for a couple of days.

I was able to book a beautiful hotel with a pool at Manhattan Beach (where the front desk attendant's wife brought MacDonald's Happy Meals for the boys) and got Paul and the boys into bed. Then I was in full-planning mode. I rebooked our flights, notified our travel insurance and extended our rental car. Then I was off to Target to get a few breakfast supplies and other necessities before crashing out nearly 40 hours after my last sleep.

Paul spent the next couple of days taking it very easy, and we were able to make our way home two days later than our original schedule. The flight home was not fun at all for Paul, but it was bearable.

The next several weeks saw a couple of setbacks with another ear infection and ongoing pressure and pain, but in time his ear should be as good as new.

Xel Ha

What an excellent choice it was to splurge for a day at Xel Ha for a day of endless water activities and all-you-can-eat and drink! We waterslided and snorkeled, cliff jumped and ziplined, explored underwater caves and floated down a lazy river. Both boys amazed us with their climbing skills as they monkeyed across a crazy ropes course. Elliot completed the course with very little help. Ollie needed a bit more. Nobody else (and we're talking some very fit-looking young men) came even close. It was a day full of fun and adventure with two very proud parents watching one little boy conquer his fears and the other amazing us with his complete lack of fear.  

Chillin' in Playa del Carmen

For the last four nights of our North American adventure, we decided relaxing at the beach in beautiful Playa del Carmen was the perfect way to wrap up an unforgettable three months of travel. We rented an apartment with a pool just a few blocks from the beach and spent our days swimming in the pool and lazing on the beach and our nights eating tacos and shopping for souvenirs. We were so completely in full relax mode, that we couldn't even be bothered to leave the beach for food one day and managed to buy pizza from an entrepreneurial delivery guy. The $1 cans of margaritas and Mexican beer available at the OXXO on every street corner certainly added to the vacation vibe. It was bliss!

Biking around Coba

After Valladolid, we had one more group of ruins to explore before some days of chillin' at the beach. At Coba, we rented bicycles to travel between the ruins which are a bit more spread out than most of the sites we've explored. We climbed to the top of one of the tallest pyramids on the Yucatan peninsula, but it was such a blistering hot day that we heeded to the call of our air-conditioned rental car and ocean breezes and made it a short visit.

Valladolid fun

When we weren't Indiana Jonesing exploring ruins and caves, we had time to check out the town of Valladolid. We bartered at the market, jumped into the town cenote (which was a bit like a public pool), and were wowed by the light show on the centuries-old monastery. To top it off, Paul surprised us all with a horse-drawn carriage ride around the zocolo.

Ek Balam ruins and cenote

One of our favourite days in Mexico was our visit to the Ek Balam (Black Panther) ruins and the nearby cenote Maya. 

We pretended to be Indiana Jones and thoroughly explored every structure, doorway and tunnel at the ruin site. The highlight was climbing the steep steps to the top of the highest pyramid and taking in the endless views of jungle in every direction. The boys took advantage of the fact that these ruins are one of the few sites still open for climbing and scaled to the top of every climbable structure.

When the midday sun became relentless, we took advantage of the bicycle taxis and made our way over to the nearby Cenote Maya where Elliot caught wind of an adventure experience which included ziplining across and rappelling into the cenote. The catch was that he wanted me to do it with him. Gulp. 

Ziplining high above the mouth of the cenote was a rush. Rappelling down the 50 or so meters into the cenote took a bit more courage. For me, anyway. Elliot, on the other hand, nearly launched off the top of the cenote without being fully belted into the safety equipment.

We spent the afternoon floating around the cenote, jumping off of ledges, rope swinging into the water, and feeling pretty lucky to get to be in this amazing place.