¡ xelha !

First full day, we went to Xelha. Nothing like an X to make pronunciation
intimidating, but no need to worry, it's "Shell-haw." Xelha is a massive
ceynote (or maybe lots of leetle ones) that eventually became acquainted
with and overcame by the sea.

*Note: A few weeks later, during a rare conscious moment in my Biology
class, I learned that the ceynotes were formed by a giant meteor colliding
with the earth! But not just any meteor, oh no. It was in fact the very
same meteor that killed the dinosaurs! That massive dinosaur-slayer of
a meteor formed the ceynotes of Xelha!*

65 million years later, Xelha is a snorkel-fest of tourism and iguanas. 22,
I think the day's final Iguana Tally was. As for the shnorkeling, I should
not have worried my phobic little head about it. Sea life was scarce and
small, and after the first few inhalations of seawater, I was flippering around
the inlet, grinding my teeth on the snorkel and peering through foggy goggles
at the turquoise murk.

Snorkeling is very quiet, the only sound your own Darth Vader-like breathing.
I mostly just kind of floated there, bobbing with the waves (unless there wasn't
a fellow snorkeler in my immediate line of goggle vision, in which case I panicked).
I saw some sand, a rock, and a lot of water, as well as four fish. I did not drown,
nor did I get eaten by a shark, so it was all in all a very successful morning.

I may or may not have spent most of the afternoon in a hammock, but later we
went tide pooling as well as to ogle the manatees. I've always loved manatees.
In real life they're very snuffly and whiskery and HUGE, and prompted many
a manatee joke the rest of the trip.†

It was a lovely day, and then we drove back to Playa, dueling with our takeaway
snorkels, and got rained on roaming Fifth after Media Luna dinner.
____________________________________

† Sean Manatee, The Manatee in the Iron Mask, He-Manatee, Oh-the-Hugh-
Manatee, A Manatee For All Seasons... I'm sure you can only imagine.