This Sunday Dave and I drove to the closest beach to our home, Colonial Beach, which is located in the riverside resort town of the same name. Colonial Beach is a nice, small town on the Potomac River with a small beach. The sand is a little coarse, but soft and the water is very calm. There are a few businesses on the short boardwalk area, like a beach shop and restaurant.
The second weekend of September Dave and I spent on Chincoteague Island – Virginia’s only resort Island. Located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Chincoteague is the gateway to the Virginia portion of Assateague Island, home of the famous Chincoteague Wild Ponies. We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and the beauty of the unspoiled nature of the island, chilling on the beach and viewing a spectacular sunset over the Chincoteague Bay.
Aviary is my favorite place at Xcaret. Aviary is a natural habitat for some 60 species of tropical birds who populate the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula. Here the visitors can see some of the most spectacularly colored birds of the jungle living within an open-air sanctuary. Parrots and macaws mate for life and at Xcaret they have plenty of company. The birds are not just there to amuse visitors, there is an active breeding program and birds are reintroduced into the wild. This scarlet macaw is one of dozens in the park.
Being at the El Embarcadero pier for the Observation Tower, Dave and I decided to take a ferry from there to Isla Mujeres, a small island about 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) northeast of Cancun. The island is some 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) long and 650 meters (2,130 ft) wide (from wikipedia). Isla Mujeres means Island of Women in English. The Spanish named it the Island of Women because when they first discovered the island in 1517, there were hundreds of statues of women along the beach. The statues were a gift to Ixchel, the Mayan goddess of love, fertility and the Moon. See the aerial view of the island below.
