Before going to Mexico, we came across videos from a zip-line park called Xplor. These videos showed people zip-lining over the jungle, it looked amazing! We both decided that definitely wanted to do it, so we booked it as soon as we arrived.
We booked to go on our third day – we were both so excited for the day to come around. When it finally came, the adrenaline kicked in.
We assumed it was just a day of zip-lining, but there were sooo many different things to do. We ended up spending a full day there.
Once we’d arrived, we went straight to the zip-lines and we were fitted into our safety harnesses. The staff were very thorough with checking the equipment which was reassuring.
The harnesses were so uncomfortable and got increasingly painful when walking around. This did kind of ruin the experience for me, but I know it’s unavoidable as it was for my own safety, so I dealt with it.
The Ziplines
There were two courses for the zip-lines, both of which had 7 zip-lines each. One circuit was the higher, scarier lines and the other were less nerve wracking. We did both but of course started with the scariest as I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
The zip-lines started fairly high but they got higher and higher – the highest was 45 metres! One thing I struggled with throughout the zip-lines (not including the harness and chub rub) was the amount of stairs we had to climb. It was so difficult climbing up five flights of stair in the heat whilst wearing safety equipment. I was in agony and felt like I could not breathe, you have to be fairly fit and healthy to hack it.
I got slightly mardy due to being so hot and uncomfortable, but being on the zip-lines completely made up for this. The views took my breath away more than the walking! Besides the obvious adrenaline rush and how fun it was, being this high up meant we could see incredible views for miles!
Once we’d done the big course, we went onto the smaller one. This was still exciting and allowed us to see stunning sights, but they weren’t as high. I did find this one more enjoyable to do as the zip-lines included something a bit different. For example, we had to go down a water slide to get to our next line, which was nice with how hot I was! Also, the last zip-line of the circuit was one that dropped you into water – again this was very refreshing and so fun! Except for the fact I almost lost my water shoe.
Once we’d done with the zip-lines, we decided to have a walk around and look at the other activities we could do – there were so many!
The Amphibious Vehicle
The next one we did was driving an amphibious vehicle – this was basically an off road buggy/jeep. Again, there were two circuits to choose from, both of which were forty minutes long. They weren’t vastly different to be honest. Both had exhilarating aspects like driving over a weak looking bridge and driving through pitch black caves.
Kane drove first, I was nervous as he’d actually not passed his driving test yet (I do think you had to have a licence, but they didn’t ask.) We set off and I was really anxious, shouting at him to move away from the trees. I soon relaxed, sat back and enjoyed the very bumpy ride. It was really cool driving through the jungle and the dark caves – although the caves were pretty scary! They were pitch black and had so many bumpy/sharp rocks all over.
We got back to the start and swapped seats, it was my turn to drive the second course. The vehicle was really difficult to drive. The brake was so stiff and far away, the accelerator was also difficult – I had to really push my foot down for it to even work. Doing all this on a really bumpy, winding road was almost impossible!
I got the hang of it and felt like I’d got my confidence – I was loving it! However, within about fifteen minutes of me driving, I crashed into a tree. Not just tapped it, full on crashed into it! There was a staff member in front of us who saw it all – she checked us over and realised we were fine so let us continue. She made Kane drive and said I wasn’t allowed to anymore. I was so embarrassed, especially because Kane didn’t even have a driving licence and I did! Luckily, the car wasn’t damaged so we didn’t have to pay anything (thank god.)
Rafts
Once I’d calmed down from the crash and Kane had stopped laughing at me, we continued to explore. The next thing we came across were rafts. This basically involved sitting in a kind of canoe, putting wooden paddles on our hands and paddling through the caves.
It was a lot more hard work than I expected but was still enjoyable! It was hard to steer so we were constantly hitting the cave walls. There was stalactites hanging down from the roof of the cave, we kept banging our heads on them! Luckily, we had helmets on. You have to keep your helmet on throughout the park because of these stalactites. The rafting was great, but not quite as exciting as the other activities. Seeing inside the caves was amazing, they were stunning.
Cave Swimming
The final activity we did was swimming through the caves in the underground river. This was probably my favourite part of the whole day – it was really relaxing. The perfect end after a day of adrenaline, chub rub and heat.
We entered the water and it was FREEZING! We were both scared to go in but eventually I jumped in. Although it was cold, it was actually so nice once my body adjusted to the temperature. Swimming through the caves was incredible. They were really dark but the water was lit up with aqua blue lights, the stalactites hanging above us. It felt surreal.
It was a bit weird feeling and seeing the fish swim around us, but it wasn’t noticeable after a while. We decided to do the longer route as we were both pretty relaxed. After a while, we started seeing sunlight – we’d actually come to a massive sinkhole that you can swim in. It was unbelievable! Looking up and seeing a big open hole with water dripping down into it, it was unlike anything I’ve seen before.
This brought us to the end of our day. Obviously we’d done some things between activities like get food, sunbathed etc. It was a very long and tiring yet wonderful day! Even when we weren’t doing an activity, just being able to walk around the caves and see the structure and beauty was fascinating.
I would 100% recommend anybody going to Mexico to visit Xplor. I will never forget this experience and would do it all over again in a heartbeat. It was definitely the best day of our time in Mexico!
It was definitely the best day of our time in Mexico.
Another Adventure... 