My Adventures in Central America!
Part 1 - Mexico
Welcome to my first adventure into Latin America! This is my
first big post-covid trip so fingers crossed it goes well! I have 44 days of
summer holiday excitement planned!
I have decided that this trip, my blogs will be split into
countries so they aren't novels! So, without further ado, WELCOME TO MEXICO!!!
Day 1 London to Cancun
This morning I woke up a little nervous. Lately my trips have
not gone well, with something always ruining them. It has taken me a LONG time to plan
this trip, particularly the day trips. I had most of my stuff packed for the
last few days so I only had a few things to left. Once I got myself sorted, I
began the journey to Gatwick airport. It's not too long, about 1.25hrs, and
only 2 trains, but if you time it right, it is much cheaper. Unfortunately,
after getting my timing right, I got on the wrong train at Victoria Station and
paid double what I intended to pay. Oops!
I was worried about a lot. Getting there on time, queues at
the airport, lost luggage etc. I got to the airport 2.75hrs before my flight,
and fortunately it only took 1.25hrs to do the bag drop and clear security and
immigration. I had to hang around and wait for the gate to be announced, then
headed to my gate, and boarded. Our plane left quite late, about 45mins late,
and was a full flight. Interestingly, there seemed to be a lot of Irish people
on the plane.
I chose British Airways for my trip as they fly direct to
Cancun and also from some cities in the USA. We were given a snack of pretzels
and drink, then we received a hot meal. I had chicken, mashed potato & veg
with mushroom gravy. It also had the typical bread roll, cheese & crackers,
a pearl couscous salad and a little lemon tart. It was delicious! We could have
snacks if we wanted, and I had some Walkers shortbreads (the best brand!) a bit
later. A few hours later we were served a sandwich (chicken salad for me),
another pearl couscous salad and a mini Crunchie. I have to say, British
Airways kept us well fed & watered, and entertained with a good selection
of movies. During my 10hr flight, I watched 5 movies.
We landed ahead of schedule, and immigration at Cancun took
only about 15mins. The ladies toilet queue took longer than that! Once I got my
bag (yep, it arrived with me!) I found my shuttle and was taken to my hostel.
It was daylight so I could see everything. Most tourists stay in
the Hotel Zone, a strip of land off the mainland. Fortunately, the airport is
closer to the bottom of the strip and my hostel is at the top of the strip so I
was able to see the whole strip. It is certainly a sight to behold! Basically,
there are lots of ginormous resorts along the ocean. I reckon some of these
resorts would have thousands of rooms, that's how big they are! Americans are
the biggest tourist crowd here so they cater to that market.
After checking in, I dumped my bags & went in search of the
supermarket, because I'm eating budget instead of buying meals. It is huge, 2
storeys, and only maybe 8min walk from the hostel. Then I headed back to my
hostel, packed for tomorrow and went to bed.
Day 2 Cancun
This morning I had to be up early at 6am. I had a date with
some whale sharks! For those who don't know, whale sharks are the world's biggest
fish. They can grow to 20m in length! My tour company picked me up and along
with some others, we headed north to the dock for the boats. The whale shark
tours have strict rules here. 2 people per boat + the guide can be in the water
at one time, and only 2 jumps (swims) per person. And the guide has to be a
local Cancun/Isla Mujeres born person. We were served a breakfast at the dock
(fruit, muffin, sweet pastry, coffee) then boarded our boats. Laws here require
you to wear a life jacket in the boats & when swimming you must wear a life
jacket or wear a wetsuit. They told us it would be between 1-2hrs in a fast
boat to try and find the whale sharks, and we were strongly encouraged to take
the Dramamine that was offered. Apparently, it is the only tour that people get
sea sick on. We were also asked if anyone has spinal injuries because the boat
ride could be rough. Here's me looking like a sunsafe weirdo before the boat started moving.
Well.... rough is an UNDERSTATEMENT. The boat is very fast, and many times we became airborne, then slammed back onto the rock-solid sea. We have spinal problems now! It was actually fun! We were very fortunate and it only took maybe an hour to get to the whale sharks. I was partnered up with another solo traveller, a guy from Colombia. We were group 3. When we got there, we could see lots of whale sharks. I'm talking at least 10 of them! We had to watch from the boat while the first group and then second group got to swim with them. Finally, it was our turn and I was so excited! When they say jump, you jump. No hesitation, just jump. The water was warm and we got our first views of the whale shark. The idea is that you swim beside them. You are not allowed to swim above or below them, nor are you allowed to touch them, and ideally you should keep 1.5m from the side and 5m from the front of them. It was so exhilarating to see these incredible creatures and to swim with them. On our first jump we got to swim with 3 of turn! The second whale shark came straight at me with it's mouth open, it was so cool!
The second jump was just
as exciting, although we noticed the current was stronger & it was harder
to swim. We were super lucky as some of our group never turned up so the crew
allowed us to do a third jump each. It was absolutely the highlight of my whole
year so far, I think! Naturally, I took plenty of videos on my GoPro, so I'll upload them to my YouTube channel where you can watch them all if you want. I've
taken some screen captures from the videos and I'll post them below.
After the whale sharks it was time to head to Isla Mujeres. This is an island off Cancun which is famous for Playa Norte (North Beach). The water is very shallow and warm, clear and blue. The boats all surround the swimming area which is fenced by a buoy line. We had 20mins free time so I swam/walked to shore and walked along the beach for a bit. White sand, blue water, sunshine, magical!
Then I headed back to the boat where the crew served us ceviche
& guacamole with corn chips. It was delicious. Then we headed back to the
dock & back to our hotels.
After a long shower to wash all the salt from my hair &
body, I chilled in my room for a bit, sorting my videos, then decided to head
out for a walk. As I'm near the top of the strip, there are lots of restaurants
& shops. I’ve decided the best way to describe this place is a Mexican Las
Vegas. Oversized & flashy. Very American. I found myself a shot glass
($1USD, bargain!) and after walking around everywhere, I headed back to my
hostel.
I grabbed my Samsung tablet and headed to the bar to sit and
this is where you can currently find me. Sitting on the lagoon deck, watching
the resident crocodile swim around. I've had a mango margarita
(very salty) a shot of some smoky cocktail (freebie from the cocktail class
going on behind me) and just about finished my writing. One good thing about
this place is that when the sun goes down, it gets significantly cooler. It’s
actually extremely lovely to be sitting here in the breeze.
Anyway, enough for now. I'm going to pack my stuff for
tomorrow as my alarm will be going off at 4am. Yuck! But it will be worth the
early access to Chichen Itza!
Day 3 Chichen Itza & Cenote Saamal
Today was Chichen Itza day. Something I was most looking
forward to! I really struggled to choose a tour option for this day. There were
hundreds of different tour options, very mixed reviews on the tour operators
and I was just indecisive about which option to pick. In the end I chose the
Viator Exclusive early access tour with Amigos Tours. This tour had mixed
reviews with some saying they didn't get to Chichen Itza until 12pm when they
were meant to be there around 8am!
After waking at 3am and laying in bed until 4am, I got up,
got ready & went across the road to my meeting point. I was picked up on
time in a minivan and taken to a big bus. Then we continued driving and picking
up people for the next 1.5hrs. At 6am, we finally began the 2hr journey to
Chichen Itza. With a short stop at a servo at 7.30am, we arrived at 8.30am. Bit
later then planned due to issues with one family's booking, but earlier than
most of the groups. By the time we got tickets & actually into the park it
was 9am. Early access is between 8-10am so we had an hour. Our guide took us on
a tour of the 3 main structures.
Chichen Itza is the highest and most famous. It's actually a Mayan Mountain. They built it because there are no other mountains around and they wanted a mountain. It is very old, and due to badly behaved tourists of the past, completely closed off for tourists now. You can walk around the outside but you must stay behind the barriers. It represents a Mayan calendar, with 4 sides (4 seasons), 19 platforms (19 months) and 365 steps (365 days). If you stand in front if the steps and clap your hands, the echo sounds like a Quetzal bird. It's really cool! Just clap your hands and the bird sings back! See if you can hear it in the video below!
Then we went to the 1000 Pillars temple. Very cool. Round pillars are for the public, square pillars are private areas for the Royals. On top is a statue of Chacmool. During certain times of the year, the sun will rise directly above his belly.
Our guide then took us to the Mayan Ball Game structure. It is a large rectangular arena of sorts. Instead of fighting, one could challenge someone to the ball game (not actually a game, its a ritual, but there is no actual translation for the Mayan name). Ultimately, you just have to get the 4kg rubber ball through the big stone ring, using only shoulders, torso, hips & knees. This has also been designed with acoustics in mind. The local Royals at one end could talk to the major Royals at the opposite end. Just shout hello and you can hear your own voice echo at the opposite end!
Then we had free time for 30mins so I went walking around. There were considerably more people now and photos without people in them were nearly impossible. I did manage to get this awesome shot though!
There are also hundreds of stalls selling handicrafts &
souvenirs. I would love an obsidian dagger because why not, but I don't really need it.
After we boarded the bus, we headed to a buffet restaurant
for lunch. I was starving by this point. This is a purpose-built tourist
restaurant. There were lots of people already there. We were told to get food
first and then shown our table. They had: slow cooked Mayan pulled pork tacos,
roast chicken, refried beans, rice, steamed veg, spaghetti, dryslaw, lettuce,
tomato & garlic bread. I had everything except the spaghetti. Then I went
back for seconds and had more pork tacos, dryslaw, lettuce & tomato. With
thousand island dressing. The pork was so good! Then we had some time to shop,
if we wanted.
Our final stop was the Cenote Saamal. A cenote is a sinkhole that is filled with water. The most famous is the Ik Kil cenote but it is the busiest so we went to Saamal. We first had a tequila tasting. The tequila we find in stores is commercial agave plants. It's crappy tequila, and burns your insides. Then there are the boutique plants. These are used by small distilleries to produce boutique tequila, and the stuff we tasted is not sold outside Mexico. I tried the 18yr old tequila, which I was shocked to discover tasted nothing like the tequila I’ve had back home. It is extra smooth, best served neat, chilled (by the fridge, not ice), and always sipped. Then he gave us some flavoured sweet tequila. These are only 14% alcohol and they are dangerously delicious. We had coconut tequila, mango tequila & coffee tequila. My favourite was the coffee one. Unfortunately they don't have small 50ml bottles, and a big bottle was $50USD, and I don't have the space, so I didn't buy any.
Then we got life jackets (mandatory), had a shower to rinse off sunscreen and headed down to the cenote. It is about 30m down a wooden staircase to the water. It is absolutely stunning in the cenote. There weren't many people there (early morning tour perks!) so we had plenty of space. The water was cool and very refreshing, considering we were all super sweaty and gross. There were also some black fish swimming around. The life vests are actually a really great thing. You can literally just float upright in the water. No need to tread water to stay afloat, or lay on your back to float, you can just ‘hang' in the water. I took my phone in and took some photos from water level. It was awesome!
Then we boarded the bus and headed back to Cancun. It was
1.75hrs back and then we began hotel drop offs. I got back to my hostel about
5pm so it was a very long day. I highly recommend doing the early access tour
so you can miss the majority of the tourist crowds. They even have a sunrise
tour in a very post-covid world, and a hotel right on the property so you can
stay there!
Day 4 MUSA, Cancun & Playa del Carmen
As you would expect, I feel asleep fairly early last night
but woke up at 3.30am and struggled to get back to sleep after that. I was
shocked to learn my watch tracked me as having 1.5hrs of deep sleep! I didn't
feel well rested for it though, I woke up with my mind going a million miles
an hour. Today is a busy day. I have to check out, make my way to a diving
place, go diving, come back to the hostel, collect my bags, find my way to the big
bus terminal in downtown Cancun then find a bus to take me to Playa del Carmen.
Boy is that a lot!
I had a quick breakfast (my first coffee in
several days!) then checked out. I was able to take a local bus from outside
the hostel 6km down the hotel zone to Aquaworld. It took about 8mins and only
cost $1USD. I haven't done scuba diving for a long time but decided the allure
of the underwater museum was too great to miss.
In total there were 20 people on our boat and a lot of crew. Some were doing dives for certification, others had just recently qualified, and 3 (including me) were already certified divers. Our first stop was MUSA, the underwater museum of art. 18 years ago some statues were put in the ocean for people to observe. I was really nervous, the last time I dived, my ears gave me such trouble that I gave up. I am also at the very tail end of a cold so my nose and ears are not in perfect condition. The 3 of us certified divers were in our own group. I told our dive master that I was nervous and had issues with equalization, and he was so helpful. When we got to the bottom, we began swimming and straight away we saw some house statues & a grenade statue. As they have been there a while, they have coral, algae etc growing on them.
We had a long sandy swim between museum sections (how strange that I SWAM around the museum!). Then we came upon the famous rings of people statues. These were cool! Lots of coral and also fish swimming around.
We also saw this gorgeous black & white fish swimming around.
Then we kept going and saw the punch buggy (aka VW Beetle).
Lastly we came upon a huge group of people statues. Like the rings but many more. It was really fascinating.
Then it was time to head back to the boat. When we got on
board, we found out that one of the older men was suffering a medical
emergency. Don't know what happened exactly but they said he was struggling
with maintaining his position in the water and he was vomiting and on oxygen.
We ended up heading back to Cancun to the boat fuel station where an ambulance
was waiting to take him to hospital. We heard at the end of the trip from one of the family members that he was doing
better, had more colour in him but was staying in hospital for at least 1
night. I hope he is ok.
After dropping him off, we went back out for the second stop. This one was to a reef called Manchones Reef. Here was meant to have lots of fish and if we are lucky, turtles. This time, our group was added to another group, so there were 9 divers & 3 dive masters. I thought this reef was pretty average. Lots of sea fans, fair few fish, but not much else, and very little colour. We did see a big ray which was interesting, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Steve Irwin and the tail!
Then we headed back to Aquaworld. I was knackered. I changed
into dry clothes and got a bus back to my hostel. After collecting my luggage,
I then found another bus to take me to the Ado bus terminal in downtown. After
queuing for a ticket, the guy sold me a ticket on a bus leaving in 5mins. Yikes! It
cost me a whopping $4USD for the 1hr 20min trip. It was comfy and air
conditioned so that was a bonus.
I seem to be dropping the ball on a few things this trip,
and the biggest one is that I keep forgetting to download offline Google maps
of the cities. I have no sim here so offline maps are absolutely necessary.
Therefore, finding my hostel from the bus station was a challenge! Eventually I
found it and by the time I arrived I was a very hot, sweaty mess. I was very
relieved to discover the air con & fan blasting in my dorm room. I had a
shower then headed out for my food walking tour. This tour, Eating With
Carmen Local Food tour, has a 4.9 Google rating and 5 stars on both Viator
& Tripadvisor. By this point the only food I had eaten today was a jam
sandwich at 7am and a small handful of Pringles on the bus. Needless to say I
was starving! Our tour consisted of our guide, Victor, and 2 other solo
females. One is from Chile, here with her parents but solo on the tour. The
other is from Ireland, here to work remotely for a few months & travel
around. To start with, the guide gave us each a bottle of hibiscus water,
which was quite good.
Our first stop was a mercado (market) where we had some proper Mexican quesadillas. The things wec have back in Aus/UK are American style quesadillas, and they call then Gringas here. Mexican ones consist of only 1 tortilla folded in hand. We had 2 flavours: a pork & red peppers (capsicum) with wahaca cheese, and a corn mushroom with wahaca cheese. Corn mushroom.....I can literally hear you all wondering what the heck that is. Well....it is a blue fungus that grows in corn cobs. According to Google, it is called corn smut. It is black in colour once cooked, and pleasantly strange. It is like corny flavoured mushrooms or mushroom flavoured corn. Weird but not bad.
Next, we went to a place for enchiladas. This place opens at 4am so the locals who work early in the hotels can get breakfast. The flavour was mole. If you haven't had it before, it is a spiced, chili cacao sauce. The enchilada had chicken & cheese inside, lettuce, onion & cheese one top and covered in mole sauce. Apparently, there is no 1 set recipe for mole. Some places make it sweeter & less spicy, some places blow your head off. This one was ok foot the first few bites but as you had more, the burn increased and became too much for me. The sauce has a whole lot of ingredients, including cacao, but I honestly thought it tasted like a spicy Chinese 5 spice sauce. It was nice, just too spicy.
Next up was a local fruit shop where they make their own flavoured water. They have so many flavours! Lime & chia, tamarind, green juice, cantaloupe, barley & cinnamon, carrot & orange etc. I chose the pineapple chia, which was delicious.
Then it was taco time! We went to a street food stall and sat on red plastic chairs on the road. They have a wide range of meat fillings to choose from. We could choose 2 flavours so I had pastor (pork cooked like kebab meat, with red peppers & pineapple) and barbacoa (beef cooked underground then shredded). We added some lime juice (essential apparently) and I added the avocado & green tomato sauce. They are served on hot, soft corn tortillas. They were absolutely delicious. And messy. They cost 20 pesos, which is $1USD per taco, which is expensive for Mexico, but it is in a high tourist area.
By now, we were very full. We still have 2 stops to go! We went to a park nearby for a history lesson, and discovered Mexico has over 7000 cenotes. That's a lot of cenotes! We also found out that We also found out that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit Earth off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. They have found a monster impact crater there.
Then we went to another street food stall, this time a lady
selling corn. You can have it on the cob or in a cup. The corm in a cup
includes some boiling water that it is cooking in, and is topped with mayo,
cheese & a three pepper (chillis this time) sauce. We shared 1 between 2
and both got cups. I have now discovered Mexican corn is NOTHING like
Australian corn. It is firm, pale yellow/white colour and not sweet. It was
alright, but I wouldn't have it again. That's saying something since corn is my
favourite vegetable!
The lucky last stop on our tour was an ice cream shop. They have a big range of fruit icy poles and creamy icy poles, as well as some of the creamy ice cream in a cup. I chose a strawberry & cream ice cream cup, it was good but not amazing. Certainly welcome in the heat though!
After we said goodbye to everyone, I decided to walk along the pedestrian zone. It is a big long street without cars. There are so many shops, bars and restaurants! I actually think Playa del Carmen is nicer than Cancun. Here are some of the places I encountered 😳😂
It was all going great until I stumbled upon something that made my blood boil. Animalandia Maya......come on in and play with the baby lions, tigers, leopards and panthers 😡 The amount of tourists who were going in to play with them and have their photos taken was disgraceful! I was horrified, and I wanted to yell at the tourists supporting the shocking animal cruelty and take every one of the cats back to the wild where they belong. Obviously, I didn't because I would probably be arrested, but I am so disgusted by humans. And the majority of tourists are American, where it is legal to have these animals in some states of the USA. We humans need to do better. Much much better. Lion and tiger cubs don't belong in a shop, drinking milk from a baby bottle laying across a child's lap!!!
Then I headed back to my hostel for another shower and some
air conditioning. I have to be up at 6am again tomorrow. I know I like to cram
a lot in but boy am I sick of these early starts! The next time I can sleep in
is Sunday. Today is Thursday. Ah well, YOLO!
Day 5 Tulum & Akumal
Turns out the rooftop bar is above my room, and has thumping
music until 1am. I obviously slept extremely well...not! At least I wasn't hot
though so that was a bonus. I was up at 6am again, and was out the door at
6.30am. My pickup was 6.50am and its a 10min walk to the spot. It had just
poured with rain before I left so it was super sticky and humid. Once I
arrived, I waited, and waited, and waited. Then a white van pulled up but he
said no tours pick up from there they pick up from several blocks away. He told
me to call them, but I don't have a sim card here. Naturally I got very
stressed as my email clearly said the hotel I was at. I saw some white vans
stopped down the road (all the tour companies use white vans) so I decided to
risk it and go see if they can help. At first, the driver brushed me off, and
went to leave, but the guide came out to speak to me. Turns out he was from the
company I booked with and after checking my email confirmation, I was on his
pickup list! They were running late due to a guest being late, and they had my
pickup at 7am. Well at least I got on the right shuttle but boy was I stressed!
We had some pickups and then began the drive south to Tulum. Tulum is an ancient Mayan ruins located on a cliff. Today was extremely hot and humid so we were offered umbrellas to shade us from the sun. After a toilet stop in the shop, we began the walk to the ruins entry. Unfortunately, there is a man with a small monkey on a leash offering photos. Our guide told us the monkey comes from Brazil, and lives in a little cage when he is not being shoved on tourists shoulders for photos 😡 At the entry, we were met by an archaeological tour guide who gave us a tour of the site. Tulum is a walled city, with 3 walls and the cliff. We entered one of the lesser gates, and began walking. Oh my, it was absolutely roasting. It was interesting hearing about some of the buildings. We were then given 20mins free time to take photos. I was surprised at how ‘less busy' it was, compared to Chichen Itza. After 15mins I went back to the meeting point. I was sweating in places that are not meant to sweat!
We then went back to the bus and were given a bag of snacks,
which was very welcome since most of us hadn't had breakfast. Then we drove to
Akumal, which is a beach and has a bay which commonly has turtles. The plan
here was to snorkel with the turtles. Mexican law prohibits sunscreen in certain places so
if you hadn't put some on before we went to Tulum, it was too late now. I
forgot to put sunscreen on the backs of my upper legs so I was expecting to
have the backs of my legs & butt burnt to a crisp. Fortunately, by the time
we got in the water it had clouded over a bit. And then it started raining! We
kept snorkelling because a little bit of rain never hurt. After a while the
rain turned to a torrential downpour. It is a strange feeling snorkelling with
most of your body in warm water, and having your butt and back of your thighs
pelted with freezing rain bullets. We ended up seeing several turtles, but the
rain made visibility terrible. We also saw some big rays, trumpet fish, angel
fish, Dory and a few other species.
We swam back to shore and rinsed off in the showers. Then we
were hit with another torrential downpour. It was insane! Roads to the beach
were flooded, puddles covered the footpaths, and by the time we got to the van,
we were drenched again, but this time our shoes too!
We sat in our wet state and drove to the jungle for our next adventure: lunch & a cenote. Upon arriving, we were told we could have lunch first, so we were served a buffet of tacos (soft tortillas, pulled pork, pulled chicken & onion, creamy chicken with mushroom) and a choice of sides (rice, pasta, diced green veg, refried beans). It was good although a bit spicy for me (I’m clearly a wimp because our guide said they had no chili in them). Then I went for seconds and had more tacos (different filling this time).
Then it was time for the cenote. This cenote is classified as semi-open. The cenote is inside a cave, which is open to the outside as the sinkhole has collapsed. You know how you go into some caves to explore, and they have pristine pure clear untouched lakes in them? Well that's what this is.....except not so pristine and definitely not untouched. The cave is full of stalactites and stalagmites due to the entire substrate being limestone. You are not allowed to touch the stalactites and stalagmites, but they have setup steps, paths and lights. After a look around, we entered the water. It was cold! There is no sunlight, so the water stays cold. It was quote surreal swimming in a dark cave. We swam through an opening into the next chamber and got out of the water to walk a section. Then we got in and swam, then got out and walked. It was really fascinating seeing all the formations and swimming among them.
We saw a bat and a bird, and some catfish. We reached the end of the swimming section. Progressing further and moving into the adjoining requires scuba gear and a special cafe diving certification. Hard no for me! We turned around and went back a similar way to our starting point. By now we were all cold and very relieved, if only for a short time, to be back in the heat.
We changed back into dry clothes, then boarded the van to
head back to our hotels. I reached my hostel at 6pm, so it was an 11hr day for
me, very long but very good. The tour company I used was the same as the whale
shark tour, Ocean Tours, and I have to say, they were excellent.
Back at my hostel, I hung my wet clothes out to dry and went
upstairs to the rooftop bar to redeem my free drink. I settled for a vodka with
fresh line & Sprite. Turns out it is happy hour so they are playing
drinking games. I stayed long enough to finish my drink while writing this,
then went down to my room to finish. I am completely knackered. I am clearly
not a water person as all these water activities are wearing on me and I am
longing for the day I have no swimming involved.
Tomorrow I am off to Cozumel for snorkelling (my last water
activity for a while) and changing hostels to begin my tour. I am looking
forward to starting that, because I can't be bothered to think anymore. I want
someone to do it for me at the moment. It will be another long night with the
music going until 1am but hopefully I am tired enough to fall asleep anyway.
Day 6 Cozumel
Another early start today. This time I had to check out of my hostel, then head down to the ferry terminal. I planned to take the 9am Ultra Mar ferry to the nearby island of Cozumel. My ticket said I had to be there 40mins before departure so I had a long wait. On the way I accidentally found a colourful Playa del Carmen sign so naturally I took a pic!
I paid for cattle class instead of first class but fortunately I
was able to grab a shaded seat in front of a strong fan. Just about every seat
was taken so it is a busy ferry! There are 2 ferry companies, and they run on
the hour, with alternating hours. Ultra Mar, this month, departs Playa del
Carmen on the odd hours, while Win Jet departs on the even hours. It is only a
short ride, 40mins, and there was a man singing and playing guitar on board.
Once I got to Cozumel, I had some free time before my tour pickup. I walked around the main part of the town, and then chilled in the shade. I found yet another colourful sign so took a picture in between other people.
After being picked up, I was driven to a port just south of
the town where I boarded a small boat. There were 14 of us, 5 of us spoke
English and the rest spoke Spanish. The other people were an American family of
a mum and her 3 sons. They are from the deep south of America because they had
the strongest southern drawl I have ever heard. Unfortunately, they showed no
interest in talking to me, so I didn't speak to anyone the whole day.
On the way to our first snorkel stop, Colombia Reef, it started pouring. Like torrential downpour. Fortunately, I had removed my dry clothing and stashed it in my dry bag so I still had dry clothes at the end of the day, but the rain was so heavy I was just as wet from the rain as I was from the snorkelling!
The water was super warm and the reef was alright. There certainly was plenty of fish life swimming around. We snorkelled for a while then got back in the boat and moved location.
The next stop was El Cielo which is famous for having lots of starfish on the sandy seafloor. The water was even warmer here! We saw quite a few starfish, and they were big. I'm talking like 30cm across big.
We didn't stay long here and moved to a shallow area. We could walk and swim here, and it was a sandy bottom with crystal clear water. The surprise was that there were lots of stingrays swimming around! Again, all I could think about was Steve Irwin and that I was going to get a barb through my body somewhere and maybe die.
After a little while we were served a plate of guacamole and pico de gallo with corn chips.
Then we got back on the boat and headed back to the port. As I wanted to be on the 4pm ferry, I was taken back to town separately. For some reason, the ferry boarding was quite late (4.10pm) so we got back to Playa later than normal. I went straight to my hostel to collect my luggage, then headed to my new hostel to join my tour.
My tour is a big 32 day g Adventures called Central American Journey. It hits every country from Mexico to Costa Rica. It’s an 18-39s so its a budget tour but that's ok. After checking in, I said a quick hello to some people who were on the tour then went to my room to shower. The room was STINKING HOT! Apparently, the air con is only turned on from 8pm-8am. It was gross!
Then I went and joined the people outside. Turns out I'm sharing a dorm with 2 sisters, 18 & 19yrs old, from England. There are 18 people on the tour, hailing from England, Belgium, India, Netherlands, Australia and Ireland. They seem friendly and nice so that's good. I'm also not the oldest, as the lady from India is 1 yr older than me.
At 6pm, we met our guide, a Costa Rican named Liam. He will be with us for the next 16 days as my tour is 2 tours combined. We found out our guide really likes early starts. So much so, that on Monday we will be leaving at 4am to drive to Belize. 4AM! Yikes a moly! Lucky I'm not an alcoholic and plan to go our drinking every night getting smashed.
Then we headed out for dinner (optional but everyone chose to go). We went to a big taqueria place that was filled with locals. We sat as tables became available, so I ended up sitting with an Irish couple, 2 couples from Belgium and the guy from Netherlands. Not one of us can speak Spanish so it was interesting trying to work out the menu! I wasn't hungry so I had 2 tacos, a pastor con queso and a chorizo con queso. Pastor is my absolute favourite beef/pork (some places use beef, some use pork. Tonight was beef). The marinade is so good! Everyone else had alambres which turned out to be meat cooked with onion & capsicum on a plate, with tortillas on the side to make your own tacos. They all had cheese on theirs too. It was very good!
Then we headed down to Fifth Avenue to walk through the mall. It was pumping! So much good music, makes you just want to dance your way along the street! Then we reached the hostel. Some of the group decided to go to a bar and party, but I stayed in our lovely and cool room. I had a video chat with my mum, then went to bed.
Day 7 Playa del Carmen
This morning I had no alarms and no requirements to get up early. Yay! My roommates did get up early as they were going to Tulum, but they were quiet.
I eventually got out of bed and did some washing. My portable wash bag is awesome! Add water, detergent and clothes, seal it and rub rub rub. Then rinse and you’re done.
I hung them in my room to dry, then went in search of coffee. It is widely known outside the US that Starbucks has crappy coffee, but you can count on it to have normal coffees. There was one not far from my hostel, so I headed there and got myself an iced caramel macchiato. It was so good!
I walked around the streets for a bit then went back to my room as the milk made my stomach funny. Consequence of not having dairy for a while!
Then I headed out again this time in the direction of the supermarket. The supermarket is more like a Woolworths and Kmart combined. Oh, and you can buy a motorcycle or ATV as well! I walked around for a while (ahhh air conditioning), grabbed a few snacks for the road trip tomorrow and went in search of food. Along the way I passed Walmart, so I went in to have a squiz. Pretty much the same as the Mega supermarket I was just in.
I went to a local place and had some pastor nachos for lunch. They were delicious!
Then I headed back to my hostel to chill. I'm sitting in a hammock by the pool writing this, contemplating going for a swim. Tonight will be a quiet night while we all pack and prepare for tomorrow's early wake up.
Overall, Mexico has been good. Very American, but still good. I'm going to end this post here since I'm moving countries tomorrow. I hope you have enjoyed my Mexican adventures!
Next stop......BELIZE!!