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Published: June 20th 2007
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Playa del Carmen was our first stop when we arrived at the Yucatan on Monday 4 July by bus from Belize. It’s by far the most touristy place we went on our trip, full of American tourists, American chains and americanised restaurants, although it does have a really nice beach where we spent a very relaxing Tuesday. We had a great time, eating amazing fish, watching a brilliant fire show at the Blue Parrot and we were unpleasantly surprised to find that Americans actually dance in real life like they’re on MTV. It’s quite um…graphic.
Our next stop was the island of Cozumel, to meet up with Kerry’s best friend Linda and go diving on the famous reefs there. We hadn’t seen Linds for a year so it was very exciting to see her. She is a doctor on a Cruise ship, so we had a quick tour of the cruise ship, which was a bit like being stuck inside a pinball machine with lots of glitzy colours and flashy lights, followed by a day at the nearby pool bar catching up and wondering why all the male cruise ship crew shave their chests. The next day we went
scuba diving, which was amazing, swimming through tunnels, between huge coral covered rocks and seeing loads of funky fish. After the diving we went to one of the many beach clubs on the island- many of the beaches were washed away by a hurricane 4 years ago, and the beaches are a lot nicer at the clubs which have replaced the sand. Then we met up with another friend of Kerry’s, Neil (also a ship’s doctor) for a few beers and tequila.
After Cozumel we spent a few days at Tulum, which has an AMAZING beach, just look at the photos, and the breeze kept us cool for 3 relaxing days. It’s also pretty undeveloped as the town is 5 km away. We stayed in the town, rather than some of the cool cabanas on the beach, as the weary traveller hostel had a great social scene. We had 2 wicked nights there, supping beer and rum, and chatting to all our fellow travellers. It also had the best breakfasts in Mexico, where you could cook yourself pancakes & syrup, eggs and toast on a huge gas barbecue. Yum! While in Tulum, we also went scuba diving at the
Dos Ojos Cenote - a limestone cave that has filled up with water. It had amazing views, with light pouring in eerily at the odd overhead hole and super clean fresh water with amazing visibility, so you can see a huge array of stalactites and mites, and as you’re diving you can swim right up to them. You feel so clean afterwards, it’s like having a bath in mineral water for 90 minutes!
On Thursday 12 July, we met up with Linda again, this time at Xcaret, a sort of Disneyland of Mexican culture, as her ship docked there, and there was little else to do nearby. Xcaret cost quite a bit, and it was worthwhile to see the jaguars, black panther, pumas, tapirs, giant turtles and manatees that are really hard to see in the wild, but the rest of it was a bit of a waste of time. The most disappointing part was the river swim, we expected a lazy float down a cool river, and the reality was a hard swim down a man-made canal. We’d left Andy to his own devices for the day, and managed to find him enjoying home comforts at Starbucks….
That night we went to our last stop on the Yucatan, Isla Mujeres, just off Cancun. The island lived up to his name (the island of women), and Andy had a great time chatting to all the lovely young ladies in the Poc-na hostel. We had a fantastic evening there on the first night, everyone was in the bar due to the early rain and after slightly too many great tasting and cheap cocktails we ended up on the dance floor until the wee hours. We spent 3 wonderful days on the island, mainly at the great north beach, eating the best burgers and having our last few sunsets and sundowners. We also had a day razzing round the island on a golf cart.
We flew up to our last stop, Mexico City, which was mainly spent shopping for gifts at craft markets. We did also meet up with Sonia for a wild Saturday night. She invited to show us round her home town after we met her in Guatemala. We started off in a really cool bar, that had a very eclectic choice of British music, then moved onto a cantina, a traditional bar of mainly men getting
hammered, accompanied by guitar music. Andy and Nick joined in a test of manhood, where all the men held hands in a circle, the end 2 guys holding onto electric conductors, a constant electric shock is sent through the group and gradually turned up. The first guy to let go is a wimp. Andy and Nick took it like real men! We then tried to gatecrash the prom of Sonia’s cousin, but felt slightly underdressed in our jeans compared to ball dresses, so went back home!
We flew back to England on 19 July after 9 amazing months. It was very sad to leave, but we were definitely ready to return to the real world, and it will be really wonderful to see our families and friends again.
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Richy 'ill
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When are you coming to see me?
Looking forward to a good ale session in Cambridge when you can make it guys! Glad you made it back safe. Where you gonna live now eh?