All alone!

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It seems like ages since I last wrote and so much has happened since Henry left it is pretty hard to know where to begin…

I moved into the hostel on Isla Mujeres to stay there until my flight to Cuba. On the first night I met a whole load of girls from Edinburgh and went out for a few drinks with them and Simon. They had rented a golf cart for the day and so thought that being lazy we would drive around rather than walking. The barman of the club told us about a house party on the other side of the island and we thought we'd go and check it out. On leaving the club however there was a small problem…the golf cart was gone. After wandering around for a few minutes we thought we had found it, so got in and turned the key. Although it wasn't our cart, it started - every key works in every cart!! We figured that if ours had gone, then we could pretend that we thought we had the right cart and there would be no problems, and set off for the party. There aren't really any cars on Isla Mujeres so we had a crazy 40 minute drive right to the other side of the island with 7 of us piled onto this stolen golf buggy. As we careered past the police we thought that this could be an issue but they merely gave us a little hoot and a wave! We finally arrived at this huge villa perched on the cliff overlooking the sea. I have no idea whose house it was but there was a cool-box full of drinks, and a DJ playing pounding techno on the patio, to about 60 or 70 people dancing in the garden…Incredible! Anyway, at about 5am we thought that we'd head back, so went to where we'd parked the golf buggy. As we approached a man jumped out of a bush and shouted at us that we´d stolen his golf cart! Which was of course true. I still have no idea how he found us but he gesticulated that he was going to escort us to the police station. We got there and the girls played the dumb tourists…although the police really didn´t seem at all bothered and told us to go back to the hostel. Anyway, the next morning with everyone a bit more sober the girls went back to the rental place somewhat apprehensively to find their cart parked outside unscathed! Very strange!

The next day I went to do a couple of dives. The first was at this site called sleeping shark cave as there are apparently often sharks there. We went down and it was pretty standard, with no sharks in sight. Just as I was resigning myself to the fact that we weren't going to see any, a dolphin swum past and circled us a couple of times bouncing around playfully. It then swum off and then as we were on our safety stop came back again. This was far better than any shark and the divemaster said that it was only the 3rd dolphin she had ever seen on nearly 1000 dives! And just to top it all off I then saw a couple of flamingo's tongues (crazy little psychedelic coloured worm things) on the next dive.

I got back to the hostel and bumped into Katie (the girl who had cut my hair in San Christobal) which was cool, and also met this guy from Hawaii who was probably the driest and most sarcastic American you could imagine. We went out for dinner with some Israeli guys and then came back to the bar for some drinks. Also in the hostel were a group of Swedish girls, which I guess is the closest I will ever come to the coach-load of Swedish nuns (ps. it’s a private joke - Henry understands!). We all went down to the beach with a couple of bottles of rum…

And then it was on to Cuba!

p.s. in response to certain comments i must add that it was just i got bored of typing and there really wasn't much else to say other than we got drunk...which as Henry's parents commented seemed to be the recurring theme of the trip!! although i am still waiting for the coachload of swedish nuns...!!

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Photos

The swedish girls
although they weren´t nuns!

Comments

[fuff]

great to see that you can cope without your old mate, who has spent 2 weeks with a pin striped suit on-he can tell you the rest ! he has been car parking all weekend in order to earn a crust and this weekend we are all up to the north norfolk coast for more fun. ?when are you hope and back to reality/ thanks for looking after the son and heir and enfoy the resat of the trip love fuff

[Dad M]

All Alone? I think not....
Whilst you might be without the restraining (?) and comforting hand of Henry A on your shoulder, you do not appear to be very much on your own!!! (but it is good to know that you are missing him - of course). As for the Swedish Girls, you look a bit apprehensive - perhaps you felt outnumbered without your 'wing-man' or perhaps you were already anticipating the barracking you would get from certain parties when you get home. What we really want to hear about is the "...." (not that WE probably ever will), if you can remember it.....! I like the thought that on one occasion you were "very, very, very drunk" in contrast to all the other occasions when you were obviously only slightly tipsy?! Hope Cuba is fab. Love from us all.