on the way home

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It's all very sad😞 I'm back at work now, feeling most sorry for myself! For some mad reason I came in only 2 hours after landing, and 24 hours of travel is now starting to catch up. But that's boring, time to update on the last few days of my trip...

So my last blog was in Playa, which I was (very guiltily!) enjoying as a beachy relax at the end of some relentess travelling. I went to Tulum with Becky, Ines and Julianna. The plan had been to visit the ruins and then so some relaxing on the beach. As luck would have it, it was a blinder of a day, and far to hot to consider climbing ruins! So instead we headed straight for the beach, and what a beach it was! It was the proper postcard carribean beach, complete with crabs (which do hurt if you stand on them as I found out in the sea), white sand (with funky pink bits in), and a very chilled bar which sun loungers. Perfect. I am now a glowing brown colour after spending all day sun bathing.

Unfortunately we never made it to the ruins, inertia took over to the extent that there really wasn't an excuse not to. Although you could see the ruins from the beach - a cultural beach!

On Sunday we visited the much hyped ruins of Chitchen Itza. This was like Tikal, but less jungly, smaller, and more detailed ruins. Personally, I preferred Tikal, but it was worth visiting Chitchen Itza for the detailed relief carvings of all the sacrifices, and the fantastic ball court. They played an early version of lacrosse, where originally they hit a large rubber ball with bony parts of the lower body, but then developed to use snake shaped sticks as well. It was a bit like Quidditch (well, I thought so), but the important difference is that the winner gave his life as sacrifice. Sounds like a good reason to lose if you ask me.

The highlight of the day though was a visit to a Cenote on the way back. Cenotes are natural underground pools. It was absolutly beautiful, with the roots of a tree coming down to the pool, and little fish swimming around. The water was lovely and clear and cool, if slightly too deep for my liking! I can now say I've swum in an underwater pool! Unfortunately none of my photos came out well, as it was too dark.

And so my holiday came to an end. It was a fantastic trip, where everyday I experienced something new. I've come a step further in overcoming my fears (spiders, hights, depths), and got a tan to boot! I also have some interesting bruises from cycling over Antiguan cobbles (ouch), rather strange shaped mosquito bites, but a headful of fantastic memories. Bring on my next trip!!!

Helen xxx

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