Week 1 - Arrival and Mexico

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It's now coming up to a week since I left England for Mexico it but feels like I've been travelling for months already. The first week has required some adjustment and lot of trial and error but I slowly feel like I'm getting there and have even found myself making some half decent attempts at Spanish.

After writing the first blog post on the morning of my flight I left for Heathrow and said goodbye to my family and Cat, who joined me at the airport. I hadn't slept much the night before so crashed out on the plane and then had the pleasure of five hours in Miami (three of which were spent queuing for immigration!). Luckily the person I sat next to on the flight, Natalie from the Shetland islands, also had some time to kill in the airport so we sampled some weak American lager and killed time waiting for our flights.

After the stress of US immigration I was not looking forward to going through the same process in Spanish at Cancun, but unsurprisingly Mexican customs proved to be a little more laid back. I then took a bus to my hostel in Cancun, was warmly received by the manager and crashed out instantly.

My first day in Cancun was spent sampling the beach (very nice and full of some swanky hotels) and deciding quickly that I would move on the next day. That night I met a bunch of Americans and Australians in the hostel and decided to move on to Valladollid, a charming little Mexican town with some excellent cenotes (sinkholes) and good access to Chichen Itza (a huge Mayan site recently nominated as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World). I was travelling with a Californian named John who knows Latin America very well and speaks very good Spanish, so he's been acting as a guide of sorts for most of the week.

After Chichen Itza and Valladollid we moved back to the coast to Playa del Carmen - another white sand beach resort like Cancun - and after spending a couple of nights relaxing there headed to Tulum, a backpacker hangout and site of some spectacular ruins on the beach (see picture).

Yesterday in Tulum was probably the standout day of the trip so far. We started the day by going snorkelling with sea turtles and around the reef in Tulum, where we also saw fish, stingrays and, although I didn't see it personally, a small shark. Afterwards we went snorkelling in an impressive nearby cave before heading to view the ruins on Tulum beach. I could have stayed in Tulum for some time - the hostel was really chilled out and full of older expats but because I have limited time in Central America, got the night bus last night to Palenque.

Palenque is the site of some Mayan ruins which are meant to be oustanding and which I have decided to visit instead of Belize after numerous recommendations. I'm sitting in a internet cafe now trying to stray awake and having just bought a mosquito net in the nearby shop (I'm sleeping in an hammock in the jungle tonight and although John tells me its not mosquito season, I've already seen the size of the spiders here!). The plan is to see the ruins here and head into Guatemala in the next few days where John will go to Belize and I will see the ruins at Tikkal.

I'll try and keep the blog posts shorter from now on and hopefully include some of my own pictures (the USB drive doesn't seem to like my camera on this computer). Overall the first week has been great although I am seriously considering taking some time out of the travelling to do a Spanish language course, either in Central if I have time or in South America. It would certainly make things easier and allow me to go off the beaten path a little as I move through Central America, exspecially seeing as I will be parting ways with John soon.

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Photos

Tulum
Mayan ruins on the beach at Tulum