A very Mexican Welcome

---

Cj writes: The journey from Belize to Mexico was awful. Not the 8 hours driving - we knew about that - but the wholly unnecessary TWO HOURS at the border! All on the Mexican side - some sort of bureaucratic disagreement between governments, apparently. We were sniffed by a dog, (who sniffed out an apple in my bag... Duly confiscated) made to put all our luggage through an x ray machine, and then EVERY ONE of our bags was searched by hand. That's once the officials had been dragged away from their siesta. Hence we arrived at Tulum considerably later than expected - to find a delightful hotel literally next to the beach, with a large and airy room, two four poster beds, (see photo) verandah, etc - all very lovely and welcome.

Today we visited the Mayan ruins at Tulum, just 15 minutes from the hotel and overlooking the Caribbean Sea...all very impressive but the Mayans were builders of the same skill as the Incas (as we saw last year in Peru). (SC writes). As the pix show this is an impressive sight but it was also the most crowded ... Not a big problem.<br style="color:� font-family: UICTFontTextStyleTallBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Then we all set off for the local Cenote... A limestone sink hole full of clear cold water. We swam as you can see... Great fun and very invigorating. I especially enjoyed swimming through a long cave with bats flying overhead. Yes we swam in the Batcave!We really noticed the difference in buoyancy. In Caribbean waters one floats easily..but in cool fresh water I for one tended to sink like brick...oh well. In the afternoon after a decent local lunch we managed some low key shopping.

We have to be on our toes here in Mexico: We have already experienced some "sharp practice" here, in Taxis, Restaurants and even a bureau de change... So far so good but we will need to stay sharp..ourselves...!

---

Photos

Hot,hot hot at Tulum
Obligatory selfie sort of

Impressive ruins at Tulum
It was busier than this photo suggests

Cenote - scenic sink hole
Complete with Batcave

Close encounters of the turtle kind
Look closely to the right

A hotel room worthy of note
Really rather good...and I've seen plenty (SC)