Vinny & Dogs Epic Trek Part 13: Mexico and Belize

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The last leg of my holiday took me to Mexico and Belize. From Peru, I headed to Cancun for the transition from the Incan world to one of the Mayan ruins! After coming from Peru, Chile, and various other locations which can be called nothing short of third world, heading to Cancun and the ridiculously overpriced tourist world made me feel a bit out of place. I spent three days there in Cancun doing as little as possible while I relaxed from my trek and plotted the remainder of my journey. The toughest part was deciding how and when I would get to Belize, my final destination. Needless to say, I got out of Cancun as soon as I could and made my way to Chichen Itza, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. I am not sure if it was me or not, but I didn't think Chichen Itza was all that impressive. Maybe it was because I was spoiled in all I have seen over the past few months and coming right from Machu Picchu, but you couldn't climb on it, there was no difficulty in getting there and it seemed relatively small and overly touristy. I only spent a few hours wandering around aimlessly and snapping some photos before I decided to head to Coba, another location filled with Mayan Ruins.

Coba was better as it boasts the highest temple in the Yucatan which stands at 140 ft tall and you are allowed to climb this one. The climb is steep and can be nerve racking to those afraid of heights or those folks with unsure footing. Most of the steps are uneven and very shallow, which calls for extra attention on the way up. Once you get to the top, the view is awesome. The only thing you see it trees, however, there are a few other temples poking through the canopy which offers a nice view. You can see for miles on a clear day and I was blessed with the clarity to see with just a few clouds in the distance. Following the few hours at Coba, I made my way to Valladolid via bus. When I arrived I checked into a bus headed to Tulum, which is another ruin location along the coast. The last bus of the day had already left, so I was left to stay there in Valladolid for the evening. I found a hotel and spent the remainder of the evening reading and getting caught up on some notes and emails. The next morning I awoke and headed to the bus station and purchased my bus ticket to Tulum. I arrived in Tulum a few hours later and found a hotel. For the next few days I wandered around in Tulum exploring some of the local shops which were filled with the typical tourist crap in each store. I decided to go diving in the cenotes outside Tulum. For those of you who are unfamiliar with cenotes, they are essentially a cave full of water, typically found in the Yucatan. At first, I wasn’t sure how to handle being submerged in a cave, but was willing to give it a go. Diving in the cenotes ended up being pretty cool. It was similar to walking around in a cave with the stalactites and stalagmites forming remarkable formations in which I was able to swim through. We made two dives, seeing only a few fish on each, but these dives are for seeing the rock formations, rather than the wildlife. Following my dives in Tulum, I decided to check out the ruins located right along a white sandy beach which dissolves into some clear blue water. The ruins were scattered across a relatively small area in front of some of the most beautiful coast in Mexico. Among the ruins, there were numerous wild iguanas wandering about which seemed to terrify many of the visitors. The ruins were cool especially with the background of the water, and I enjoyed spending a few hours here exploring the area.

Following Tulum, I continued my voyage south to Chetumal, Mexico (the southernmost “city” before getting to the Mexico-Belize border). Again there, I missed the last bus of the evening and headed to a hotel. I stayed next to the bus terminal as I planned to take the early morning bus to Belize City. Following checking into the hotel and finding no amenities, I ended up going to the mall and spending an hour there. It was similar to a stateside mall, only I was the only white person in the place! The next morning I woke up early for the bus to Belize City. When I got to the bus terminal, they told me the bus was postponed 4 hours. I then tried to take a boat to Belize, but when we arrived at the dock, I was told I would have to wait until 3PM. It was about 7AM at this point so after the cab driver took me to meet his English speaking brother, I opted to take a cab to the Belize border and cross the border myself. I made it to the border crossing and crossed the border with no problems except paying for a return ticket to Mexico which I didn’t need (good thing those charges didn’t stick!!) and continued to the airport in Corozal, Belize for a flight to the island retreat of Caye Caulker. (along the way many other travelers recommended Caye Caulker, and as I had no real place in mind in Belize, I was going to give it a go.) The flight I was on took me to San Pedro where I would need to catch the boat to Caye Caulker. After seeing a brochure at the airport of San Pedro, I decided to make a stop of a few days there in San Pedro, before making my connection to Caye Caulker. I ended up finding a hotel on the beach overlooking a dive shop. I would up spending the whole 10 days in Belize in that room!!!

The dive shop was literally a 20 second walk from my doorstep and I ended up spending the better part of the next three days diving. I made a day trip to the Blue Hole, which was made famous by Jacques Cousteau and his research to see how deep it actually was, and another day trip to a location known as the Elbow. Both days the dives were amazing and I went diving again and again. I ended my 10 days of relaxing in the sun on the beach before heading back to the states and cold weather with a total of 10 dives spread across the 10 days I was in Belize. A portion of those were local dives, meaning the sites were just a few minutes from the dive shop. On each of those dives we saw numerous sharks and a plethora of sea creatures, most of which I had never seen before as this is my first time diving in theis part of the world. Overall, Belize was some of the most amazing diving I have ever done and to date I have about 40 dives under my belt, in some of the most exotic locales of the world. I would definitely recommend heading to Belize for anyone wanting to relax on the beach and soak in the island life. It was a great relief to watch life go by with a frosty cold one in my hand from my porch. The only real downfall is telling all the guys trying to sell you marijuana, hash and any other type of drug. Once they see you around for a few days, they start to leave you alone which allow you to walk down the street like a normal citizen, not like a tourist with a target on your back!!

I made it back home just in time for the holidays with the family, which turned out to be a hectic but great time. Thank you all for your comments along the way during my first long-term blogging holiday. Who knows, maybe some of this may manifest itself into a book at some point of the future. I wish you each a happy and prosperous new year and look forward to the next year and what travel options it has in store for me. Cheers.

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