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Published: November 25th 2007
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After 20 hours of travelling on Thursday 15th,. four pasty white boys finally set foot in Mexico. Four and a half months of anticipation and planning (limited) was at last over, we´d arrived in Cancun...
As expected, Cancun was in the main a shit-hole, particularly on a budget such as ours. The most sought-after parts were taken over by the large hotels, where as we opted to stay in the downtown region - a bomb site! Nevertheless, having arrived around 9pm we headed straight into the mix for some celebratory beers and a typical Mexican dinner. Horse (almost definitely) tacos and a few local lagers later we crashed back to the hostel for some much needed rest.
One of the strong recommendations we´d been given before we left was to to go to Isla de Mujeres, so on the Friday we caught the ferry to the small island just off the coast of cancun. The island had some awesome white sand beaches with palm trees everywhere. Our hostel was a little bit of a hippie haven and our room looked a bit like a prison cell but it had a beach bar which kicked off at night and served
some of the most outrageously undrinkable cocktails (strawberry & mango daquiri or raw lemon juice for a magarita). On the plus side though we met some good value Norweigan girls at the beach bar - the three of them effectively becoming our travel buddies for the rest of Mexico.
Highlights of our stay included a cycling tour of the island (with no brakes), getting burnt to a crisp on the beach like proper English tourists, and drinking a few bottles of Sol at a beach bar, lined with swings instead of bar stools, overlooking the sea. Dave also managed to change the code on his locker padlock (containing all his belongings) on the final morning, Rhys volunteered to sit and work through all 1000 possible combinations. Everyone had given up hope when it finally opened on 985, after working up from 000! Good lad. Unfortunately that caused us to miss a ferry back to the mainland which led us to catching the 1pm bus to Merida on Monday. That 6 hour journey was going very smoothly until a big crash up ahead blocked the road at around 6pm. By the time we started moving again at 1:30am we were
a little tired and peckish and it didn´t prove too easy finding a hostel in Merida at 3:30m!
Having eventually found a cheap hostel to take us in that night, we finally got to sleep (after watching Top Gun on local TV) at 4:30am. The next day we checked into our hostel and explored Merida, the capital of Yucatan State. The bustling city was made busier by the fact it was their annual Revolution day. There was a fiesta taking place in the evening, so after finishing our £1.50 litre bottle of (the finest quality) vodka and discovering that ´King of Beers´ (Ring of Fire) was now a global phenomenon, we went to watch the parade and later on to witness our Norweigan friends´ version of Bon Jovi- Lving on a prayer, in the local karaoke bar. Obviously all 4 of us steered well clear of any microphones!
After our third night in Merida we set off for Tulum, a historic Mayan coastal town, via Chichen Itza - one of the new wonders of the world. Due to our somewhat limited budget we opted against a guide of for the tour of the Mayan site and thought we´d rely on Dave & Laff´s endless historical knowledge. However, that dried up quite quickly so we resorted to eavesdropping on the other guided groups to gain some idea of what the craic was! A wonder of the world it may have been, but it was no lively beach town so we quickly hopped back on the bus to Tulum, where we´re writing this from now.
Tulum´s a beautiful spot, especially the beach which is relatively un-touched by civilisation compared to the likes of Cancun and Isla de Mujeres. Have a peak at the attached photos. Fax, Steve and Jonnie you may notice the similarities between here and Mozambique - it´s paradise. There´s no electricity in the day though, hot water is a distant memory and Alex and Rhys have got the yips about cockroaches, snakes and lizards, not to mention the mosquitoes! Just teething problems I´m sure, I guess we don´t quite fit the rugged backpacker stereotype yet! Off to Belize tomorrow, hoping for more of the same.
Hope everyone´s well at home, we were gutted to see England dumped out of the qualifiers. We searched high and dry to see if live, only to find Germany versus Wales. Needless to say Rhys was overuled. Keep us all in touch with your news and events. Lots of love,
Rhys, David, Alex and Pots
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hmm
is it true you shaved your head?? ADD PICS - if true!! xx Grow it back!!