Ándale, ándale, ándale! Quick 3 days in Mexico

Mexico wasn’t in our original travel plan as we both had already been there, but cheap flights from La Havana to Cancun gave us the opportunity for a quick trip though the Yucatan Peninsula before entering Belize.

We spent the first night in Playa del Carmen, basically as a stopover on our way to the Cenotes, and found ourselves spending the first night alone of our trip (sans family that is) in a 6 bed dorm room with 4 young American, French Canadian and English guys. In typical Playa del Carmen style, they stayed out partying, came in late (one of them when we were cleaning our teeth in the morning), turned lights on and off and much to Sal’s and my disgust let rip a few farts loud enough to wake us up! Welcome to backpacking & dorm rooms 1-0-1!!

Playa del Carmen has changed heaps over the last ten years, when I visited it for the 1st time with uni friends (salutacions Nargallops!). From a quiet beach town with a couple of commercial streets; restaurant chains, clubs for drunken teenagers and cheap souvenir shops have emerged transforming the town in a Tex-Mex themed park (Port Aventura pels de casa).

Lucha libre masks make a great souvenir, but we're travelling light

Needless to say, we left early and headed down to Tulum. Tulum is a gorgeous beachside village with white sand beaches, turquoise water and a Mayan ruin site.

The Tulum Mayan town used to be a commercial hub thanks to its strategic location. You will see weird angles in the constructions below.. Not that their arquitects were high on peyote, everything was planned to be able to read the moon cycles and constellations.

El Castillo Tulum ruins

If you like all the Mayan stuff, this is just the first ruins we visit of many to come. More on the December 2012 end of the world that never happened soon!

Apart from relaxing on the beach and visiting the ruins, we also went to Cenote Cristalino. For those who haven’t heard of them before, Cenotes are limestone sinkholes that have filled with freshwater filtered through the ground or collected from the rain. We spent the morning snorkeling in the amazingly clear water, checking out the cave and the colorful freshwater fish (very similar to guppies) and cliff diving. The fish there gave us a nice foot scrub for free… Dead skin in exchange for a cosmetic treatment, not bad!

Cenote Cristalino

Nyom nyom nyom

Can't beat the visibility in the cenotes!

Our last daylight hours in Mexico were spent walking the Tulum beach where they were holding a fishing competition, suffering Montezuma’s revenge and taking pictures of the sunset before catching the midnight overnight bus to Belize. A 6 hour comfy ride only interrupted by the border crossing at 4am.

Proud Mexican fishermen with a winning Mahi-Mahi catch!

Sal is getting better with the camera tricks!

We will be back soon with some stories about Belize. Until then, big hugs to everyone!