Tulum, Turtles and not as much Tequila as I thought!

So Tulum was pretty beautiful. I started as I meant to go by diving into the sea and then treating myself to a fresh fish caught that day and a tequila sunrise to wash it down with at one of the little beach bars. Nice.

I took me about 5 minues to find myself a partner in crime - her name was Sue and she ranks up there as one of the biggest stoners I have ever met. Absolutely hillarious but takes f**king ages to anything, mainly becasue everything required a spilff for the way. Turns out she was in good company too, as most of Tulum spends large quantifies of their time unedr the influence. Even our hosts!

We were given our own bikes with baskets on the front for our beers, so we were soon off exporing. Despite the lazy pace we managed to sqeeze tons of stuff in. We visited Los Dos Ojos (the two eyes) which is an underwater cave (called a cenote)with two light holes that shone down into the darkness (the eyes obviously). It was pretty awesome - like something from our David`s Life, but I managed to get bitten to shit about 25 times in the 2 and a half minutes in took me to put my flippers on get into the ice cold water - bastards!

After that we headed to Acumal beach and went swimming with sea turtles! I was very prepared to see absolutely nothing, as the beach was pretty over run with hideous yanks, but within abgout 5 minuites and 50 meters we were swimming side by side with the most enormous creatures, so calm and graceful. Absolutely beautiful and could not care less that were were with 6 feet of them as they dived down to nibble on sea grass before surfacing for a quick breath and then plunged down into the reef again. I could see tehe wrickles in their huge necks and all of the different colours that make up its incredible patterned shell. Quite something.

After such a wholesome day with had a rather less wholesomne evening. A quick visit to the Supermercado involved a rather woobbly and only slightly dangerous ride down the hard sholder of the motorway, to get the necessary bottles of red wine and beers before they stopped serving at 9pm. Sue insisted on bying Mexican wine (clearly high) which ended up unsurprisingly tasting like a mixture of vinegar and aerificial sweetner (apparently the Mexicans are not big on wine) so before long with had cracked into our hosts Mescal. Now compared to this the wine was nectar, but it got you very drunk very quickly (probably something to do with the mescaline?) and before long we were in a taxi to Tulum town in search of a party.

I shall not go into too much detail, because this blog is read by my loving parents and I would not want to ruin the illusion they have that I am whiter then white , but it is fair to say that when we finally rolled into bed at 8 th next morning we had certainly be initiated into the Mexican party scene.

The next day we were good for nothing but lying on the beach groaning to eachg other and taking it in turns to buy more ice cold water from the beacj bar. WWe did manage a ride up to the Tulum ruins on the later afternoon, which was bautiful as they are set on top pof the cliffs overlooking the beach and looks quicte incredible as the sun started to set behine them. Then it was T minus half an hour until Mosquito time so we bombed back to the hostel and enjoyed a quiet (and sober) night at the hostel before our respective journeys out of lovelt lazy Tulum the next day.

So now I am in Merida and have more adventures to tell, but it is getting late and an ice cold Sol is calling my name. Hasta Luego!

Cancun, Kerry Katona and catching the bus out of there!

Well folks, my adventure is underway! And I have got up at 6am to fight off the crowds of fellow travellers fighting for use of the hostels computers so they can sit around on facebook all day completely ignoring the Mexico that is outside the door, so enjoy!

After a short sharp no fuss departure from blighty, I did the obligatory wander around Gatwick, buying crap I didnt need from Boots, trying all the expensive Chanel face creams, sampling the free tasters on various liquors on offer and ending up in the weatherspoons have a strong gin for the road, thinking of all the things I was going to miss. My fellow passengers all looked like Kerry Katona and sounded worse, so I was thankful when it turned out that my plane literally had about 40 people on it. I had 3 seats to myself, but I could have had 30. In fact - you could have ALL come got on and come with me! 150 quid people!

Anyway, the food was criminal, the wine was drinkable and the cigerettes were prohibited, so I gritted my teeth and after 11 long hours of playing solitaire, I had arrived!

Compared to arriving in Managua in the middle of the night last year, Cancun airport was a dream. It had signs for a start and after a short airconditioned bus ride I had arrived in downtown. A ten minute stagger along the road under the weight of my enourmous backpack later, and I was standing in a pool of sweat at the reception of my hostel being offered a glass of water by my rather concerned looking host.

I am afraid I cannot really tell you much about Cancun, as my entire experience of it involved walking to the nearest little square and ordering a vegetarian Burrito and the biggest mango slush puppy I have ever seen in my life, while cute Mexican kids drove around my feet mini 4x4s playing bumper cars, before I promply passed out in my bunk before it was even dark.

As the bus drove out of Cancun the next morning, I could seen in the distance the enormous all inclusive hotels lining the coast, like big ugly beetles crawling along what was once a beautiful deserted beach but is now a just hedonistic hell hole, their backs gleeming in the bright sunlight. In a way, I almost regretted not going to check it out - just to see. That is, until I arrived in Tulum and walked out on to what is possibly the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, and then to realise that the only people I was sharing it with were a few fishermen and a couple of local stoners. Bliss! I had arrrived.

T minus 9 days! eeeeeeeeek!

Well, here I am, off again! This time to the land of sombreros, tequila and FAHITAS! I am currently swinging between feeling so excited that I wish the plane was leaving in an hour, and so scared I feel physically sick. Why dont I just get a career and a mortage? a nice quiet husband and a couple of (also quiet) kids?

Anyway peeps! I hope you all enjoy my regular ramblings - if only because they will let you know that I am still alive and getting up to mischief!

Hasta Luego Chicos!