WE are now about to spend our last night in Mexico and all being well (with the weather) we will get a water taxi down to Caye Caulker - an island off Belize City - our first border crossing too. We spent 5 days in Playa del Carmen and for 3 of those we did nothing much by go to the beach and rest. Playa is very much a tourist area for locals and americans. Think of the Gold Coast but much more over the top. We stayed in a beach shack type hostel a few steps from the beach. So sand and a few locals - mosquitos - were part of the charm . Oh and the heat and humidity. Behind the hostel was 5th - one long mall of wall to wall shops,bars and eateries and everyone touting for your custom. The only things we bought in 5th ave were US$1 cold beers for Gary in a souvenir shop every day and some postcards for our mothers. Wonder if they'll get them and when. We had to queue half an hour to get stamps. We generally ate and shopped a couple of streets away from 5th ave. Found a great belgian chocolate coffee shop with great chocolatey cakes but cappuccino not so hot as made on long life milk. Ventured into a Walmart (like coles and kmart together) and found lots in it. We bought a couple of steaks for tea one night and cooked them up - our first steak since leaving home. Tasted good. One day we went over to nearby Isla Cozumel for a snorkelling trip. The mesoamerica reef runs along this coast and is second to the great barrier reef. The fish were beautiful but a little disappointed in the coral though what we saw was lovely. Hurricane Wilah a few years back is responsible for that. I snorkelled with a life jacket but gary was ducking and diving. Thank goodness we don't have an underwater camera as I must have looked a sight. Our other day out was 60km down the road to The mayan ruins at Tulum. This trip takes an hour in a collectivo(minivan) as we stopped all the way to let off staff at the various resorts on the highway that front the beach. The ruins were the only ones we have seen right on the cliffs above the beach - a trading post in its day. After a few hot hours there we made our way back about 30kms to Akumal beach. I had hoped to snorkel off the beach with turtles but because of a strong onshore wind it wasn't allowed. So disappointing. However the beach was lovely - nicer then PLaya and much less people. But at least at Playa I went for a beach walk every morning and saw the sunrise. At the hostel we came across 4 young aussies - only our meeting with some aussies. They were queenslanders and two were from Noosa. We could have an aussie english conversation with them. After Playa we moved 4 hrs south to Bacalar - sleepy little town on a huge lagoon. It is called the Laguna of 7 colours. Whilst I couldn't count that many I got up to 5. It has fine white sand on it's bottom and varying depths = hence the colour variation. One afternoon was particularly beautiful with the sun out and no clouds. Our hostel was right on the lagoon and sitting on the verandah outside our room in a breeze and great view was hard to take. We did a 2 boat ride on the lagoon and some Stromatoites formations - looks like rocks but are actually from microorganisms and formed 3,500 million years ago(hope I got that right). ON the same afternoon we went to Cenote Azul - a huge open sinkhole that is like a lake. Beautiful water and lovely setting. Pity the taxi driver forgot to come back for us and we had to walk 45mins back to the hostel. Not a big walk but we were refreshed from the swim and by the time we got we were all hot and sweaty again. However a quick dip in the lagoon in front of the hostel fixed that. The cenote was only about A$1 to get in.So that's the end of our mexican adventures. Today we got a bus to nearby Chetumal - on the border with Belize. This afternoon we had to stay in and there has been rain and storms. Tomorrow we get the water taxi and the tickets don't get sold until the same day until it is decided if the weather is good enough. So here's hoping. Otherwise its back to hostel for another night.We have not had great internet the last 10 days but tonight it is good hence I'm writing. Not so sure about the next couple of weeks so hello and goodbye to everyone and I'll pick up the story in the near future
