2: Cancún - Mexico

Days 1 - 3: Flying, Downtown Cancún, Isla Mujeres
Beth

So we finally left, we have actually done it and I am writing this from Mexico! :) (Haha Daniel now you have to believe we're going!).
It was a bit of a rush getting away, we didn't sleep Saturday night, and it was tough saying goodbye to everyone but at 5am we left my mum's house and my dad drove us to the airport.
3 things we learnt on the first day:

1. Flying isn't that fun, and its hard to do anything on no sleep.
2. Mexico is bloody hot, even at night.
3. Liam must look like a terrorist as he got stopped and searched 5 TIMES!!

All the flights were fine and we got the change over ok. The London-Atlanta flight was pretty sweet as we got a 3 seat row to the two of us at the back of the plane, with no one in front either, so we had lots of room and the screens in the seats were kwl. The Atlanta-Cancún flight was cramped but we saw a thunder storm in the clouds as we flew which was scary but looked amazing!


Now the Liam thing... he got randomly choosen 3 times to have his information and luggage all pulled out and searched (really annoying) and then at both Heathrow and Atlanta he left stuff in this pockets when going through the x-ray machine and had to be patted down! Had to laugh by the 5th one, I didn't get stoppped once :P it'll only get worse as his hair and beard get longer too... we might have some fun boarder crossings!

When we walked out of the airport we were struck by quite how hot it still was at 8pm (we're now 6 hours behind the UK), plus we were in our traveling gear of long trousers and sleeves which didn't help... totally different to shivering as I said goodbye to my dad outside Heathrow 19 hours earlier! We got to the hostel by local bus (go us lol), and after a short walk found our room to be small and basic but clean and pleasant enough, plus it had aircon which was a loooovely.
The hostel is similar really, although voted the best in Cancún, but it has an amazing roof top terrace with a bar, hottub, hammocks and a computer room. It looks out over downtown Cancún, which is not great, but it has palm trees up there so if you don't look closely its nice. We realised that we hadn't actually slept, except what you can sort-of-doze on the plane, for 45 hours so went to bed.





The next day, and first real day of our trip, we spent looking around downtown Cancún. Cancún is split into 2 areas, Centro (downtown) and Zona Hotelera (the area with all the fancy but touristy hotels and beaches), and we decided not to bother with the later. We spent the afternoon wandering through parks and eating from taco stands. The tacos here are DELICIOUS. They are not spicey at all unless you choose to add your own salsa and come with shredded meat of chicken, pork or beef, all made flavor-y with spices, and then with onions and peppers, and veggies rice and refried beans on the side (nicer than they sound) and but its soooo much better than anything mexican at home and only a few quid :) On the way back we bought some food from a grocery to cook in the kitchen (go us being good on the 2nd day lol). We spent the night reading the guide books to decide where to go next (there is SO much to see in Mexico I don't know what we're going to do) and lying in hammocks. They are so comfy and Liam has decided that when we have our own house he is going to build a tiki hut in the garden and we are going to have a pair of hammocks in there... lol :P

 

Today (Tuesday) we decided to go to the beach, and maybe have a more tourist-y day, but not just any old beach, we decided to go to the Isla Mujeres, which just sounds kwl and has the beach with the best few of the sun setting over the carribbean sea in the area :) The names of the places here are great, there is a San miguel town, a Magaritas street and a playa Tortugas just in Cancún!

 

We has to catch a collectivos (small minivan which people hop on and off, no seatbelts, bearly a door, and no regards for the road laws) to the port and then a ferry across to the Island. You'll be pleased to know Liam didn't get sea sick!! :D When we got to the beach it was beatiful. White sand as fine grained as i've seen, palm trees behind and the sea was completly clear, warm and tourquise. Like our own cheaters Carribbean Island!

 

We spent the afternoon sun/shade bathing and swimming (there was even little silver fish swimming with us and we saw a tiny Ray too!!). At sunset we watched the sun disappear into the sea and sky turn a pinky/purple i've not seen before, it was so beautiful and romantic. After that we spent the night in the town,  saw a real pirates grave, and caught the ferry back and now im writing this!

So all in all its been a great first few days and we're both fine and getting to grips with it all. At the moment it feels a bit like a holiday, but that might wear off once we start lugging the backpack around more lol, hopefully not though :) Tomorow we are moving on from Cancún to Valladoid so that we can see Chichen Itza the next day (Chichen Itza is the biggest and most famous Maya Temple complex - looks spectacular, the kinda Indianna Jones temples in the jungle type thing!!!), we're pretty excited.

I'm also popping an album on facebook with just a few more pictures than on here of the other things i mentioned so have a looksie :)

Post soon, miss you all,

Love Beth and Liam

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