5: Tulum, Bacalar, Palenque - Mexico

Days 14-21: Snorkling with Turtles, Bacalar Fort, Kayaking, and Day of the Dead

So its been a while since my last blog and I'm slacking behind so I'm going to have to do a whole week in one go! Bare with me :D

The 3rd week started with our snorkeling trip with the Turtles and it was the most amazing thing I have ever done! We only had to swim 25m out from the beach and they started to appear, about 3 foot below you! They were huge, and graceful although seeing them chomp on the sea grass made them look a bit cow-like haha! They have to come up for air and when they do, if you keep still, they practically bump into you! It was so awesome to see them right there, not on the TV lol. We then swam out to the reef which is a lot bigger and brighter and more diverse than the one before and we saw huge colourful fish and the water was clearer so that was rele kwl, tho by the time we got back to the beach I think Liam was a bit tired of all the swimming! We next headed off to Dos Ojos (Two Eyes) Cenote, which is a massive underground network of connected pools. It was quite scary actually because we snorkeled in the dark with torches and stalactites kept bumping you from above and you'd swim into stalagmites from below, and you could see huge underwater caves going soooo far into the darkness with no idea what was in them and caverns beneath you! We went through

tunnels where the snorkle was scraping against the roof and into 'the batcave' which sounds kwl and it was filled with hundreds of bats! Not good if your clostrophobic though! We were kinda glad to get out of there cos it was great but a bit freaky! Such a good day though and we even went and bought our own snorkels so we can go without a tour next time :D

The next day we moved onto a tiny village called Bacalar on the edge of a lagoon. It was beautiful there, with reeds and birds and Palapas hut piers, although we did have a scare when we turned up and they had no rooms despite us booking one! Luckily the most helpful/lovely man ever came to our rescue (as he was Mexican and could speak Spanish) and sorted it out. We ended up going to dinner with him and a Canadian couple that night too. The next day we had the biggest meal ever for about £3 each, Liam nearly couldn't finish it, and then went to see Bacalar's Fort which was built to fend off Pirates! It was awesome because this area was where real British pirate ships would come in from the Carribbean and sack the town and steal all its wealth, its sounds geeky but the museum about it was pretty kwl :)

 

On halloween, after a breakfast of bananas and cookies by the lagoon, we went to town where the ATM machine SWALLOWED LIAMS CARD!! We had a bit of a panic but once again Fernando came to the rescue and called the spanish bank. We've ended up having to have a new one sent (via my mum) to the British Embassy in Guatelmala. Its the first major thing to go wrong on our trip, very glad it got sorted! After that we decided to chill out and go for a kayak. We went all the way across the lagoon and rowed between the mangroves with the wildlife and had a paddle and followed the river that the priates came down. It was really nice and so quiet with just the two of us, and we watched another beautiful sunset over the water :) We also went to a halloween celebration in the plaza which had Day of the Dead artwork around the square and it was kinda creepy but beautiful. That night we stayed in a campervan in the garden which was pretty kwl too.

Thursday was travel day and it was 7 hours to our next destination. We had orginally planned to go by overnight bus but Fernando very kindly offered to drive us all the way as he was going in that direction anyway!! Was so much nicer than the bus and saved us a fortune so if your reading this Fernando, thank you again! First we stopped at our last ever cenote (as it is only that part of mexico that has them) which was a huge open air one where we had a quick swim, then set off. We learnt a lot about Mexico and some Spanish on the journey which was awesome,
although the roads to Palenque are AWEFUL! We have moved into a different state now too; Chiapas, which is actually very different and mountain-y. After a goodbye drink with Fernando and a noisey hotel rooms sleep, we woke up on the Day of the Dead! We changed to a lovely hostel on the edge of town in the jungle and skyped home which was nice :) Liam also saw how to make the palapas so is now determinded to do one when we have a house lol. We then went off to see what the town was doing for Día de Muetos. In the main plaza there were shrines up all around to dead family members with their favorite food and drink, and scary masks everywhere and music in the square. It was rele kwl, if a bit creepy, and we sat all night watching and eating helado and fried bananas which are really yummy!

Finally, on the Saturday we decided to use the hostels laundry service to wash our clothes, thinking it would be fine as it was the one in the hostel, and that was the biggest mistake EVER! When we got our clothes back everything was ORANGE!! We had even separated things into white and colours for them but they were all covered in orange stains and I was so upset, we complained and they re-washed the worst things but it didn't really help, so im pretty pissed off tbh, tho there is nothing we can do now :(

So it has been a busy week with some things that have been amazing, although its the first week a lot seems to have gone wrong and its kinda bummed us out a bit. But its a new week soon so hopefully less will mess up. Although we are planning on going to a very remote Mayan village tribe and cross the Guatamalan border so we'll wait and see!

Love to all,
Beth and Liam