The adventure begins

We've been looking forward to the 29.01.2017 for a long time, suffering through the scientific work and the first state examination at the university for months last year. We were able to recharge our batteries during this exhausting time by dreaming about our big adventure in 'Latin America'.

Now it finally starts - the adventure begins.

Packed with our backpacks and full of anticipation, we drove to Cologne by car on the 28th of January 2017, where we could stay in Simi's room, a friend of Lea's, in the student dormitory. On the 29th of January, we took the tram to the airport, where our flight to Cancun departed at 11:25am.

Approximately 2 hours before arrival in Mexico, we have to fill out the necessary tourist card on the plane, which entitles us to stay in Mexico for up to 180 days without a visa. In addition, there was a declaration card that we also had to fill out.

11 hours later and about 8000 km away from Germany, we are in Mexico - WE ARE FINALLY HERE :)

Everything went smoothly - check-in, the flight and also the immigration went without any problems. However, I (Elisa) had the 'luck' to be selected for luggage control at customs. The selection for control, however, is done randomly. You give the declaration papers to the customs officer and then you are asked to press a button, after which the light either turns red or green. If it's red, the luggage is scanned again and in the end it's opened and checked again. The officers were really nice though and interested in where you're from.

After that, we took the bus from the airport to our first hostel - the Las Flores - which we had already booked for 2 nights in Germany.

In the end, we liked it so much there that we stayed one more night before taking the ADO bus to Playa del Carmen on the 01.02.2017.