Long live Mexico!

From Cancun airport, we drove directly south to Tulum to spend the next few days there.

We checked into Jardin de Frida Hostel (a really nice hostel with a beautiful garden and very clean) and took a stroll along the never-ending main street to get an overview, as we always do. Then we grabbed some food and had a few Coronas.

In Tulum, the best way to get around is by bike, so we each got one to ride to the beach. And we've seen quite a few beaches in the last few weeks and months, but compared to them, these are pretty amazing. Almost white sand (so bright that you get blinded without sunglasses, kind of like when you take off your goggles while skiing and get blinded by the snow) and water so light blue and shallow that you can stay in it for hours. Simply paradise-like beautiful and perfect for doing nothing :-) (which we definitely deserved after a 7 km journey ;-) ).

In the late afternoon, we went to visit the ruins and the park. It was nice, but what can I tell you after seeing a beach like this??

But since we didn't want to let go (yet), we decided to rent a scooter the next day and go to Coba to visit the ruins there. A fun trip, especially because you can rent bikes there and ride through the jungle to the different ruins. You can even climb to the top of the highest one and have a great view from up there. On the way back, we made a few stops in smaller villages and at various cenotes.

The most impressive one was definitely the Grande Cenote, where not only swallows and bats have made their homes in the cave roofs, but also turtles and various fish were swimming around. The water was crystal clear again and the whole place (at least the swimming area) was very well preserved.

In the evening, it was time for another hostel change, as ours was nice and beautiful and clean, but unfortunately there were no people and it was a bit on the outskirts of Tulum. So we ended up at the Sheck Hostel in the evening, with a hostel bar and a decent happy hour from 7:30 to 8:30 pm.

At this happy hour, we also met Bodo (56 years old from Cologne) and Jozef (25 years old from Slovakia) and made the most of the happy hour (2 tequilas for 30 pesos, about 1.50 euros). The two have been traveling for a while and have met up from time to time, and together they are unbeatably funny. Both a bit crazy, with a good heart, and always saying what they think, which was especially funny with Jozef (Tequila under 40% is a women's drink, not for men!! And when food wasn't extremely spicy, it was always women's spicy :-) :-) Rahel wasn't always satisfied with his choice of words, but most of the time it was so funny that she could overlook it).

However, Rahel had to say goodbye a bit earlier on the first evening because she had diving in Cenote Los Dos Ojos on the schedule for the next day (note from Rahel: Diving through stalactite caves is a unique experience! A bit scary but beautiful!)

I had a fun evening with the guys, but it didn't go unnoticed the next day, so we weren't ready for the beach until Rahel returned from her tour around noon. We took a taxi to the beach and enjoyed ourselves comfortably under parasols and on lounge chairs. It wasn't a day for lying in the sand and sunbathing, more for quietly lying in the shade, listening to some music, having a drink now and then, and taking a nap.

To get a change of scenery, we took the Collectivo to Akumal the next day to go snorkeling with turtles there. We sent our search dog Jozef into the water first, and after an hour he came back with a big grin on his face and explained to us where you can go and where not (of course, we didn't pay for a guide or entrance or anything like that) and where the turtles are. So Rahel and I went out and quickly found them. Huge creatures out there, and always busy snacking!! All the ones we saw were eating, and one even had two fish on its back, one on top and one underneath. And they were quite friendly too, not that we touched them or anything, but they weren't particularly bothered by us or the other tourists.

On the way back, we stopped by the Chinese fast food restaurant for a moment and then went back to the hostel, Tequila happy hour, and enjoyed our last evening together.

The next day, we took a bus to Bacalar for 3 days while the guys headed towards Cancun/Isla Mujeres in 2 days.

Bacalar was very beautiful, very quiet (we were the only two guests in the hostel on the first night), and exactly what we needed after the somewhat boozy and exhausting nights before. A nice accommodation, right on the lagoon, with its own dock and a great view of the various shades of blue of the lagoon.

We immediately booked a boat tour for the next day with Enrique, our host for everything (including our captain), and strolled through the town a bit before ending the evening with a cozy dinner at the hostel.

Our boat tour was awesome, with 5 or 6 stops, some in the middle of a sandbank, snorkeling in the cenote (180m deep!), hanging out in the pirate channel including jumping from an 'old ship' into the water, and all of this always in this unbelievably clear water with its 7 different shades of blue, with Enrique explaining all the great things to us in Spanish (despite some language problems, we understood almost everything and had a good conversation with him).

The rest of the day was spent chilling on our dock, cooking, getting our haircuts (yes, I let Rahel touch my hair again), and winding down the day in peace.

We spent my birthday quite laid-back in the hammocks and/or on the dock, as the weather wasn't that great, but still a nice day and a little tranquility before we moved on to Isla Mujeres the next day.

-Stephan

You can reach the island by ferry, and when we got on, bad memories of our journey to Koh Tao came back: the same type of ship and rain on the way. But it wasn't so bad! We reached the island after only 18 minutes and the rain wasn't too heavy, so we arrived at our hostel for the next few days only slightly soaked. We immediately ran into Jozef at Poc-na Hostel. Bodo had already left yesterday, but Jozef spent his last day with us. He showed us a super cheap and delicious restaurant (where the guys could build their own tacos and tortas!) and we had a few beers on the beach.

For the next few days, we had a pretty relaxed daily routine: get up, drink coffee, have free breakfast at the hostel, chill in the hammock or under a palm tree in the hostel area until it got too hot, then walk to Playa Norte and chill in the crystal clear water and powdery white sand with various cooling breaks... In the evening, watch the sunset with a beer and go out for a nice meal. Things couldn't be better for us!

For the end of our 8-month trip, we treated ourselves to 3 days at a typical Cancun resort. Complete contrast to hostel life, but a kind of summer vacation to wrap things up. Luckily, there weren't too many guests at the hotel, so we could relax on the beach and by the pool without a towel fight.

Tomorrow we will fly to Panama via Mexico City, from where we will take our flight back home.

A beautiful, eventful journey comes to an end. We're a little nostalgic, but also grateful and excited to finally see all our friends and family again!

See you soon!

- Rahel