Puerto Morales

Oh my god, I can not believe it! This is going to be our last destination and last blog on this trip. After 12 months and 1 week we have had our return tickets confirmed to fly from Cancun back to London. It feels weird writing this because travelling has become a way of life now and we did not even think about the daily stresses at home. Won't miss our bank balances being drained to nothing though but what's the point of money if you can't spend it or don't have enough time to spend it because you are working so hard. Life only happens once, as they say, and death is a certainty but I can honestly say we have definitely lived for the last year. It has not all been a bed of roses though as sometimes it does get hard and the constant moving on is exciting but also your senses become frazzled at the constantly changing scenarios and cultures. But it sure beats sitting at a desk 5 days a week though.
   So we decided for a beach resort to finish the trip with a bit of sand and sea. Playa del Carmen or Cancun we thought? But those mass tourism places don't really appeal to us being the non-package type so we opted for the town in between called Puerto Morelos. We splashed out on a bit of luxury as well and rented a posh apartment with a swimming pool. The apartment was stunning and had everything we could possibly want or need but we could not find it, so had to phone the owner to come and collect us as her directions were poor on the website.

Kathy searches for her favourite porn website to check the Internet is working at the apartment.

The trip from Valladolid took longer than we expected as there is no direct route so we had to go back to Tulum, up to Playa del Carmen to change for another bus to Cancun and jump off halfway. It ended up being a 5 hour journey when we thought it would be 2.5. A quick trip to the beer shop, (even though the owner had left us some dodgy looking wine and enough food to feed a family for a couple of days) and then back to cook some nosh in our own kitchen. You bet your bottom dollar there were no tacos or tortillas on the menu tonight.

I will have a 'P' please Bob.

   Next day we bummed around and relished in luxuries such as fresh coffee and porridge oats for breakfast while watching VH-1 play 80's and 90's hits. It is funny what you get used to when travelling, and T.V. is one thing I have not missed but Kathy has. Got to admit though I have managed to read a lot of books which is nice as at home I never get the time. I went down to the pool and had a swim and done a bit of sleeping in the sun. I then went and got Kathy and we caught a collectivo into town which was 36p each. In town we were disappointed with the beach and the sea. The beach was swamped in Sargasso grass and it stunk to high heaven as vast piles of it were rotting on the beach in the heat. The sea was looking a murky brown colour and looked like it was contaminated with sewage by the smell of it. In fact the smell was stomach churning and after a 10 minute beach walk we had to dive inland to escape the smell as the constant rotting fish smell was making Kathy feel nauseous. As the 2nd biggest barrier reef in the world was just a 100 metres off the beach we decided to look for a snorkeling trip with a few diving schools. One was particularly attentive to us so we booked with them for the next day as the weather forecast was good. We then went souvenir shopping but the prices were astronomical as we soon found out as the resort is packed with rich Americans pushing all the prices up as they don't mind being fleeced. Not buying anything, well nearly bought a t-shirt but decided it was not what we wanted after we agreed a price,.we then went to the swamps behind town to go and spot crocodiles where we were told they hanged out but did not find them. As the day was getting late we decided it was beer o'clock so went into a supermarket to get a few beers to be refused service because it was a Sunday. But undeterred we spotted someone on the street with beers so backtracked and found a small OXXO shop who had no qualms about selling us some cold ones. Backpackers 1, Religion 0. Surely it's the rite of man to have a beer on the sabbath day?

Nice white sand but nasty fishy smell.

   So we caught another colectivo in the morning to the dive shop to fetch our equipment and then walked down to the pier to wait for the boat. The dive shop recommended I put Vaseline on my beard to form a waterproof seal as sometimes the mask lets in water where it does not sit flush to my face. Unfortunately they had run out so the guide went down the chemist to get some more. It was a bit weird when he came back and announced to me and the other passengers that he could not get any Vaseline so we should do it without. Not sure what they were thinking but I know how it looked. We went out for 2 dives , each 45 minutes each and saw some amazing fish and loads of soft coral which was huge. The coral was really different to what we had seen in Asia which was mainly hard coral but this was soft so flowed in the current like trees in the wind.

I love to impress Kathy with a show of my awesome super powers.

 We also saw barracudas and seahorses and loads of fish which we have never seen before including a tiger fish. There was huge fan corals and most of the reef was less than 2 metres deep so we got some excellent views. Snorkeling can be really exhausting so when we got back to the pier we headed back for a rest in the apartment then ventured out later for beers and souvenirs. Later we decided to have a sort out of our rucksacks to chuck away all the stuff we would not need anymore to take back to Blighty hopefully reduce the weight of them as the luggage maximum requirement is only 18kg each. It's amazing all the stuff you accumulate thinking it may come in useful at some point. We had some bad news where the airline had rescheduled their flight from a early afternoon take off to an early morning take off so we decided to book a hotel next to the airport as we needed to be at Cancun airport by 5.30am. Such is the joy of travelling.

Travelling can play hell with your weight.

Next day with the rucksacks a lot lighter and a pile of used backpacker accessories in the spare bedroom we took the collectivo to the main road and waited only 2 minutes before the ADO bus came heading to Cancun. We jumped off  just past the airport for our last stay of this marathon journey for hotel number 93 (or it could be 94 as we lost count) which turned out to be owned by a crazy German who liked a drink or 3. The room was ace though and had patio doors that opened onto the pool area and a beautiful garden. We booked our taxi for 5am then headed into town which was devoid of anything interesting or significant so bought some beers and headed back to poolside for a night cap and an early night. Tomorrow we would be on our way to England and back to normal boring everyday life. Game over!


Travelling conclusions

Except for Thailand ,India and Burma most of the world are grossly obese. Biggest culprits are U.S.A., Mexico and Philippines.
The Internet makes the world very small and easy place to navigate.
McDonald's and Starbucks are taking over the world apart from Belize.
Plastic pollution is becoming a huge problem and in Asia it is so bad that the sea is blanketed so much that you can't swim in it.
Mosquitoes don't ever give up and you won't ever avoid them.
You need to speak decent Spanish to travel central and south America.
Nepal was the cheapest country we visited. 
U.S.A was the dearest.
Don't believe hotel booking website photos. 
Complaining can get results but not always.
Legroom on Buses and planes in every country except Mexico does not exist.
Don't travel after Brexit if you are on a budget. 
Tripadvisor recommendations push prices up. 
Take more money than you think as you will always need more at some point.
Americans exaggerate a lot.
Chinese are mostly rude and loud. 
Burmese people were humble and polite. 
Travelling is addictive.

Valladolid and Chichen Itza

Another smooth ride on The ADO bus from Tulum to Valladolid which took 2 hours and was very comfortable and smooth. It dropped us off in the centre of town and we decided to walk to our next accommodation which was Casa Chi. It was a massive room but the owner was not there when we arrived so some grumpy old woman went and got a boy to come out, flap about a bit, ask a lot a questions about our booking which we could not translate and then left us sitting around worried that our booking was 'forgotton about' which would be an issue as they only had one room.

A typical around the world backpackers room. Marvel at the luxury and the ornate furnishings.

 The owner later turned up, a rotund beer swilling cackling man, who was friendly enough but did not speak any English so our conversations were short. This did not deter him as he insisted that we ventured out to the shops to buy more beers to welcome us but we declined  him as we did not want to have to sit with him out of politeness. Even though we told him we don't speak Spanish this did not stop him from waffling on to our blank expressions. This guy was desperate for a drinking buddy, we got the feeling his wife did not understand him. Later in the evening he showed up while we were in the communal area with some beers and insisted we took some which we did out of politeness. Then he proceeded to waffle away in Spanish to us so we just smiled and nodded until a French couple showed up so we took the beers to our room and palmed him off onto them. It was a very subtle and smooth manoeuvre.

This fat bloke wanted chicken pizza but all he got was Chichen Itza. Hard luck pal.

  Next day we got an early start and caught the bus to Chichen Itza which took an hour so we arrived before the tour group crowds descended. They charged us to £10 entry fee which is not too bad considering it is now listed as one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. We walked around the sight for about 4 hours in the blistering heat which was energy sapping so we took it slow and easy. The sight isn't that big but the structures are huge so need a bit of time to appreciate. As the day wore on the crowds intensified, and selfies were being snapped at the rate of hundreds a minute. Some of the tour groups were huge. Overall though we were impressed as it was amazing to see these huge structures and even though we are not history buffs we appreciated the magnificent engineering that must of gone into the building of them and we particularly enjoyed the stories the guides told of all the bloodshed and sacrifices that went on to appease the gods. Luckily times have changed as all we have to do now is to walk into a church, kneel down and repent our sins and all is good again. Hooray for the evolution of man.

There is always time for shopping says Kathy.

 Worn out from the heat we went to catch the bus and could not be happier to see it pull up as we approached the bus stop (which was just a big tree). On board the air-con saved us from heatstroke and gave us a nice ride back to the hotel where on entry we were intercepted by jolly cackling beer swilling owner who invited us to share a beer with him.  Not being in the mood as we needed air-con and showers to cool off we made our excuses and slinked off into our room to leave him again deflated with no drinking buddies. We managed to avoid him most of the night but he cornered the French couple who luckily filled in on our behalf. (not sure if it was voluntary or not!)
   Next morning after avoiding our mate the Chuckle Brother we set off late to downtown for a cruise about the town which was very pleasing with a number of old colonial buildings, leafy town squares and cool colonnades to stroll. After lunch we headed to a local cenote called Zaci which had a £1.20 entry fee and a steep descent into a beautiful sinkhole which protruded into a cave half way and was filled with lovely blue water which was a nice sight after our hot morning town walkabout.

We just love sinkholes!

We stripped off and dived in as there is no easy descents into a sinkhole and had a nice swim about until our core temperatures were a wee bit lower then sat on the ridge in the sun to dry off. Once we dried off and took a couple of snaps we went back into town and asked the tourist info office on the main square where we could get a collectivo to another recommended cenote out of town. After waiting in the designated area given to us by  the tourist office it became apparent we had been given some duff info but luckily a local Mexican saw us mooching about looking grim. He spoke good English and told us where we should have been waiting. Funny enough as soon as we arrived there the taxi found us. We waited for another 2 passengers to fill the taxi up and then departed for the cenote. 5km later we hopped out only to be confronted by a shifty looking driver who decided to hike the price up. We declined his price hike and he got slightly perturbed at our brazen rebuff so followed us to the cenote ticket office to remonstrate with the staff there but they gave him no sympathy so he skulked off with his other passengers. The cenote itself, called X'kekken was awesome in location. It was an underground cavern pool with a small hole in the roof that allowed a small shaft of sunlight to beam down and light the centre of the pool. Also in the cave were bats and enormous tree roots from the ground above that hung down like jungle creepers that Tarzan would swing about on in the films. It was the coolest Indiana Jones type location we had been to.

We love underground cenotes as well!

 After a long cool swim about in the remarkably clear water which was full of black catfish we again had to find a taxi back and again it was another song and dance from the drivers association who decided they had to have a roadside meeting to decide if we were privileged enough to be given a ride into town. Eventually after a lot of tooing and froing and heavy negotiations they agreed to take us not back to our hotel which was nearer but to the centre of town instead. We agreed and just jumped out enroute when we passed close to our hotel. Why has everything got to be so difficult in life for such a simple request?  Back at the hotel we sneaked in past Mr chuckles into the room but later on he caught Kathy in the common area and would not release her from his non-stop chatter. I could hear Kathy struggling with her replies in Spanish from inside the room but I left her to sweat it out with him for a bit longer.  (I guess it was my sadistic streak coming through) Then I done the decent thing and went out to rescue her and help her with the dinner prep but Mr Chuckles would not let her escape so I ended up doing all the dinner myself. She eventually broke free when I declared dinner was ready to eat. He then drifted off after introducing the rest of his family to us in an awkward parade of nods,smiles and broken Spanish. We managed to avoid him for the rest of the night by holing up in our room but unfortunately the new guests who arrived did not have such a lucky escape and ended up being his new drinking buddies. Enough of this enticement we feel so tomorrow we up sticks and head for some more beach life at Puerto Morelos.

Woody Woodpecker gives us a beady eye.

  

Tulum

Another smooth transition from FCP to Tulum on ADO buses which took just over an hour. We walked from the bus station to the hotel called the Luna Maya and found a massive room, a huge comfy bed and a funky interior around a courtyard garden. When we went out to explore Tulum we noticed straight away that we had moved from Mexican Mexico to American Mexico. It was a tourist town and the main drag was choka block with swanky restaurants and gift shops which were cheek to jowl with each other. The feel of the place had changed from further south, it was geared towards the rich American market with vastly inflated hotel and eating place prices. We had some dinner at a Mexican local place where we were the only whitey's in there but Mexicans are not fazed by such encounters and take it all in their stride. No one even bats an eyelid in these parts. The food was cheap and filling but gave us bad farts all night so we had a giggle with 'drive by's' on the local plaza bench crowd.

"Say cheese"

  Next day was an early start to catch a collectivo which is a mini bus that acts as a short distance taxi come bus service to the Mayan ruins of Tulum .Here the crowds were out in force as we queued up to get our entry tickets to get into the site. Inside the ruins were not as spectacular as I had imagined in structure but the location on a cliff top over looking the deep blue Caribbean sea was indeed special. We also noted umpteen Iguanas here which seemed to be having a population explosion. They were everywhere and we even saw one being crushed to death by a snake.

Moving in for the kill.

Also there were Coati Mundis scavenging in the grounds which were a delight to watch when they appeared. There was a beach there as well where you could walk down to from the ruins via a walkway but it was so crowded with tourists that we gave it a miss. Also there seemed to be an issue with excessive sea grass build up which spoilt the ambiance of the beach. In fact it seemed that most of the north Yucatan is having a problem with it on their beaches and if it does not change soon than the beaches are going to be covered in the rotting away Sargasso seaweed which will affect tourism in a big way. The big crowds spoilt the nice feeling of Tulum as surprisingly it is a small site so you spent most of your time avoiding tour groups.

A Tulum bus shelter.

 Outside we messed about in the overpriced retail outlets, trying on Mexican hats for silly photos and Mucha Lucha masks which seem to be in all the shops. Not sure what you would do with it though back at home unless you liked being a gimp in your spare time.

Some of the Tulum souvenirs were very tongue in cheek

  Next day we wanted a beach day so jumped in a collectivo which we thought was heading to the beach 2km away but ended up speeding out of town on the freeway so we jumped out before we ended up in Playa Del Carmen. This was a big mistake as we were in the middle of nowhere so started walking in the direction of the beach where we came to a posh resort and tried to blag our way in but security were having none of it and told us to jog on. We did walk for about a 1km until we came to a cenote which looked cool and refreshing as we were having no luck  accessing the beach as it was all taken up with posh mansions with no way through. The owners of the cenote were asking a high entry fee and as there were no facilities inside, not even anywhere to sit, so we declined but opposite we found access to the beach.

A refreshing cenote to swim in.

 The sand was the usual sparkling white but again there was a sea grass problem. We found a clean bit and had a paddle about then laid on the beach in front of some empty beach side mansions surrounded by palm trees. We had the whole stretch of beach to ourselves. We tried to sneak back through the resort  again on the way back but security caught us and after trying to convince them to let us through they would not  budge so sent us back for the 2 km round trip to get to the road. We were not too happy about this so found a mansion that we suspected was unoccupied and hotailed in through their garden to the main road so we could catch a collectivo. Luckily they never had guard dogs so  we survived with all limbs intact but the mosquitoes had a good munch on us on the way through.

Robinson Crusoe's house modifications were going to plan.

 That night we again played menu roulette and ended up with a paradillo which also turned out nice but also had a pile of corn flour tortillas to accompany it. There is no escape from the tortillas.In Asia it was rice and noodles and here it was refried beans (which look like bad doggy turd) and those eponymous corn flour patties.
   An another early start next day which was easy considering the amount of noise in the hotel from 6am onwards. The only day we came to breakfast early and none of it was ready. We did our best to eat what we could find and headed down to the bus station to catch the early bus to Coba for some more Mayan ruins. Here it is different to Tulum as it is deep in the jungle and most of it is still overgrown giving it a real Indiana Jones feel. Here we saw trees growing out the sides of the ruins similar to what you see at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The Coba pymarid.

Only some of the vast area has been excavated as the jungle is so dense it is difficult to get to. We hired a couple of bikes at the entrance to reduce the distance between the temples. The best one was a massive pyramid which you were allowed to climb. At the top, it jutted above the jungle tree line so afforded tremendous views of the landscape. It was really amusing watching people trying to get down the steep jagged stones by sliding down on their arses and lots of over weight Americans having a cardiac arrest half way up. We managed to see all the temples with the aid of the bikes in a couple of hours and loved the jungle pathways between the clearings. Back outside we were told a bus would be arriving at 12 to take us back to Tulum but after an hour and a half waiting in the heat with a no show from the bus we decided a taxi was in order for the 43km journey back  which we shared with another tourist to help with the wallet busting cost. Back at Tulum the heat had worn us out so we had a lazy afternoon, more tortillas for dinner (what a surprise!) later on and a subdued night as we had to pack for our next destination which was going to be Valladolid.

The view from the top a Coba pyramid.