From Flores in Guatemala, we took the chicken bus to the border and walked across in between wet season down pours. It felt very strange to be greeted by English signage at the Belizean side and I embarrassingly kept defaulting to saying gracias instead of thank you to people for the rest of the afternoon. We made our way to San Ignacio and planned to visit the ATM wet cave which contains Mayan ceramics and remains, but unfortunately it was closed the whole time we were there due to the rain. Luckily there is no shortage of ruins to visit in the area, and we chose to go to Xunantinich and Cahal Pech. It was really interesting to see more Mayan cities after having visited Tikal. From San Ignacio we travelled by bus then ferry to the island of Caye Caulker for two nights, and then San Pedro on Caye Ambergis for one night. We did a snorkelling day trip along the Belizean reef for a day from Caye Caulker and were lucky enough to see a turtle, manatees, nurse sharks, eels, lots of fish and some pretty impressive coral. It was my birthday whilst we were on these islands, which were pretty great spots to see in the big 30.
After our week in Belize we made our final land border crossing for the trip, into Mexico. Claire and Boyd were meeting us in Tulum so we spent a few nights making our way up the Yucatán Peninsula before they arrived. We stayed in a town close to the border, Chetumal, as a brief stopover before heading up to Lake Bacalar for two nights. The lake is supposedly meant to have seven shades of blue on a good day, and whilst I’m not sure about that claim, it was very beautiful nonetheless. Lake Bacalar was also where we had our first taste of Mexican ‘cenotes’, or sink holes, of which there are thousands scattered along the peninsula.
We stayed in Mahahual for the next two nights, a small town on the coast whose primary industry is most definitely tourism – cruise ships dock almost daily over the peak season. The beach there was very pretty but crowded, with each of the bars having lounges for rent right up to the waterfront. After seeing this, I expected Tulum to be similar as it is a very popular spot, but when we got there, I was amazed. The beach at Tulum was postcard perfect – fine white sand, clear turquoise water and lined with palms. There were a lot of people, but the main beach was big enough that it didn’t feel too crowded. We stayed in an Airbnb in town and tried to make our way through as many taquerias as possible in the five nights. Delicious, although Andrew and Claire both got sick towards the end. Whilst here we visited the Tulum ruins, Chichen Itza and three cenotes (Gran Cenote, Dos Ojos and Ik Kil). We snorkelled through the caves at Dos Ojos and it was incredible to see a small piece of the massive network of interconnected underwater caves. We also snorkelled off the main Tulum beach. All the snorkelling we have done on this trip has definitely made me keen to get up to QLD to see the Great Barrier Reef again before it suffers any more damage.
Tulum was stunning and I loved seeing more Mayan ruins after Guatemala and Belize. It was also really good to see Claire and Boyd. I was a little surprised at the size of the town and also how developed the tourism infrastructure was, as I had heard that Tulum was the smaller, quieter alternative to Cancun. However, after we stayed in Cancun for a night before our flight to Cuba, I saw how massive Cancun actually is and suddenly Tulum felt a lot smaller! Unfortunately as we stayed longer than anticipated in South America, we ran out of time to explore more of Mexico. Instead of rushing to cram in a few cities in the remaining time, we decided to leave the rest of Mexico to another trip. We will just have to come back for more tacos!
Erin
dred 