Mexico

After checking into hostel we headed off to see Isla Mujeres. We had heard it was one of the locations of an underwater museum/art exhibition. Every website recommended going with a tour guide and as part of a tour package there was a trip to see it. So first we went snorkling in the Garrafon Natural Reef Park. We got to see all sorts of fish which swam around us including a big baracuda. We were told that when they were in the reef they weren't looking for food so we were safe :) It was amazingly clear. You could almost 20 metres I'd say. Next we got to go to one of the pieces in the underwater museum. There were about 203 sculptures about 8 metres underwater. They were made of artificial reef and had shoals of fish living around them. The underwater camera took loads of great clear pictures it was perfect for Cancun. We also met a woman from Pentiction who came scuba diving with us. Pentiction is a little known ski resort in Canada which is exactly the resort we are going to. She was telling us how no one in Canada knew where the resort was but she was so surprised that it was advertised abroad (Brian had seen an ad for it in the paper on the floor of a dart going on a night out). That night we had dinner in the hostel with everyone else staying there and had a few drinks as we got to know a few peeple.

Next day we went to visit Chichen Itza. On the way we stopped at a cenote. It was an underwater cave with a pool of water in it. The Mayan's believed they were holy. There were some people in traditional Mayan outfits doing traditional dances in a platform in the middle of the pool. There are still quite a lot of Mayans in that area of Mexico around the Yucantan peninsula and they still wear the traditional clothes We saw a lot of women in white dresses with colourful patterns around the rims. After a buffet lunch we got to one of the seven wonders of the world. We had a very good guide take us around. He refreshed my memory on the whole place (I had been to Chichen Itza before with my Mam, Dad and brother years ago). Its quite a big site with loads of interesting bits to it. I had a great time even though it did lash rain for about half an hour on and off at the end of the tour. We did a bit of exploring ourselves and bought a few souvenirs. We got back to the hostel at about 8. We had planned on going to Coco Bongo that night. However some of the guys in the hostel went there the night before and were disappointed. The few people who had been thinking of going decided to go to a club called Bulldog. We followed suit and headed out. We paid about 48 Euro to get into the club and get a wristband. The wristband was an open bar wristband so we got free drinks all night. It was great, the put a full bottle of vodka and tequilla on our table and four jugs of juice. One of the girls got strawberry daquiries and a few of us got beer and they put about 4 glasses of these per person on the table to start. We had a great time hanging out with the guys from the hostel, among them were three Australian guys, three German guys, two Italians, two English girls and a Dutch girl. They were all really nice and we had a great time. We spent a great long time on the dance floor. Before the night really got started there was a booty shaking competition up by the dj which was very funny. Very late in the night we headed home having had a fantastic time. Brian did dedicate a good few minutes negoiating with the taxi drivers outside to get us a very good deal to get home.

Our last day in Mexico Brian spent very hung over. We got up about 12 and we were both feeling a bit iffy. After get a good feed in MacDonalds I was feeling much better but unfortunately Brian got a headache so we decided to spend the day in the hostel. Brian watched a bit of the superbowl and I read a bit. We had a few drinks with the gorgeous free dinner provided by the hostel. The food there was great and I would really recommend it. Also the beer in the hostel was less than a euro a can and there were always a few people in the common area to share a drink with.