Mexico. Water, Whales and NIGHTLIFE!!! Part 2 of my trip to Mexico.

(Sorry for no photos on this, ive been having loads of problems with blogspot lately and photos are not working..., also most of this blog occured in the water and thus no photos... sorry)

I had just left Xpujil after a few days staying there and seeing all the local Ruins. I was over the ½ way mark on my trip on the motorbike I had planned so needed to begin to head back to Cancun.

The drive from Xpujil was mainly uneventful apart from a few police and military road blocks but lucky nothing happened like my encounter before Merida, they just waved me past. I arrived in the beach and boarder to Belize town of Chetumal. That evening there was a local market on in the center of town. The local football was also on, I was going to stay here 2 nights as well as there was local ruins and they forecast rain for the following day.

The next morning I was up early and shot out of town to the Chtumal ruins. Just as I arrived the downpour hit. The site wasn’t as impressive as the ones I had already seen so I rushed it. Heres a few pictures of the site never the less.

That afternoon, I sat at a market shop with a TV with a few locals and just watched soccer while drinking a beer and eating taco’s, Mexico was playing a game (can not remember who against, but it was fun).

I had 4 days left on the bike, I headed up the HWY towards Cancun and got into a nice rhythm. It was HOT I figure it was at least in the 40oC, I stopped 200km from Tulum at lunchtime at a bus shelter for a cat nap. It was just to hot to drive. There was nothing interesting on the road either.

I reached Tulum and checked in to the local hostel, again I decided to spend 2 days here. But this time it was beach and relaxing. I was getting very tired of riding the roads in mexico, as fun as it was I was use to the heights of Asia and seeing nice lookouts here there was nothing it was just flat.

After my 2 days of beach and relaxing in Tulum I had the ½ day ride back to Cancun and the hostel I left 2 weeks earlier.

The next day I returned the bike L bye bye bike, I ended up spending a few days just relaxing again, heading to the beach and watching the euro cup (Soccer/football).

During the night time I would go out and experience the other side to Cancun… the clubs. Cancun had some amazing night life and I visited one club called Coco Bongo’s, it was ½ performace like circus and ½ night club. Very special and fun event. I didn’t bring my camera however as I didn’t want to get it lost or stolen and without a phone as my small camera it was a bit limited so heres a pictures ive found on the web.

I also visited a club called DaddyO’s it was a large arena style club with a dance floor that spins around. Very cool.

Both Coco Bongo’s and DaddyO’s had all you could drink deals so when in Cancun…. Or is it Rome?

After a few days I booked a trip to see Whale Sharks, with a group from the hostel. The next morning we had to get up super early (6am) and we were picked up at the hostel.

We were taken to the harbor and boarded a smallish boat, there was only 6 people on the boat, plus our guide and the captain. After a hour of sailing out to deep ocean water, we finally came across the wale sharks there were about 20 boats floating in the area. The group was broken up into groups of 2 people. 2 people plus the guide in the water at a time and then we were dropped off just ahead of where the wale sharks were swimming to so they would swim right up to us. We did this about 7 times over the space of 3 hours. It was AMAZING!!!!!.... we were literally centimeters away from these mammoth size fish and they were swimming so slowly.  Sadly my waterproof camera was broken (broke in korea) so I only have photos above the water.

After the swimming with whale sharks there was a small snorkel at Izla Mujeres but this was more drifting and there was really no coral to look at.

The next morning I had met someone from Korea who wanted to go snorkeling at Izla Mujeres, I had heard that they had some nice sites not like the one from the whale shark trip and because they only had a few days left in Mexico and I had never been, I offered to take them to the island and go snorkeling as well. It turned out to be a great day trip. We had a wonder around the local markets and them did 3 hours of snorkeling on the reef. Again sadly no photos as no waterproof camera but the day was a blast, there where so many fish and it was brilliant weather.

That evening I booked a trip down to Xcarat a theme park south of Cancun, with the people from korea. Again never been and going to places like this is much much more interesting when your not on your own. We also went back to Coco Bongos, I enjoyed the frist time, the second time was ok as it was only me and 1 other person who wanted to go (again playing guide) but it was still a nice night. But getting home at 4am and having to get up at 6:30am for Xcarat was hard….

We arrived at xcarat and went and got our snorkeling and water gear. Xcarat was built on a system of caves and under ground rivers.

We walked around for ½ hour then decided to head to the underground river and just drift, not only where we tired from 2 hours sleep but also hung over from coco bongos all you can drink. The drift was relaxing and refreshing.

After the river we found ourselves on the beach out to the Caribbean, and there were hammocks in between the trees… exactly what was needed. A quick hour sleep and we were all right as rain again.

We spent hours at the beach and had a buffet lunch was amazing. The park also doubled as a marine resuce center, where they either breed or nurse injured marine animals back to health. We wandered around the aquarium and the turtle pools for a while before heading back to pick up our gear and return the snorkeling gear before they closed the lockers. 

Towards the end of the day all the interesting things in the park started up.

First was a mayan smoking ritual dance around a small river and mayan ruin, they had first and were burning what looked like chickens (but doubt it was), they were all dressed up in traditional and singing songs.

After this was a maxican horse show. In a horse arena the performers made the horse to patterns and move in between each other it was very well done.

But the last thing for the evening was by far the best. It was a Mayan Ball games show followed by a small story of how the Mexican culture has changed from mayan times to now over the hundreds of years.

The ball game started off with just a plain leather ball, they had to hit it from one side of the court to the other with there hips. Then the team that got it past the arena and other team had to get it thought a hoop to score.

Once this game was played the lights were dimmed and then the ball was lit on fire and they played the same game but with hockey type sticks. This went much much faster and the ball of fire flying though the air was so cool.

Once this had finished the story started, first with conquistador and the Christians then on to the rest of the Mexican history, all was performed though dance and music. It was very nice to watch and get a bit of taste of Mexican cultural history.

I still had a week left in Cancun, so I decided to put my time to something productive. I booked my self in on my advanced scuba course which took 5 days (again no pictures all water activity L )

Following the course I came down with a flu or something which nocked me out for a few days, I ended up spending my days sleeping (very boring) and nights watching movies with the staff at the hostel, which I didn’t mind at all.

Once I was semi ok/ tired of being inside, I spent the last 2 nights in Cancun hitting the clubs with the other people from the hostel, we hit up DaddyO’s again and my last night in Cancun was a pool party. Possibly the most fun I have had at any night club… I’ll leave the stories of the pool party for my own telling though its not for blogging ;) But had a great time!!!

I left the pool part at 3am and headed back to the hostel, 6am that same day I was on a flight to the USA to catch up with my dad and a friend for my next trip… Oh man it was a long flight…

Anyways sorry for the lack of photos, the water activities do leave a gap there…

But till next time, HAVE FUN!

Steffen