Mexico

17/12/24

First day in Mexico was a big travel day with a taxi, a two hour flight to Cancun, a two hour taxi, a 30 minute ferry, and a buggy through the streets of Isla Holbox. Once there we we greeted by a beach-side hotel that looked like it was carved out of stone with two infinity pools and an amazing beach.

18/12/24

Second day starts with us going on a walk on the beach and seeing lots of washed up wildlife such as sea urchins, stingrays, and lots of horseshoe crabs. After a drink in town we spent the rest of the day relaxing around the resort.

21/12/24

Hi, it’s Emma guest blogging about our visit to Chichen Itza or ‘Chicken Pizza’ as our tour guide called it!

Chichen Itza is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and is located about 2.5 hours inland from Playa Del Carmen where we are staying for 4 nights. It was built by the Mayans and is dominated by a huge pyramid called El Castillo.

We happened to be there on the winter solstice when the sun directly aligns with the pyramid and casts a shadow that looks like a serpents body: unfortunately it was overcast when we were there so we didn’t see it.

Human sacrifice happened at Chichen Itza and this is depicted on some of the carvings on the ‘ball courts’ where games were played. Daniel counted over 300 stones on an adjacent building that had skulls carved on them – they have real human skulls inside from the sacrifices!

The only downside to Chichen Itza was the presence of hundreds of hawker stalls trying to sell all manner of tat. It made it difficult to appreciate the place as such a significant historical and religious site but I guess that comes with mass tourism.

It’s Daniel again, later on in the day we went to a Cenote which is a sinkhole. The cenote we went to was about 100 meters wide by 150 meters deep. Walking down the stairs you are greeted by a boardwalk submerged one meter deep with catfish and freshwater turtles swimming near the edge. After some photos under the waterfall, I headed up to the jumping platform. Once there I pencil jumped into the 25 metre deep water and I enjoyed it so much that I jumped another thirty times.

23/12/24

On our last day in Mexico, we went to a small town called Bacalar where there was a crystal-clear river with silky smooth warm water that we floated using our life jackets as chairs. In the end, you had to swim to the side of the river to catch yourself in an eddy then go back to the start and rinse and repeat.