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| Enjoying sunset amongst the ruins in Tulum - an advert for foreign beer! |
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| The locals also enjoyed hanging out at the Mayan ruins |
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I am the lord of God and hell fire
and I bring you... MAYAAAA |
Weren’t too sorry to be leaving Caye Caulker and Belize
after another rainy night that continued into the morning, where it was time
for our first boat border crossing. Everything was going well until we arrived
in Mexico, where we were told we had to pay the exit fee upon entry. Make sense
to you? Didn’t to us either, and made all the more painful that we’d spent the
last of our Belizean dollares and weren’t carrying any American… Even worse
when we realised that the nearest cash point was not loving us! Too many key
learnings to mention right there – thankfully some sterling we had on us got
the job done, albeit at an atrocious rate! No matter how bad things get though,
there’s always someone else worse off – and this time it was a guy who missed
his connecting bus to Cancun and therefore probably his flight back home…
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| Yep - fashionistas watch out! |
Upon arrival in Tulum, Annaliza desperately wanted her
presence to be remembered – so much so she imprinted one haviana footprint into
wet concrete outside the bus station! Got kitted out with our bikes (no brakes,
just reverse pedalling – back to the Old School), our high vis vests, head
torches and snorkelling masks before heading out to enjoy our first Mexican
meal – pizza!
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| Evidence of Maya right by the playa |
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| Columns in these ruins |
Next morning we were straight out to the Tulum ruins, along
with hundreds of other tourist groups – not quite the same as getting to Tikal
for sunrise! After wandering around sans tour guide (from the snippets we heard
we didn’t miss much – same Mayan focus on building alignments with the sun), it
was time to hit the beach, enjoying the white sand and blazing sun we’d missed
in Belize. Tony overextended his swimming abilities on a snorkelling jaunt, all
for the sake of disposable camera pics – we await them with baited breath!
Headed back to the ruins for sunset, after convincing security that we hadn’t
already been inside that day – it’s the little things – followed by a more
classical Mexican feast of fajitas and tortillas.
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| Spooky Angelita, c.20m down |
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| Sinking into the hydrogen sulphide layer |
The next day was diving time, in the famed Cenotes that Brad
hadn’t shut up about since his trip to Mexico a year ago. First up, his
favourite, Angelita. For all of these, our descriptions will be inadequate and
for a better idea check out the video links at the bottom. Alternatively, if
you dive and are ever in the area, don’t think about it, just go and dive them.
It’s epic. Anyway, Angelita is an open Cenote
with a halocline of hydrogen sulphide at around
28m that sits as a cloud separating the fresh water from the salt water. The
underwater hill that pokes through it complete with trees looks like a mountain
above a cloud, but underwater! Going through this cloudy stuff, suddenly losing
sight of your legs and then everything for a few seconds, is freaky to say the
least! Under the cloud it turns into a night dive with trees (complete with
leaves!) and you’re suddenly in salt as oppose to fresh water – allowing
Annaliza to get her buoyancy under control!
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| The entry into Angelita - all dive masters had 2 tanks |
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| The entry to Calvera - a 4m drop |
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| A bubble mirror on the roof of Calavera |
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| Can you spot the haloclime? |
Second up was Calavera, aka the Temple of Doom. Another halocline
in this beauty, but no cloudy layer – instead you can see the separation between the salty and fresh water. When diving through it however, following
the instructor, he mixed the two with his fins, creating a highly blurry water
effect (similar to when you shake up oil and water together). Cool, although
again unnerving as divers ahead were reduced to vague blobs – and this time we
were heading through cave systems!
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Baby turtles also getting
in on the act at Grand Cenote |
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Tony attempting backflip
at Calavera - FAIL! |
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| The grand entrance to Grand Cenote |
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| You can see why they call it grand! |
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| Divers in action in Grand Cenote |
Lastly was Grand Cenote – no haloclime here but amazing
stalactite and stalagmite formations, and fun swim throughs various caverns.
Pretty technical as well – buoyancy control in cave diving becomes hugely more
important with the dangers overhead! Got back to the hostel totally knackered,
but unable to wipe the huge grins off our faces.
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Another great place for some more
turtle action |
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| A lovely lagoon, despite the trek! |
Before heading onward, the next day we had time to head to a
beach further north, where we had another turtle show just a stone’s throw from
the beach. 2kms further down the road we got to a lovely lagoon – not sure it
was worth the walk in the intense heat, but nice to see nonetheless.
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| Some of the peeps we bumped into were a bit skinny |
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Corona and tortillas - perfect to wash
away any salty taste! |
Key Learnings:
1. In the event that Tony couldn’t make it
back to shore following his over-enthusiastic snorkelling venture a private
boat would have cost 700 peso’s. Annaliza was just checking…
2. Being in caves, changing between salt and fresh
water layers and struggling to stop your mouth remaining wide open in awe results
in increased difficulty in controlling buoyancy!
Video Links
Angelita
Calavera
Grand Cenote
