“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
Anthony Bourdain
6 weeks, 6 countries, 8 border crossings, 2,000 miles, 100 hours of travel and several cans of mosquito repellent laters, we had made it to our final destination, Mexico. The white sand beaches were incredibly welcome, and the views really did look like paradise.
We spent the first couple of days in Tulum where we visited the Tulum ruins. From here, we got a great view of the coast line and the sparkling blue sea. We generally took time to relax and drink coconuts on the beach, for that basic instagram pic, of course. We also visited the local cenotes, which are natural underground pools, usually in caves. Here, we made the mistake of being dropped off at the entrance of the park instead of the actual cenotes. This meant that we had to start walking a mile and a half in the beating midday sun, which as you can imagine was not ideal. Luckily, we got rescued by a passing couple in a car who generously gave us a lift the rest of the way. The cool pools were a welcome relief to the hot weather and we enjoyed spending the afternoon there.
Our next stop was Isla de Mujeres, which was a 20 minute boat ride from Cancun. Here, you were able to avoid the crazy touristy-ness of the visitors of Cancun and enjoy this island. We hired a golf buggy to explore the island and enjoyed spending the day driving round the coastal roads and stopping off at the different views along the way. It was a great way to see more of the island and the golf buggies themselves are very easy to drive.
While we were on Isla de Mujeres, we also did a trip to see whale sharks, which are the world’s largest fish. We ensured that the company we used didn’t trap or distress the whale sharks. We woke early to get a small boat to near Holbox which is where whale sharks usually are. This took about an hour and it was a very wavey ride, so I would recommend taking travel sickness tablets beforehand. When we arrived, we happened to have the rare occurrence that about 200 whale sharks were in the area which was an incredible sight. We were allowed to snorkel in the area, but only with a guide and only a couple of people at a time in order not to overwhelm the whale sharks. If anything, I think we were more overwhelmed by the vast amount of them around us and how immensely big they actually are. At one point, I had whale sharks either side of me. They were calm, beautiful and minding their own business. It was an incredible experience which I would definitely recommend.
We ended our trip with a night in Cancun. Surprising to us all, this actually ended up being the most cultural night of our entire trip. On our last evening, we stumbled across a square near our hostel. It was filled with locals enjoying their Sunday evening with local cuisine and entertainment. There was a large circle of people surrounding what appeared to be different clown acts using slapstick comedy to entertain both the children and adults there. Soon, it became obvious that we didn’t blend in as the locals and las Inglesas were brought to the middle of the circle to be the muse of the entertainment. We were asked to join in on the acts at the expense of the audience’s laughter, which of course we did! My Spanish wasn’t good enough to fully understand what was going on, but I’m pretty sure they were trying to find us our future Mexican husbands. We created a different type of entertainment for them than usual, and we were happy to be a part of that. It was the perfect end to our trip.
The next morning, we headed to the airport to start our long journey back to the UK. It was an incredible trip and I wish I could have seen more. I met wonderful people and explored beautiful places which were unlike places I’d seen before. I have no doubt that I will return to this part of the world. This trip didn’t only feed my desire to travel, but it also left me craving more. But for now, I needed to find a job to fund this expensive habit of mine!
jess's adventures 
Moon is hotter in Mexico!
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