Cancun & Isla de Mujeres

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View of the north beach, isla de mujeres

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INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MEXICO

1. It's thought that the first people to inhabit Mexico arrived 20,000 years before Columbus did

2. Mexico is border by the Caribbean Sea in the East and the Pacific Ocean in the West

3. Mexico has many Mayan ruins, Chichen Itza is the most popular, Palenque the must see and Bonampak has Mayan paintings depicting scenes of torture and sacrifice

I travelled from Caye Caulker to Isla de Mujeres in a day. And boy what a day it was. Ferry 7am to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, flight to Corozal in northen Belize, taxi across the border to Chetumal, bus to Cancun and Sea cat out to Isla de mujeres. I arrived at 8pm.

On the bus journey I thought I saw a dead person on a car wreck in the middle of the road. I was slightly freaked out by what I saw and had no-one to ask about it. However as we travelled further up the coast there were more car wrecks and so with hindsight I think it was a warning to drivers and actually just mock-ups. If not I saw my first ever dead person that day!?!?

View of the north beach, isla de mujeres

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Cancun is busy, crowded, and full of americans. some of the resorts are spectacular and i reckon they are paradise but way out of my price range! Not my sort of thing, 20 miles of hotels on the strip - its great i am sure for 2 week holiday in the sun but its a travellers nightmare as it is way too westernised. Hence I headed straight to this island.

The first day here I did my laundry and wondered down to a dive shop to ask about diving with sharks. I get there and they talk me in to going that morning! So I dove a wreck first which was in two halves, one of which you could actually swim through which was great. There was a school of large eagle rays next to the wreck which were rolling. We also saw massive barracuda and all the fish seemed to be the same as i had seen before just huge!!

Oh my guide looked like Nic Nac the midget from the man with the golden gun, james bond film! Coral Divers is the operation, highly recommend them.

The second dive was a reef dive and this was great too. The corals weren´t as pretty as the reef in Belize but the fish were cool. There was a shark asleep under the coral overhang and we swam through coral tunnels. I also saw more barracuda and rays. The coolest thing was the puffer fish. I am done with diving now until Honduras so tomorrow is sunbathing day yippee!