The Island of Women

On a swing in Lapena. Paul, Christine, Orla, Stuart and Jamie.
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Couldn't be bothered with staying in Cancun, it didn't look that great, so decided to go straight to Isla Mujeres.  Walked around the town for a while, it's not that big and there are lots of shops selling touristy rubbish.  Spent the first night in an hotel as the hostel was full.  Moved into the hostel the next day and bumped into Jeanette the Danish girl who I'd met in Puerto Escondido.  Bit of a surprise as neither of us had planned to go to the island.  We went snorkelling that afternoon.  Didn't see much but apparently there are quite a few interesting fish around there.

Christine, me, Orla and Avy in the hostel. All really sound people (well, apart from me).
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The island is pretty damn small - you can cycle round it under an hour.  The beaches are OK and I spent most of my time lying around on them either reading or chatting.  Didn't think I could manage to keep still for that amount time but I seemed to get the hang of it after a day or so!  There's not much to do on the island other than sunbathe, hire a golf buggy and try to mow people down or hire a bike and try to avoid being mown down by fat Americans in golf buggys.

The hostel was pretty good (other than they had a lot of bed bugs and had to close a lot rooms).  I had planned to stay only for a few days but, like most people, I seemed to get stuck and never quite got round to leaving.  I did get as far as checking out 1 day, only to check back in about an hour later.

A lot of the days seemed to blend into 1 and most followed the pattern of:

- Get up,

- Go to the beach,

- Have some food,

- Have a few drinks,

- Get back to the hostel about 4am,

- Sleep.

It's not a bad life really!  We got chatting to a guy from London who owned 1 of the bars on the Island and he gave us a few free tequila shots.  He was trying to educate us as to what makes a good tequila - 100% Uguave apparently.  And it's pretty good stuff!  Nothing like the tequila you get at home that slaps you round the face and makes you through up.  This was stuff was pretty smooth.  Jose Cuervo Tradicional if anyone's interested in buying some.

Finally managed to leave the hostel after 10 days on the island.