I'd been debating where to begin my Latin adventures; Columbia and then North through Central America, or Mexico and then South to Columbia. After a great week back in Ireland with my family for Emma's birthday and another week of fun in London the decision was made by an amazing deal with Thomas Cook- a flight to Cancun for 250 quid- rude not to really!!!

So I began in Cancun and it really is as American as everyone says it is with big highways, tanks for cars and big billboards in English. But it still has big blue skies and palm trees, which is different from my experience of the states (albeit the East coast in Winter) so I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I stayed in the much cheaper downtown area rather than the hotel zone on the beach (which by the way do not try to walk to). I stayed in hostel Kabeth which is nice; very chilled, lots of hammocks etc, activities every night and (overpriced) tours.

The beaches there are pretty nice with green-blue water and huge crashing waves, unfortunately the hotels are right on the beach so they cast their shadows over the beach in the afternoon, so not quite the tropical paradise I was looking for. The nightlife in Cancun is very commercial but I thought when in Rome and all that, so I went to check out Coco Bongos; Jim Carey's club- apparently the best in town, but the best in town doesn't come cheap at $40! it was everything you'd expect from him- a bit cheesy but very entertaining. They put on live shows from musicals, tributes to Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga etc and ariel acrobatics 'which put Las Vegas shows to shame' now I think Vegas' reputation is safe but they were petty good- possibly helped by the and there was a free bar all night, but it was fun!

After a few days I'd definitely had my fill of Cancun and wanted to get to Isla Mujeres, but… the rain came- something I would have to get used to as it is now the start of the rainy season in the whole of Latin America, so the timing for my trip is not exactly ideal, but hey being Irish I shouldn't be afraid of a little rain. I did attempt to make it to the ferry one evening and only managed to get 5 minutes down the road when I had to take shelter in bar (worse things could happen) It was literally bucketing down and didn't let up for 2 hours!!! By this point the ferries had stopped and my hostel was full so me and the German guy I was with took to the now completely flooded streets to look for new digs. He gave up at the nearest hotel, whilst I persevered and found another gem of a hostel. As the rains were due to last the next 4 days I gave up on island life and headed further down the coast to Tulum.