We were pretty happy to have reached the Cancun coast and to have been on our last overnight bus journey in Mexico. We went to Tulum first, a quiet place on the coast. We went to Tulum mainly to see the ruins. The ruins were spectacular mainly due to their gorgeous location right by the Caribbean sea. The ruins looked amazing next to the blue blue waters. It was very hot in Tulum so half way through our visit to the ruins we had to jump into the sea to cool down. As our hostel was quite a walk from the ruins and beach we borrowed bikes to get us back and forth. At least we have been getting a little bit of exercise! We also made a few visits to the beach in Tulum. The beach was beautiful here, white soft sands and very quiet and peaceful. It was nice to have some time to relax.

After Tulum we got the bus to Playa del Carmen. It was a lot busier here with an abundance of tourists. We had a bit of hassle with our hostel as they double booked our dorm leaving us bedless. After almost having to move hostels they upgraded us to a private room instead. The beach ws a lot busier here but we only were on it for half an hour before the heavens opened. There were lots of restaurants, bars and touristy shops. We found one bar with swings all round the bar! We had a nice cocktail there.

The definite highlight of Mexico for me was our trip to swim with the whale sharks. We booked it form Playa del Carmen but had to travel a couple of hours to Hol Box to see them. It was an early start so we slept most of the way there. We then had to get on a boat to a little island where the tour started from. The island was relatively new to tourism so was pretty quiet and unspoilt from tourism. It was beautiful. Me and Lauren have been wanting to see a whale shark since we learnt to dive so were so excited at the prospect of seeing one. We saw at least 10!! I was so worried I would miss it or there would be none about but as soon as we reached the sight they appeared everywhere, swimming around the boat and under the boat. They are huge, about 8 to 10metres long and so beautiful. Me and Rhona were first to go in with our snorkelling gear. We jumped in right beside it and swam after after it as fast as we could. It was amazing. We all got about 2 or 3 shots each. We swam right beside them and almost on top of them at times. They can swim really fast so it was quite a workout but they were so graceful too! At one point I was swimming alongside one turned and another was swimming right towards me. It was the most amazing experience! I absolutely loved the whale sharks.

The following day me and Lauren went and did a couple of dives. The first one we did we saw loads of turtles! It was incredible! We got really close too. It was a drift dive so we just got carried along with the current. Our second dive was a wall dive. We saw lots on that dive too and the coral was beautiful.

We took a bus to Cancun then took a ferry over to Isles Mengeres for our final 2 nights in Mexico. It is a small island with some lovely beaches. The guide book refers to it as the backpackers Cancun. Because of the hurricane passing by we got some pretty bad weather, lots of wind and rain. However it gave us some time to chill out. That evening we visited the beach bar for some cocktails. It was pretty lively. On our last full day in Mexico we explored Isles de Mengeres. The done thing here is to hire a golf buggy to transport you around, so we did. It was great fun. We went right round the island. On one end we reached the most easternly point of Mexico. We visited a turtle farm too. We saw lots of turtles including some newly hatched ones which we got to hold. They were so cute!

The following day we had to leave. There had been torrential rain overnight so I was slighty concerned we wouldn't be able to get a boat of the island.... but they were still running, phew. We made our flight.

Throughout our time in Mexico the 3 of us were having a bit of a contest. Basically we were keeping a tortilla tally to see who could eat the most tortillas in our month in Mexico. Sadly I came in 3rd only eating 57. Poor effort I know. Rhona came in second eating 58 tortilas and right in lead was Lauren who scoffed a whopping 63 tortillas! As much as I love my tortillas I'm not in any hurry to eat tacos any time soon!