Happy New Year to you all!!

Christmas has been wonderful in the Yucatan region of Mexico. As it wasn´t possible to spend Christmas with our families, this has been a good second best.

Many other travellers that we have met were surprised that we´d decided to spend Christmas in Cancun, given its reputation for expense, drunken night clubs and high rise hotels. We missed out the hotel zone completely and stayed in a small hostel / hotel run by a very friendly family. They even invited all their guests to share in their traditional Christmas meal.

We were very taken by an island just off the main land Isla Majeurs (recommended by M and S in addition to others) On Christmas Eve we cycled all around the beautiful island, finishing the day with a swim from Playa Norte and a Pina Colada as the sunset. Christmas Day was a snorkel trip, again from the coast of the Isla. I´d never been snorkelling from a boat before so had nothing to compare, but Jim said that he´d never seen the numbers of fish or the amazing variety on previous trips. Not a bad couple of days!

And how was the meal, you may well ask? If invited to a Christmas meal, which day would you expect it to be on? We did too! However, we arrived back on Christmas Eve after our cycling, cooked our pasta and sauce (a huge meal, with a substainal amount of chocolate for dessert). We had an early start the following day for the snorkeling (to be back in time for the feast). Just as we were washing up though, 2 of ladies came up - very dressed up - and seemed to be draining a roasted bird of some sort. Stange behaviour we thought. A bit early, even if they planned to eat it for lunch tomorrow. In the end, we decided they must be having a private occasion tonight just for the family, and a meal tomorrow - to which we were invited with everyone there.

Who were we kidding. There was much embarassment as they realized they never told us the date (they ALWAYS celebrate on Christmas Eve) and on our part, for assuming. The food smelled great. Gutted. The moral of the story.....

Then it was on to Tullum. A truely beautiful place. We visited the cliff top Mayan Temple ruins with their own private beach and also swam out to the barrier reef, 300 m off shore. There was a current, but thankfully it was against us on the way out so helped us in when we were tired. Again the snorkelling out there was really good with a variety of fish - the reef streaches for 300 miles, all the way past Belize, but the little we could see is not alive now. I was also really surprised by the Cenotes. The Yucatan does not have any rivers on the land, but instead has fresh water underground rivers. There is much cave diving and exploration in the region, and the Cenotes are a big draw for the tourists. In places limestone collapse has created a sink hole and it is possible to get down to the water. We cycled out to one before the heat of the day and had the place virtually to ourselves. It was like an oasis with lush plant life in an other wise quite sparse area, large colourful butterflys and clear (cold) blue water. Again we had our snorkels so could appreciate the depth and the other caverns.

We then had to leave Tullum behind to visit the biggest, greatest, most accessible Mayan ruin of them all. No trip to Mexico is complete with out a visit to Chichen Itza. I´m afraid we listened to the propaganda, and it was a mistake. Of course the ruins were really crowded - it was just after Christmas, there was little interpretation of what we were seeing, and key areas and temples which we expected to be able to go into were closed to the public that day. The museum was closed for re furnishing, and the orintation film was not on. It also cost twice as much as any other temples for entrance at 90 pesos. (4 pounds 50) Not impressed.

The local town (Piste) was also hardly geared up for independent travellers. We picked a guest house offering ´hot water´. Well, at least there was a shower - we certainly needed it after a day at the ruins! This establishment has also won the award (so far) for the room with the most c*** raoches. The average size was just larger than the palm of my hand....moving swiftly on the following day to Merida and then our flight back to Mexico City. At Merida a really nice hostel, lots of other back packers and not a roach in sight.