Arrival in Mexico into Cancun was not helped by Mark feeling rotten with a cold and acting like a zombie in his exhaustion. Still Kim managed to acquire seats on a bus into town andd find the hostel in the maze of streets - a small miracle.

We met up with our tour group of 13 (1 German, 1 Kiwi, 1 Iranian travelling on a Swedish passport but living in London, 2 Canadians & 6 Aussies) and set off to Merida, via the famous Chichen Itza ruins (though we called it Chicken Itza - much more of a ring to it!)

Chichen Itza is an impressive Mayan / Toltec city dating from AD 1. We saw the old ball court where teams of 7 played a ball game, with the winning captain earning the great honour (!) of being decapitated...nice! Surely an excuse to take up chess instead!

We also learned about the thousands of people sacrificed by having their heart removed while alive. The heart was offered to their god Kulkukan then rolled down the steps of the pyramid where everyone scrapped for a bite of it. Unfortunately if you were one of the unlucky ones born on a particular 5 days in the year you would have been sacrificed by the time you were 12 and would have missed out on getting a bite on other sacrificed hearts - what a pity! Bloodthirsty lot the Mayans!!

Merida itself is a lovely city with impressive colonial architecture and a chilled out vibe. Kim took the opportunity to visit some Ceynotes (collapsed limestone cave lakes) while Mark was ill (an excuse to watch Mexico vs USA in bed!) We travelled to the ceynotes via a rickety cart on rails, pulled by a horse and swam in the underground caves - very cool although some of the ladders down into the caves were a bit dicey!! We also did the tourist thing - drinking tequila while wearing sombreros - yes we looked like fools!