We left Playa del Carmen in the morning and took a 1 hour ish bus to Cancún. We'd heard negative things about the place and we didn't really want to spend much time there but it's a stopping point for one of the popular islands, Isla Mujeres. 5 minutes from the bus terminal in Cancún we found Moloch hostel, which was clean and inexpensive with a really nice pool! We spent a couple of hours lounging by the pool before heading down to Cancún beach. We had reverse culture shock arriving at the beach front even though it was pretty much as expected - streets crammed with luxury all-inclusive hotels, expensive shopping malls and huge clubs. We really felt like we were in America, most of the cash machines gave US dollars and everyone spoke English. We walked through a flea market and have never been harassed so much by people trying to get us to look at their t-shirts, jewellery and tacky souvenirs which were identical to every other stall! We quickly hurried out, our favourite line being "come in, take a chance at ripping me off". We had a quick look at the beach which did look nice, if not overcrowded with deck chairs and massage beds from the hotels. We decided we preferred the area near our hostel which had a nice plaza with lots of food stalls and plenty of people enjoying music, beer and churros. We found a nice Mexican restaurant where Nathan tried beef Quesadillas (tortillas filled with beef and cheese) which came with beans and rice and I had a chicken dish which was portion big enough for two! Nathan's meal would have been one of his favourite but the stodgy rice let it down. He also enjoyed a litre bottle of Corona for US$3 and still had room for 6 churros afterwards in the plaza. We had an evening dip in the pool and then headed to sleep for a big day tomorrow snorkelling with whale sharks!