Tulum is very pretty and it`s great to be at the beach... I met up with Karl my friend from london and two of his friends Paul and Chris. It´s good to see them. I needed a bit of familiarity and people to muck about with!

We spent the afternoon on the beach and body surfed in the waves... this was fun until I got smacked down under the water by a particularly big wave, banged my head and hip and sniffed up so much salty water it stung like a b****** for about half an hour afterwards! We spent the evening at my hostel, bought a bottle of rum for 2 quid and got drunk as sailors! The next day we visited Tulum ruins. If it weren't for the setting they would be a bit boring to tell the truth! Especially after you've seen such impressive ruins as Palenque (it was jungle butlins I hated not the ruins remember!). We all agreed that we weren't lazing on the beach sort of people so we set out to do something a bit more interesting. Paul suggested the nearby cenotes, a network of water filled under ground caves that open up to beautiful lagoons. That sounded right up my street so we packed our swim things and hopped in a cab to the cenotes. The Mayans believed they were the gateway to the spiritual underworld and when we set eyes on them we could see why. They were crystal clear and full of life. We jumped straight in. The water felt soft and lovely. Chris had a snorkel so we took it in turns to swim about and look at all the lovely fish. They were very bold fishies and seemed to enjoy nibbling on your skin! This tickled! When it was my turn with the goggles I swam for a moment or two and then noticed some comical flapping feet under the surface on the other side of the cenote... I got a bit closer and realised it was a baby turtle! I alerted Chris and Paul and we all swam over to it. The three of us surrounded the curious little chap who turned out to be a terrapin. He sat quite happily between us, checked out Paul and Chris, then turned to me and started nibbling at my tummy! This would have been such a great moment had it not tickled me so much I squealed and scared the poor thing away! We moved on to a second, bigger cenote. This was even more amazing. We couldn't believe we had these completely to ourselves. All those crazy sun worshippers on the beach didn't know what they were missing! We were quite glad of it though. Occasionally some scuba divers would bubble out from the caves beneath but they were no bother... the caves spooked me a little bit. I could understand why the Mayans saw them as mystical places. When you stare down into a watery abyss it does something strange in your toes!

Our time was up and our private pools had been invaded by a gang of canadians with snorkels and arm bands who chased all the fish away. So we went back to my hostel again and bought another bottle of rum for 2 quid... I was reminded what distinguishes Londoners from everyone else... they're all piss 'eds! Haha!

I had originally planned to spend some time travelling around the Yucatan Peninsula but I had already spent a week longer than intended in Mexico and I had kind of had my fill. Judging from Tulum, I found the coast beautiful but far too touristy. The boys had just come from Isla Mujeres where I had intended to go but they confirmed to me that although it was even more beautiful it was also even more touristy and I wasn´t really after the club med experience!

So I got up early the next day and headed to Belize with Paul, Chris and Karl. My experiences in Mexico had their ups and downs but all of them were amazing and will stay with me forever... on to pastures new...

xx