So after leaving Cayman I had a 4 hour layover in Miami prior to which I once again had to go through immigration, get stamped in, pick up my luggage, drop it off (still on airside) and then go back through immigration (I will never understand this - even more so why people need to get a visa to do so - my brain doesn't comprehend the logic). I headed straight to the lounge but, despite still having a silver card (I was demoted in December), because it is Cathay they wouldn't accept it. They then asked if I have a platinum Amex card, which I do but they wouldn't accept that either as it had Cathay on it. I then had a strop and told them they weren't being very 'one world' about it as they would only accept cards issued in the US - aaaargh!! Never fear, I thought, I'll use my Priority Pass lounge access card - b*****! That lounge is in a different terminal (miles away) and to get there I would have to go back out through immigration. So, I comforted myself with a Burger King (I know, sorry) and sat with the rest of the common people!!

Finally made it to Cancun airport which was absolute chaos. Couldn't find my luggage (they had 'helpfully' removed it from the carousel) and then had to stand in a long snake-like queue for 30 minutes to get through customs (no stopping me this time though thank goodness!). Got ripped off in a taxi (fixed price of US$60 - what?!) and finally made it to hotel. Can't say I like Cancun much - it's overdeveloped, unauthentic (certainly not Mexico), expensive and ugly - although the beaches are stunning! You can see the money dripping off the streets - huge hotels, condos, malls. Of course, it's also full of Americans!! And, everything is payable in USD which makes things easy but also means you're being seriously ripped off!

Met my new tour group in the evening - there are 15 of us - 5 Brits, 2 Irish, 1 Scot, 1 Canadian (French), 2 Americans, 1 Dutch, 1 Austrian, 1 Norwegian, 1 Ozzie and our tour leader is from Costa Rica. Only 2 boys (poor souls!) and a few obligatory oddballs! Seem like a generally nice bunch though. I am, yet again, the mother hen though! I don't understand where these young 'uns get the money to travel on these trips, although I suspect most of them are bleeding dry the bank of mummy and daddy which, asyou know, irritates the hell out of me.

On Sunday we got the bus to Playa del Carmen, an hour's drive south of Cancun. 4 of us girls decided to head to the beach via the shops (there are some lovely boutiques here) where we went straight into the sea (just like bathwater) then had lunch and cocktails in a trendy place with beds for seats! We then went for another wander and got accosted by a local man in his late 50s - he was actually lovely and not sleazy at all and he recommended another bar on the beach which is the only one with live music and is cheaper - result! It was great - there was a Mexican reggae band who were actually pretty good and did well-known covers in a reggae/Mexican style and more cocktails just had to be drunk!

Monday was an exciting day. We got picked up at 6.20am to go and swim with whale sharks!! They are only here 3 months of the year and that is now! After a 90 minute ride we reached the pier and split into smaller boats of 10 to go on the hunt. After about 40 minutes we saw some bottle-nose dolphins (yes, very nice but where are the whale sharks?!). Finally there was a sighting and we rushed over there. I just saw its speckled skin but then it dived down so we didn't get in the water. A bit further on, more were spotted. Me and Marjolein were the first team in (only 2 can go at a time) and it was absolutely AWESOME!!!!

So, more facts and figure for you (I know I teach you all something with these snippets!): whale sharks - they are slow-moving filter feeder sharks and the largest living species of fish. The largest recorded length is 12.65 metres with a weight of 21.5 tonnes. They are also capable of diving to 700m. They feed primarily on plankton and krill so are harmless to humans and fish. Although there are whale sharks in various countries, apparently the only places you can actually swim with them (ie not dive) is here in Mexico and in Western Australia. Their mouths are huge - up to 1.5m wide and they have 5 large pairs of gills (you can kind of see them on some of my pics - we also saw fish popping out of them as they had inadvertently been caught up in the mouth!). They only travel at around 5km an hour.

Anyhooo, we had to sit on the side of the boat and 3...2...1...GO and we jumped right in front of him. The skipper was yelling to look down and I nearly had a heart attack. Directly in front of me only about 2 metres away was that 1.5m wide mouth and it was heading straight for me - yikes! He dipped down slightly and swam right underneath me. He was huge! He brushed me very slightly with his tail and then we heard the skipper yelling "swim!" and we finned like the clappers after him trying to keep up. The whole thing only lasted about a minute but was amazing. Most people on our boat only went in once (some of them were sick and feeding the fish!) but I kept going in and think I swam with about 7 or 8 in total. One of them was feeding and his gills were just opening and closing as he swam past. It was a beautiful sight. There are some pics on picasa although some of them are only part-shark - mainly because I was so close I couldn't zoom out any further!

We then headed out to an island for some snorkelling. On the way I asked if we would see any turtles and literally a few minutes later the skipper shouted that there were 2 turtles mating up ahead - in the middle of the ocean (mind you, not really sure where else they would do it!). We could hear their shells banging together. A bit like the boobies and the penguins, it was over in a few seconds and after a bit of splashing, the female disappeared and the male splashed around a bit further (obviously the turtle equivalent to lighting up!!). The snorkelling wasn't that great but we had a fabulous lunch of ceviche before heading back to shore - all looking like the lobsters we'd had in the ceviche!!

After a local dinner we went to Walmart for supplies for our journey the next day. Oh my God! I haven't seen a supermarket that size for years - I could have spent all day in it. So sad I know but when a girl's got to shop, she's got to shop!

So, that was my brief encounter with the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. I spent a few weeks in Mexico City and Oaxaca about 7 years ago and loved it so Mexico definitely has to be added to my list to do properly at some stage in the future (don't think I can fit it in this time around!).