World Travellers

The alarm rang nice and early for our 5:45AM pick up to go snorkeling with whale sharks. Swimming with whale sharks is something that we have both wanted to do for a long time so needless to say that we were ridiculously excited. We packed our snorkel bags the night before so that we could literally get up right before the man came to collect us.

Tomo decided to join us, which was great. We all got into Pakal’s car (our guide for the day) and drove the couple hours to Cancún. Along the way Pakal was pulled over by the police for driving too fast, just like anywhere in Mexico he gave the police officer a nice sum of pesos and managed to talk his way out of a ticket.

Once we arrived at Cancún pier, we had a couple slices of banana cake and sorted out our wet-suits. There was another girl with us and along the way we picked up 5 more people, so there was a total of 9 customers and 3 staff on the boat.

The boat ride took just under an hour and a half; along the way we were greeted with dolphins jumping out of the water, which is always exciting to see.

It was also amazing to watch the water change from dark blue to the most turquoise water you could imagine.

We were headed to apart of the ocean where Caribbean sea meets the Mexican gulf, here is where the whale sharks seem to be hanging around gathering up as much plankton as possible. We were lucky with the weather, sunshine and calm seas, it was also a full moon which meant that there was so much plankton at the surface. This made for easy spotting and before we knew it we could see (and this is no exaggeration) hundreds of whale sharks swimming around the surface opening their mouths to engulf as much plankton as they could.

It was an amazing sight, Tim and I were both so excited and couldn’t get dressed into our wet-suits quick enough. Once we were ready we paired up and two groups at a time could jump in the water. The boat would line you up with a whale shark and as you jump in the first thing you see is a whale sharks open mouth coming towards you.

We all took it in turns swimming along side the biggest fish in the sea, taking photos and videos of these magnificent creatures. We had about 3 x 10 minute swims with them before it was time to get back on the boat and head back towards shore.

It definitely wasn’t enough time, we could have stayed out there for hours! But we were all over the moon that we finally got to see a whale shark – well whale sharks I should say 🙂

On the way back we stopped for 20 minutes at a reef where we could snorkel around whilst the boat boys prepared shrimp ceviche for us. Once they were finished they took us to the most tropical water where we swam around drinking cold beers and eating ceviche…bliss!

When we returned back to shore we hopped back in to Pakal’s car and headed back to Tulum. Pakal is a free diver and was able to swim ridiculously deep under the whale sharks and had taken some amazing pictures of us with them, so we gave him some money and he gave us all the videos and pictures that he had taken throughout the day.

Tim and I headed to Tulúm for one of Tim’s school friends, Ryan’s, wedding.

Tulúm beach looks like the type of beach you would see in a travel magazine – warm turquoise waters, white sands, coconut trees and sunshine.

On the 18th June was Talya ‘s hens night 🙂 All of the girls went for some drinks and games at Ziggy’s Beach Club; we spent a couple of hours here then caught a mini bus to Mezzanine Thai Restaurant for a delicious feed. We spent a couple hours at Mezzanine’s before it was time for dancing and more cocktails.

The boys went out the next day, Ryan was dressed in very sexy attire supplied by a few of the lads, whilst all the other boys rocked the Hawaiian shirts.

The boys had a busy day planned, starting with the Coba Ruins, you can click here for more information on these magnificent ruins. The boys hired a tour guide who led them around for 45 minutes explaining about the ruins and the history of Coba, Tim and Max then hired bicycles and cycled to the main ruin whilst everyone else walked.

The 42m tall Nohoch Mul – the largest ruin at Coba

A group shot of all the boys cranking the Hawaiian shirts

 In total the boys were at the Coba Ruins for about 2 hours, it was really hot so the boys thought it was time to go for a dip.

Taking them to a secret cenote tucked away in the middle of nowhere. This secret cenote turned out to be very beautiful and the boys spent an hour splashing around in the crystal clear fresh water.

Under this little hut was a spiral staircase, which took the boys down about 15m into a beautiful cenote.

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur to Tim, let’s just say that he stumbled home at 8am feeling a wee bit tipsy. I believe it came down to just a few lads having drinks on the beach, but Tim wasn’t really making much sense when he wandered home 😉 It also may have been that at midnight it rolled over into Tim’s 30th birthday and a few of the lads thought it would be a good idea to give him a few tequila shots in celebration!

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On the 21st June – Summer solstice Ryan and Tayla got married.

The wedding couldn’t have been on a better day, the sun was shining, the moon was almost full and all of the boys had recovered from the buck shows ordeals.

The wedding started at 5:30pm, everyone looked lovely and were in really happy spirits.

The aisle was outlined with seaweed, plants & maracas – very beachy 

Talya looked absolutely stunning walking down the aisle with her father Bert

Talya and Ryan had around 50 guests at the wedding, from all over the globe. The wedding reception was held outside of a beautiful villa right on the beach. There was a long table set up for dinner and a smaller separate table for the bride, groom and closest friends. The scenery was beautiful, the speeches held touching words and the bride and groom looked like they were the happiest people in the world 🙂

The night was full of laughs and good times

It was really nice to catch up with friends from Australia again

It was a really beautiful night, thank you Talya and Ryan for inviting us. We had a great time and wish you all the happiness in the world as you live the rest of your lives as husband and wife.

Tim and I were so excited to be getting back in the water diving again!!

We had booked in for a cenote dive, I’m not going to lie, being claustrophobic I was nervous to do a cavern dive, but knew it would be something I would regret if I didn’t do it.

We were picked up from our hotel in Tulum at 7:45AM and taken to the dive store where we grabbed a couple wet suits and got onto the bus.

When we arrived at Dos Ojos (about 15 minutes from Tulum centre) we set up our gear and listened to our instructor about the plan of attack for today and what we should expect when diving in this particular cenote.

Once we were all briefed we put on our gear and walked down the steps towards the entrance to the cavern. We were greeted with a pool of crystal clear water and rock…

Hopping into the very fresh 23ºc water we checked our buoyancy and deflated our BCD’s. The cavern diving was amazing!! I would have to say that Dos Ojos was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen! Unfortunately it was very dark inside and we couldn’t get very good pictures, but the photos we have when there was extensive lighting came out pretty good – shows the great visibility of 100+ meters. We did 2 dives here, one on the ‘Crocodile line’ and one on the ‘Bat Cave’ both were amazing. The Bat Cave was a lot darker and more enclosed, but when you get to the shallower areas you can pop up to the surface and watch the bats flying above you.

The Crocodile line ends when you reach this hungry plastic crocodile munging on a Barbie doll.

The water was so unbelievably clear!!

Plants growing inside the cenote

The Exit, so pretty!

Both dives went for almost an hour, in between the two dives we stopped for a banana, biscuits and drink. Once we had finished we decided to buy a souvineer t-shirt each and then got back on the bus back to Tulum.

Our guide Louis

We had a lot of fun in Playa del Carmen.  We were there primarily to study Spanish, but after school and on the weekends we thoroughly enjoyed looking around the town, relaxing on the local beach and catching collectivo’s to local cenotes and attractions.

There is one main street (5th Avenue) which contains kilometers of stalls and shops where you can purchase souvenirs – like anywhere touristy though everything is really overpriced. But it is a good place to purchase all of your souvenirs in the same place.

12th Street contains all the bars and clubs, including the famous ‘Coco Bongo’, a club which claims it is better than Vegas. We didn’t end up going there, but people we had met said it was like nothing they had ever seen before. Something to experience I guess if you have the time.

The beach is beautiful, we tend to sit down on the right side of the pier as it was a little more peaceful. The water is like a bath and you have the option to hire jet skies or experience para-sailing if you wish.

If you want to eat cheap in Playa del Carmen there are a few places off of the main street with cheap tacos, tortas, pizza slices and chicken. Taco Danny’s has 5-7 peso tacos, which are really yummy – They also give you free crackers and dip with your order. Be careful though the green sauce isn’t guacamole and is VERY picante (spicy!) as Tim found out when he put the largest spoonful of the sauce on his cracker and almost caught his mouth on fire.

There are a load of stall type restaurants, if you check the prices you can find delicious tortas for 10-15 pesos each, which is cheap 🙂

On the main road we were surprised to see a cheap chicken and rice shop, it is called Pollos Rostizados. For 60 pesos we got 2 plates and shared half a chicken, rice, crispy tacos, potatoes, tortillas and chilies. We were always full and the food tasted amazing – plus we never got sick from it, which is always a bonus 😉

There was always something new happening in Playa del Carmen, we were walking along and the next thing Tim had a Squirrel Monkey on his head!

He was very cute and enjoyed running around our shoulders and on our head, could have stayed playing with him for hours!

On the 16th June we packed our suitcases and said goodbye to our host parents and caught the ADO bus southbound to Tulúm.

Akumal is the beach home to the turtles. It is a beach in between Playa del Carmen and Tulum that enables people to swim in the ocean with wild turtles. The water is about 2m deep for about 200m, so you are able to see the bottom. There are a couple stalls on the beach where you can hire snorkel gear if you wish – think it was around $10 to hire. For those who aren’t 100% comfortable in the water, you are able to hire life jackets from the stalls also for around $5.

It took us about 90 seconds before we saw our first turtle and during the one hour snorkel we saw over 10 🙂

It was amazing! Akumal costs around 35 pesos per person by Collectivo from Playa del Carmen. The beach and swimming with turtles is free, the only cost would be if you hired gear and bought food/drinks.

The water was incredibly blue every time we went. The visibility was murky initially but the further out to sea we swam the clearer it became.

You can’t touch the turtles but the larger ones are more passive and allow you to get near for a photo, some are even photogenic and pose for you camera 🙂

Highly recommend Akumal, it is a place you can go for the day or even just a few hours. It is a relaxed location where you can enjoy watching the turtles, sting rays and any other fish that may swim your way.

After a few days of Spanish school the weather finally started to heat up and as a group we decided to catch a Collectivo (for 30 pesos per person) and head to Cenote Azul for a cool down dip in a natural freshwater pool.

There is an entrance fee of 70 pesos per person, which isn’t too bad for what you got to see. I would also recommend mosquito repellant as there are quite a few mozzies buzzing around!

Cenote Azul is beautiful, we spent three hours swimming around the waters, jumping off of the rock ledges and having our feet cleaned by the sucker fish. The water is crystal clear with endless visibility, it would be about 4m deep in the deepest part, but has other sections that are shallower.

 A beautiful little boat hidden away 

 Ready, steady…

 …jump!

 Chilling in the crystal clear waters

Cenote Azul was a really nice way to end the day and would recommend visiting there if you are ever nearby:)

After spending two and a half months in America we hopped on a midday American Airlines plane and flew to Cancún Mexico. We had a wedding in Tulúm on the 21st June so thought we would kill 2 weeks in Playa del Carmen studying Spanish.

I’ve always wanted to learn another language and thought learning Spanish would be great fun. Tim was interested too, so we decided to enroll into Academia Columbus. The course was 25 hours a week beginner level, we also chose a home stay for accommodation, which meant we would live with a Mexican family and be cooked breakfast and dinner each day.

When we arrived in Cancún the weather was cloudy and there was rain threatening to fall. It took us about half an hour to find an ATM that accepted our cards, which sucked, but eventually we found one and were able to take out some Mexican pesos. We heard that the cheapest way to get from Cancún airport to Playa del Carmen was to catch the ADO Bus. The bus cost 120 pesos each ($1 AUD buys 12.28 pesos), was air conditioned, had comfy seats and dropped us right in the tourist area of Playa del Carmen.

Playa del Carmen was so busy! We didn’t start school until tomorrow so decided to spend a night on the ‘strip’, accommodation cost us 400 pesos for a very spacious room with private bathroom. The weather was pretty wet so we walked around for a bit, had a look at the beach and the main street, ate some dinner and went to bed.

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A Rundown of our two weeks at Spanish school: 

We had chosen the ‘Super Intensive Course’ which consisted of 25 hours a week, breaking down to 5 hours a day – 4 hours with our teacher José and another student named Cecile then a 1 hour conversational class with a gentleman named Enrique.

Our 4 hour class was more challenging as José refused to speak any English to us during class time. This definitely had its benefits, as the best way to learn is to be thrown in the deep end, but for Tim coming in not even knowing how to say hello in Spanish found it quite hard to process what José was trying to get across.

This definitely became easier as the days went on and we began to understand more Spanish words. We really liked José, he was the nicest guy and treated us like friends which made learning more fun. By the end of the 2 weeks we (José, Cecile and us) had hung out a lot and really got to know each other quite well, it was nice to spend time outside of Spanish school where we could relax and speak our ‘Spanglish’ as we have gotten quite good at that!

Our 1 hour class with Enrique seemed to be more progressive as he spoke in Spanish unless we needed extra assistance and he would ask the question again in English, which made it easier for us to understand what he was asking and to respond in Spanish. Conversation class always seemed to fly and before we knew it the hour was up and it was time to head home.

Our classes ran from 8:30AM – 2PM, Monday to Friday, with a half hour break for recess. The days really did fly and we could definitely see improvements with our Spanish at the end of everyday 🙂

Our Spanish mamá and papá were named Irma and Ruben. They were lovely,  lived in a very nice house about 10 minutes walk from school, had 1 son and a cleaner named Sessy. Irma refused to speak any English to us, but every now and then Ruben would speak some English as he was trying to learn the language.

Including us, (by the end of the 2 weeks) there were 8 students staying with them, which really was quite a lot. Initially it started out very Spanish based at meal time, but when some more beginners arrived more and more English started to be spoken. This was a little disappointing as we really wanted to practice our Spanish, but everyone was nice, which is what counts. We each had our own room outside with private bathroom. It was very luxurious and meals were delicious!

Over the 2 weeks we made some beautiful friends, spent many days down the beach, snorkeling with turtles, swimming at cenotes and learnt the basics of Spanish, which was really helpful for our remaining time in Mexico.

We loved learning a language and aim to spend a longer time studying Spanish when we reach Spain so that we can improve even more 🙂