After returning from Cuba, we had about 2 weeks to travel down the east coast of Mexico and make it to Caye Caulker in Belize to meet up with Joe. Needless to say that we were very excited to return to the country of tacos 🌮 and elotes 🌽!
Cancun, Isla Mujeres & Playa Del Carmen
We knew it before, but upon arriving in Cancun we could tell straight away that this part of Mexico is more touristy and slightly more expensive than the centre we travelled through before. Cancun is basically split in 2 parts: the actual city and the “Hotel Zone”. We decided to stay in the city and explore the area there rather than staying around all inclusive hotels – mostly in the hope of more and better street food (and we were not disappointed).
After a couple of days we took the ferry across to Isla Mujeres for a few relaxed days there, staying at a beachfront hostel, watching sunrises and sunsets and enjoying some drinks in the pool.
We then made our way south to Playa del Carmen. Unfortunately, Eliza’s backpack got cut open on the colectivo between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Luckily the thief didn’t get anything but it meant that we had to get one of the zips replaced. After half a day of unsuccessfully trying to find someone who can do that, we gave up and decided to try again at our next stop (Tulum).
Before we headed to Tulum, we stopped at the Cenote Yal-ku Akumal to go snorkeling. Eliza had been here years ago and she saw lots of wildlife (including turtles and rays). Unfortunately, we didn’t see anything spectacular this time. It was still a nice area to snorkel and spot some schools of fish (despite varying visibility).
Tulum & Bacalar
Our first task in Tulum was to find a place where we can get Eliza’s backpack fixed which we luckily did on the first day. Out of all places, a shoe repair shop was the only one able to fix it.
We had 3 full days in Tulum and since the city is about 4km away from the beach and there are various cenotes close-by, we ventured out in a different direction each day. Tulum also had some decent and cheap street food again (something we were missing in Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres), so we went out every night to stuff our faces.
After the fairly short rides between Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, we then had a 3-hour colectivo ride to Bacalar to stay in a hostel on the Lagoon of Seven Colors.
From here we went to Chetumal to catch a speedboat to Caye Caulker in Belize – a more expensive option to crossing the land border but it also saved us over 5 hours of travel.
Belize
We got to Caye Caulker late in the afternoon and after checking in to the Airbnb, we went to the supermarket to get some things for breakfast and a quick dinner. With no prices marked on most of the things, we were in for a shock at the checkout. Whilst we knew that Belize would be more expensive, we did not expect to pay US$20 for this:
After a day of exploring the island on our own, our friend Joe arrived from New Zealand to travel with us for the next 4 weeks. One of the main things to do on Caye Caulker is to go on a snorkeling (or diving) tour to swim with sharks and sting rays and explore the reef. Our tour also took us to a spot where we could feed giant fish and we even got to swim a manatee!
From Caye Caulker we took a ferry and a chicken bus to San Ignacio on the other side of the country, close to the border to Guatemala. We were initially intending to do a cave tour there but we’re put off by the exorbitant prices (US$ 100 per person). So instead we rented a car with some other people we met and drove around the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, exploring a cave, swimming in the river and jumping off waterfalls.
Adventure Unknown 