Sunday 21st Dec: Caught the 5am bus from Flores, crossed the border into Belize at around 7.30am, reached Belize City at around 11am, picked up a few more passengers and left at 11.30am, reached the Mexico border at around 1.30pm and arrived at Chetumal bus station at around 2.30pm. Waited in the queue to buy a ticket for around half an hour to be told by the rude old lady behind the counter that the 3.30pm and 4.30pm buses were full so I would have to wait until 5.30pm for the next one....nightmare!! The French guy who bought a ticket from the nice gentleman behind the counter just AFTER me, was sold a ticket for the 4.30pm bus!!! What's all that about?!?
So, Chetumal bus station wasn't very exciting, I chatted to the nice French boy for a bit until he left me to get on his lovely 4.30pm bus. I got myself a nice ham and cheese sandwich, some chille flavoured crisps (all the crisps seem to have chille in them!!) called the hostel to make sure they had a bed for me, and eventually got on the bus to Playa Del Carmen. I arrived at 11pm....a little exhausted after my 18hour journey!!

Monday 22nd December: I got up at 9ish, had a shower and went for a wander around Playa. Oh my god, how many tourists!!! A total culture shock from Guatemala!!


I found myself a scuba diving place and booked up a dive for tomorrow afternoon - how exciting!! I spent the afternoon on the beach. I rented a sunlounger for the day, read my book, went swimming and enjoyed the fabulous sunshine :o) I got chatting with a couple of Dutch girls, a lifeguard and a Mexican fella who'd taken the girls out sailing earlier in the day (he called himself El Capitan!!) so I had a few beers with them til 7ish. The girls left and 'El Capitan' took me to a local bar with swings around the bar to buy me a birthday beer!

In Playa there are lots of groups of men with guitars / harps / various musical instruments who go around playing and singing for tourists for money, and unfortunately there was one of those bands in the bar at this moment so of course the barman had them sing Happy Birthday to me!!
I managed to escape from El Capitan before he managed to whisk me off to his house to ply me with tequila (I believe this was his plan) and went back to the hostel for a shower.
I went back out afterwards and got talking to a couple of local boys selling timeshare - Fernando and Cheedo. I didn't buy a timeshare, but we ended up going to a bar for a couple of beers and a game of pool...until 2am!!

Tuesday 23rd December: Had a lie in and got up in time to go to the dive centre for my dive only to find that the dive sites were closed due to the sea being too choppy :o( I aranged to go back the following day instead. Didn't do much else all day - chilled out on the beach, had a wander around, went to see Fernando & Cheedo to say hi and had an early night!

Wednesday 24th December: Got up early and went to the dive centre to be told that the sea was too choppy again. They offered for me to go diving in the cenotes instead so I jumped at the chance. I jumped into a truck with a crazy Italian dive instructor and headed off to the cenote site, picking up a Hungarian chap on the way. The Cenotes are naturally formed underground caves filled with rainwater filtered through the limestone so the water is incredibly clear. The cenote we went to was called Dos Ojos which is Spanish for 'two eyes' and refers to two neighbouring cenotes which connect into a very large cavern zone shared between the two. These two cenote appear like two large eyes into the underground. We did 2 dives which were incredible - like no other dives I've done - weaving through the staligmites and staligtites and all at only 5-7 meters depth.
On the way back from the dive we saw a huge iguana which prompted the Italian (who's name I forget) to tell me all about his pet Iguanas and their sex life....needless to say even though I've never met them I do feel like I now know them a little too intimately!! 

Chris's flight was supposed to land tonight at around 9.30pm and I was all set to go to the airport to meet him, however, due to snow at Newark airport he called to say he was going to be very delayed so I decided to join the Christmas celebrations at the hostel. Everyone was to provide either some food or drink for the occasion for everyone to share - I opted for supplying some drink as cooking isn't my favourite pastime. I met some girls from Quebec whilst waiting for the party to commence and we played cards for a bit before having a few drinks and heading out to the 'Blue Parrot' - one of the most famous local nightspots which we managed to blag our way into somehow. In the mean time, Chris called to say he'd finally landed so I went back to the hostel to meet him a little worse for wear at around 2am! I chin-waged with the Irish girl on night-duty whilst waiting. He managed to organise a cab-share with some fellow travellers from Cancun airport, finally arriving at the hostel at aound 3am!!



Christmas Day: Got up late, went for a wander around, went to the beach, organised a bus to Belize for tomorrow.....not your average Christmas day!! It seems that Christmas eve would be the day to celebrate Christmas in Playa Del Carmen and Christmas day is just business as usual!!