Isla Mujeres
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2007
1
67
92
Trip End
Dec 27, 2007
Cancun,
Yucatan Peninsula,
Mexico
Sunday, October 28, 2007
After that it was off to the ADO bus station to catch a bus to Cancun. Our amazing week enjoying the beauty of the Mayan Riviera was coming to an end and we were rather sad that we only had 2 days left
Breakfast
! We were excited about our next destination though, which was to be Isla Mujeres. We had heard that it was a beautiful island just off the Cancun mainland and that the diving was great! We also decided that it was time for a treat and booked ourselves into a really nice room in the Avalon Reef Resort which was situated on the far north of the island on a strip of land that could only be accessed by crossing over a bridge onto the hotel property. We arrived in Cancun at lunch time and had to catch a bus to get to the ferry terminal. There are two ferry terminals in Cancun and we had asked the bus driver whether he went to the one we wanted to get to. Of course he nodded, like they always do, and on we jumped only to realise 10 minutes later that we were being dropped off at the wrong terminal! So - we had to get a second bus, in the opposite direction, to Puerto Grande....and this time the driver did understand and was very helpful in telling us when we needed to get off. The journey across the sea was only 15 minutes and we arrived in the pouring rain! Oh dear.....fortunately that didn't last long and before we knew it the sun was out again and we were sweating on our walk to find the Avalon Reef Resort...
.....after about 15 minutes we arrived at the bridge that leads into the resort and were given the up and down by the security guards who were obviously not used to people 'walking' to the hotel
Cancun in the distance over the bay
. He asked us whether we needed help and we told him that we just wanted to check in. He looked at us with our backpacks and said we could go ahead, but proceeded to follow us into the reception area. The hotel had apparently not received our booking over the web....but after showing them the confimation we had received by e-mail....all was well and we were checked into a room with the most incredible view. The building was built up on stilts so that it was partly in the ocean and when you looked out of the huge windows in our room all you could see was the Carribean sea, and all you could hear was the crashing waves....it was fantastic. We did a little tour of the premises and found a dive shack down on the beach which did snorkelling and scuba tours each day. We asked if we could go out with him the next day which he said was fine...in fact he was taking 3 people out at 10am to scuba dive so he said we could go with them as the reefs would be better than going to the 'snorkelling' reefs. So we were pretty excited and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening just relaxing around the place. That evening we decided to be very unadventurous and stayed at the resort - enjoying a lovely buffet dinner and then lying on our bed - listening to the waves crashing below....we turned off the lights and enjoyed an amazing thunder and lightening storm out at sea....it was awesome. The next morning we woke up with the sunrise and headed downstairs to enjoy another amazing buffet 'breakfast'
Jules at the end of the pier
. We tucked in to all the fresh fruit, juices and my favourite (the granola). We also had freshly made omelettes with our chosen ingredients as well as some bits and pieces of more traditional mexican breakfast dishes. We made sure that we had eaten early so that we had plenty of time to digest all this lovely food before heading out to sea. Greg decided that he needed to get some spare batteries for our new 'underwater camera' and so he headed into the village to find a shop. I decided to lie at the pool instead. Before long it was 10am and we were fitting on fins, and collecting goggles and snorkels. We were really annoyed to hear that because we were going to be entering a National Park area of the island we would have to wear life vests!!! we were horrified as this meant no diving down to get a closer look at the coral and fish...we discussed this with our tour guide and he said that we could take the jackets off quickly if we wanted to go under, but must put them back on again as the police might be checking!! So - off we went.......the sea was pretty rough and we were hitting those waves at pace on our little boat....it was great fun! Before long we were out at the reef and in the water. The range of fish and the coral were amazing and we saw many fish that we hadn't seen before. The water was pretty deep though and the life jackets really proved very restrictive...which spoilt the whole experience.
On top of this Greg started to feel nauseous as he had swallowed a huge amount of sea water on one occasion when coming up to tell me something
Jules relaxes on the ferry back to Cancun
! So when we got back onto the boat - ready to head off to the second dive site - he said he was not feeling well! The next thing I remember was him throwing up all his nice breakfast in the sea and the guy driving the boat doing a good job of quickly steering the boat out of the area....well - at least the fish were fed! Fortunately, Greg felt a lot better after that and we snorkelled for a bit longer at the next reef. Despite saying he felt all right...I think he was quite relieved to get back to shore as he didn't look that great and the sight of him was starting to make my stomach turn.We checked out of our lovely room after showering and then headed back to the ferry to return to Cancun for our last night in Mexico. We went back to the hostel we had been staying in before going on our trip down the coast as we had left our big backpacks there. We slept there that night and spent the majority of the evening looking for gifts to buy for family...as we decided that we wanted to get something LITTLE for everyone...to share some of this beautiful country with them.
