Together with my UnBelizeAble team - Hanne, a girl from Belgium, Brooke, a girl from Sydney, Sergio, a guy from Italy and Dody, a guy from Israel - we took a direct bus to Tulum, Mexico. For 28 US dollars a bus would bring us to the border, drop us there for my last border rituals and bring us to Tulum.

But crossing into Mexico from Belize isn’t cheap! Exiting Belize costs 19 US dollars and entering Mexico another 22 US dollars. And after so many border crossings already made this one was really the worst one! It took us about 2 hours to get all the stamps. Some sort of computer problem slowed the whole process down, they said. Anyways, it took enough time for us to miss our bus to the bus terminal to catch our next bus to Tulum. Bummer! And it’s getting worse, because we paid for a first class bus and of course all the other first class buses were full.
Great!
So we took the second class bus and didn’t get a refund.
Great!
Anyways we were on the move again - tired, sweaty, hungry and a bit sick.

Why sick? Well my last night on Caye Caulker wasn’t the way I wanted to end my Belizean experience, but the food I ate that day was bad. I spent a great part of the night in the toilet puking. By the morning I was empty and just decided to join the UnBelizeAble team to go to Mexico. Going on my own would be boring anyway.

So bye bye Belize and welcome Mexico!

Tulum

We arrived late in the afternoon in Tulum and all of us - including Charlie from the UK and Laura & Nicole from the states where I traveled with in Guatemala - headed for hostel Casa del Sol. A nice hostel in the center of the town.

Tulums beaches are wonderful!! Oh my, white sand, palm trees everywhere. Paradise again! But to get to these wonderful beaches you need a bike or take a taxi. Tulum is not right on the beach unfortunately.

We also visited the ruins of Tulum, which are just out of the town and right on the beach. For 51 pesos you get in and take a walk around and take a swim where the Maya’s did. The ruins are nice but not as spectacular as I thought.

Playa del Carmen

Just an hour away is Playa del Carmen! Totally different than Tulum: bigger, more tourists (especially Americans!), big beach resorts, western shops just like home, wall mart, no white sand, a smaller beach, much more bars and restaurants, etc. This place is all western! But it’s not a bad place, it’s a place where you feel like home (again) and where you can spend more time than you want. Right now it’s low season here so it’s quite. I can’t imagine this place in high season, should be crazy!

Anyway, we’ve been to the beach, we’ve been to wall mart, we went around for a walk, we went shopping, we drank local beers and tequila is in the fridge! Tomorrow we’re off to Cancun and Isla Mujeres.

See more photos here!