Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The short:

I absolutely loved Playa del Carmen. Sure, it is very touristy, but it is also really nice and good fun. It was the most "upmarket" of all the places that we have been in Mexico, in terms of its offerings of glossy shops and expensive restaurants in a small vicinity. There is a lovely little outdoor shopping district where all of the buildings are white and the shops built-in, making you feel as if you're in a cute village. Michael and I took much amusement in the number of shops that were repeated every 100m; Starbucks; Haagen Daaz; Nike, to name a few, just in case you couldn't manage the walk to the next store. Of course, like anywhere that appeals to the masses, it caters for everyone, so there are plenty of cheap bars and places to eat dotted around as well. Essentially, it had everything. The beach and sea were equally as beautiful as any other we have seen in Mexico and our hotel excellently situated to hit either the waves or the town. Unfortunately we didn't have the best weather for our last 3 days, with cloud cover for the majority of the day and intermittent morning drizzle, although we did have a few sunny moments. Thankfully, though, it didn't prohibit us from doing any of the things that we wanted to do in Playa, and we ended our 4 week adventure with some unforgettable experiences and incredible memories. 

The long:

Wednesday:

We took the ferry over to Playa del Carmen at midday. We had started the 5-minute journey from our hotel to the dock in dry, cloudy weather; by the time we arrived at the port a storm was in full motion and huge, heavy rain droplets were spattering down soaking everything in their path. It will never fail to amaze me how suddenly and drastically the weather can change here. The 35-minute boat journey to the mainland was not a particularly pleasant one, with the boat swaying from side to side with such force that both Michael and I envisioned Titanic unfolding before our eyes numerous times; it was far scarier than any airplane turbulence I have ever experienced. 

Despite the overcast sky putting a hold to our beach trip, we were in great spirits after having settled in at our gorgeous quaint little boutique hotel, which is modelled to look like ruins from the outside but has a jungle feel to it once beyond the front doors, and has an amazingly sweet fish-shaped pool. 

Clearly we must have saved the best till last when booking our trip all the way back in April! It was only mid-afternoon at this point so we decided to explore the streets of Playa, with a few refreshing pit stops along the way.

We were pretty impressed with what we found, giving us high hopes for our last few days together. Since we still had a sizeable amount of sushi left from dinner the night before, we decided to protect the precious funds and demolish our doggie bags on the room balcony with drinks chilled by a bag of ice that we bought from 7/11, whilst listening to a bit of classic Coldplay. It was heavenly. 

Thursday:

We had big plans for the day. We took an hour and a half bus to Tulum, home to Mayan ruins. It wasn't long after we'd arrived that we were snared up by a tour provider that seemed to be offering a pretty good deal; entry to the ruins plus entry to several cenotes (natural clear water pools) within Dos Ojos afterwards for $40 per person. Payment was a slight issue however. It turned out that we had depleted the money on our joint travel MasterCard, and only had minimal cash with us... Our big day out suddenly looked rather bleak. After several data roaming charges, a phone call to mum and a phone call to the saving grace that is STA, we managed to turn the situation around (thank god my memory spat out my expiry date and security code on auto-pilot). The day was saved. Into Tulum we strode. 

It was a pretty cool place and I'm really glad that I got to see the remains of one of the first and most instrumentally important Mayan villages for trade. 

The people that lived there definitely didn't have a bad view!

Although as it turns out the Mayans were a little bit shorter than me.

The ruins were fairly sparse and it didn't take long to cover all that there was to see, so Michael and I hopped in what we quickly deemed to be the best transport mode ever, a "collectivo", a small shuttle bus that runs a regular route where people can hop on and off along the way for a much lesser fee than the official buses charge, to get to our next stop. Naturally, they are a little rogue and we were dropped off the wrong side of the motorway to the entrance of Dos Ojos, so we had a fun game of cat and mouse whilst dodging the traffic. (I am joking mum, there were no cars in sight.) After walking for 10 minutes down a deserted mud-beaten track we started to question what in God's name was going on, and whether the friendly tour provider was currently sitting in Tulum having a good laugh at our expense. I asked an oncoming truck whether we were walking in the right direction of Dos Ojos, to which he replied that we were. I then asked how much longer it would take us to walk there, to which he said 20 minutes. Hot and sticky, and convinced that we'd been utterly robbed of our money, we continued our pursuit. 15 minutes later I again asked a passing quad bike how far we were from reaching Dos Ojos, to which he said 20 minutes. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Thankfully, once we explained that we had bought a tour and showed him our wristbands, he told us to go down a side road that we had just passed where we could meet guides from our tour. There was a light after all. We walked down the little road and stumbled upon a cenote.

It wasn't long before a guide came and spoke to us, and explained that we should have checked in at one of the little wooden shacks at the very start of the long road to be transported to the various cenotes, and apologised profusely for the fact that we had just walked 2km. Suddenly it all seemed really rather funny; we must have looked mad trudging down the road since we crossed paths with absolutely no one else moving by foot! 

When we bought the tour we had been told the cenotes were 28 degrees; this, I can assure you, they were not. Aside from being incredibly cold, it was amazing to be submerged in water so clear, manufactured solely by nature.

Once I'd likened cenote Nicte-Ha to a pond though I got a bit grossed out, and happily exited when it was time to visit the next cenote, Miserio Maya. This one was a little different to say the least; if I had known what was in store for us I might have run away with my tail between my legs but, gratefully unaware, we plowed in head first, and I'm so glad that we did! We spent 45 minutes swimming through a pitch black underwater cave with only a torch for light, the ceiling of which was home to millions of the most beautiful stalactites that hung down like dripping candle wax. Our guide told us that it takes 100 years for 1cm of growth, which is hard to comprehend when you see the sheer length of some of them. 

And so nature comes through once more; honestly, the stalactites were totally mesmerising and you never got bored of staring up at them, as each one is different and unique. Plus, it helped take our minds of the occasional swooping fruit bats and huge alien fish that brushed against our legs. 

We also came across the odd stalagmite.

And got to see a coral sponge fossil in the roof of the cave.

All in all, it was pretty damn awesome. By the end, however, we were completely frozen to the bone; I hadn't swum/(doggie paddled) as fast as I did as when I saw sunlight beaming down through the exit all holiday. We jumped in a collectivo back home, sat shoulder-to-shoulder with all of the locals returning home from work. 

It was a gin rummy kinda night, so we sat on the balcony and played cards before heading out for some divine Italian food. 

I mean it, that calamari and pizza were sensational. No Italian meal is complete without gelato however, which Michael described as "the best ice-cream he can ever remember having".

Friday:

Michael and I had been told several times during our trip that we must go to Akumal and swim with sea turtles, to which I was most happy to oblige. We were both SO excited to do this and had been waiting to arrive in Playa to go, but had been delaying it since arriving due to the weather and warnings that the sea might be off limits if the waves were choppy. But it was our last day, so we were going regardless and simply had to hope and pray for the best. THANK GOD WE DID. It was the most amazing snorkel ever, and I mean EVER (yes, it beats the one 3 days ago that was at that time also the best one ever). For $20 per person we got our own private guide and snorkel gear. I would have paid triple that for the experience we had.

We saw ALL types of sea life, including two different types of sting ray; one reminded me of Caspar the friendly ghost, as it is white in colour with no head, but rather has two huge cavernous black eyes that occasionally blink, and the other reminded me of a cross between a dog and a bat, with snout features and vast wings. 

Then there was the enormous barracuda, which we were literally 1m away from. I would like to retract my comment to Michael on our previous snorkelling trip that they are "pretty"; close up they are eerily frightening and ugly. 

^ No zoom may I add. The waves pushed me closer and closer whilst I was papping away, until I realised that one more wave and I would be able to touch the bloody thing; some serious back paddling was put in motion.

We saw a huge variety of fish. Michael is much more in tune with the inhabitants of the animal kingdom and says that he saw over 100 different types of fish, so we will go with that! Whatever the number, we saw some of the most beautiful fish that I have ever laid eyes on.

^ Note the baby!!!

^ This last one in particular was utterly unbelievable. Unfortunately the camera didn't capture its colours very well and I only managed one shot before it hid within the corals, but it was a psychedelic green with blues and yellows outlining its scales and fins. Michael and I dubbed it "the rainbow fish".

The Crown Jewels however are yet to come, because we got to see about 15 different sea turtles. I was beyond ecstatic. Every time our guide pointed one out I would look to Michael to engage in some vigorous pointing, nodding and smiling, and look for a hand to squeeze. As my second favourite animal (a close runner-up behind my beloved Nelly elephants), I never dreamed that we would see so many (nor had we heard of others seeing as many), let alone several BOOBOO'S/(babies), which genuinely made me believe that Christmas had come early.

I couldn't get over how elegantly they glided through the water, as if flying, sporadically popping up to the surface for a gulp of air and simultaneously melting my heart. 

I was on the verge of exploding when I later looked through my pictures and saw that our guide had successfully managed to get some shots of both Michael and I and the majestic creatures in the same photo.

The faces of two elated human beings: 

The sun was kind enough to make a momentary appearance so we laid on the beach for an hour and briefly topped up our tans before heading home. It was an amazing last day with an equally wonderful amazing last evening in store.

Seeing as my darling boy and I wouldn't be seeing each other for 5 weeks (absolutely the longest time apart since we met), we had saved some pennies for a special evening. A glass of champagne was had at one of the "glossy" establishments I mentioned earlier,

before embarking on an evening of culinary delights at a highly rated restaurant called Plank. We ate like King and Queen. 

All of the food is served on a plank of some sort, to enhance the flavour of the food that you are devouring. My scallops were served on a plank of Himalayan salt, which I found very cool, albeit slightly salty when combined with the bacon wrapped around them.

Michael went on a pastry adventure of his own, with their signature starter of chicken pie,

followed by us both indulging in their signature main of beef wellington, accompanied by lobster mash. Can you spell heaven?

Dessert number 1 was pretty great, as with no brownie in sight we were both "forced" to choose something that we probably equally enjoy but never order! King had New York cheesecake:

Queen had apple tart with vanilla ice-cream:

Dessert number 2 however was the cherry on the cake (so to speak), with Haagen Daaz living up to its reputation:

I think we can all agree that we ate an astonishing amount of food... I think we just didn't want the evening to end, as that meant facing the reality that we were shortly going to be separated for longer than we ever have been before. At least we had the most perfect last day.