We did plan an early start but ended up catching the later 9am ferry to Caye Caulker. We sat on the top deck of the small boat and it was great to feel the wind in my hair as we were hurtling by the reefs. Everything is so low lying and not a mountain in sight, I think I could almost see the curve of the earth.

First things first was to grab some breakfast and I had heard a lot about the famous fry jacks in Belize. These are deep fried dough with your choice of savoury filling inside. I went for cheese and chicken and it was delicious!

Caye Caulker is incredibly narrow and it’s just four blocks from one side to another. There are some golf buggies people drive round the island but mostly people just stroll along at a slow pace. Everyone is so chill and relaxed, it feels much more similar to the Caribbean than Mexico.

We spent the day at Caye Caulker going around dive shops deciding if we will do diving or snorkelling while here. With all of the Sargassum Seaweed there aren’t that many tourists so it was guaranteed to be a small group. In the end we decided on diving because we had a better chance of seeing sharks than we had of seeing manatees while snorkelling.

In the evening we decided to go to Wish Willy’s for dinner. This is a great place in a backyard where the owner Maurice and a friend work on the grill and serve up great food. Maurice goes around to everyone seated under the fairy lights and asks if you want fish, chicken or shrimp and after a while he comes back with a great plate of food. You fetch your own drinks from the cool box and Maurice just tells you what it all cost at the end.

After a great breakfast of mexican scrambled eggs and mollettes it was time to say goodbye to Bacalar and drop off the car at Chetumal. Everything went well although we did have to explain to the guy that dirt is not the same as a scratch on the car. It was so banged up to begin with I don’t know why he was complaining anyway.

We then grabbed a taxi to the bus station. He was very helpful and took us to an alternative bus station where he said all the buses to Belize went through, but when we arrived at 11am they said the next bus was at 2pm. Even with our heavy backpacks we decided to walk to another bus stop that Dave’s research said should have regular buses. However when we arrived it was completely overgrown and abandoned so I think that information was a bit out of date! As it turns out the busses had been moved to this old terminal 18 months ago, to reduce traffic in the market place, but moved back about 6 months ago.

When we got back to the original bus stop we found out there were less frequent buses today because it was a public holiday in Belize – Commonwealth day. It was looking less and less likely we would make our connection for the ferry to Caye Caulker. Thank god we had internet and could move our booking and find somewhere for the night in Belize City.

We sat on the bus for hours waiting for it to leave. At least we were near shops, so had an ice cream to cool down while we waited. Finally an hour later than we were told we set off and crossed the border to Belize.

We were treated to James Bond die another day in English on our way. So far all of the films on buses have been dubbed in Spanish but Belize’s official language is English since it used to be part of the British Empire as British Honduras. I had forgotten how bad that film was.

We did end up arriving in Belize City too late for the ferry but we found a guesthouse close to the bus terminal which had wonderful air con and was run by a really friendly and welcoming family. There had been stories about Belize City being unsafe but it was well lit in the part we were in to walk around. We didn’t end up going out again because we still had some sandwiches we prepared the night before to eat.

It was an early start at 5am so we could visit our second UNESCO at Calakmul. It was a long 4 hour drive but we arrived at 9am so we still had the coolest part of the day to explore. Dave particularly liked the potholed route off the highway in the park which took us 1hr 15min to navigate. In all honesty you could probably do it in 50mins, but we were stuck behind a very cautious driver with an uncanny ability to swerve into every pot hole they could find rather than go around. To be honest we’ve driven worse mountain roads in the USA before, there are no cliffside drops to contend with here.

Along the way we saw lots of Oscellated Turkeys. Their feathers were much brighter than a peacocks and they gobbled loudly at us. Oscellated turkeys have lots of orange nodules on their heads and are close relatives of normal wild turkeys, though they are generally smaller. The oscellated variety is native to the Yucatan peninsula and lives as far south as Belize and Guatemala. It was an endangered species due to hunting for subsistence and disruption due to changing land use, but is now considered to be recovering.

We were prepared for there being no food stands or restaurants at the site so we had made cheese and ham sandwiches the night before for both breakfast and lunch.

The site at Calakmul and its temples are a UNESCO world heritage site due to their importance throughout Mayan history. The site is within the Tierras Bajas forest which is part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity area, the third largest such area in the world.

We followed the site map straight to the temples we could climb and went straight to the top. The view was great but it showed us an even taller temple to climb up!

Well we then climbed right to the top of the even taller temple. Phew that was exhausting work but worth it.

During its heyday Calakmul was the capitol city of the Snake Kingdom through the Classic period. Its population is estimated to have been around 50,000 people and it comprises a total of around 6,750 buildings. The kingdoms control extended up to 150km away so it was a major centre of power in the Mayan world and maintained a rivalry with Tikal to the south.

Pyramid 2 is the tallest on the site at 45metres and was the one we climbed, its within the central temple district of the site (approx 2km square area within the larger 20km square city). The pyramid contains 4 tombs beneath it and reached its final height through the typical Mayan process of building atop previous temples at different points in history.

We then walked around the rest of the site which included several plazas and acropolises with many stelae which made up the central district of Calakmul city. These would have housed royalty and high ranking persons as well as providing a commercial and political centre to the city.

Stopping to find some shade we spotted some bats roosting above us, which we could identify as large brown bats. Unlike the Oscellated Turkey, large brown bats are in no way endangered, as they thrive throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Their beady little eyes were upon us as we disturbed their vampiric rest, so we moved on to avoid any rabies.

It was a long drive back so to break it up we visited Kohunlich ruins. Kohunlich is a reasonably sized site, however it is mostly unexcavated so only the largest central buildings can be seen. The temple at Kohunlich is known as the Temple of Masks as large mask carvings were found exceptionally well preserved. The masks were constructed in 500AD, but then a final layer of building work obscured them in 700AD and so protected them until the site was excavated and they could be revealed.

Dave is feeling lots better but is still taking it safe with toast for breakfast at El Manati. I however was craving pancakes but they were even larger than I expected so Dave got half as well!

Everywhere we have been there have been red flowering trees called Royal Poinciana Trees. These trees are endemic to Madagascar but grow wild in the Yucatan after its introduction in the late 19th Century.  They became favorite ornamental trees to grow near Mayan huts, villages, urban avenues and parks and I can see why they are so popular – they are very striking.

I was feeling in the need for some history so we went around the Fort of San Filipe. Bacalar was a Mayan city which was taken by the Spanish in 1543 but in the 17th century the town was sacked by pirates so the fortress was built in 1729. During the caste wars the Mayans took the town in 1848 and it was only retaken by the Mexicans in 1902.

We then grabbed our swim stuff and went kayaking on the lagoon. The colours of the lagoon are amazing and I can definitely see why they say it’s the lagoon of seven colours. It’s because it has so many different depths that it has so many colours. At points it was shallow enough I could walk beside the kayak and it was the brightest light blue and other points we were over a cenote and we couldn’t see the bottom at all even when I dived down.

Cenote de la Bruja (Witch’s Cenote) was particularly interring because it drops down suddenly from shallows at chest height to over 15 metres down.

We then were exhausted after two hours kayaking in the heat so we grabbed dinner at “Catch” which was the same launch point where we hired kayaks. It was kinda overpriced for what it was because of the view but I enjoyed the lime marinaded fish.

Oh no Dave was ill. I would say it was something he ate but I was fine and we shared the same pizza and we both had pork dishes for lunch from the same restaurant. Unfortunately we had a busy day ahead of us so no rest for the wicked! Luckily by mid-morning he felt well enough that we didn’t even take a taxi to the bus station and instead walked all the way (I wouldn’t have minded the break).

I will miss this accommodation with its pool. It’s much more basic accommodation ahead of us – not even any air con at the next place!

It’s a 3 hour bus from Tulum to Chetumal but at least ADO buses have air con. We then grabbed a taxi to Chetumal airport to pick up a hire car so we could do some of the ruins around Bacalar. Dave hated how basic it was – not even central locking and it rattled over every tope (speed bump).

Our accommodation in Bacalar had a hammock. Suddenly I can forgive it for having no air con. I can forgive anything for a hammock! To be fair there was so much breeze coming through the windows from the lagoon we didn’t need air con.

Dave had crackers from the grocery store for dinner whereas I had taco & sope, but I didn’t enjoy them – lots of cabbage. All around a bit of a sad evening for us – but at least I had a hammock.

Today we went to our first proper Mayan pyramid we could climb up to the top. Happily unlike yesterday the bus arrived at 7:30 so we could arrive for 8:30. Most of the organised tours arrive at 10am so we had the place with much fewer people. In the bus station we met up with Laura from Switzerland who we had met on the previous day and had advised on how to get to Coba and Sian Ka’an. It’s nice to go around the site with someone else to talk to!

We went directly to the main temple, skipping all the other ruins on our way. It was very steep to climb up and the steps are very narrow. I used my hands to crawl/climb my way up but all the effort was worth it for the view.

After climbing the highest temple we then walked around the rest of the site. Unfortunately we got caught up in a rain shower and we didn’t have out waterproofs since the temperature was 30’C. There were a few shelters protecting the stelae (standing stones with inscriptions celebrating specific events or people) which we hung around under while it rained.

After the rain storm we saw lots of Turkey Vultures drying their wings on the steps of a temple. These vultures have a wing span of 160-183cm so these were pretty big birds.

We had a nice lunch at El Faisan. I had a traditional Mayan dish, poc chuc, which is pork prepared in a citrus marinade and grilled. The term poc chuc is made up of two Mayan words: poc, which means to toast, especially on hot embers, and chuc, which is charcoal. Dave had cochinita pibil, which is traditional Mexican slow-roast pork dish.

Trying to get back to Tulum was fun. All the taxi guys were saying we would have to wait until 3:30pm for a bus but since it was 1:30pm we didn’t want to wait that long. We decided to walk to the bus stop just in case and a bus came by within 10mins. We then just chilled in the air con until we had pizza for dinner at Pizzeria Manglar, the same place we went to on Saturday – it was close and we had done a lot of walking.

Walking back from dinner we got caught in another rainstorm. What is this! I came for the wall to wall sunshine!

Oh no our plans were scuppered in the morning because the bus to Coba wasn’t running at 7:30 and waiting another hour for the next bus meant we would arrive later than I would like. Instead we decide to visit some cenotes and go snorkelling.

It was a 4 mile cycle in a lot of heat but at least it was flat. Dave was suffering because he had a bike with nearly flat tyres, a short saddle which we couldn’t adjust because it was so rusted over, plus no gears. I actually have longer legs so I had the bike with the taller saddle because that’s fair. Tulum is very much like center parcs and everybody cycles to everything because it’s so spread out.

The cenotes were very cold early in the morning and it took me a long time to get in. It it was nice chilling by the shore and reading. Crystal cenote and Escondido cenote were across the highway from each other which was a bonus. Both were open air cenotes and not caverns so it gradually warmed up and we had some cliffs we could jump from

While at the cenotes we saw a turquoise bird called a Yucatan Jay. It’s a type of crow and when it flies and the sun catches its wings they sparkle.

After the cenotes we chilled through the heat of the day at the apartment pool again. It’s been so useful to have this facility at Tulum given that the beaches are quite a cycle away.

Once evening heat we cycled back into the centre for food and went back to the place we went yesterday because the food was so good. After another pina colada (I couldn’t stop myself) I had the enchilada con salsa verde and it was amazing! The cheese was almost like a feta and it contrasted really well against the green tomato salsa plus the chicken was nicely seasoned as well.

Again another early start; this time the mission was to swim with turtles. We wanted to be early because the reef is so close to shore (less than 10 meters) all the swimmers kick up so much sand that it gets very hard to see later in the day. We managed to see two turtles. Sadly Dave was on GoPro duties so we missed videoing the turtle which swam in front of me and came up for air less than 1 metre from me, waved its fins at me and then swam along with a gaggle of fish cleaning its shell. We also saw loads of other fish.

You can get more information on how to get to Akumal and access the beach here.

Well we completed our aim for the day by 9am. So we had lots of time to fill in so we decided to go to the Tulum ruins. It was a 2.5 mile cycle there and it was busy. It just emphasises why I like getting to a place as early as possible. Still it was worthwhile doing and the ruins are set on a cliff overlooking the sea below so it was very pretty.

We also found some residents among the ruins, small mammals called Coati or Chi’Ik in Mayan. Related to Racoons they live all over Mexico but seemed particularly chilled out with our human presence here in the Tulum ruins.

Our accommodation was the wrong side of Tulum from the ruins so we stopped half way for lunch and drinks which was recommended to us by our host. I absolutely loved the tamarind sauce which went with the fish and the pina coladas were very generous with the alcohol! The Puntas a la Mexicana is also to be recommended, skirt steak cooked in a tomato based sauce.

Ow! I woke up and had an allergic reaction to the insect bites from the day before. Luckily I had anti-histamine to take but I felt like taking an easy day. Dave was also suffering from sunburn he caught when we went to Sian Ka’an which got rubbed from the scuba bcd. So we were both feeling in a sorry state.

Luckily we had a pool at our apartment to enjoy and we needed to do some video editing. Also left over pizza made it a cheap day in comparison the expensive day going scuba diving.