Playa Del Carmen

So instead of staying at the very popular Cancun (where we flew in and will fly out of) we decided to stay at the slightly less popular, but nicer Playa Del Carmen an hour away. We conveniently arrived just in time for beer o'clock, so after dumping our bags we wandered along the main drag, 5th Avenue which is full of bars, restaurants and shops that sell all sorts of touristy wares. After some cooling Cerveza we enjoyed dinner at one of the many establishments which also had a travelling mariachi band drop in.

Next morning we jumped on a bus to Tulum to check out some Mayan ruins in a picturesque setting by a stunning Caribbean beach. The pictures better illustrate what it was like, however they still fall short of how beautiful it was. Our only complaint was, why do civilisations always build buildings that will become well surviving ruins in such hot places? They really aren't thinking of the tourists visiting 500+ years in the future.

After returning we decided it was again time for beer o'clock, which comes around often on holidays. We ended up settling into a bar/pizza restaurant where we enjoyed a few cocktails again based on mezcal. They even made us a special cocktail the mezrioska (a caprioska made with mezcal). Over the course of the evening we got talking to a couple of the very friendly staff: Jaime(pronounced hay-me) from Oaxaca but had lived in Canada for 8 years and Victor (from Acupulco). They told us that Playa del Carmen really comes alive during Christmas and New Year and is the perfect time for (another) visit. All in all a pretty great day and night, 2 days just wasn't enough.

The ruins at Tulum

Joss, not really showing how hot it was

Paul before melting later in the day

The both of us... Paul is starting to melt

From the other side