Tulum

AHHHH!!!
Ok, So I know it has been a long time, but life has been so good to me that I`ve had no time to update everyone on what I am doing. Here it goes...
I left Isla Mujeres after two weeks of hanging out with an amazing group of people and could have probably stayed there forever, except that there is so much more that I need to see and experience and as difficult as it was to leave I took a bus to Tulum.
Tulum is a few hours south of Cancun on the coast and there you can find amazing beaches with beautiful blue waters and a gorgeous ruin that sits on the edge of a cliff by the beach. I arrived in Tulum and walked to the weary traveller which is a hostel on the main road. I arrived there alone, but as soon as I walked in I ran into people I had previously met in Isla Mujeres and instantly felt better, it´s nice when traveling to run into people you already know. I got myself a room with Justin who I had met earlier in my trip and his friend Nitai. My first night was very mellow, hung out at the hostel met some new people and went to bed fairly early. The next day we got a group together and went to the beach, the plan would be to hang out there and later go to the ruins which are very close to the beach.
The beach in Tulum is absolutely gorgeous, the sand is as white as it can be and the water a very light turquoise, further out you can see the coral reef and dive boats taking their trips. We got to the beach and instantly went into the water. It felt amazing and we just laughed, talked, floated and reminded ourselves of how blessed we are and how good our lives are. We hung around the beach and I decided to go for a run. The beach here is kinda long and not small beaches like in Isla so it was a lot easier to run. I put in my ipod and ran accross this beautiful beach from rock point to rock point, looking at the beach side cabañas and the ruins on my side, it had been a while since my last beach run and it was great to feel the sweat on my body and my legs working out. After the run and some sit ups we decided to hit up the ruins.

Now the ruins here are not very big, and are not well preserved, but seeing how they lived, at the edge of the cliff, seeing how their temples were organized is incredible and an amazing sight. These people really knew how to live and found a great place to do it. We walked around the ruins, observing their beauty and talking about our lives, then we went home, had dinner and finished off the night with a few beers and card games.

The next morning I woke up and made myself some delicious pancakes at the hostel and decided I would go diving in the Cenotes, which are underground freshwater caves. There are a lot of them in this area of Mexico and Icould not miss my opportunity. Usually you have to book diving trips the day before and most leave early in the morning, but thankfully in Mexico things work a little differently. I was planning on diving in the afternoon, but went to the shop in the morning to find out some information. The guy told me the morning group had not started their dive yet and he would personally drive me to the site. We got to a beautiful park where I met the dive master that would be taking us into the caves. You have to have special training for that and carry two tanks. He explained to us the dive, how long we would be under, all the info and handed me a flashlight. This was my first freshwater dive and jumping into the water felt very different. The visibility is insane and the fishes are very small and few. We started in a big opening and slowly swam down to a deeper cave. It is so scary and beautiful at the same time, using a flashlight for guidance and sometimes the sunlight would shine in through holes. I did two beautiful dives where we swam trhough different caves obeserving rock formations, shining my flashlight on little fishes and seeing huge shadows against the cave walls. It is so quiet, serene and beautiful underwater and coming out of a dark cave into a beautiful blue opening with sunlight shining through the water is amazing!!! I could not have been happier with this dive, it was very different from my previous dives, but very special in its own way. Pictures will be added soon, so please check back!
That same night Justin and I took an overnight bus to Palenque where new adventures were waiting for us.