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North of Tulum and more importantly towards Cancun Mexico changes character fairly dramatically, for a start the number of Mexicans starts dropping to Texas levels and the number of American tourists rises to compensate. As the collectivo cruised up the road to Playa Del Carmen we started to pass more and more giant US stores, cinemas and retail parks virtually identical to their counterparts in the USA. All this has been set up to attract the tourist dollar that lives in timeshare apartments scattered down the coast a bit like the Brits in southern Spain. Not a bad thing in moderation but we hadn't finished with Mexico yet so our priority was getting over to Cozumel on the ferry and digging behind the cruise ship dominated waterfront strip to find a slice of real Mexico for our dinner. We also had to arrange a couple of days diving as there is little point going there otherwise.
Luckily for us we managed both, turns out the t-shirt shops and expensive waterfront restaurants are just a thin veneer over a very Mexican town. 100m back from the shore tourist 'attractions' disappeared and taco stands started reappearing to Rachelle's intense relief. The diving was no problem either; the dive master dove with Jacque Cousteau 35 years ago and has been diving ever since.He also took underwater photos for free and knew exactly what he was doing (Sergio Sandoval if anyone is popping over). Under the water we eased back into the diving fairly easily and had our first experience of drift diving (where you float along in a current past the fish & coral so you don't have to do any paddling and your air lasts much longer). The fish were amazing and beautifully coloured but top prize for me goes to the giant sea turtles (check out the picture of me & the turtle), of course I completely missed the 6ft shark so you will have to ask R about that beast when you see her. None of our dive experiences really prepared us for our final dive however when Sergio indicated that something large was coming and a submarine came around the edge of the reef. It was a tourist sub for non-divers and it was really surreal to hang in the water as it cruised past having our picture taken.
For our final three days in Mexico we returned to the mainland and Playa Del Carmen, a tourist town dominated by tourist overspill from resorts. Again we found the main part of town a solid strip of tourist shops and overpriced underflavoured restaurants. Not a problem - enter Richard & Shevaun our local experts and kind guides. Our good pal Andrew "the Hulk" Haxell introduced us to Richard at a cricket match back in the UK the year before.As he lives in Playa we rang him up and found the hospitality amazing. They knew the best bars (with the cheapest beer), they were packed to bursting with local knowledge and the meal Shevaun cooked for us was by far the best we have had in Mexico (and regulars will know there is some stiff competition). Best of all for me Richard is passionate about his sport so I had my first real football conversation for several months. On the final day before we left we ended up in the pub on the Sunday afternoon drinking beer and watching the final of the Mexican football championship while it rained steadily outside, so it was pretty much exactly the same as home. In fact it rained fairly steadily for the last three days in Playa so we boarded the bus to Cancun airport feeling pretty good about our final week in Mexico but ready for some warmth and a break from beer. Massive thanks to Richard, Shevaun, Bevan and Liam for making our time in Playa so much fun and if anyone is interested in learning more about Mexican football Richards Pumas blog is available at www.pumas-blog.blogspot.com .
On to the states now and if not the beginning of the end then certainly then end of the beginning.
Love A & R
Ps. This blog is dedicated to Daniel and Luke, some of our most faithful readers! J
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