Welcome, dearest friends, family and perhaps an unfortunate, lost googler… to my latest travel blog! This time we’re in Mexico, exploring the Yucatan peninsula – first stop Isla Mujeres! Credit for the blog title ‘Yes We Yucatan!’ goes to my dad. Thanks dad.

We’re spending 2 and a bit weeks here and are visiting islands, villages, lakes and cities. We’ll see a wonder of the world, scuba dive and sit immobile on beaches, unable to move due to the large amount of tacos recently ingested.

Excitingly for me, I’ve got a new camera and lenses, so will be looking to improve my photography. I think there’ll be less wildlife (above sea level) than some of our other trips, but doubtless there’ll be SOME and I’ll capture it. I’m particularly interested in getting good landscapes on this holiday and have even brought a tripod along to that end… wish me luck!

Without further ado…

Day 1 – Isla Mujeres

I will briefly mention that Day 0, the travel day, doesn’t get its own section because it’s immensely tedious, but I will say that we stayed up for very nearly 24 hours. Our flight was delayed by 4 hours, then we managed to get the last ferry across to Isla Mujeres at 11pm for which we arrived at 10.56pm, with our taxi driver hitting pedal to the metal to make it happen. So it was a bit stressful all told. At one point on the plane about 9 hours in I completely lost it and thought the plane wing with the light on the end was a body of land far below with a lighthouse at the end and kept trying to get Billie to see it and she confusedly looked at me like I was bonkers. About 20 minutes later I woke her up and confessed it was the plane wing I had been looking at and she still hasn’t let it go.

Anywayyy, we woke up early in Isla Mujeres and it turned out staying up for 24 hours was probably the best way to get through the jet lag. Our hotel was basic, clean, comfy and well located. We left it for a nice looking cafe near Playa Norte and being hit by the heat that morning was an amazing moment. Leading up to this holiday, while shivering under electric blankets and desperately trying to keep the heating off, being too hot was what I was most looking forward to and it does not disappoint. I refuse to complain about being too hot this holiday.

Isla Mujeres is a tiny island 8 miles from Cancun, so the perfect place to acclimatise for a day without having to actually be in Cancun. It’s got perfect, white sand and clear, turqoise water. Playa Norte is its main attraction and in the top 10 beaches in the world according to something I read but can’t remember where. Naturally we headed straight there and got into the sea immediately, which was way too lovely and cool but not cold. Then we laid ourselves out on the beach and drank in the sun and relaxation of it all. The World Cup final started at 10am here and as we wondered along the beach we were alerted to Argentina’s first 2 goals by eruptions of cheers, and we’d hurry over to watch the replays. Argentina have it in the bag, we thought.

The island is quite touristy, being so pretty and so close to Cancun, but not horribly so. There are mopeds and golf buggies aplenty to hire, so we hired a moped and decided to take a whizz around the island, see the southern point and perhaps some views along the way.

By the time we reached the Southern tip of the island we glanced at a TV screen to discover the shocking news that France had come back to 2-2 and made plans to find an appropriate bar to watch extra time and the ensuing penalties. A beach club accommodated us, with a nice mixture of Argentina and France fans, the biggest of which was an iguana who stormed off when Messi made it 3-2…

After more time spent sunning and swimming at the beach club, we scooted back to the North half of the island, where all the hotels and main town preside. We headed back off for a walk around the headland, Margaritas on the beach and dinner at the top rated taco place on the island. The taco restaurant owners were unapologetically proud of how good their tacos were… “first time here? ohhh you’re in for a treat.” They were, for sure, the best tacos I’ve had in my life. Incredible.

One complimentary churro-donut later, we wondered off towards the Christmas decorated square where we’d seen them setting out chairs in front of a stage earlier. We were not to be disappointed by the evening’s entertainment which started off impressively brilliant and ended up being just quite odd by the time we left… it was a big Christmas dance recital. The same group of 10 girls from ages 8 -18 managed a truly superb set of about 6 different routines all in different elaborate costumes to different Christmas songs, remixed awfully to be dance club songs, with heavy bass beats and grating vocals. When they had finished to well deserved rapturous applause, a group of about 30 women came on in Christmas pyjamas to do a less impressive, but fun, dance to the worst remix of ‘Silent Night’ I have ever heard. Whatsapp me for a copy of the video, as it is truly something to behold. Finally, we left during another routine by yet another generation older of women and by this point, it had frankly degenerated into aimless marching and clapping out of time to Queen’s “We Will Rock You”. We left mostly impressed that there were so many organised dance groups on such a small island.

Heads hit the pillows and we were straight out… knackered.

Day 2 – Isla Mujeres

We had another half day to spend on Isla Mujeres so we opted to get back on our scooter and nip round the island again because scootering around an island is very fun indeed. We stopped at the Mango Cafe for breakfast and had an immense breakfast… I had stuffed breaded pueblito pepper; stuffed with egg and bacon and onions and cheese. Delish. Billie had their signature Cocunut French Toast with maple syrup and almonds which was absolutely scrummy. Holiday weight gains are a concern…

Too full for our own good, we visited the women’s bead collective. It was pretty amazing, blew all the other island shops out the water. Billie bought a few very lovely bits and we headed back for one last Playa Norte swim and lie on the beach because you don’t go to one of the best beaches in the world and not go back to it…

At midday we left the island by ferry and got a series of taxis and buses to Playa del Carmen, to board yet another ferry to our next stop: Isla Cozumel. We’ll stay here for 3 nights, so we get 2 full days! Tomorrow morning we go scuba diving all morning which is very exciting indeed as the area contains the 2nd biggest barrier reef in the world. Not bad eh? More on that in the next edition, when I know a bit more about it.