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Leaving the luxury of Cancun we visited the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. Rather than piling in with the masses on a tour we headed over the night before to visit early the following morning. With the weather still cool and all the hawkers too busy setting up their stalls to bother us we spent a couple of peaceful hours wandering around the empty complex trying to imagine the heads of sacrificed enemies bouncing down the pyramid’s steps. The pyramid itself is a giant representation of the Mayan calendar with the levels and steps representing the number of months and days in a Mayan year. The hoop shown below is part of an enormous ball court where losing a game often meant losing your head in yet more sacrifices.

From Chichen Itza we headed back to the coast to Tulum for more time on the incredible beaches and to swim in nearby cenotes; cave systems filled with crystal clear freshwater pools. The visibility was amazing though diving down under stalagmite formations into the deeper and darker water was pretty creepy at first, especially when you surfaced to colonies of bats. Scuba diving here looks unreal though, something for our next trip.

To finish off our time in the Yucatan Peninsula in style we checked into another all-inclusive hotel in Playa Del Carmen for two more days of cocktails and sun loungers. We managed to take time out of our hectic Mojito drinking schedule to take a lesson in Catamaran sailing. Skipping along the waves in the Caribbean sea was a wonderful experience, though Helen and her notorious sea-legs may beg to differ.