Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Balacar, Mahahual, Xcalac and San Pedro

These are the main places I've been to since leaving Cancun. Today is the 12th day of my trip.

Playa del Carmen is a party town - and that's what I did there. I stayed in a hostel called Marina Sabina where they organized a party each night and it was a lot of fun. I also met a Canadian guy Greg there who is more or less doing the same trip as me - and we've been travelling together since.

After Playa we went on to Tulum - a small town next to the Carribean that has some cool beaches and Mayan ruins. During our time there there was also the carnival which we took part of, but was nothing special.

Next destination - Bacalar. When I was in Cancun the owner of the hotel I stayed in said his dream is to retire next to the Bacalar lake. The lake of many colors, as its called. Its crystal clear, and has every shade of green and blue.. even some yellow in some parts. It was magical. We ended up staying there for 2 nights. Since it was a very small town (village even), it was cool to see the local life. We even went to the local bar in the night and had some beers with the local bums. Cool experience.

Next stop - Mahahual. Its a beach town that was pretty much destroyed by the hurricane 2 years ago and is now being built up. It has cruise ships coming it and the city wants to become the next tourist destination on Yucatan. But right now - it didn't have a whole lot.

In Mahahual they told us we can catch a boat to San Pedro, Belize from a nearby small town called Xcalac. As we missed the last bus of the day there, we took a cab (paid like $30 for a 1 hr drive). Upon our arrival to Xcalac we discovered that there is no ferry line to San Pedro. The only way to get there is to hire a local fisherman to take us. As the alternative would have been a huge trip to Chetumal (border town between Mexico and Belize), we decided to do that.

We haggled the prices and got a deal that was not cheap, but cheaper than the alternative + win in time. As the fisherman didn't wanna go the same day, we ended up spending the whole day and night in Xcalac. The fisherman had an extra house and rented us a room for the night. So we spent the day on the beach, just chilling out. In a restaurant we had lunch at they told us they are going to have a party the same night. So we came back at 7 and what do you know - the place filled up with like 40 retired Americans who had bought property over there. So that turned into a senior citizen party.

The next morning we jumped into a little fisherman boat - maybe 3 meters long - and were wondering if this boat is gonna make it to San Pedro or not. It did. After about 1.5 hrs on the boat, we arrived to San Pedro. No border guards, nothing. We take our bags and walk through the city (led by our friend the fisherman) to the customs office. Those guys quickly look at our passports, but don't wanna see our bags. The told us the immigration dude is not in yet, so we should come back later. After finding a hotel, we go back and see the customs guys having beer in a outside bar (its like 2pm) and they tell us the immigration guy is kind of lost and won't be in until Monday, so we can do the paperwork then.

This story sums up San Pedro: slow, relaxed, everybody's cool. No shoes, no shirt, no problem. People speak here all kinds of languages: English, Spanish, Creole, Jamaican-rastafari. It's a cool place. The big surprise was how expensive everything is. It's a big mystery everybody is wondering about - that how come Belize is just so expensive.

So far the main words to describe my trip: beach, sun, party, Mayan ruins.

The video below is me just walking the main street of San Pedro.