Mexico is magical. Beautiful beaches, ancient Mayan history, cenotes, delicious food, friendly people and vibrant towns combine to make it one of our favourite destinations so far. We arrived just over two weeks ago and have been having such an amazing, activity filled time I haven’t had a chance to do any posts.

I am combining two destinations in each post and the next 5 posts will be about the places we have visited. We are currently on the stunning Isla Mujeres relaxing under an umbrella at the beach 🏖.

This first post covers our first two destinations. Bacalar and Tulum.

We arrived in Bacalar across the border from Belize, about two hours on a bus followed by two and a half hours at the border crossing. We were very happy to arrive at our stunning lagoon front glamping site for three nights.

Bacalar is located right on the Lake Bacalar lagoon which is a pristine, turquoise blue body of fresh water. We spent a bit more to stay directly on the lake with free use of kayaks and paddle boards for the duration of our stay. Our days usually went like this: Have breakfast and coffee overlooking the lagoon, go for a swim, relax under an umbrella, have $1 tacos for lunch, return to the lagoon for a kayak or paddle board, have a couple of Mexican beers, find Mexican food for dinner, watch the sun go down on the lagoon in the warm night air. It was absolute bliss. On our first night we met a friendly man, Jose, who spoke good English at a roadside food stall. We chatted to him about our travels and he told us about Mexico. He then left and paid for our meal without us noticing. This was just the start of us realising how kind, and genuinely friendly the Mexican people are.

Fun fact:

The Bacalar lagoon is the home to these rock bacteria called Stromatolites – The oldest evidence of life on earth. We saw some as we kayaked being careful not to disturb them. The photos below are completely unedited as always.

Three days later we travelled another two hours north to the city of Tulum. Located on the beach, it used to have some of the whitest sand beaches in Mexico. Unfortunately due to environmental stress and issues the beaches are completely covered in brown, rotten seaweed. This was fine for us as we had already had three days of swimming so spent four days in the town. We stayed at a hostel called the Weary Traveller, thinking it would fit in with our current look. I soon realised we are not actually looking that weary at all compared to some of the other travellers staying at the hostel. I think we missed the dreadlocks, amethyst pendants and no shoes memo.

We spent our time here visiting the Tulum Mayan Ruins and eating the best enchiladas, burritos and tacos we have ever had. We also did a day trip to visit a town called Coba to visit the ruins there. Another post to come on that!