What are Cenotes and why the fried chicken is always recommended at El Asadero's

Arrived in Playa Del Carmen, and our hostel was a lovely open planned place but an absolute hotbed for mosquitos. Must have been so many that they finally moved on from Sarah to myself so I have now have a collection of bites to rival Sarah's impressive collection of all shapes and sizes. Took it easy our first day and planned our upcoming week. Biggest decison of day was which hammock to lie in, seriously. Playa Del Carmen is itself very touristy and cruise ships dock for the night which ensures their 5th Ave. is a street where you will be hounded by every shop/bar owner when you go for a stroll. Beautiful place but similar to Cancun in regard to prices/shops/clientele etc.

Next day we headed to Cenote Cristalino for some swimming and the natural high jump there. "Cenotes are created by an underground river system and are fresh water sink holes that the Maya considered to be sacred. Mayans believed they were the entrance to the underworld". There is a small cave to explore in the water but we cut this short due to the two hives of wasps that we saw when we got in the water so on to the main area with the high jump. Not the biggest/scariest high jump at about 20 feet max but despite Sarah being there before and seeing people jumping in and surving to tell the tale, I waited to see someone with my own eyes to test the depth before venturing the jump myself. Wasn't too high and the fish that constantly nibble away at you while in the water were more of a fear in the end. Luckily, this will be the first of a few Cenote's on our travels.

After the Cenote, it was back to the beach in Playa Del Carmen for more lounging about in the sun and water. If you can't be bothered reading our lenghtly blogs i'll sum up what we do in a few words - go to beach/beautiful place/swim/drink beer/eat tacos and lounge about in sun all day, all happily and guilt free may I add : )

Tulum was the next stop and ya gotta love the colectivo buses they have in Mexico. If you arrive and want to go somewhere they will fit you and your rucksack in no matter what the scenario. So we arrived in Tulum and went to our beautiful hotel (went upper class for a nice sum of 13euro each). A guy from Mexico City working there gave us about a 30 min talk on where to eat, go and do in Tulum and gave us loads of advice on the where to visit on our travels. We will also take up his offer of going back to him for advice on where to go in Mexico City. A place he recommended for food was our next stop (El Asadero's) and after about 5 mins of throwing shapes and speaking the odd word of spanish we got our fried chicken. During the awkward ordering of food Sarah asked what do you recommend, to which she responded "fried chicken", we were later to discover the fried chicken was the only thing on the menu! We're trying to pick up the language as it gets embarrasing sometimes and we're bound to pass through a few places where Spanish will be our only option. Tomorrow ruins of ancient Mayan capital Tulum, it's beside a beach, of course!

Wasp hive at entrance to cave in Cenote Cristilano

High Jump, Yes, I'm still as white as ever!

The cenote and it's clear water, which makes jumping  in from a height feel even riskier