Got up late and had breakfast, manage to upset the local cook as we were so late for breakfast. We set off to the nearby town to the market as suggested by a guy in the resort. The market was filled with lots of bustling people and there were food stalls full of fresh vegetables, spices and fruits.

We grabbed lunch back at the Log Cab Inns – the local cook was a little grumpy as she was busy but after a very slow service, some chit chat and a little nice tip – she was very nice.

We went to some Maya ruins called Xunantunich (pronounced as Shoo-nahn-too-neech) after lunch and crossed the Mopan river in a hand-cranked car ferry platform which, was controlled by a man winding a wheel to move the raft platform across the river. Saw some large iguanas (about 3ft long) which were impressive.

The Maya ruins were impressive as you could climb on the main Castello (castle) building and 360 degrees around you and in to Guatemala. Lots of armed police around which was a bit odd as there were only about 5 tourists, turns out that on a regular basis, the friendly locals in Guatemala pop across border into Belize (about 900 meters to the Maya Ruins) rob all the tourists and then head back. Understandably, the tourist friendly Belizian’s aren’t keen on this happening so stick a pile of police with automatic weapons there to assist….it’s worked we were told.

Went back to the cabin resort and chilled out by the pool. There was a large group of nutrition students from University of Florida staying for a nutrition survey course. It was Karaoke night and the students decided to sing while we were having dinner, as you can imagine it was not exactly your quiet meal we had hoped.

Alarm went off at 4.30am for our travels; Tony had a lot of problems checking out of the hotel due to exchange rate (the Mexicans try to rip us off…again, works out they tried to convert the currency 6 times….costing slightly more each time!….gits!). We got on our bus at 6am to Chetumal (6 hour journey) but the trip wasn’t as bad as we thought. The coach was quite roomy, lots of leg room & air conditioned; stopped every 90 mins on average for a break.

We got to Chetumal and was expected to picked up by a shuttle company we booked. After 10 minutes of hunting, they located us; it turns out they can’t pick us up at the bus station as the taxi drivers there had started to give private companies hassle….serious hassle from the sound of it, the guys were obviously slightly scared. So, we had to walk to the nearest hotel and have them pick us up from there….only 5 mins walk, but its just the fact that we can’t be picked up that annoyed us…..the taxi’s wouldn’t take us into Belize anyhow!

As we got on our way, the shuttle bus driver was ever so helpful giving us tips on Belize and assisted us when we crossed the border and passport control. We’d read that we may get charged for a return entry and not to pay for it, sure enough, they tried it on at the Mexican border. Tony told them politely he didn’t want to pay for the double entry, so then the bloke said we still had to pay as we didn’t pay at the airport. Tony took a leap of faith and told them “no thanks” to this charge as well….a bit of banter happened and the border guy let us through. Mexicans….don’t trust them, especially the official looking ones!

En-route to Belize Airport we saw lots of sugar cane grown; Belize is one of the world’s largest provider of sugar, although they only have one processing plant. What we found strange was they burn the crop before harvesting the canes (we assume to dry the sugar out in the sap).

We arrived at Belize airport to pick up our rental car. We hired a jeep and found we got some poxy Daihatsu version of a 4×4 car. Tony was not impressed and complained; it turns out they have 5 cars all the same except for different age, so basically they advertise lots of different vehicles, then, based on the cost give you a new crap car or a slightly older crap car. So no jeep, instead we got a white tacky Daihatsu 4×4 which only has a km dial (everything is in miles here). However, we did get a decent refund for our trouble.

We set off to our accommodation in the Cayo Districts and by the time we got there it was 5pm (local time, 1 hour behind Mexico) and we crashed out. Had a lovely meal and a few drinks before retreating to bed.

Found out they had turned off the water for some maintenance work (and not told us) when we got up Tony complained to reception; in fact he complained about a lot of other things such as lack of Wi-Fi connection, building work next door and other things which we overlooked. The manager decided to give us a lobster dinner as compensation (not ideal but it’s the only thing they offered, so we took it).

We spent the rest of the morning sunbathing by the activity pool watching belly flop competitions and water dancing competitions.

After lunch, we went out on the Hobbie agin and Tony sailed around, he then went out by himself so he could go faster (Li wasn’t too keen on the choppy water).

Late afternoon was spent with Li packing and Tony sorting out US dollars and our bus tickets to Chetumal tomorrow.

Had our lobster dinner with champagne in the Village Wok (the best restaurant in the resort) and to finish off, our waiter made us both a Mayan coffee (which consists of Brandy, Kaluha and a Mayan liqueur similar to Pernod). It was made by heating all the liqueurs together and it tasted ever so good, we ordered another one each.

After dinner we watched the evening lingerie party show. We had a few drinks in the bar and finished packing which finished about 1.30am.

Tony was feeling much better and did some diving this morning. He saw some lobsters, barracuda, large shoals of fishes, sting rays and a 5ft shark. Tony managed to get a video done of his diving which was really cool. Li lounged around in the sun while Tony was diving.

Got back to the room and found an elephant made out of towels from the maid (she has been leaving quite a few designs over the last few days such as a dinosaur, Buddha and a rabbit).

After lunch we both chilled out by the pool and sunbathed. The sun was ever so hot and we found shelter in a canopy sun bed on the beach; fell asleep!

Watched the local hotel show after dinner which was Latino Caribbean dancing, then we had a few games of pool.

Afters, Tony decided to mince on the swings out by the beach.

We got back to the hotel from Coco Bongo about 3am and Li wasn’t feeling too good (nor Tony earlier); we think the local water (as we had lots of ice in our drinks over the last several days) might be too blame as she was up till 6.30am.

Both of us didn’t sleep much, stomach cramps came on. Li spent the whole day in bed, Tony was up around Midday but still was ill & sat organising our Belize trip on the internet. It looks like its going to be a 10 hours journey on bus to Belize City, starting at 6am on Friday morning….Not fun!

We took a lesson in how to sail a Hobie (small Catamaran) in the morning and had a little sail in the area. Afterwards we watched the hotel pool activities and participated in a few; Li won a Coco Bongo T-shirt (of one of the local clubs)

After lunch, we both tried some snorkelling in the shallow waters and Li learnt how to snorkel. We had dinner in Bella Vista (Seafood restaurant) in the hotel and went on to the Coco Bongo club (organised by the hotel).

Coco Bongo is a night club with live acts and shows; we thought it was excellent and the shows were spectacular. There were many impersonators such as Christina Aguilara, Madonna, Elvis Presley, Guns N’ Roses and Michael Jackson. There were also acts were scenes from films like Spiderman, Christ and The Matrix where the film part is projected on the large screens with acrobatic moves from the actors on the floor or suspended in air.

Throughout the whole show – balloons, paper leaves and party decoration were let out from the ceiling on to all the people. Got to bed after a few more drinks back at the hotel around 3:30am

Got up early to go to Chichen Itza; the famous Maya buildings and one of the 7 new wonders of the world. It was a 2.5 hours drive to the place and it was scorching hot (91F) when we got there, thankfully we both had hats and plenty of sun cream.

It was interesting to learn about the Maya people and their amazing mathematical and astronomy abilities. Most of the key buildings were designed around the summer and winter equinox so that on these specific days shadows were cast on the buildings to produce symbolic images, for example a snake coming down the steps of a building. The Maya people, bearing in mind it was around 400AD, also had a calendar that was more accurate than our current Georgian calendar (by 12 seconds each year)
Next was on to a sink hole in which you could swim, quite cold in the water but we both got in. Li even managed to do a few strokes, which, give it was 15 feet deep and she hates water, was very brave.

A quick (and late) buffet lunch finished of the day. Another 3 hours home back to the hotel was followed by some welcome Margarita’s and dinner.

Woke up very late, it seems like our bodies just needed a good night sleep. Managed to get some pesos; though it seems everyone prefers US dollars (better rate for them). We also noticed; no-one has any change as the cash machine only gave out big notes and hardly anyone could change them so we couldn’t even get a bottle of water.

We’re staying in the so called “Hotel Zone” in Cancun, but we found out from the guide books that downtown Cancun is 50% cheaper for tourist stuff. So, off we went off to Market 28 (downtown)…. the whole place was full of tourist junk; however, we did pick up a couple T-shirts for Tony and a nice beach bag for Li.

Had a lovely seafood dinner at the hotel and went to see the show put on which was a strip dance which wasn’t very good.

We spent the whole day relaxing on the beach enjoying the hotel activities by the pool and Li participated in some beach volleyball. The weather was about 81F; hot enough to just do nothing.

Had Tex-Mex for dinner and the evening show at the hotel was a cabaret show which had some impressive dancers.

We went down for breakfast and it was ever so nice to have a nice cup of tea; it seemed so long since we had tea since leaving home. We also managed to get some bacon, eggs, hash brown and sausages (almost an English Breakfast).

Wondered around the resort and booked a few activities for the next few days. The weather started with a little overcast but soon brightened up and was very hot, we both topped up on our sunblock and did some relaxing. There is a bar in the middle of a pool which is great to prop yourself up against whilst cooling down from the sun.