In order to avoid the night bus we planned to do a stop in Chetumal. As we arrived in Chetumal at 4pm we found out that there are only night buses down to Palenque. Well so it is a night bus means we had to walk around Chetumal for a couple of hours before the bus left with us at 10pm.

Everyone we met told us not to take the night bus but there was no other option, so we slept on our belongings and arrived at 6am in Palenque. With the taxi we reached a little jungle communion - El Panachel - and got a Cabaña in the Jungle Palace. The bungalows are nicely arranged in the jungle at a river.

Spontaneously we decided to do a trip to Agua Azul and Mishol-Ha which was fantastic. Especially Agua Azul with its blue water basins and cascades (ah, that’s why they call it that way). Since most of the people stayed in the lower part we had the river and the upper basins almost to ourselves.

The next morning we travelled around the Palenque ruins. And those ruins were just mind blowing. This was exactly how we expected the Mayan ruins, to be found in the jungle, mystic and big. You could climb and go inside the pyramids and this was the best experience from all the Mayan ruins we had. Forget about Chichin-Itza or Coba, this is it.

We rented a small studio with bed, kitchen and bathroom in Calle 38, Ave 15 for one week. It was just perfectly situated, not too far away from the restaurants but a bit away from the hub.

Playa del Carmen is definitely not the nicest side since it is packed with restaurants and hotels and it feels a bit like another state of the USA. Especially the beach in Playa was shocking - hundreds of hotels crouched next to each other calls for erosion. I don’t see the point sitting towel next to towel at a beach when there are way nicer and quieter stretches way up north.

So we strolled along the beach for several hours and from Calle 40 and higher it got really nice. In the evening we met up with Tony and Thomas who we had met in Valladolid and had some beers.

The reason why we went back to Playa del Carmen was Manuel, his dive center and Cenote diving. Manuel is an old friend of Michael and he has a dive center in Puerto Aventura. So we arranged some dives with Planet Scuba Mexico.

Manuel picked out a great variety of Cenotes, so each dive was just different. The Casa Cenote was a great start with plenty of underwater life. Chikin-Ha with its light games was one of my favorites. Will you expect to find a rare species of birds while diving? Well, dive Dos Ojos. Chuk-Mool had an awesome air dome and a bat cave.

Angelita with its mystic sulfur cloud on 30m was a bit surreal and the Calavera looks a bit like a skull and is also called temple of the doom. With a giant stride and no fins on we jumped the 3m down into our last Cenote for this trip. The halocline - where fresh and salt water meets - makes everything blurry and gives you the feeling to look through a soap bubble.

All in all we had 8 awesome dives and can recommend the Cenotes and Planet Scuba Mexico. It is a new experience and incredible. Michael finally loves diving again. Planet Scuba Mexico is super professional and we enjoyed diving with them.

We thanked Manuel and his team and with this experience on our mind we continued south to Palenque.