Et le but d'aller au Mexique c'était?

de passer par Holbox en ce moment-ci de l'année pour voir des requins-baleines!

Saison des requins-baleines qui broutent les champs de plancton entre Holbox et Cancun: juin à août.

Saison des moustiques à Holbox: juin à août.

Saison des no-see-ums à Holbox: à l'année.

Conclusion: on a nagé avec les requins-baleines, on en a tiré quelques films, mais on est bourrées de piqûres!

Hola desde Cozumel!

Buenas tardes de Cozumel,

We have now left Tulum, the city of hippies with cheap cabanas on the beach where iguanas poop on you at night - true story, it happened to a poor Swiss girl that we met! We spent 2 days in Playa del Carmen, the fastest growing area of Mexico, which is completely rebuilt after Wilma the hurricane last year. On est vraiment craquées de plongée alors on n'a pas arrêté!!! Day one in Playa del Carmen was 2 more cenote dives completed by a tour in a local bar also built in a grotto (on ne se tanne pas!). Day 2 in PDC started with 2 amazing reef dives in 5 knot current, watching gigantic turtles grazing the bottom and landing in a school of 50 huge tarpons which are gigantic sardines about 6 feet big. Moi j'avais faim alors je me demandais 'ça se mange-tu ces trucs-là?'... nitrogen does funny things to you, I tell you... :). Then on the same day we packed our wet stinking stuff in my net bag, checked out of our Playa del Carmen hotel, boarded the ferry to Cozumel, arrived in our Cozumel hotel, and proceeded in doing the night dive there too. Faut être motivées! Ou folles drette! The night dive was awesome, gigantic gray moray eels the size of me (or bigger!), 4 octopuses, a scorpionfish, a lobster scared by our dive lights whom bumped into a gigantic king crab also confused by us....

Cozumel has been damaged by hurricane Wilma last year and apparently the reefs have been affected. I ain't complaining though, the viz is still quite acceptable although not spectacular, and there is a lot of sand on the reef as well. But the fishies and the baby fishies are all there, it is all teeming with life. We are diving with a bunch of Americans who invade the island and drive the prices up. But the diving is still not too expensive when one can share a room.

Alors c'est les nouvelles. Pas d'anecdotes marrantes comme à Tulum, ici c'est plus civilisé, on a l'air climatisé et l'eau courante. La santé va bien, et on vous envoie des photos!!!

Hola from Tulum!

Cheers from Tulum where S and I are today, after two heavy days of diving in cenotes. S, officially my new dive buddy, has this mega big camera that takes amazing pictures. We dove in grottoes and cenotes and did a crazy dive this morning down to 52 meters (not feet!!!) viva el narcosis and time to deco! Friggin amazing dive in a little water hole with a strange cloud of sulphur and some serious walls around.. it needs to be shown... According to S it beats the Blue Hole in Belize anytime...

When S arrived a day before me in Tulum she tried to stay on the beach, as recommended by the friendly lonely planet. Well, her adventures in the cabanas lasted one sleepless night, with mosquitoes and 34 degree heat and a hippie crowd who doesn´t seem to appreciate the virtues of air conditioning, water and electricity. Hippies with tattoos, body piercing, rasta and poor general hygiene. There were cabanas on the beach with a thatch roof for 16 USD a night but now we understand why they were so cheap - if you can see the stars through the roof, it usually means that you will get wet if it rains!!! Also when electricity works with solar panels, well, at night there is none!!! Given our dive gear and her camera gear, it was not such a good idea. Plus, the divemasters that she dealt with at the dive center at the cabanas seemed like they had waaaaay too much weed - the neuron wasn't connecting much. On their reef dive her DM managed to lose two divers - out of a group of three!!!!

En fait maintenant on a une super idée pour un prochain party à thème dans le Nord: un party de néo-hippies Babacool, avec rasta, tatous, backpacks et bandanas!!! Ça devrait arriver près de chez vous cet automne...

Where we did not stay. Iguana poo free of charge.

Strange findings in Mexican pharmacies... available over the counter.

So S found a hotel in Tulum Pueblo right in front of the dive center and we love it; paying the 5$ cab fare to the beach is no big deal and we get to enjoy civilization, electricity, access to water and food. The cenote - cave diving is awesome - great views, awesome visibility, stalagtites and stalagmites... Very eery!

Demain on se barre sur Playa del Carmen pour faire du shopping, d'autres cenotes pis peut-être la fiesta... puis ensuite Cozumel avec du drift wall diving et enfin on sera sur Holbox la semaine prochaine à plonger avec des raies manta et des requins baleines.

Comme quoi au Mexique - même s'il fait trop chaud, la vie est belle!!!