The close proximity to Cancún Airport (within 1,5 hours) made Isla Mujeres a perfect last stop for the last days of my holiday in Mexico. The island lies a 20 minutes ferry ride from Cancún. The touristy little town of Isla Mujeres is on the northern part of the island. Playa Centro and Playa North are beautiful white sand beaches but crowded since it is visited by many day trippers from Cancún as well.

With a length of 8km and a wide average of 550m the island is easy to cover on a bicycle (however most tourists opt for a golf kart). So I got myself a bicycle and rode along the western shore to the south point of the island. I made stops at a turtle farm and a beachclub before I reached Punta Sur. The way back to tourist town I enjoyed the rougher east shore and its empty beaches.

Isla Cozumel is Mexico's third largest island and can be reached by a ferry from Playa del Carmen. Cozumel is a popular diving spot since 1961, when Jacques Cousteau made the reefs and marine-life known to the public. Nowadays Cozumel is also a popular cruise port, and the main city of San Miguel de Cozumel was obviously more relaxed in the evenings when the cruise ships had left the island.

My main reason to visit Isla Cozumel was to go scuba diving the reefs. On the first day of scuba diving it was raining a lot (not so pleasant to be on a boat, but no problem when diving the reefs). I made two nice drift dives this day. Drifting on the currents next to the walls of corals felt like watching an underwaterworld movie. At the end of the second dive we were surrounded by large eagle rays and a dolphin.

The second day of scuba diving started with a dive through the tunnels of the Palancar reef. The surface interval between the two dives was on a nice small beach on the south-end of the island. My last dive was at the divesite "Paso de Cedral". Here I saw plenty of marine life like hawksbill turtles, a large spotted eagle ray, octopuses, stingrays, a nurse-shark and a few spendid toadfishes (a fish that can only be found around Cozumel).

I spend New Years Eve with my diving buddies from the second day. We got some drinks at the Oxxo supermarket and spend our time till midnight on the (mostly empty) squares in the town. At midnight there was small fireworks at the malecon (waterfront boulevard). The new year started with some parties with live music among a mostly mexican crowd (avoiding the gringo-parties near the cruise docks).