his dive story

In planning for our trips to Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula, Joana asked me if I wanted to do some diving??? Hello??? Well, you know the answer… I tried to book in La Habana but we didn’t have enough time and it was far from the city as you had to travel down to an island in the south where they have reputed government run dive shops. So my best chance of diving was in Tulum at the end of our Yucatan trip.

I knew I wanted to try cenote diving (cave) and made sure to bring my FAMI umbilical torch and dive computer. Our hotel recommended Kay-Op Dive Club which was right in town because they were safe and more importantly, a wholly owned Mexican operator.

I met Carlos who was going to take me to a well known cenote called Dos Ojos which comprises of two different cave dives lasting roughly 45-50 minutes. He was very experienced and talked a lot about safety and technical diving. I told him that I was also a technical diver, IANTD Trimix Diver, to be precise and it was enough said… the dives were amazing and clear as ever as it was fresh water. Nothing prepared me for this experience. Sure I have done caves in Malta and in Sagres, Portugal but this was very different. The viz was as far as your torch can reach.

The videos are two, which I liked most. The one in the tunnel was just out of this world! Not for the faint of heart for sure. Your buoyancy has to be spot on and I was glad I did not have other divers with me as for sure the silt would have been kicked up. It was just Carlos and me! How lucky I was…The second one is just to show you how absolutely beautiful it was with all the stalactites and crevices… you can explore so much if you know what you are doing and trained for it. Technical divers can dive from one cenote to another. Great times I had! – James

(see more dive posts over here)

hartwood / tulum

we spent our last days of vacation on the beach, in tulum – where we had one of the best meals in our trip.

i had heard a lot about Hartwood (here and here) and thought it was going to be just a fancy restaurant with new york prices. but arriving late, the hotel suggested us going as there weren’t many other places open and it was located just next to our hotel.

if you are going to tulum, this is definitely a must go to restaurant – we went twice! our favorites were the beetroot salad starter, the side of eggplant with honey, the grilled octopus, the yucatan lamb sausage and the steak. and the dessert, corn ice cream with sliced mango – i know it sounds weird, but so good!

the atmosphere is relaxed, the fruit cocktails are to die for (grapefruit mojito, seriously!?) and the menu changes daily, based on the availability of the ingredients – all the food is prepared on the grill or in the wood-burning oven.

the restaurant is owned by a new york couple, may henry and eric werne, who after coming to tulum for vacation, decided to leave their city life behind to open a restaurant – have you ever had this thought? they actually did it!

images 1 and 3 by myseastory, images 2 and 4 to 7 by bonappetit

howdy from mexico

hello friends! i just popped in to say a quick hello from mexico.

we rented a car and have been on a mini road trip around yucatan, and now relaxing on the beach in tulum for a couple of days before heading back to provo. it’s my first time in mexico, so i’m all excited about the mayan ruins, the food (i could eat tacos every day!), the markets, the cute churches in every little village and the friendly people, i am loving this culture and couldn’t be happier.

hope you guys are having an awesome weekend too!

off we go

hey friends, we’re off for a loooong week vacation. we’re staying in miami for one night and tomorrow we’re heading to havana for a few days before traveling to tulum. this year we thought we should explore countries nearby, although we did have a hard time finding out how to get to cuba from here – but we’re finally making it!

i have a few posts lined up for next week, and follow me on instragam and facebook  for daily updates on my cuba and mexico trip!

check out this gorgeous pictures of cuba by jose villa, aren’t they breathtaking? i can’t wait to get there!

see more images on jose villa’s blog