Our Great Adventure: Isla Mujeres Day 348 01/09/2015

We planned to tour round the island today in a golf cart which were available to hire. It had been raining overnight and it was still quite heavy when we got up. We had breakfast and waited for our cart to be delivered. We'd booked it from 0930 and it was just after 1000 when it arrived, clearly Mexico time! It didn't really matter as it was still raining. We headed out just before 1030 in light drizzle which soon turned to a downpour so we quickly parked up and went for coffee. We set off again driving south on the west coast of the island, Simon at the wheel, heading to the turtle farm that we were keen to visit. The roads were OK and most of the traffic seemed to be quite accepting of the carts trundling along at about 20km/hr max. Despite turtles being endangered they are still hunted for their eggs and meat throughout Latin America. The farm has pools and protected sand areas for turtles and their eggs. It liberates thousands into the sea each year with the ones that survive coming back to the same protected spot to lay their eggs. Two of the pools contained hundreds of baby turtles which we were told were only one day old. From the turtle farm we continued south to reach Punta Sur at the southernmost tip of the island. There's a weather beaten Maya ruin here but you had to pay to walk out to it so instead we went to a restaurant nearby for a drink, enjoying the views over to Cancun. From here we drove a little way back down the coast to a reggae cafe that we'd spotted and shared nachos for lunch. The weather was extremely hot and we were glad to get back in the cart and set off along the more exposed east coast. It was quite hilarious trundling along in the golf cart. Back in the main town we headed to the beach to cool off. We'd booked the cart for 24 hrs and decided to have a drive out in the evening to see the sun setting. Unfortunately the sky had became a little overcast so we didn't get to see the sunset and the restaurant we'd stopped at earlier in the day had closed so we couldn't get a drink either! It was nice to have another drive around the island though so worth the effort. We parked the cart back at the hotel and walked to Olivia's, a mediterranean restaurant just off the pedestrian street, for dinner. We sat out in the garden and had a lovely meal.