Isla Mujeres Day 349 02/09/2015

We had intended to go snorkelling with whale sharks today. Between mid May and mid September massive speckled skinned whale sharks congregate in the waters nearby. The largest fish in the world, they weigh up to 15 tons and are as long as 15m. Local tour companies offer the opportunity to swim with them although there is still much debate about the impact on the sharks, especially outside the peak July period. The company we'd looked to book with, who had positive reviews in terms of eco tourism, advised us that due to the recent storms, the plankton which the sharks feed on had dropped to the ocean floor making it much harder to see the sharks and causing a frenzy of boats chasing after them. We were both really keen to see the sharks but neither of us felt comfortable disturbing the creatures in this way and decided not to go. When we got up in the morning we both had stinking head colds (must be all the stress of thinking about coming home!) so we were glad we had not chosen to go. After a lazy start we decided to have the day on the beach. We headed back to Playa Norte, hired 2 sun loungers and a parasol, and spent the time reading and snoozing between many dips in the sea. The r&r and sunshine helped the worse of our colds recede but we still felt very drained (maybe 36º heat with humidity making it 42º may have contributed to this). In the evening we headed to the local Thai restaurant only to find it was full (it was empty 2 nights before!). Our journey then was waylaid for 15 minutes as we waited out a mega storm with loud bangs, bright lights and copious amounts of water. We walked, or more like planed, along Avenida Hidalgo as the water had not drained away and found an Italian restaurant where we had a very pleasant meal, inside, as the storm threatened to reappear at any time.

Playa Norte in late afternoon sun