Cancún

Cancún begins with the colour of the water: a clear, improbable turquoise running for kilometres along the coast. The sand is white powder ground from coral, along the long sweep of Playa Delfines and on Playa Norte across the bay. Under the jungle, fresh water opens into bright shafts: Cenote Dos Ojos for swimming, the underground galleries of Río Secreto for wading through a river in the dark. The Maya left their cities two hours down the road, the great pyramid of Chichén Itzá and Tulum, whose temple sits on a cliff above the sea. In the evening Parque de las Palapas fills with families, marimba players and taco stands. The local table means cochinita pibil, fish grilled tikin xic style, and coconut water sold at the roadside. Offshore begins the second largest barrier reef on earth, a coral system that runs from here down to Honduras.