Caracol Puerto Morelos

... very similar to Oaxacan red - rich but not hot. Needed that fortification, I later discovered, for the walk to the waterfalls - the tourist had told me it was 1km from main road to falls (actually at least two) but also as falls on edge of town ended up walking at least another 2k from the top of town - most of it cobbled road with no pavements passing through banana plantations & fruit liquer sellers - they insisted on giving me ...

I heard about couch surfing dot com so I decided to try it out. It's a bunch of people that are willing to let random people sleep on their couches. It's a pretty cool idea but it's a little sketchy at times and you never really know what you are going to get. Fortunately I ended up with some really cool people the first time so ...

... v**meiden wir die Bettenburg Cancun und fahren stattdessen in Richtung Sueden nach Pu**to Morelos, dem wohl einzigen noch ei*****massen authentischen Fisch**dorf in dies** Gegend. Auch hi** hat d** Tourismus all**dings schon massiv Einzug gehalten, und so reihen sich Restaurants und Bars aneinand** und buhlen um Kundschaft. Wir finden trotzdem eine noch ei*****massen guenstige Unt**kunft, die all**dings ...

... vollzogen wurde, um Regen zu **beten. Heutzutage kann man Voladores in vielen Teilen Mexikos sehen, ab** ihr Ursprung ist hi** in Papantla. Die Zuschau** w**den vor dem Start gebeten, ihren kleinen finanziellen Beitrag zu leisten, um fu** ein Einkommen d** Voladores zu sorgen, ab** das Ritual wird nach wie vor **nst genommen. Es ist auch keineswegs ungefaehrlich und es kommen imm** mal wied** Leute dabei ums Leben. Nichts zum Nachmachen also. El Tajin selbst ist extrem gut ...

Written from Jalcomulco, Mexico: A phone call was just received directly from Jordan at 19:35 our time. Joel is awake and recognizes his brother as well as other friends and family. He has little memory of the incident but is making jokes and talking about kayaking. One lung continues to labour but the doctors plan to take him out of the ICU tomorrow. The family will be sending us further updates as they come along.

Written from Esprit in Jalcomulco: 15:00hr We have had a particularly good but particularly long night hence the delayed update. Yesterday evening Joel's condition was trending very favorably and many of his vital signs and organ functions had drastically improved. Joel has displayed normal function of his heart, stomach, kidneys, liver, pancreas..... his lungs are drastically improving but remain laboured and potentially susceptible to infection. Although still ...

... first day on the Barranca Grande went well. We made good time down the technical, high consequence top section and arrived at the camp in good time even after trying to remove a strainer from the river. The evening went well and we left in good time the next morning.



The next day we scouted and ran Class A Cinco, the first of the "Four Fours", double guiding each raft and also providing good ...

... a much steeper path than the way into Chopilapa, and also up some more ladders. We hiked back to the same level that we had walked earlier in the morning so we were really hot and tired by the time we reached the top, but there was, of course, another great view. After reaching Buena Vista we got back in the van and drove towards Jalcomulco, scouting a route for a new cycle tour which Esprit might run. On the way ...

... up to the back of the raft so that it didn`t let in water) down the next set of rapids. The comment of the day came from Jim who said "We have discovered that you can`t backferry if you have no back of a boat." Again, this was a fabulous real-life training scenario which, whilst not ideal, gave us the opportunity to see what to do when things go wrong. I`m going to end my wentry now asit`s almost 8pm and we are meeting on the bridge for beers. Big smiles!

... taken care of, we did have a few issues with the staff (i.e. wrong directions given throughout the resorts, room maintenance on several occasions, room service; etc.). We felt that this particular property would benefit from additional staff training. The hotel is given a high rating with many tour operators; however we felt that the Iberostar Paraiso del Mar did not meet the standards that other properties in the same rating have met.