TravelStream™ news feed for member cat2222 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/cat2222 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:46:45 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229349000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229349000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229349000/tpod.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:46:45 -0500 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Livingston, Guatemala

Tuesday 16th: We got up at 9ish, had a lovely breakfast & showers. Hacienda Tijax is a beautiful place - one of the best 'hostels' I've ever stayed in!! It is only accessible by boat and is situated in a jungle with the bar / restaurant area overlooking the water.
There was even a swimming pool!

This place is a haven for wildlife! I noticed some droppings in my room when I arrived, but didn't know what animal they came from, then during the night I'd heard squeeking and wondered if I was sharing with rats. To my relief when I woke up in the morning I noticed a few bats hanging on the wall!! My room was open at the front so the bats were free to come and go as they pleased and they'd obviously decided my room was the perfect toilet for them!! Luckerly they only used one side of the room so my belongings were kept clean and dropping-free on the other side!!


Jennie was surprised to come face to face with a little visitor when she stepped out of her shower too....a lovely huge hairy tarantula!!! Im sooooo glad that wasnt me - you'd have heard me scream back in London!!! She legged it out of there quick-sharp leaving shampoo and soap befind!!

Late morning we all went for a jungle walk over swinging bridges (scarily high up!!), we saw the rubber plantations and learnt about 'jungle stuff' from the guide who came with us from the Hostel.


We went across to Rio Dulce for lunch and had a typical meal of fish, chips and salad (the fish is served whole with head on). The we had a scoot around town - the town is not particularly attractive, but it is very interesting - it is functional and untouristy and just full of locals doing their stuff!!

We went back to Tijax for the evening and went into to Jens shower armed with cameras and a little dutch courage provided by a spot of the local beer (Gallo) and were able to retrieve her belongings which were still being guarded by the hairy beast!! He posed for a few photos too....


Wednesday 17th: I got up at 5.15am and went kayaking down the river with Matt - we went that early to see the Howler monkeys - they are apparently early risers!! It was good fun and we saw the monkeys so worth the early start. It started raining shortly before we returned so although I was already pretty wet from splashing myself with bad paddle technique, the rain finished me off and I was drenched from head to toe!!

At 9am all of us took a boat trip to Livingston on the Carribean :o) It rained most of the way there and I got drenched again, but it was warm rain so more like having a shower really!!


We stopped off on the way at what looked like someone's house, but was actually a kind of shop, although it didn't really sell much!! Nevertheless, we were able to have a coffee and it really was beautiful, surrounded by water lillies, and a very friendly stalk provided some entertainment too!!


The scenery on the boat ride was pretty lush, winding through an impressive gorge and as we approached Livingston there were so many stalks and pelicans along the banks of the river and flying overhead.
By the time we got to Livingston is was really sunny and we sat outside and had lunch and dried out. I had prawns, rice and beans - yummy!! Livingston has a real Carribean feel to it with Bob Marley playing everywhere, a much larger black population than anywhere else I've been in Guatemala and more 'Jamaican' style food on offer in the restaurants.
We stopped at the hot springs on the way back for a quick dip and were dropped in Rio Dulce where we organised buses for Thursday and got some cash from the machine.
We had dinner in the Hacienda - the food there is absolutely delicious!! It was Duff and Penny's last night with the rest of the family before flying home so we all had dinner together and Matt opened birthday presents which included a 'mullet' card game!! (don't ask!!)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1257080882/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1257080882/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1257080882/tpod.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:37:24 -0500 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Playa del Carmen, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Thursday 8th Jan: We took the bus from the hotel to Valladolid at 11am and then from there to Playa Del Carmen arriving at around 2.30pm. We'd booked a hostel already to headed straight there and then to the beach for lunch. I'd left a bag of stuff I couldn't be bothered to carry around at the Hostel Playa so we went back to retreive it - I wasn't sure it'd still be there at all so was relieved to find it was, minus a couple of pairs of trousers, but hey ho!!
We booked up some snorkelling for tomorrow as we'd heard there was good diving and snorkelling off Cozomel.
We met up with Cheedo for a few games of pool in the evening at the pool bar and had a taco from the 'tacovan' for dinner. The tacovan is a 'fast food' taco place - basically an old VW beetle van which serves tacos from the back!

Friday 9th Jan: We had breakfast on the beach and then took the ferry over to Cozomel for the snorkelling. There are two ferry companies which go to and from Cozomel so they alternate - as one goes one way the other is coming back - the tickets were 140pesos each way but if you buy a return you have to wait for the same boat as you went across on - you can't use your ticket to get on the other companies boat!!


The first place we snorkelled was litterally next to a huge cruise ship and there really wasn't much to see. The second place was marginally better and the guide took some food in with us to feed the fish so there was something more to see. The third place was about 100yds away from the second and 2 minutes after we got in we all started to get stung by millions of little jellyfish!! It was soooo itchy - we all jumped out pretty quickly!! All in all it was a huge disappointment. There were divers in the places we were snorkelling and I was so glad I didn't pay for a dive....
We had a wander around Cozomel which is really just a smaller version of Playa Del Carmen - loads of tourist shops and restaurants. We got an ice cream and headed back across the water.

For our last dinner we went to a really nice restaurant for diner and blew the rest of our budget - nice :o)

Saturday 10th Jan: We took the bus to the airport...back to the UK via a very snowy Newark airport which seemed very bizarre after being in the sunshine for so long....






]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229889600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229889600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229889600/tpod.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:07:34 -0500 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Playa del Carmen, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Sunday 21st Dec: Caught the 5am bus from Flores, crossed the border into Belize at around 7.30am, reached Belize City at around 11am, picked up a few more passengers and left at 11.30am, reached the Mexico border at around 1.30pm and arrived at Chetumal bus station at around 2.30pm. Waited in the queue to buy a ticket for around half an hour to be told by the rude old lady behind the counter that the 3.30pm and 4.30pm buses were full so I would have to wait until 5.30pm for the next one....nightmare!! The French guy who bought a ticket from the nice gentleman behind the counter just AFTER me, was sold a ticket for the 4.30pm bus!!! What's all that about?!?
So, Chetumal bus station wasn't very exciting, I chatted to the nice French boy for a bit until he left me to get on his lovely 4.30pm bus. I got myself a nice ham and cheese sandwich, some chille flavoured crisps (all the crisps seem to have chille in them!!) called the hostel to make sure they had a bed for me, and eventually got on the bus to Playa Del Carmen. I arrived at 11pm....a little exhausted after my 18hour journey!!

Monday 22nd December: I got up at 9ish, had a shower and went for a wander around Playa. Oh my god, how many tourists!!! A total culture shock from Guatemala!!


I found myself a scuba diving place and booked up a dive for tomorrow afternoon - how exciting!! I spent the afternoon on the beach. I rented a sunlounger for the day, read my book, went swimming and enjoyed the fabulous sunshine :o) I got chatting with a couple of Dutch girls, a lifeguard and a Mexican fella who'd taken the girls out sailing earlier in the day (he called himself El Capitan!!) so I had a few beers with them til 7ish. The girls left and 'El Capitan' took me to a local bar with swings around the bar to buy me a birthday beer!

In Playa there are lots of groups of men with guitars / harps / various musical instruments who go around playing and singing for tourists for money, and unfortunately there was one of those bands in the bar at this moment so of course the barman had them sing Happy Birthday to me!!
I managed to escape from El Capitan before he managed to whisk me off to his house to ply me with tequila (I believe this was his plan) and went back to the hostel for a shower.
I went back out afterwards and got talking to a couple of local boys selling timeshare - Fernando and Cheedo. I didn't buy a timeshare, but we ended up going to a bar for a couple of beers and a game of pool...until 2am!!

Tuesday 23rd December: Had a lie in and got up in time to go to the dive centre for my dive only to find that the dive sites were closed due to the sea being too choppy :o( I aranged to go back the following day instead. Didn't do much else all day - chilled out on the beach, had a wander around, went to see Fernando & Cheedo to say hi and had an early night!

Wednesday 24th December: Got up early and went to the dive centre to be told that the sea was too choppy again. They offered for me to go diving in the cenotes instead so I jumped at the chance. I jumped into a truck with a crazy Italian dive instructor and headed off to the cenote site, picking up a Hungarian chap on the way. The Cenotes are naturally formed underground caves filled with rainwater filtered through the limestone so the water is incredibly clear. The cenote we went to was called Dos Ojos which is Spanish for 'two eyes' and refers to two neighbouring cenotes which connect into a very large cavern zone shared between the two. These two cenote appear like two large eyes into the underground. We did 2 dives which were incredible - like no other dives I've done - weaving through the staligmites and staligtites and all at only 5-7 meters depth.
On the way back from the dive we saw a huge iguana which prompted the Italian (who's name I forget) to tell me all about his pet Iguanas and their sex life....needless to say even though I've never met them I do feel like I now know them a little too intimately!!

Chris's flight was supposed to land tonight at around 9.30pm and I was all set to go to the airport to meet him, however, due to snow at Newark airport he called to say he was going to be very delayed so I decided to join the Christmas celebrations at the hostel. Everyone was to provide either some food or drink for the occasion for everyone to share - I opted for supplying some drink as cooking isn't my favourite pastime. I met some girls from Quebec whilst waiting for the party to commence and we played cards for a bit before having a few drinks and heading out to the 'Blue Parrot' - one of the most famous local nightspots which we managed to blag our way into somehow. In the mean time, Chris called to say he'd finally landed so I went back to the hostel to meet him a little worse for wear at around 2am! I chin-waged with the Irish girl on night-duty whilst waiting. He managed to organise a cab-share with some fellow travellers from Cancun airport, finally arriving at the hostel at aound 3am!!



Christmas Day: Got up late, went for a wander around, went to the beach, organised a bus to Belize for tomorrow.....not your average Christmas day!! It seems that Christmas eve would be the day to celebrate Christmas in Playa Del Carmen and Christmas day is just business as usual!!









]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229640540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229640540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229640540/tpod.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:37:43 -0500 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Flores, Guatemala

Thursday 18th: We got up at 7am to say farewell to Penny and Duff and then Jennie, Jo, Matt and I took the chicken bus to Flores at 10am. We had to stand for the first hour but then we managed to get seats....very bouncy seats!! We arrived at 2pm and headed straight to Hostel Mon Ami in El Ramate which had been recommended to us by a fella at Hacienda Tijax. A nice spot by the lake ....which we dived straight into as soon as we'd dumped our bags in the room!!
We chilled out in the hostel bar / dining area and had a few beers and went to bed early in preparation for our 5am start in the morning!!!

Friday 19th: We opted for the 5.30am departure to Tikal because we were informed that there would be more chance of seeing wildlife, particularly big cats, at that time and there would also be less people....it seems that the pumas and jaguars there might be that chance of seeing are somewhat elusive at the best of times - the guide we spoke to on the bus had been working there 6 years and hadn't ever actually seen any more than the back end of an ocelot disappearing into the undergrowth!!
In any case, Tikal was beautiful at 6am...and we did see a couple of Spider Monkeys sitting in the trees!!! The ruins are surrounded by jungle so its a fab place to wander about in and the jungle makes it feel like there's noone else there.

We walked around the whole place, climbing the temples where we could, including the really high scary one!! It was funny watching other people going up and down the steps on that one. One guy we watched was sooo petrified he was shaking as he came down!!


We wandered around til just after noon and went to meet the bus back to the hostel. The hostel had made us sandwiches for lunch to take to Tikal (ham and cheese, of course - except Matt had chicken so we were all jealous!!) but we'd eaten them by 8am so we went to the Italian place just up the road for lunch!! The rest of the afternoon was a fairly chilled out affair.
We headed into 'town' for dinner. El Ramate isn't the biggest place in the world, there isn't really a 'town' as such, there's just a few restaurants / bars / hotels dotted around. We had dinner and a couple of beers in a bar by the lake. The sound of bugs around the lake were incredible and at the edge of the lake you could see hundreds of tiny little insects lighting up and flashing as we walked past!!
There was also the sound of a party happening somewhere across the water, which I later found out, from another traveller in Flores, was a local 'festival'. We hadn't checked out what it was as we'd just assumed it was a dodgey nightclub or something... ..shame, it could have been fun!!

Saturday 20th: I said goodbye to Matt, Jo and Jennie as they left for Coban, unfortunately time wouldn't allow for me to go with them as I had to head to Mexico to meet Chris. I took the local bus for 8Q to Santa Elena which took around an hour and a half and then took a 5 minute taxi ride to Flores for 10Q (the taxi driver saw me coming!!) I checked in to the Hostel Los Amigos which was the first Guatemalan hostel I stayed in with dorms. The dorm I was in cost 40Q for the night and had 10 beds, but noone else was in when I got there. The hostel was having their staff Christmas party in the afternoon so I went out for breakfast / lunch which included a delicious coconut smoothie, but I made the mistake of having it made with milk. They don't seem to have fresh milk in Guatemala, it's all UHT, so my body rejected it pretty swiftly if you know what I mean!! I can't really complain though, I had't had any problems of that nature with any other food throughout my stay in Guatemala :o)
Flores is a fairly small island on the lake linked to Santa Elena on the mainland by a bridge. I took a walk around Flores and sat in the square at the top of the hill and admired the views across the lake for a while and then chilled outside a cafe and read my book in the sun for a couple of hours.
I booked my ticket to Chetumal at the San Juan Travel Agency for 5am the next morning and went back to the hostel where I sat in the bar and chatted to a couple of bizarre American girls and a couple of Swiss guys for a few hours before having a shower and heading to bed.
Unfortunately the 2 most irritating American's I have ever met were staying in my dorm. Almost every person in the dorm was getting up at 4.30am either to go to Tikal or to catch a bus to somewhere, but these 2 guys decided that noone was allowed more than an hour of sleep at a time and insisted on coming back into the dorm every hour to wake everyone up!! AAAaaaaaaahhhh!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229013600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229013600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1229013600/tpod.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:10:29 -0500 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Antigua Guatemala, Western Highlands, Guatemala

Yippeeee - another trip begins :o) Flying out of Heathrow today!!!

Arrived OK at 12.30am (although my brain was still in English time so it was really 6.30am!!), hostel seems nice, all private rooms, no dorms, so I went straight to bed in my single room with en-suite and TV!!

Friday 12th - Woke up at around 6am (brain now thinks its midday!?!), couldnt go back to sleep so lazed around until a decent hour and then went to see what happens in Antigua. Quite a nice city - feels more like a town than a city. No high rise buildings, just brightly coloured plastered buildings housing a zillion touristy shops and travel companies.I went for my first Guatemalan breakfast which included plantain, refried beans, cheese, eggs and chillie sauce!


It only took a couple of hours to take a wander around and see the various churches, markets and discover the MacDonalds, Burger King and Subway - booooo hissss!! Doesn't seem to be much to do here really, lots of people just seem to spend their day chillin' out in the main square, which is a pretty cool place, so I booked up to go climb Volcano Pacaya in the afternoon :o)

I was picked up fromt the hostel by a clapped out old mini-bus and we headed for the volcano which is around a 45minute drive from Antigua towards Guatemala City. About 20minutes into the journey heaps of smoke started billowing from the engine!! Everyone jumped out of the van and the driver had a quick look underneath, wiped a bit of oil away with a tissue and told everyone to get back in...even though it was still smokin' like a steamtrain!! The Canadians refused to get back in and an arguement ensued between them and the driver and a crowd started forming....then a fire truck arrived!! We'd stopped in a small village and someone had called them - it was starting to become a bit of a comedy scene by this stage!!

Anyway, we eventually set off again, the Canadians were pursuaded to get back in by the promise that the fireman would follow us...which he did for 5 minutes then disappeared!! ha ha
So we did eventually manage to climb the volcano. On the way up the view was stunning. We could see another active volcano puffing away in the distance as well as a couple of dead ones.



It was still daylight when we reached the lava and as the sun set it got really really cold up there, but the glow of the lava was amazing and kept eveyone warm! It was so hot, you couldn't get too close - some people brought marsh mallows to toast, but unless you'd bought a 6ft stick, there was no way you could get close enough to toast them!! The lava really was incredible to see, moving down the mountain. It sounded really quite bizarre too - it made a kind of clinking, cracking sound.
We decended by torchlight and headed back to Antigua at around 8pm. I bought a sandwich for dinner, went back to my room, watched a bit of telly and went to bed, still struggling with a screwed-up body clock!!

Saturday 13th - Got up early again....caught a bus to Panajachel (can't spell it, can't say it!!) at 12.30pm, well it was supposed to be 12.30pm, it actually left at around 1.30pm!!!

I met Adrian, a nice Aussi fella, on the bus so we went on a hostel hunt together and got a room at the Santander rooms. We asked for a dorm and ended up with a twin room!! - well, we'd known each other at least 2 hours at this point so we were old buddies by travellers standards!! The room was pretty basic, and there was no hot water in the dribbly shower but for only 35Q (around 3 squid) per night you cant complain!!! The weather is definitely hot enough to cope with a cold shower :o)

We dumped our bags and went for a wander around the town and had a look at lake Atitlan. The town is really just one main street with the lake at one end and a kind of town square at the other. In the town square there was a kids party going on and they were whacking a pinata. We stayed to watch the chaos when the sweets all fell out and the kids went crazy!!


Lake Atitlan is supposed to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It is pretty nice with the volcanos around it, but it's not a patch on Lake Titicaca!! There is a serious lack of bars, cafes, or really anything actually on the lake, so there's nowhere to sit and watch the sunset. It seems a bit weird that noone has built anything like that in Panajachel considering the whole of the rest of the town is totally tourist orientated, consisting almost entirely of touristy shops and restaurants.

Adrian and I then spent the evening drinking a cheap nasty vodka called Botran at the ´Pana Rock Cafe´ (a total rip-off of the Hard Rock cafe). There was a live band playing and the Guatamalan's were dancing on the tables!!!




Sunday 14th - I went for breakfast with Adrian (which included the worst cup of coffee have ever had!!!) and then he went to catch the bus back to Antigua and I took a taxi (in Panajachel all the taxis are golf carts!) to the nature reserve to find some monkeys....there were lots of spider monkeys so I watched them for a while and got totally munched on by sand flies. Then I went for a wander along the nature trail, checked out the waterfall etc and then lazed about on their private beach by the lake :o) The weather was just beautiful - so nice to be in shorts in December!!



I booked a ticket to Rio Dulce for the next day for 165Q (around 15quid)
I had a late lunch in town and got chatting to a Guatemalan fella called Tony, in really bad Spanglish!! I met him later for dinner and went to bed at 9ish - not feeling so well after the Botran!! ha ha

Monday 15th - I took a bus back to Antigua at 10am which took around 2 hours, then waited around in Antigua til 1pm before getting another shuttle bus to Guatemala City. I was supposed to arrive in Guatemala City in time to meet a 3pm bus to Rio Dulce, but the shuttle bus ended up driving around Antigua for an hour picking people up, then dropped people at the airport, picked up random people in the street before hitting the carnage that is Guatemala City. By the way I cant do apostrophes on this computer - no clue how to make that button work!! Guatemala City is a bit smelly and scruffy and the roads are total chaos so Im really glad just had a bit of a tour of it on the bus and didnt bother actually going there!!

I got to the bus station just before 4pm desperately needing a wee. The downside of travelling on your own is that needing a wee whilst in possession of your big rucksack becomes a bit of a problem - its not wise to leave it unattended, but you also dont want to drag it into a swamp-like excuse for a toilet either. The upside is that it often serves as the ice-breaker with other gringos....soo I made friends with a really nice family from Grimsby at the bus station. They looked after my bag whilst I went to wee and then I went with them to Rio Dulce!!
They had sensibly booked accommodation before going there, I on the other hand was planning to wing it...generally not a problem, but on this occasion the bus was delayed by roadworks and we didn't get to our destination until 11pm. So I went with my new friends to the Hacienda Tijax who fortunately had a bed for me :o)
What a great place - wooden lodgings in the jungle with a swimming pool - nice!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1231332660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1231332660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1231332660/tpod.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:57:28 -0400 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Chichén Itzá, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Wednesday 7th Jan: We took the 9am bus to Chichén Itzá and put our bags into storage, which was free, and explored the ruins. I think this has to be one of the busiest tourist attractions I have ever visited. There were soooo many people it took away some of the splendor and mysticism of the place - a totally different experience to visiting the ruins at Tikal which were nestled in the forest and most of the time you felt like you were the only person there. The ruins cover an absolutely huge area, around 2.5 miles from north to south, and it was incredibly hot but we did manage to explore everything ....including the hundreds of souvenir stalls!!

We'd booked into the Delores Alba hotel so we took a taxi there, checked in and read our books by the pool and chilled out for a while. There was a huge iguana by the pool which I chased around with my video camera for a bit too!!

Then we wandered off to the big posh hotel over the road where there was a cenote and had a cocktail in their bar.


We had dinner at the hotel, which was deserted, and retired to our room and spent the rest of the evening watching Green Mile on the telly.

We also had a little visitor in the room...





]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1231196700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1231196700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1231196700/tpod.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:56:52 -0400 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Tulum, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Monday 5th January: The hostel owner dropped us at the bus stop after dropping her kids to school - her car, as it seems is the case for most cars around here, was a total wreck! Cracked windscreen, doors held together with string, wing mirrors knocked off, covered in dents...you'd find cars in a better state of repair in a scrap yard!! Anyway, the bus finally arrived to pick us up much later than expected and we headed for Chetumal. We'd booked the San Juan bus thinking it'd be quicker than the public bus, but in reality it wasn't - we finally arrived at 3pm! We then transferred to an awaiting minibus to Tulum arriving there at 8pm. It was a little more expensive than the lovely big air conditioned bus we would've got from the bus station but I couldn't face queuing for the ticket and then waiting for another couple of hours for the next available one!!

We hunted around for somewhere to stay and plumped for the 'Maya Hotel' which wasn't the best, but we were a tad tired from the journey and just couldn't be bothered to hunt around too much - for 350pesos we were happy enough just to dump our bags and go for some dinner and drinks.

Tuesday 6th: The room at the Maya was pretty clean but there was no toilet seat (?!) and no air con so it was a total 'sweat box' so we decided to go find somewhere else to stay.
We took a wander around Tulum which is basically one long main road with shops, restaurants and hotels all the way along it - a pleasant enough town.
We found a little complex of log cabins and moved our stuff in before taking a taxi to the beach. I think this is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen! Beautiful sand, palm trees, amazing blue sea - stunning!


We booked up a snorkelling trip for the afternoon and chilled out until it was time to go.
The snorkelling trip was a bit of a joke - there was absolutely nothing to see!! We did get to see the Mayan ruins on the cliffs though so the 250pesos wasn't totally wasted!!

We had lunch on the beach and then went back to town. In the evening we ate in an Argentinan restaurant and then went to the Weary Traveller hostel and had a game of gin rummy with some of the backpackers staying there.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1230937200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1230937200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1230937200/tpod.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:55:26 -0400 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

San Ignacio, Belize

Friday 2nd January: We took the 8.30am water taxi to Belize City (12bz each) and then took the local bus from there to San Ignacio (7bz each). The bus stopped every 50yds all the way there. There were no actual bus stops every time someone wanted to get on or off they'd just stick their hand out or go to get off and the bus would stop - bonkers!! You'd have people in the street standing a few meters away from each other and the bus would stop twice. So we reached San Ignacio at around 1.30pm where we got a taxi to the Parrots Nest which was a few miles out of town in the middle of nowhere. We booked it because in the guide book it said you stay in tree houses which sounded like fun.

We checked in and immediately started to wonder why we'd decided to come here - there was noone else around, we were in the middle of nowhere and the 'tree house' was not quite as idylic as it sounded - it just felt damp - not quite what we expected for 40USD per night! The actual setting was really beautiful though, with the river at the end of the garden and you could sit in the main area of the wooden cabin-like hostel overlooking it.

We went off to try to find some lunch and found the one place in the village that could make us something and had a burger.
We went back to the hostel and chatted to the owner and her boyfriend and some other guests appeared out of nowhere Mike, Kelly, Lara and Noel (hoorah!). We were discussing what activities to do and ended up deciding to hire a car with the others to explore the next day. That afternoon we took some inner tubes and tubed down the river near the hostel - it was really good fun.
Noel had a rubber ring which kept deflating so he ended up swimming a lot of the way.
The owner of the hostel cooked dinner for all the guests for 21bz each. Although it was pretty expensive, the food was fabulous.

Saturday 3rd January: We got the hire car and went into town to get some breakfast, bought a packed lunch from the cafe and headed off for our adventure. The first 'incident' happened even before we left the town. Many of the roads in town have deep concrete ditches along the edge and I can't remember who was driving, Kelly or Lara, but she took a corner too sharply and the car wheel was hanging over the edge of the ditch we all screamed for her to stop the car. She stopped just in the nick of time - if she'd continued forward the car would've been in the ditch and wrecked!! We managed to manouver it out of harm and set off once again for Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve.
The next incident acurred when we realised that one of the tyres was flat! The boys managed to change it and when we inspected the offending tyre we could see why it was flat. There was almost no tread left on it whatsoever and it was worn down to the mesh!!



First stop was the Rio Frio Cave, basically a massive cave containing limestone formations. We explored it and then we visited Rio on Pools where we had a swim and played on the natural water slides.

Then we went to Big Rock Falls where a massive 150ft waterfall plunges into a huge deep pool. We jumped in off a rock and generally messed about before leaving to visit the Five Sisters Falls.
On the way back we dropped into Misty Mountain Liquers to sample a few of the local liquers and ended up buying a bottle - absolutely delicious!! It was a really good day out - really fun.

Noel had arranged a 'date' with a guy he'd met in the town that evening so we all went in with him after dinner and had a few drinks in one of the local bars. Another couple who the other guys had travelled with before also appeared out of nowhere! Mike joined one of the poker games which was going on in the bar so we didn't see him again all evening! Noel's date didn't show up so we chatted with him all evening. The bar was absolutely dreadful - really dingey and to be honest we were pretty glad to get out of there!!

Sunday 4th Jan: We were awoken by banging music coming from across the river - it seems we'd visited on the one weekend of the year the neighbours always celebrate something ....very loudly!! For such a remote place it seemed a little bizarre!! We had some breakfast and did some Iguana-spotting at the river before heading into town in a 'collectivo' taxi for 2bz



In the afternoon we went to Barton Creek Caves which is an underground water cave system. We went in canoes with a guide and with powerful spotlights. It is believed that the Maya once used these caves for ritual ceremonies.

The cave is full of large and colorful formations, skeletal remains and other cultural artifacts left behind by the Maya centuries ago. Our guide was very good, but I couldn't concentrate on much of what he was saying due to having the worst stomach ache....I think a dodgey lunch was to blame!! :o(

We had dinner at the hostel and had a little after dinner game of scrabble - which I lost!









]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1230332160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1230332160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1230332160/tpod.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:19:40 -0400 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

San Pedro, Belize, Belize

We took the bus from Playa Del Carmen to Chetumal at the boarder of Belize - the objective was to get to Caye Caulker but we weren't exactly sure how we were going to get there!
The guide books are a little vague on the boats so we weren't sure if we could get a boat from Corozal, just over the border or if we would need to go to Belize City.
When we got to Chetumal we ended up speaking to other travellers whilst queuing for bus tickets and decided to all jump in a couple of taxis instead just to get across the border to Corozal. On the other side a few people went to the airport to fly to the islands. A lone Swiss girl plumped for taking the water taxi with us to San Pedro.
The area where the water taxi was leaving from was a little bit strange - absolutely deserted and really scruffy so we were glad to get on the boat!
We reached San Pedro and started the search for accommodation....not an easy task - we arrived at around 6pm so most of the cheap places had gone. We finally booked ourselves into a fairly basic hotel which cost us around 120USD for 2 nights - eeek!

We went out to find a cashpoint machine which was also a bit of a challenge - we found several but none would accept our cards. One bank even had a sign outside which amused us 'Owned and managed by Belizians for the benefit of Belizians' - all it needed was an underscript stating 'so everyone else bugger off' and it would've summed up our experience!!



We did eventually find one machine which was willing to give us money so we went and celebrated with a beer.....a really expensive beer! As we wandered around looking for somewhere to have dinner we realised that everything on San Pedro is really expensive - it is the playground for rich Americans so the locals take advantage!! I'm not entirely sure what the attraction of the place is though - there's no nice beach and the town is fairly shabby - I guess it's just not very far from the US and they speak English.
We went to a nice restaurant called 'Elvi's' for dinner and then to a bar called Fido's - there was a live band and we watched some very energetic Americans dancin' the night away which was really quite amusing.

Saturday 27th: We found a nice place by the water for breakfast and had a local speciallity - a kind of deep fried bread thing with refried beans and eggs then we hopped on a boat over to Caye Caulker to search for accommodation for the next week.
We were questioning our decision to come to Belize after our initial impressions of San Pedro but we were so relieved when we stepped off the boat onto the much more chilled out beautiful island of Caye Caulker.
We saw a few nice places and a few interesting places including a backpackers hostel I forget the name of which was just bizarre. There didn't appear to be any 'rooms' as such - there were just matresses all over the place and you wandered past people's gear and beds and up loft ladders to get to other areas where there were more matresses - a proper 'community' hostel no privacy for anyone. The owner was a total hippy and the other residents all looked stoned - but it was cheap as chips!!
As we were wandering around we were accosted by the local 'nutter' on his bike with a steering wheel instead of handle bars, who asked if we needed help finding somewhere....he led us to a little complex of really nice Cabanas which were just 80 Belize dollars per night (40USD) so we booked up and went for a beer to celebrate! It's still quite expensive here (10bz for 2 beers), but soo much nicer than San Pedro!
We took the boat back to San Pedro, had dinner in the hotel restaurant - a kind of jerk chicken and rice thing and went back to Fido's for a few beers.

Sunday 28th: We took the boat to Caye Caulker, settled our stuff in, went to explore and see what activities there were to do and booked a few up. We went night snorkelling in the evening which was amazing. We wore wetsuits and took torches and headed out in a little boat with a guide and a driver and a couple of other girls. The guide was really good - he led us around pointing things out for us to see - including lobsters and various fish. What a great experience!
When we got out of the water, the guide chopped up some fruit which we ate whilst sat on the boat looking at the zillions of stars - fabulous!
We went to get dinner afterwards and found that most places had already finished serving....and it was only around 9pm!! We did manage to find somewhere and then we went for a wander around....only to find the whole place was deserted!! There was bearly more than a few people in each bar. We stayed in I&I's which was the livliest bar around and chatted to some local boys for a while. They were telling us about the local lobster fishing and about some of the local history and stuff which was interesting. We went to bed slightly confused....

Monday 29th: We kayaked around the island today - the guy we rented the kayak from wasn't in the greatest form as he'd just heard that his cousin had been found dead, but he still let us take one out.
I used my video camera for the first time to try to get some underwater stuff. Not too many big fishes around so we kayaked into a shallow bit where I chased a small spotty fish around for ages and got some quite bad footage!! Ah well!
When we came back there was a huge crowd gathered outside our cabana complex - people were crying and comforting each other. As we approached an open backed truck drove out with the dead man on the back covered with a sheet - you could see his feet sticking out!! I guess this was the kayak guy's cousin - he was in the cabana a couple of doors along from ours!! Shocker...
We chilled out for the rest of the day, went for food, a couple of beers etc.

Tuesday 30th: We got up at around 6am and went for a day trip diving and snorkelling. The first stop was the 'Blue Hole' which took a couple of hours to reach. There were around 25 people on the boat all diving except for Chris and one other girl. The dive masters gave us a briefing and told us that we'd be diving down to 40 meters which gave me a bit of a shock. After all the prep we did for my 30 meter dive and the stories of nitrogen narcosis I was a little nervous about going down to 40mtrs! It was all good though - no craziness. The Blue Hole is a perfectly circular limestone sinkhole more than 300 feet across and 412 feet deep. The dive was literally down a vertical wall and at around 35meters we got to kind of overhang with stalactites and limestone formations which we swam through - there is almost no life down there at all, but it was an facinating dive all the same. Sometimes you apparently can see hammer head sharks down there but unfortunatly we didn't.
Next stop was Half Moon Caye where we went onto the island to see the Red- footed Boobies and the Frigate Birds which nest on the island. The Frigate birds were putting on a fantasitc display puffing up huge red air balloons under their beaks which they do to attract the females.
We dived just off the island - there were a lot more fish to be seen but Chris had the best sighting seeing a shark whilst snorkelling!!
We then went for another dive at a place known as the Aquarium, which as the name suggests was a haven for some beautiful fish.
We had a really great day out, well worth the 360Belizian dollars.

New Years Eve: We had a fairly chilled out day, had a swim in the 'Split' - there is no beach on Caye Caulker but there is a kind of pier between 2 parts of the island known as the 'split' where everyone goes to swim and hang out.
We took the 'sunset' sailing trip with Ragamuffin Tours to celebrate new year - it left at around 5ish and we drank rum punch as we sailed around the island and watched the sunset. We celebrated English new year at 6pm and toasted with all the other passengers...we were a little worse for wear by the time we got back to shore and some of the Aussie girls decided that a little dip was in order!!

We had the worst chinese meal ever after the trip and went for a little lie down before heading out to the bar at the split to see the actual new year in. In the bar we bumped into the two bizarre American girls I'd had a drink with in the hostel in Guatemala! We had a few drinks with them and after midnight we went along to the nightclub which was pretty bad!!

Thursday Jan 1st: We had a lie in, had a little surf on the internet to plan our next move and booked up the hostel at San Ignacio. We didn't do much else all day - just chilled out, had a swim etc.










]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1257015879/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1257015879/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cat2222/chertsey/1257015879/tpod.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:06:12 -0400 Journey through South America...and then a bit of Southern Africa...and then Andorra....and then home again....and then to Central America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

London, England, United Kingdom

The UK to Oz overland adventure begins....
]]>