TravelStream™ news feed for member jjstreet on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jjstreet en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:34:56 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/3/1202862600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/3/1202862600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/3/1202862600/tpod.html Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:34:56 -0500 Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Buenos Aires, Argentina

12 hr stop over in Sydney meant that we got into Buenos Aires at 2am instead of 2pm....decided to just stick it out at the airport since we had a 9am flight to Rio. It sure was a LONG 2 days!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179785640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179785640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179785640/tpod.html Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:33:28 -0400 Yucatan trip with rands.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Calakmul, Mexico

We headed off pretty early to go off to what we had heard was one of the best mayan sites in Mexico. It is literally lying right in the middle of the jungle (Biosfera Calakmul), and so was quite a trek to get to. Calakmul is believed to have been one of the superpower sites - probably being even bigger in size and power then the neighbouring Tikal in Guatemala ( which you can actually see from the tallest pyramid!!).
It was quite a long trip - we had to head west for 59km along the Xpujil - Escarcega road until the Calakmul turn off, and then south for another 59km along a very windy road through the jungle. It would have been cool to have made it here earlier as the sun came up because there would have been amazing birds around! It took a bit longer then we had expected though to get there! We did see a keel-billed Toucan though...which is the only species that i havent seen before. Unfortunately, it was too quick to get a photo of! Along this road there was also an intense amount of butterflies....it was crazy. Literally hundreds flying at one time across the road in front of us. It was so nice.
Calakmul for me was the most impressive site we went to (rands - would you agree?). Im not sure whether that was because it was the first real site we went to....i dont think so. It was totally AMAZING.















We had planned to go to Balamku on the way back...but we were stressing about our lack of petrol so decided to head back to Xpujil to the closest petrol station.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/costa_rica_2005/1191108240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/costa_rica_2005/1191108240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/costa_rica_2005/1191108240/tpod.html Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:29:16 -0400 2005 trip to Costa.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

San Jose, Costa Rica

flew into San Jose via LA. Arrived early afternoon. Headed to Heredia. Walked around town....went to bed fairly early.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1191104160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1191104160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1191104160/tpod.html Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:14:14 -0400 Yucatan trip with rands.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Xpujil, Mexico

We weren't quite sure how far we would get today....we knew that we wanted to head to Xpujil since it was the only real base for Calakmul etc. We had been told the previous night about a place called Laguna azul (?) by an intensely blinged up fisherman. It was apparently near Bacalar and so basically on the way. Unfortunately, we couldn't actually find it...we also struggled to find somewhere for coffee....which seemed to be an ongoing theme in Mexico....eventually we found a place and were handed a jar of nescafe and cups of hot water. Don't they grow coffee in Mexico? Go figure! There was a bloody cool tree there though!

Since we didn't end up spending much time here, we decided to head straight to Xpujil...We had heard dodgy things about the road from Chetumal to Escarcega and so we really hoped we would make it in before sunset!

Luckily we arrived just in time. We decided to head about 10km north to a smaller town to stay since nothing really appealed in town. It was a good decision. We were greeted by a really nice man and his wife, and were even treated to a home cooked dinner.
That night we went for a walk around town...pretty cool. Nice to be out of a touristy area for once. It was very similar to the smaller towns in Costa Rica. Catholic shrines lit up like christmas trees decked out the front of every house.,...and the streets full of wandering people looking for some sort of entertainment!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179558780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179558780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179558780/tpod.html Sat, 29 Sep 2007 18:41:19 -0400 Yucatan trip with rands.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Mahahual, Mexico

We decided that we wanted some more beach action...perhaps of a less touristy variety...so we headed south towards Manahual. It was a pretty boring long drive... totally flat with pretty repetative vegetation. It was a relief when we finally made it to town early afternoon. We drove around for a while and eventually found a decent cabana to stay in for the night. As soon as we were sorted we headed to the beach for some swimming.


Its a pretty cool town...calm waters with bars/resturants all the way up to the waters edge. It would have looked amazing had it not been totally overcast. We settled down for some ceviche (best one yet!!) and had a few beers.



Since it was saturday, we had assumed that this would be a bit of a party town....we were totally wrong. Seems that the town is basically supported by cruise ships...which of course dont come in on saturday...and so most of the locals close up shop. Rands was determined for us to have a night though, and upon spotting an open bar she was off. It took us a few beers to actually realise that it wasnt actually a bar, and instead some locals having a private party! It was a pretty cool night though. Met some cool people and drank basically free. The bar was about 2m from the water and had swings as seats. Very cool. The guys were all from one of the resturants and it was their night off. We drank til late, and when we headed to bed around 2am....promised we would be back at 9am to let them cook us breakfast. On awaking however we were a little embarassed about the previous night, and so decided to make a quick exit out of town!! We hadnt done anything bad, just drunken! Im sure those guys wouldnt have remembered our breakfast date...but i still feel a little guilty about doing a runner...they were really nice guys!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179384180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179384180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179384180/tpod.html Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:12:51 -0400 Yucatan trip with rands.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Tulum, Mexico

South of Tulum, along a very rough road, is the Reserva de la Biosfera Sian Ka'an. It is a massive area (approx. 50000sq km) of mangroves and jungle which has been set aside by the mexican government. It is also a world heritage site. We werent quite sure what we were going to do here, but we knew we wanted to check it out, so we figured we would just head down the road and see where it got us. We knew tours existed, but figured they would be pricey. After passing a whole lot of fancy "ecofriendly" style hotels, we arrived at an information spot which had a very cool tower that you could climb to see across the wetlands.
.
We decided to go else where to suss out tours. We ended up going to this fancy hotel on the beach and booking a sunset tour. Cost something like $60 each...but after seeing how cool the area was, we knew we had to do it. The tour didnt leave for a few hours so we decided to lounge on the beach and get some swimming action. Hard life.

The tour took us by boat through these canals within the wetlands that the mayans had formed as trade routes it was pretty cool. Rands....you fill in this nerd bit!! .
At one point, we came across an old mayan ruin. Pretty cool to have the opportuntity to see something like this. . At the ruin we hoped out of the boat and put our legs through our lifejackets and jumped in the water.....allowing us to almost sit up in the water and float down the river for about half an hour. It was so cool. We then climbed back into the boat and headed out into more open water as we made our way back to our starting point. It was so beautiful watching the sun set across the wetlands. At the end of the tour we had dinner at the hotel's resturant along with a spanish couple who had been on the tour, and our tour guide.
We then headed back to our tent for an early night.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179459420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179459420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179459420/tpod.html Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:04:26 -0400 Yucatan trip with rands.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Tulum, Mexico

An early start was inevitable since the 40 degree sun woke us up bright and early! We headed off to the Tulum ruins. Pretty bloody cool! Nice introduction to Mayan ruins....although not particulary impressive, it is the only coastal ruins on the Yucatan. . Geez, you can definately see why they set up camp here. The beach was AMAZING. Definately the most beautiful beach i have ever seen. The water was this intense blue. There were quite a lot of people around which was quite a downer....the downfall of being within a days drive from Cancun i guess. We went swimming here which felt amazing especially after we felt so grubby after the whole sleeping in car thing! After the struggling through the millions of souvenir stalls, we headed off to find ourselves some decent accomodation!
After looking around Tulum, we decided to head a little north to a place called Oscar y lalo's. A pretty fancy place i think if you've got the cash for a cabana....but we went for their $5 a night camping . We ended up staying here for the next 2 nights. All in all, it was a pretty amazing place to camp - palm trees, crystal blue water (brakish water though...not so good for swimming). So we set up camp and headed off to find us some cenotes!

We headed towards the Nohoch Nah Chich cave system...hired a snorkel and flippers, and headed off. Our first stop was Dos Ojos. AMAZING. People were actually diving from here and we were able to watch them under water head into the cave system. Would have been nice to be able to dive! The water was pretty freezing, which was a nice change from the outside heat! The cave was also fall of nesting Motmots....which was pretty cool to watch!



Headed back into tulum to the supermarket to buy some dinner and headed back to camp.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179367860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179367860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jjstreet/mexico_2007/1179367860/tpod.html Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:26:18 -0400 Yucatan trip with rands.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Cancun, Mexico

Arrived around 6pm....just before sunset. We had tossed up the idea of actually booking accomodation for the first night, but had decided to wing it. We had however pre booked a car....on arrival to pick it up, rands card which gave us free insurance didnt work - she hadnt told the bank that she would be using it overseas and so it wouldnt go through...and all the banks in the US were already closed. By the time we had sorted it out (and paid an extra 200 insurance via another card)....it was already dark. Kinda a weird way to first experience Mexico....mind you, Cancun IS a weird first taste of Mexico so it was probably best that it was covered in darkness!!....anyway we headed south towards Playa del Carmen...not much better then Cancun...we had always planned to go to Tulum first night but had thought that maybe Playa would be better since it was closer. On arrival, we made the bad decision to head on to Tulum in the hope we would find some better and cheaper accomodation.
We arrived at Tulum at about 10.30pm....and soon found out that the entire town had closed down for the night. We literally drove around for an hour trying to find a place that was open...and ended up deciding the sleep in the car on the beach. What a LONG night that turned out to be....especially when the police stopped to talk to us at about 3am....luckily after schlapping a bit of crappy spanish together, they moved on....couldnt help but spend the rest of the night thinking about how i was once told that the biggest thing to worry about in mexico are the dodgy police! I was sure they were going to return!! They didnt and we managed to get minimum sleep. I was awoken on sunrise to about 10 army guys with guns and all parading up along the beach. Yikes. What an introduction to mexico. We later found out that this section of the beach is a big drug drop off point and so the army always walks up the coast looking for washed up packages. The police must have stopped because we looked dodgy waiting in a car on a beach! All things aside....in the daylight, Tulum looked AMAZING!!
]]>