Tulum, Mexico

Tulum was the next, and not quite last stop on our tour.

The main hotel strip by the beach in Tulum is known for its push to be clean and green, whether this was wind power, salt water showers, or electricity only from the hours of 5pm - 10pm. The hotel we stayed in was our least favourite, with a general damp feeling taking over as soon as we walked in. Luckily, the hotel was about 20 metres from the beach, it was close enough to not stay in our room.

Hung about the hotel were a number of hammocks, which we spent a large amount of time in, in the shade of the trees. As part of the relaxation that was the last part of the tour, we spent a large proportion of time lying, reading and sleeping.

Tulum is known for it's ruins, which are right on the coast (and can be seen at the end of Tarantino's 'Planet Terror') were fortified with the sea on one side, and stone walls around the other 3 sides. They were very small in relation to the others we had seen on the trip. To get to them, we hired bikes, and a group of us cycled down (keeping with the green theme).


Our guide had suggested that we go out early as large tour buses arrive dropping people off 50 at a time. It was good advice. We were practically the only ones on the whole site when we arrived, and leaving was particularly difficult with hundreds of people flooding in.

We were starting to realise that the tour was coming to an end, with only one more stop left on the itinerary, the very touristy Playa del Carmen was up next.

Caye Caulker, Belize

25 January 2009.

We arrived at Caye Caulker after a ferry ride from Belize City. This was the start of the laid-back, relaxing part of the tour after the first part of hectic travel and quick stops.

It was certainly a different style to what we were used to, blue, blue water and white, white sand - the Caribbean as you would expect it.

The first afternoon that we arrived was hot and sunny, so we went swimming down at the split. The island used to be one, but after a hurricane, was split in two. There was a concrete pier, with a bar along side and everyone was parked up enjoying the sunshine.

Dinner that night consisted of a BBQ lobster dinner at Jolly Rogers Grill. His grill was a converted 40 gallon drum, and the restaurant was little more than a corrugated iron shack.





































We picked up some beers from the local bar, and sat down to enjoy. It was good!





























During the afternoon the group had arranged a snorkeling tour for the next day, where you sail out to three reefs, and spend the day swimming with the fishes, and the promise of rum punch on the return journey.

We woke the next morning to pouring torrential rain. Snorkeling cancelled, rain pouring, we thought it would be a good chance to catch up on the news of the world outside. There was Canadian sports bar which had wireless internet. Unfortunately, the power on the island seemed to be out. The Canadian bar was still where we ended up, playing cards and staying dry - reality pushed aside for another day.

The weather promised to be sunnier the next day, so we were hopeful that we would get our snorkeling trip. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close, so we decided it was a go.

There wasn't a lot of wind so we mostly had to motor out, but had the sails up for a short while.

I, due to some irrational paranoia about not being able to breathe with a snorkel, stayed on the boat with a book and took some photos of everyone lazing around in the ocean, leaving Ruth to it.



















At the first stop however, the weather started to turn, so we knew we were in for some rain. It was still really warm though, so we were not too worried.















It was patchy, but everyone still managed to get in and see the sights - it miraculously cleared up each time we stopped with the sun breaking through.

A highlight was standing on the bow of the boat, motoring along, with the rain pelting down. There was just something about the feeling that is hard to describe.

After everyone had exhausted themselves with the snokels and swimming, we made our way back home. The rum punch arrived with a freshly chopped shrimp cerviche, which fought off any chance of anyone getting cold. There was a lot of punch...

... and the sun came back out, just as we were arriving back. Everyone was a little wobbly from their time at sea, so we headed back down to the split for more swimming, and a cooling beer.

At some stage in the proceedings, we decided that a full scale sea battle needed to take place, leading to shoulder fighting - and generally a lot of hilarity.















The seabed was quite uneven and the extra height we had was hugely beneficial. Needless to say, Ruth and I were victorious.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset, then a second lobster dinner finished off our time on the island, heading back to the mainland and Tulum, Mexico the following morning.

San Ignacio, Belize

You're not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata.

Crossing off our 5th country, we arrived in Belize in the rain. This part of the tour is supposed to be all sunshine and relaxation after the hectic trip through Mexico, so we were worried when it rained for our entire bus ride across the border.

However, we had a plan - just about the only thing you can do while it's raining is drink tequila and play cards. We started in a hotel restaurant on the edge of San Ignacio, and didn't leave until we'd drunk them out of tequila. Did I mention that it was just 5 of us left? Yes, the others had all come to their senses and headed home to try and find some food, cards and perhaps some more tequila.

We, the less sensible ones, had stayed on, enjoying drinking under shelter and watching the rain and toucans in the trees. But, finally, we were forced to admit that we needed to get home, and headed out. And headed down the road, or what was left of it. The roads in Belize tend to be somewhat sandy, and with the amount of water falling, they were now almost entirely mud. But we didn't care - we were dancing and slipping and sliding and covered in white mud by the time we got home.

At some point we had arranged to go on a tour of the Macan river. There was rum involved in this decision, but it was one of the best trips I think we did. We canoed upriver for about 3 hours, guided by Daniel, who was an expert at spotting the wildlife. We (Hamish, Ruth and Sarah from our tour) were still hoping to see a banana-beaked toucan, but we only managed to see one of the other varieties (again!). What we did see were a lot of iguanas. One of them was bright orange, others were perched on the very edge of very tall trees hanging over the river - they like to get as exposed as possible so that they get as warm as possible. Hundreds of bats were sleeping under the overhanging rocks, and our guide enjoyed flicking water at them to make them fly around us...

The trip upriver (thanks almost entirely to Daniel and Hamish's arms) ended with a walk through the riverside village towards a little waterfall and pool area. We ate our lunch (the ubiquitous rice-and-beans and curried hotdog. Unusual) and then had a refreshing swim under the waterfall.

(Photo by Sarah Rackley)

Flores & Tikal Ruins, Guatemala

Flores is a sleepy little town on an island in a lake in Guatemala. There are amazing sunsets over the lake, and this was our base for our trip to the Tikal Ruins. Because of an accident on the road into Flores, we weren't able to leave in time to watch the sunrise over the ruins, but the sunrise the following morning (available from our balcony) was beautiful.

The Tikal ruins will be a familiar sight if you've watched Star Wars, but if, like me, you haven't, they are most famous for the jungle that surrounds them. Unlike the ruins we had seen earlier in our trip, these ruins are in the middle of a very green rainforest, filled with birds and animals. The Mayans cleared the land surrounding their buildings, and most of the ruins we visited had been cleared again, but Tikal is completely different.













We were lucky enough to see a bird in the Quetzal family - which includes the national bird of Guatemala (and the bird their currency is named after). Our guide was extremely good at hearing the birds (we also saw toucans, although not the most familar 'banana beak' toucans), and could hear the monkeys many minutes before the rest of our group. He also took us to some tiny monkeys, a crocodile trained to come at his call, and we could not avoid stepping into the path of hundreds of fire ants.


















The ruins are also quite different to some of the other ones, as you can walk freely on them, and even climb up to the top of several - although one in particular was an extremely steep climb, with extremely small steps. A challenge if you're not keen on heights.


















Tikal was a little surreal, and a really interesting place to walk around - having a guide was especially helpful as he was so informative about the land, the plants and the Mayans. A great way to finish our time in Guatemala!

Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua! Not as in 'and Barbuda', but Antigua, Guatemala, the UNESCO-declared World Heritage Centre, the city where the bars close at 10pm, the city surrounded by volcanoes, and our home for the next few days.

Our hotel came with a roof-top garden and several swing seats and an amazing view across to Volcan de Agua. Antigua is a really beautiful town with a lot of narrow streets and hidden shopfronts, with much of the city built in a very Arabic/Baroque style - lots of intricate window and door metalwork coverings, tiles, and brickwork. It's also home to the largest fountain in Latin America, and some really interesting little museums about the history of the town and Guatemala.


















Antigua has a unique liquor licensing system - all bars are to close at 10pm, unless you are a business owned by the Mayor. This means that we were drinking our mojitos very early! Our local was a small bar just off the main square, and it also doubled as our salsa club. Unfortunately, Hamish had to miss our first class as he was asleep in bed with a fever and feeling very ill, but he was completely better the next day - and ready to dance. Salsa is such a fun dance, and we all had a great time...














(photo from Victoria Clench)

Antigua has three volcanoes that surround the town, but there are many more nearby, and it was one of these, Volcan Pacaya, that we climbed during our stay. After an early start, we collected our climbing sticks from the young boys at the base of the mountain, and followed our guide up the mountain next to the volcano. This was a long, steady climb, on very dusty paths, and soon we were all very, very dirty. Once at the top of this mountain, we crossed over into the cooled lava at the base of the volcano and made our way towards a large group of people gathered around the area where the lava is flowing.

We had come prepared for this, and set up our frozen pizza (to be cooked in tinfoil), and marshmallows to be roasted on sticks collected on the way up. This was a delicious lunch, and just what we wanted after the morning's exercise!

Chichicastenango, Guatemala

Chichi is a major market in the Guatemalan highlands. They have two market days, Thursday and Sunday with people from all around the area coming to sell all sorts of goods, from fruit and veges to tools, clothing and other handicrafts - as well as catching up on news and gossip. We were told that apart from those two days, and the setup day before the market, the town is completely dead, with nothing at all going on.

We arrived in Chichi and spent a little time walking through the markets, though there were a massive number of people milling around, so we tried to walk the side streets as much as possible.

The first spot that Andres took us to was the fruit and vege market, which was on an indoor basketball court, it took some time to move from the bottom floor upstairs to where we could have a look at all the action.

























From here we went back out to the streets, and made our way to one of the two churches that face each other in the town. From here we got a good view along the lanes.













We felt it was far too crowded, so found a nice little side street that still had a great selection of things to buy, and took our time walking down there.

We spent most of the time there sitting on the steps of the church people watching - there was a little kid throwing a tantrum for a good period of time and a man building wooden chairs right in front of us.













After looking round the markets, we all met at the church and made our way to a big food hall type thing, where we had a tasty lunch of fried chicken, rice and beans.

After Chichi, we got back in the minivan and made out way to the town of Antigua, our next stop.

Homestay, San Jorge La Laguna, Guatemala

While at the lake, we spent one night with a local family in the village of San Jorge La Laguna. We knew that this would be an 'experience' and we were more than a little worried about communication. The first language of the people in this village is Kaqchikel, one of the Mayan dialects, with most people being able to also speak Spanish.

The family that we stayed with had 7 children, with a little baby (Ronaldinho who was the son of one of the daughters), and another little one Stefanie - about 5 years old.

We managed to introduce ourselves (Ruth much more successfully than me), and hung out with the kids for a little time.

We had some time with the family and to settle in before we were due back in the village plaza for a tour of the village by Daniel, who was the contact in the village.

After a tour, a short one as it was a small village, we returned to the house for dinner. Dinner was chicken with veges and tortillas. It wasn't ready when we arrived back, and the girls were making the tortillas, so Ruth asked if she could help make them which proved a very difficult challenge.



















I watched for a while, and held the baby, before also giving it a go. They make it look a hell of a lot easier than it was.

The general idea is that you start with a ball of dough, and moosh it into a flat disk before passing it from one hand to the other which in theory makes it thinner and bigger - a little like you see the pizza chefs with the dough.

This didn't take too much talking, though we learned the word for difficult quite quickly.

We sat down to dinner where we tried to have some very awkward conversation, though it turned out that we didn't quite have enough so it often broke down into an awkward silence. In the end, we didn't talk too much at dinner.

Before we went to the house, we were given a sheet that had some basic questions which the family also had - so after dinner that came out, and we managed to do a lot better with the conversation after that.

It was funny though, we would go along for a while understanding enough to keep talking with them, then we would get to a word that we couldn't work out, and that our phrasebook didn't have so the conversation along that topic would end.

It was really hard, though we probably only had about 2 or 3 hours that night with them, and by the end of dinner we were ready for bed.

In the morning, we got up, and breakfast was good - though we didn't help too much with the tortillas - which was probably a good thing. The speed we made them meant that we probably would have missed our bus out of town!!

One other thing - sitting having breakfast, I noticed a string of what I thought were dead crabs on the wall. I had seen them the night before, but didn't think anything of them. It turns out that they were actually live crabs, hanging on the wall like a string of onions.



















We really enjoyed the experience, though knowing more Spanish would have been hugely helpful.

From here we went to Antigua, Guatemala.

Panajachel & Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

San Christobal had been a perfect town to explore, but once again we were leaving too soon. At least this does give us a reason to come back!

Our trip to Guatemala was a long one, and the border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala is very interesting. A huge and busy market, it was easy to see why Andres was so keen to keep us all in sight - it would be too easy to wander off and get lost!

Guatemalan local transport is often in old USA school buses. Called 'chicken buses', because they often have people carrying livestock from markets, they are pretty wild. They are all owned by the driver, and so many of them are decorated according to the driver's personal taste. Jesus was a popular image and it was often written in pretty, circus-style writing. Although our itinerary said that we would ride these, our guide decided that buses that overtake on blind corners were not how we would be travelling.

Instead, we all piled into a minivan to drive down to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. This lake is huge, and surrounded by steep hills and three volcanoes. It is incredibly beautiful and restful. In the 60s and 70s many hippie Americans came either to live or just to soak up the good vibes (I'm guessing). Many of them stayed, and now run small businesses or have set up organisations to facilitate the export of the local craft (weaving).



















Our only full day in Panajachel was spent on a tour in three different towns. Although the towns are so close to each other (and there is plenty of interaction between them), each town has its own traditional dress and weaving style. Some of these were really dramatic and beautiful. However, we had been asked not to take photographs, so the best I can suggest is that you check out http://www.rutahsa.com/traje.html for some links to photos.













We visited Santa Catarina Palopo first, and spent a great deal of time looking at the beautiful silk scarves made by the local women. From there, we went (by boat) to San Antonio Palopo, which is a little bit bigger, and were lucky enough to walk past the church while a wedding was going on. The small towns around the village are grouped together through language and other cultural similarities, and the marriages are often within the group (which would be just a few towns). It's a way of expanding their population, but in a way that keeps their language and heritage strong. The female congregation were wearing white shawls covering their heads - interesting to see that white is part of the Mayan marriage ceremony.



















Finally, we went to Santiago Atitlan, on the other side of the lake. This town is much bigger and tourism is a much stronger part of their livelihood. There are markets along the streets selling the weaving and jewellery made by the women of the village. Our guide Daniel introduced us to Maria, who showed us some weaving techniques and traditional dress. We also visited a home where, for a year, a statue of Maximon is in residence (each year it moves to a new house in the town), along with religious attendants. The home is open to all who wish to come and worship, and offerings, including cigarettes and alcohol, are made.


















That evening we went to San Jorge La Laguna, where we would be staying with a local family for a night. We will talk about this in a separate post, but it was a really interesting and sometimes challenging experience.

The following morning, we spent an hour climbing up over the lake just outside San Jorge, and admiring the incredible view. This place was beautiful, and we all thought that if we lived here we would have to come up every day. It would be the perfect place if you had anything on your mind...we just enjoyed being quiet and still for a while.

San Cristobal & Chamula

From Palenque we headed to the town of San Cristobal de las Casas.

This was the town that everyone agreed would be one that we could easily live in. It had a really vibrant feel to it, with lots of people out and about all the time (and a good nightlife). The buildings were largely brightly coloured, and it was good to walk around amongst it all.

























Like most of the towns that we had been to so far, San Cristobal had a large central plaza, where there was always a lot going on.













The only downsides to the town were the windy road to get there, and being in the highlands, the temperature was a lot lower than we were expecting - probably about 5-10 degrees at night.

San Cristobal was one of the towns at the centre of the Zapatista revolution, and it still had that sort of feel, with a lot of graffiti one the walls of buildings.











































This was the first opportunity to go out and party, and Andres took us to a good little local wine bar to start. We drank a local rose, which was good, and tried a few different things.

From the wine bar we headed to another bar for dinner and our first chance to get into the spirit of salsa. I’ll be honest, for me (Hamish) it didn’t go that well, though no one was an expert and we all had a good time despite it.

(Vic and Sam dancing at Revolution)














The next day the group all decided to go to see the village of Chamula, though half rode horses, and the others took a van. Conveniently, we went one in each. The van ride gave our guide more opportunity to take us around the village, and to explain some of the customs relating to the Mayan religion, and the horseback trip had its own interesting points.

Outside each family groups house was a cross painted green, representing the Ceiba tree.



















These have always been in the shape of the cross, which misled the Spanish when they arrived into thinking that the Mayans would easily convert to Catholicism. Once they started to learn the meaning behind this cross however, they realised that their job would be a lot harder than they thought. This cross would be where weddings, funerals and all sorts of other things would take place. In addition to the above cross, the religious leaders of the village had an additional arch over the top of the cross, made with leaves/branches. These would usually be changed every 20 days, in line with the Mayan calendar month.

While Hamish was taking it easy in the van, I was trying to get a wild horse to take me to the village. Ok, so he wasn't exactly wild, but it was still a pretty dramatic ride. My horse was beautiful, but he had a charming habit of walking so slowly until he was at the very back, and then we would have to race all the way back to the front. However, the ride through the forest was really lovely.



















(Photo by Sam Brown)

The church at Chamula was an amazing thing, though was still very much in use for worship. We spent very little time inside as it was really quite uncomfortable, it felt like you were intruding in a very personal time.



















Before leaving quite quickly we saw some interesting things. Firstly, the floor is covered in pine needles and there are hundreds of candles lit, so as you walk in you are struck by the flickering flames, and the haze rising off the top of them. Different coloured candles are burned as an offering depending on what the family is looking to achieve, as well as a lot of incense burning. A lot of people bring bottles of soda, coke, pepsi etc as the gods apparently love sweet offerings. In the past people would bring fruit juice, though now with the ease of bottled coke, that seems to be taking over. Another thing that is often offered are chickens, we saw chickens in various states, still alive, and just killed - which was surprising.

The horse ride back...what a ride. Just 20 minutes into the ride, a guy on our tour was thrown from his horse, and the horse then bolted for home. The man was fine, although he barely missed landing on rocks. However, this unsettled everyone, and soon my horse, along with Ilka's, decided that they were less interested in waiting for everyone, and much more interested in a walk to the river. We quickly lost everyone, and our sense of direction, so we just had to rely on the horses knowing where they were going! Once we all turned up in the same place, we learnt that nearly everyone had ridden back almost alone.

That night, a smaller group of us went out for dinner at a very tasty fajita restaurant, enjoying some good local Mexican beer. Once again, there was some salsa dancing for some...we were starting to get a taste for it.

Nightlife in Palenque

We only had one night in Palenque, and the torrential rain put a dampener (hah!) on any plans...however, Andres led us into town across one of the most terrifying bridges I have ever been. Wet, slippery, and missing several planks, it involved a lot of care to walk across!

We finally arrived at the restaurant that we had been told served large portions - it really did. About 4 people ordered chicken and vegetables, which was at least a whole chicken cut up each, with a large pile of vegetables. It was amazing, though far too much food for any one person to eat. The rest of the table ordered fajitas, again, so much food. It was excellent.

The rain stopped us walking back to the hotel, so we caught cabs back.

The following morning we went off to the city of San Cristobal de las Casas.

Misol-ha & Agua Azul

On the way back to town from the Palenque ruins we made a stop at Misol-ha & Agua Azul two quite different waterfalls. Misol-ha was a big drop into a pool whereas Agua Azul was terraced.


















You could walk round under the waterfall which gave a great view from the other side.












Right around the other side there was what looked like a small cave, I am not too sure what was in it though as on the way round, the slippery rocks had their revenge, and sent me sprawling to the ground - somewhere around here...

















... it seemed like a good time to go back.

There wasn’t really anywhere here to go swimming, and at this point that was a big attraction, though it wasn’t really a super hot day, so we made our way to the next set of waterfalls, Agua Azul.


















Though it wasn’t really sunny, the water was still an amazing shade of blue.
























There was a track that led up the side of the waterfall, along which were lots and lots of vendors of handicrafts, fruit and other things to eat. There were a bunch of little pools off the main waterfall, all with the blue, blue water.


















Once we had explored right up to the top, some decided it was time for a swim. The sun wasn’t really out, so it wasn’t the most appealing thought, but it turns out that the water was actually quite nice.