San Cristobal

After Palenque it was off to San Cristobal which is only 100 miles away, but unfortunatley over mountians so it took 5hrs to get there. San Cristobal is also approx 6000ft above sea level so the bus has to do alot of climbing.

We arrived in San Cristobal in late afternoon, the sun was still nice and warm, although we were warned in advance that because we were at altitude the temperature drops quickly at night - they weren´t wrong.

Our first night was spent celebrating Grahams birthday, we all went to a resturant which served food from Thailand, Vietnam, Greece etc but not Mexico. The owner plied Graham with 3 Tequilas and a jug of Sangria (which he shared with the rest of us). The group bought Graham a very nice chocolate birthday cake -yum!

Our first whole day in San Cristobal and we started with a little lie in - our alarm was set for 8am. We opted to do the Mayan village tour, these actually weren´t really villages more like self sufficiant towns. The people speak there own language, dress traditionally, practise there own version of catholism (they allow chickens in the church and then they kill them also in the church) and they have there own police and justice system, but there is little or no crime there because the community looks out for each other.

It was very interesting to learn about the indiginous indians and walk around there community but it was quite dirty due to the amount of rubbish lying around. Most of it was bio-degradable fruit peelings but there was alot of plastic bottles too.

When we got back to San Cristobal, the group went for lunch at Salsa Verde and we had the best tacos I´ve tasted on this trip. The salsa verde wasn´t too bad in moderation - quite spicy! We decided to take it easy for the rest of the afternoon/evening - Alan and I had a bit of a movie session and chill out!

Sunday was our free day and we started with a lovely long lie in to recharge our batteries - we also had 3 fleecy blankets on the bed and it was lovely and warm! We had decided that today would be our mooch around the market and all the shops day, I bought this pink headscarf to keep the sun off my head.

Tonight is our last night in Mexico as tomorrow we are crossing the bordering into Guatamala, so the plan is to go to a Salsa club for dinner and maybe a bit of salsa dancing. Alan has now finished his antibiotics and is back on the beer and Tequila tonight!!!!!!!

Palenque

We had a nine hour bus ride from Merida to Palenque,which by the end seemed like an epic ordeal, with everyone irritable and totally bored.

The next morning we had an early start to visit the Palenque mayan ruins. When we arrived, the early morning mist was just lifting and the ruins surrounded by dense jungle looked more impressive than Chichèn Itza's.

Our guide, Fransico told us the history of the site that dates back to 100 BC and was ruled by King Pakal. After looking inside the tomb of the red queen, Fransico led us through the jungle to see other ruins that have not yet been excavated, they looked like no more than rocky hills. Seeing the state they were in, it amazed me that they ever actually discovered the remains in the first place.

The site consisted of many buildings but the largest of which was King Pakal´s plaza which included flushing toilets.

After leaving the ruins we went on an optional exursion to Misol-ha and the Agua Azul nature reserve. These were a waterfall and the blue pools.

At Misol-ha we had a walk round the waterfall to get some picture before Denise, Alison, Graham and I went for a quick swim over to the waterfall.

The trip between Misol-ha and the Agua Azul was a very windy and twisty vomit inducing bus ride. However the sight of the waterfalls and amazing blue water soon made me forget the bus ride.

The bad news was when we left Palenque the next morning our bus to San Cristabal took the same twisty, windy road.

Happy Birthday Jessica

We would just like to wish our neice Jessica a very happy 9th birthday. We hope you have a great day and a fabulous time at the pantomine.

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to Jessica
Happy birthday to yoooooooooooooooooooooooou!

Merry Christmas

We would like to wish all our avid blog readers a fantastic christmas!

Our plans for today include having a look around Merida and then meeting up with our tour group for dinner and secret santa this evening.

Hope its a good one and we will see you all soon.

Chichen Itza

Goodbye Cancun!

Then it was off to Chichen Itza - a mayan temple/city/pyramid. It took us 3hrs on a freezing air-conditioned bus to get there and it was a relief to get into the warm sunshine for 10 minutes. We put all our luggage into storage and had our crisp sandwich lunch and then it was off into the grounds.

Julien was our guide for the next 2hrs and he told us alot about the history of the Mayan people and about how the city and temple came about. If you´ve watched the film Apocalypto - its alot like that, although apparently Mel Gibson blended the practices of both the Mayans and the Aztecs.

It was incredibly hot, with very little shade, so my multi-coloured hat came out after a while to protect me from the sun. But I still managed to get dehydrated and started to feel very dizzy and ill. Alan bought me a litre of cold water and after I drank all of it, I felt much better. Alan´s only comment to that was "and your supposed to be the nurse?"

Chichen Itza was pretty amazing and the ruins are well preserved and restored in places. Unfortunately for Alan and fortunatley for me, you no longer allowed to climb the main pyramid due to safety reasons - 7 people broke limbs and 1 person died all in one year.




At 5pm we got on the bus to Merida ( the capital of the Yucatan), another 2hr freezing cold journey - the mexicans love their air-conditioning. We arrived at the hotel quite late so Allison gave us a quick orientation around the plaza (where we saw Santa Claus) and the cathedral. Then we ate pizza and drank beer on the hotel rooftop - an awesome end to Christmas eve.

Pre-departure

The tour is divided into 2 sections: Cancun to Antigua and Antigua to San Jose.

There are 9 of us on this first section of the tour including our Canadian tour leader Allison. We are the only Brits! There are 4 Aussies, 1 Kiwi and 1 French-Canadian.

We went for dinner and drinks on night 1 in Cancun to get to know each other.

Cancun

When we booked to spend our first five days in Cancun, we expected it to be like mini America because of it reputation. Driving from the airport to our hotel we thought we had been proved right as we passed hotels, bars and restaurants that looked as though they were straight out of Vegas. It wasn´t until we ventured into downtown Cancun the next day that we found that there is a mexican side to the city.

We´ve come a long way since our stay in Mexico City in January where we were too afraid to get on the metro (underground), as on our first day in Cancun we thought nothing of jumping on a public bus, using our pigeon spanish, to get to downtown.

I was slightly worried when we booked our budget hotel in Cancun that it would be a little grotty and the all inclusive food would be less than appetising, however to my pleasant surprise the hotel was really nice and the food was great.



We spent most of our time relaxing and chilling out, although when I received my exam results we had to jump on the bus again and venture to Wal-mart to find some champayne to celebrate. However in Mexico you can´t just pick up a bottle off the shelf and pay for it, you have to take a ticket to the checkout, pay for it, then wait what seems like an eternity for some bloke to wander the whole store looking it.

After completely relaxing it was time to start the adventure and we headed downtown to join the tour.

Our Tour Itineray

Here is the day to day tour itinerary and the answer to the question "where will you be xmas day?" - Merida.

Day 1 - Cancun
Day 2 - Merida via Chichen Itza
Day 3 - Merida
Day 4&5 - Palenque
Day 6,7&8 - San Cristobal
Day 9 - Quetzaltenango (we enter Guatamala)
Day 10&11 - Panajachel
Day 12 - Antigua via Chichicastenango
Day 13 - Antigua
Day 14&15 Copian Ruinas ( we enter Honduras)
Day 16 - Tela
Day 17 - Tela, La Ceiba, Roatan
Day 18&19 - Roatan
Day 20 - Tegucigalpa
Day21,22&23 - Granada (we enter Nicargua)
Day 24&25 - Ometepe Island
Day 26&27 - San Jose (Costa Rica)

Ode to Flying

I was very excited about going on the world tour part 2, so much so I only got 3 hours sleep the night before - but that was partly because I hadn´t packed for the trip or sorted out my bedroom.

However, once we got to check-in things became slightly different. Gatwick airport was freezing and I get extremely irritated when I am cold, so when each person in front of me is taking 5 bags on holiday with them I was getting cross.


When we finally reached the departure gate, I had a little crisis and decided that actually I didn´t want to go to cental america afterall and would Alan mind if I just stayed behind. I couldn´t breathe and I was adament my inhalers weren´t working despite the fact that I was shaking like a leaf, I had taken so much ventolin. But the ever patient Alan handed me a tissue and said that I was fine and I was getting on the plane.

I was fine once we had taken off and bought my mini bottle of Fish Eye merlot. The very considerate American woman who was sitting in front of me then decided she would recline her seat crushing me in the process. I politely asked her not too and she said that she couldn´t possibly not recline her seat for 10hrs. The air steward then came and informed me that it was the American woman´s right to recline her seat, regardless of the fact it would crush me - I was not chuffed, so I dug my knees into her back and went to sleep.

We finally got to Houston, where we had to change planes to get to Cancun. Unfortunatly we had to clear U.S Immigration for our 2hr stay in Houston Airport. We met the grumpiest immigration officier who insisted on grilling us separately about our plans - we are going to Mexico! But we now have another U.S stamp in our passports and will get another one on the way home.

We finally got to Cancun at 4am (UK time) or 10pm (Mexiacan time) and were exhausted but you´ll be pleased to hear we managed to stay awake long enough for a drink at the bar.

World Tour 2007 part 2

Having had to return to the UK due to lack of funds at the end of September, we always maintained that we would finish the tour. That time has come, if a little later than planned, we leave the UK tomorrow for Part 2.

After much deliberation on how to finish the tour, we decided to visit more of Central America. Mexico opened our eyes to the region and with the aid of Tucan Travel we are going back to visit more of Mexico and the rest of Central America.

We have booked a tour that will start on the 23rd December from Cancun where we will be holiday for five days before that. The tour itself takes us from Cancun through the centre of Mexico, down through Guatamala and into Honduras then on through Nicaragua and ending in Costa Rica.

In answer to the most asked question, we have no idea where we are going to be on Christmas day. The map above is all we have to go by so (we have no itinerary currently), we are thinking Chichen Itza maybe.

I think we will be celebrating Christmas a little early anyway, as our first five days will be spent in an all inclusive hotel next to the beach in Cancun. All we can eat and more importantly, drink. A nice holiday after our 11 weeks of hard work (we don't like to over do it).