2 weeks of sun in Puerto

Tasty sunsets!!
Puerto Escondido
Comp winner in red
Bum!!!!

Well, as our travels draw to a close, we sit here in an internet café in Mexico city, bronzed and contented after 2 week of sun, sea, sand, surfing, good times, great people and a few too many mojitos!! And prepare for a final fling in NYC!

The two weeks of many s´ was in Puerto Escondido! A chilled beach “resort” - in a hostally chilled still Mexican influenced sense of the word. The place was perfect, we wanted somewhere, cheap, sunny, hot with a bit of a vibe and some good food, and after a little scratching beneath the surface all was satisfied. We stayed in a hostel recommended by a Belgian couple who were painting it as their friends ran it, and it was great, basic cheap and chilled. We spent our day’s sun bathing reading and surfing, which we are converts for, it’s such good fun!! Getting a good dumping by a wave is hilarious. Puerto is known as the MEXPIPE as it gets huge swells resulting in some of the best “off beach” surf in the world. Whilst we were there they held the PMX surf comp, which was great! Real good buzz.

We found a beach called La Punta, about 30 mins walk south where they have smaller perfect learner waves. It was also really quiet there. In between surfing we sat and watched Stingrays jumping (I also stepped on one!) pods of dolphins rounding up fish just off the shore, and a few ozzie guys saw humpbacks jumping!! Amazing!! And this combined with some spectacular sunsets equaled all in all a perfect end to our time in Central America, which like south has opened our eyes to so many wonderful cultures.


See you all soooo soon!!

Guatemala and Tikal.......now MEHICO!!!!!

Loving the Spider monkeys!

Jude and a temple

Temples of Tikal peeping through the jungle

Sunrise over Tikal

Hola Chicos,

We are in Mehico!!!!

Our journey from San Ignacio in Belize to Flores in Guatemala went without a hitch. Flores is an island on Lake Peten Itza, lovely little town with lots of narrow cobbled streets. Our reasons for going to Flores were to use it as a base to visit Tikal and then as a starting point to hop over to Mexico. Stayed in a huge rambling hostel called Los Amigos, great and definitely the place to be in Flores!!!!

So, we got up at 3am in order to be at the top of Temple IV to watch the sunrise over the temples at Tikal!!!!!! The early rise was worth it, we had to hike through the jungle for over ½ hr in the pitch black listening to the growls of howler monkeys! Tikal is the most important Mayan ruin site, hidden in the rainforest, it consists of towering temples, pyramids and loads of other smaller buildings that made up the royal palace. Many of the ruins have yet to be excavated. Pretty impressive and very mysterious. Saw lots of spider monkeys while looking around the ruins too! They're so cool!

The following day we were up early again, this time to catch a 5am bus that would take us to the Mexican border, from there we got on a tiny boat that took us down the river to Frontera Corozal in Chiapas region of Mexico. Once back on land we caught a minibus (the driver wins points for squashing 20 people into a 12 seater bus!) to Palenque. We stayed in a lodge in the jungle in El Panchan, just outside of Palenque, for one night and then the next day made our way to San Cristobal stopping at 2 waterfalls, Agua Azul and Misoha, and a river, Agua Clara, with a very dodgy wooden bridge, on the way.

San Cristobal is such a pretty city, full of brightly coloured biuldings. It's located in the highlands of Mexico, so in the night-time it was freeeeeeeeezing, first time we have been properly cold for ages! Fortunately during the day it was bright blue skies and sunshine. Spent a couple of days there sightseeing, great city to just amble around, and then it was time to find a beach so we can catch some rays before heading back to Winter.........................................

Honduras to Belize...

The elusive water taxi!!
Our Cabaña at Ruthies.
Our own private island.
Snorkling off our porch at Tobacco caye.

Well after a few hectic days of travel through Honduras, spending a night at San Pedro Sula, which has little to report back apart from the football fanatical taxi driver who bought us some nuts and gave us a mini tour, and then a second night at a place called Puerto Cortes, which is the main port in the whole of central america, again not much going on there! Our reason for visiting was to catch an elusive taxiboat to Belize. The boat was rumoured to leave once or twice a week, and basically if we missed it, we would have ended up with an extra few days of chicken buses!! No thanks!! Luckily, after a night in a semi seedy US style motel room, we managed to find the boat which took us to Dangriga in Belize, not our original choice but our only option!!.... Just before reaching Dangriga we were stopped by the Belize coast guard, and behold....THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, yeap, they speak English in Belize!!!!!!

Dangriga is the home town to the indigenous people of Belize, the Garifuna. We stayed with Ruthie and her husband, both pure Garifuna descendants, in one of her cabañas on the beach, and had home cooked breakfast and dinner!! Magic!!

After 2 nights there we took a 5 mile boat ride out to Tobacco caye. A sand island on the barrier reef!! It was so nice here we stayed 5 instead of 2 nights. We went there just at the right time as the holiday season starts in about 2 weeks, so it was like having our own private island!! We spent our days reading, sunbathing, and as the island is on the reef you can snorkle with eagle rays, spanish rays and yellow rays right off the beach plus beautiful coral and masses of reef fish!! The boat ride back was fun.........3 meter swells in a small flat bottom fiberglass boat with an outboard motor!! Wet, wild and never again!!

After the caye we headed towards the Guatemalan border. We spent our last night in Belize in San Ignacio, a little town near the border, staying in a guest house run by the Central American version of Mr Miyagi (remember him, the teacher from Karate kid!). The next morning we visisted Cahal Pech, the oldest known mayan ruins and our first taste, they didn´t disappoint. A little more magical than Inca ruins due to the fact they are hidden in the jungle, but not as complex and majestic. After this we headed for Guatemala...........................

Hope all is well.

xxx