Brisbane to Barcelona: July 2011

Mexico

Saturday 16 - Tuesday 26 July 2011

We left Flores at 7:30 on Saturday and had a cramped, long minibus ride with a cranky driver, crossing two borders - from Guatemala to Belize and Belize to Mexico. The first border crossing took forever because we didn't really know where we were going and we had to wait whilst a Korean couple on the bus got their visa organised (no-one else on the bus needed a visa). We got across the border to Mexico around 6pm and had another 3.5 hour bus ride to Tulum, finally arriving at our hotel around 10pm.

On Sunday we checked out the town of Tulum and talked to a few diving operators about snorkelling and diving in the cenotes. We caught a taxi to one of the resorts on the beachfront and tried to create our own Corona moment and watched the sun go down. We wanted to buy some beers when we got back to Tulum Pueblo but it turned out that there is a law preventing sale of alcohol in Tulum on Sunday (supposedly so people actually go to work on Monday).

Our Corona moment

Sunset

On Monday we decided that we weren't going to go to Holbox Island so we extended our stay from 4 days in Tulum to 8 and just hung around the hotel, improving our times on minesweeper!

On Tuesday we rented bikes and snorkels and rode first to the Mayan ruins on the beach, which were absolutely beautiful and then rode to one of the cenotes (caves filled with rainwater) where we went snorkelling. (We bought a cheap underwater camera but haven't had the film developed yet so photos will follow later)

Ruin site - on a cliff above amazingly blue Carribean water

There were iguanas everywhere

Beach at the ruins

Kitty in front of one of the buildings

Lawrie at the ruins

View into Gran Cenote

Tulum is the most laid back town on the Mayan Riviera, so we decided to head up the coast to Playa del Carmen on Wednesday to check out the madness there. We spent a few hours shopping on the main drag and we got hassled every five seconds by someone trying to sell us stuff. We were really happy about where we were staying and had a quick swim and drink and headed back to peace and quiet of Tulum. We stayed in a great hotel in Tulum called the Secret Garden and when we got back to the room we found a really cute present from the housekeeper.

Towel swans!

Thursday was another quiet day and on Friday we caught a colectivo to Cenote Dos Ojos, another freshwater cavern, which was nice but not as good as Gran Cenote. Lawrie decided to do a dive in the caverns, so he did that on Saturday and he said it was amazing. Sunday was our last day in Tulum so we took it easy again and packed our bags.

On Monday, we paid our Mexican exit fee and caught the bus up to Cancun, where we booked in to our hostel, bought bus tickets to the airport for the next morning at 4:30am and spent our last night in Latin America watching the final episodes of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on the laptop!

Tikal

Wednesday 13 - Saturday 16 July

We were collected from our hostel around 8:15am, where we drove the 1km into town in the fully loaded minivan, waited, swapped passengers again before finally leaving around 9am.

We thought it was going to be a 4 hour trip (that's what the Lonely Planet said) but there had been lots of rain and landslides, which had closed the road, and so we had to backtrack 1.5 hours to Cobán, spend another hour picking people up and finally got on our way around 11:30. The rest of the trip was uneventful but long and we arrived to Flores at 5pm.

We were totally worn out by the big trip and Kitty was really sore so we didn't do very much the next day except eat at the lakeside and do some washing.

On Friday we caught the 7am bus to the Mayan ruins at Tikal and arrived around 8am. We thought we only paid for transport but when we got there, our bus guide also guided us around the site for around an hour.

Tikal is pretty incredible - after it was abandoned in the 10th or 11th century, it was swallowed up by the jungle and remained covered and undiscovered by modern settlers until the mid 1800s. It was mainly excavated by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania in the 1950s to 70s but still the majority of the ruins remain covered by vegetation. It's amazing to climb the pyramids and look out over jungle that once would have been a city and surrounding farmland.

Lawrie was the first one on the bus to climb
a pyramid. This one was on a plaza designed
to carry sounds so, even when he was just speaking,
we could hear him down below

First view of Temple I

Looking over the jungle to Temple V

Taking a rest and trying to work out where we are

Behind the Great Pyramid in the Lost World

View from Temple IV back to Temple I

Building on the Plaza of the Seven Temples

Stairs to the top of Temple V

Trail down to Temple VI

Kitty on top of Temple VI

Temple VI

Inscriptions

Northern Acropolis from Temple II

Temple I from Temple II

Mask of Chaac in the Northern Acropolis

Temple I from Northern Acropolis

Lake Petén Itzá in the afternoon

Lanquin & Semuc Champey

9 - 13 July 2011

After coming down from our camping trip up Volcán Pacaya, we grabbed a massive lunch (including fresh mint iced-tea) before packing our things for the 2pm departure. We weren't sure if there was an ATM in Lanquin so Lawrie ran off to the ATM in town at the same time the driver arrived for our shuttle (15 minutes early). Luckily he didn't leave, but in the rush to grab things we forgot our books!

As we drove out of town we were hit by a massive storm, lightning striking trees near us and hail. Thankfully it only lasted two minutes. We were the only ones in the van until Guatemala city, where we picked up three more people. We arrived in Cobán in the dark, still a fair distance from our goal, where we swapped drivers and headed out to El Retiro. We checked in, nearly stacking in on the slippery paths made from river rocks and promptly fell asleep.

We awoke Wednesday to a beautiful view at El Retiro in the morning, thankfully it wasn't raining all night, it was just the sound of the river. We had breakfast (very tasty!) and set out to explore the caves and to book a rappelling tour.

The view from our balcony.

Once at the caves (only 30 min walk away) we took ourselves on a tour. The caves were extensive and slippery however some sticky patches (guano) existed...luckily they had a hand washing basin at the entrance!

Where the river exits the cave system.

The formations are quite pretty.

The toad.

It was quite a large main chamber.

After returning to El Retiro, we grabbed a beer to relax before Kitty pointed out to Lawrie that there was a guy surfing in the river. They'd strung a line across the river with an inner tube bungee system attached to an old door. It was great fun, but needed some more rocker to really get on the plane.

Lawrie surfing in the river.

We met a few Brisbanites in the hostel and had a few beers that night. The wet and slippery paths finally claiming a victim, with Kitty slipping off the balcony stairs. A bump to the head and very sore hips and sides were the results (they put in a hand rail the next morning and fixed the loose steps). Thursday was spent sleeping/sore and for Lawrie, surfing the river.

Friday we went on a tour to Semuc Champey, which is a limestone bridge across a powerful river. Our first stop was a two hour tour, by candle light (and non- waterproof cap lamp) through a wet cave system. We swam and slid through the cave, went under a waterfall inside and got to jump into a deep pool! Unfortunately the cap lamp didn't hold up to well and wouldn't turn off! It was a great tour but no photos as we don't have a waterproof camera.

Waterfall coming out of the cave.

Next up we took tubes up to near where the river emerges from under Semuc Champey, paddling furiously to get into the best rapids. After this Lawrie jumped off the bridge (9.5m) a few times before we walked up to the park and to the mirador for a view of the pools. It started to rain as we got near the lookout but we got a quick few photos!

The river and forest were very pretty.

Lawrie on the bridge

Spectacular on a clear day, pretty cool on a rainy one!

We walked back down to the pools for a swim & saw where the river went under the limestone bridge. There was a massive amount of water here, but our guide said that sometimes the river goes completely over the top of the pools. The top pools are filled by little creeks from the mountain side and also from underground springs.

Looking upstream at the top of Semuc Champey

Where the water goes under, Kitty in background.

Beautiful spot out of the rain near a cliff edge.

The rain stopped occasionally.

The water had an amazing colour.

After the pools we headed back to El Retiro, had another huge buffet dinner and had an early night, ready for our trip to Flores and Tikal

Antigua and around

4-9 July 2011

Our bus to Guatemala was meant to leave at 2:30am and go straight through without changing, arriving at 6:30pm to Guatemala City, from where we could catch a taxi to Antigua. Guatemala City is pretty dangerous and we wanted to spend as little time there as possible. What actually happened was the bus didn't leave until 3:15am, we had really slow border crossings (especially into Honduras - and we only spent 4 hours there!), we changed buses in San Salvador and had to wait for 2 hours there and arrived into Guatemala City at 10:30pm at night. Luckily the security guard was really helpful and organised us a bus company authorised taxi that took us to Antigua without any trouble but it was a long and stressful trip.

On Tuesday we walked around the town looking at the beautiful old buildings and churches. Some only have the facade left and are just ruins inside, which looks very cool. We organised a trip to Lake Atitlan for the next day.

Building on the main plaza

Arco de Santa Catalina

Iglesia de la Merced

La Merced from the front

Arco de Santa Catalina from the other side

Outside of Las Capuchinas

Old front of las Capuchinas

Inside the chapel

Main courtyard

Fountain in las Capuchinas

Lovely gardens

The cells

Garden and main part of convent

Domes in the chapel

Another beautiful ruined building

Lake Atitlan is a lake situated in the caldera of a really old volcano, with new volcanos surrounding it. It is incredible beautiful. We stayed at an ecolodge on the shores of the lake at Santa Cruz and had a chilled afternoon playing darts and pool.

Volcano and lake by night

Volcano and lake by day

The next morning we got up early and went kayaking in the lake to San Marcos, where we had breakfast, jumped off a huge platform and bought some artesanías. We walked back to Santa Cruz but the region is known for armed robberies so it wasn't the most relaxing walk ever. We packed up our stuff, caught a ferry back to Panajachel and a minibus back to Antigua.

Kitty in the kayak

Lawrie jumping off the platform

Flying high with a volcano background

A different perspective.

Lawrie didn't trust his flipping skills from 8.5m

Fisherman enjoying the show.

Farmland on the walk back

This hotels decks are now underwater.

The highlight of our time around Antigua was the overnight trip to Volcan Pacaya. We left Antigua at 2pm on the Friday and hiked for an hour and a half up to our campsite. We left our stuff and walked up to the lava fields. Volcan Pacaya used to have rivers of lava flowing down its sides but exploded in the beginning of 2010 and the lava is no longer there. There are still heat vents on the sides and smoke coming from the top. We roasted marshmallows on the heat vents - volcano roasting is definitely the optimal method for cooking marshmallows. We then pulled up a seat near a heat vent - hmmm, toasty - opened the box wine and watched the sun go down behind Volcanes Fuego, Acatenango and Agua. Just amazing. Just as we thought that it couldn't get any better we saw Fuego belch lava from the top. Back at the campsite we had dinner, finished off our Flor de Caña (awesome Nicaraguan rum) and went to bed.