Category: travel

Sadly, today was our last real day with the tour and of our Central American journey. It meant saying farewell to people we had shared the last few weeks with as well as saying adios to the amazing places we had been and food we had eaten. I don’t think I will get another taco like I have had in Mexico.

Anyway, on to our day. It was another action packed day, as you get a bit on this blog. While it was tempting to chill for the day in Playa, how could we when we knew there was so much else to see and do outside of town? Deiber was again a champion today, organising a private van for a bunch of us to squeeze in as many activities as we could. So on the agenda was more ruins, more cenotes, and more sea turtles. Win!

First destination was to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. Now we had seen our share of ruins to this point, but Tulum had something the others didn’t… a seaside locale.

So off we went and we arrived about an hour later. First thing was the the number of tourists here was heaps more than the other sites we had visited. It was a little odd given that it had none of the prestige of the other places we had visited (especially nearby Chichen Itza), however it made sense as it was a short trip to these from nearby Playa and Cancun, meaning those folk enjoying a sun and beach filled holiday can get a taste of ancient culture.

Joining the throng, we spent an hour and a half wandering the site. Much smaller than the other we had visited, it was still great due to the dramatic coastal location. These were clearly the Mayans who knew about “location, location, location”.

This was also fun as we were rubbing shoulders with big numbers of iguanas, casually wandering around, and clearly used to the tourists. They were happy just to hang out and were not disturbed by us tourists putting cameras in their faces.

This was also the nicest site to just sit back and relax, with lots of shady grassy places to just sit and soak up where we were. It was glorious.

But we couldn’t do that all day. Instead it was time for our next stop… cenotes! If you remember we had a ball at some ceontes early in our trip. In just 10 minutes we arrived at our swimming hole and it was incredible. In fact I thought it was quite a bit more picturesque than our first ones we went to. Much more crowded, but many places to explore, as we could swim amongst stalactites and stalagmites (I hope that is geologically accurate), into small caves, and see more fish swimming with us.

There were a number of cenotes there, all interconnected by a cave system. We weren’t that adventurous, however many scuba divers were and it was weird to see the odd light and frogman underneath us as we swam.

After an hour we had enough, so it was back in the van to our final stop… chasing sea turtles! I was super excited for this, as it was a chance to see more of the little fellas from when we were in Belize. This was a different experience, as rather than boat out, we could swim out from shore.

Again, this was a very bust beach, but it seemed to be the norm in this part of Mexico. That didn’t stop Kate and I getting out there in the water, and finding a couple of turtles to ourselves, which we followed for a while. It was so relaxing to gently swim after them, watching them graze on sea grass and come up for air every now and then.

It was already 3pm, and it was time to head back to Playa del Carmen to wind down. And we had impeccable timing. As we drove back the heavens opened and the rain came down. And came down. And did not stop.

In fact from this point on, blue skies were gone and replaced with torrents of rain. The rain gods were saying farewell.

After a quick run to the bus station to organise airport transport for tomorrow, as well as a cheeky street taco, it was the sad occasion of the farewell dinner. Again, it was a bittersweet occasion. Nice to be with new friends, but sad to say goodbye. It was especially sad to say goodbye to our new German friends Joern and Iris who had been with us since day one in Cancun, and our trip leader Deiber. He was unbelievable. I know it is the job of the leader to make sure everything goes to plan, but he constantly stepped above the call, and to cap it off was one of the nicest guys you would ever meet. Kate and I were super lucky.

So after a last Mexican dinner and lots of hugs it was time for a final drink with some of the crew and off to pack for our journey back to the US tomorrow.

If there was only one downside to all our travels, it was the handful of LONG travel days we had to do. But it was completely understandable given how much ground we were covering over the three weeks. Alas, today was another epic travel day, but our last (not counting the journey home) of the trip.

So with another early start, it was back on the water taxi to Belize City for our journey back into Mexico. What made this epic was not only the distance, but that we had boat, then bus, then border crossing, then public bus, all to get to our final destination of the tour, Playa del Carmen.

A minor delay slowed us down early on in Belize City, but after that it was relatively smooth sailing all the way. The border crossing was a bit of a pain, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been. In fact aside from some small delays from the number of people travelling, it all went super smooth, and next thing we knew we were back in Mexico and boarding another luxurious ADO public bus for our 5 hours to Playa.

All quite drained from the travel day (about 12 hours by this point), it was a quick freshen up and out for dinner.

Playa del Carmen was quite a different experience from our previous Mexican experiences. Located about an hour south of Cancun, we were staying in the heart, and it was definitely the most touristy experience we had to date. In fact downtown Playa del Carmen felt just like Surfers Paradise back at home, complete with the endless junky tourist souvenir stores, normal shopping stores, and bars offering cheap drinks.

Kate and I wandered the main strip for a bit, but felt that by the time we did one side we had seen all it had to offer. It was 11pm by this point, and we felt we needed some rest before another big day of exploring tomorrow.

Howdy all! Here is another flurry of catch up posts. Today was Jan 1st 2014, and was our third day in Caye Caulker. Since it was a late night and we had done quite a lot the day before, this was all about chilling out, Belize style.

So with a very late start, it was off for a wander for some breakfast/lunch.

And to be honest, you know what? We didn’t do much else for the day. We just wandered around, relaxed by the water, wandered, relaxed, etc etc. While we could have done a little more, we were hampered by being New Years Day, meaning a lot of the tourism companies were closed for the day. We didn’t mind, we were happy to slow down.

So we enjoyed a Caribbean sunset again and a lazy dinner, watching the pelicans come and go. We knew we had a busy day tomorrow travelling back into Mexico, but regardless, it was nice to set the tone of the first day of the year.

Here’s to many more of these days in 2014.

It’s New Years Eve! Hard to believe as to be honest I had not really been paying attention to what day it was let alone date. But we had an action packed day ahead.

We had a full day boat tour booked. There was a lot of reef to explore, so most of us from the tour decided to jump on the sail boat and head out for the full day. This gave us 3 separate places to snorkel with lots of opportunity to see the local marine life.

So on we jumped the Ragga Gal with our two crew and sailed out for an hour to our first stop, the Coral Garden. This was a relaxed place to explore the coral, look out for fish, and get used to our snorkeling gear. It was great to see all the small and mid sized fish poking around and darting all around us.

After this we had a chance for some lunch (mmm, fish stew) before a quick jaunt to our next stop. This was ominously named Shark Ray Alley, and when we arrived we saw why. At the bottom of the ladder into the water were both sharks AND sting rays. Oh man!

So what did we do? In we jumped! The Nurse Shark hanging around the ladder was quite unnerving, but after a quick while we got used to the presence of the sharks swimming about, only a couple of feet away. The sting rays were also incredible, swimming right up to us. our guide fed some and next thing I knew I had a massive sting ray only inches away from me. It felt super soft, like velvet, and was another of those awestriking moments. In the Caribbean, swimming with rays and sharks.

The last stop was Hol Chan Marine Reserve. This gave us a chance to see some different marine life… turtles! in our 45 minute snorkel around we got to see a beautiful Green Turtle, just hanging out, eating some plants off the bottom, and coming up for air. I could have watched it for hours. We also saw some spooky Moray Eels (man they are evil looking) as well as a Spotted Eagle Ray which was majestic. Its spots were incredible and was possibly the most amazing this I saw (and that is saying something).

Alas it was time to get back in the boat and head back to Caye Caulker. To swim in the coral and with the marine life was a perfect way to spend our New Years Eve. To cap it off the Rum Punch flowed freely on the boat was we sailed in.

On the sail home we had fun throwing food to the gulls following us. One had no feet which was super crazy. Our first mate called him our guardian, keeping us safe. I liked to think so.

In we docked and we had some time to chill before our next engagement… group New Years dinner. There was a bunch of G Adventures groups in town and we all spent it at Wish Willys BBQ joint. There we were treated to lots of meats and seafood coming off the barbeques. So. Much. Food. Oh, and also lots more Rum Punch.

The dinner culminated in the smashing of a pinata (of course) which was then our cue to head back to the Split to see in the New Year. While busy Kate & I were expecting way more people out and about. Bu the vibe was relaxed and we danced our way to 80’s classics and the stroke of midnight.

And with fireworks on the pier and a balmy Caribbean night, we said hello to 2014.

Now that was a day. I woke up feeling remarkably good after my epic 12 hour day of spelunking. The latish start certainly didn’t hurt.

This was another travel day but not a huge one. The destination… the Carribean! Specifically Caye Caulker. Oh yeah! Talk about extremes … from the jungle to the sea.

The most exciting thing about today was that we were riding some public transport, namely CHICKEN BUS! It was not the extravagant chicken buses of Guatemala, but still a chicken bus nonetheless. It was a crazy experience. Basically we all stood on the side of the road hoping that the next bus heading to Belize City would stop for us all. Thankfully, with the rain starting to fall, the first one did and in we piled.

The bus then got chock full of people on the way to Belize City. The ride was not as crazy as I thought it might have been, and alas there were no chickens riding the bus, but it was still fun. After a couple of hours we arrived in the city and headed straight to the port for a water taxi.

The weather straight away hit us. Nice and hot and humid. We were on the coast alright! Along came the water taxi and we headed off the coast to glorious Caye Caulker, our home for the next 3 days.

And oh boy. Palm trees, reggae music, beautiful blue water… this was it! We dropped our gear off at the hotel, and headed straight to the water’s edge for some lunch, whilst staring out into the gorgeous waters.

After lunch was a quick briefing about snorkeling options for the next day. Being located at the second largest barrier reef in the world meant we had plenty to do. With tomorrows trip locked in it was time to settle in with some beers in the sun.

We hung out at the Split… a bar where the island actually got split in two during a hurricane in years gone by. It was the perfect chance to drink cheap beers and dive off the pier into the beautiful waters.

Sunset came and went. Some time to freshen up and then off for dinner and then next thing we knew the evening wound to a close. I could get used to this.