From Mexico´s Caribbean Coast to Guatemala´s roadblocks, ruins and monkeys

Hello!

We´ve finally got some time to update the blog after a manic week or so travelling down from Mexico´s Caribbean coast to Antigua in Guatemala. We´ve decided to spend at least five days in lovely Antigua so that I can do a Spanish course in the mornings and because it´ll be nice to stay in one place for more than two days.

So, what have we been up to? Well, after the uber touristy Playa Del Carmen we travelled down the coast to the far more peaceful village of Tulum, where we stayed in a gorgeous wooden cabana by the sea (the view from the cabana is on the left). It was lovely going to sleep to the sounds of the waves and be cooled by the sea breezes in the evenings. We spent a morning at the Mayan ruins just down the road (the pic below left), and then went on a snorkelling trip to the reef, about 10 minutes from the beach by boat, and the second longest reef in the world, apparently. We saw plenty of tropical fish as well as two sunken canons.

From Tulum we headed to the border town of Chetumal before catching an early minibus shuttle through Belize to Flores in Guatemala. We had a hairy moment crossing the border between Belize and Guatemala as the Guatemalans were staging a strike against the government and had decided to set up road blocks at the border so no one could pass through. The immigration workers at Belize told us that a few tourists had tried to walk across but had been sent back, but we thought we´d try our luck, and the bus driver seemed pretty confident so we hoisted our backpacks on to our backs and went for it. We were greeted by roadblocks consisting of burning tyres and branches, a couple of which we could walk around and one that we had to climb over (a branch not a burning tyre, though we did have to walk through the smoke). It was a little scary as the locals were telling us to go back and had sticks. On the whole they were fine, just yelled ´Gringo!´a couple of times, but it was rather unnerving, especially as the driver told us to hurry because the police were on their way there through the jungle... We were in luck as a bus coming in the opposite direction was stuck in Guatemala, and our bus was stuck in Belize, so we just swapped over and had a peaceful rest of the journey to Flores, a tiny island surrounded by the giant lake Peten Itza. In front of our hostel was a little pier that we jumped off and into the serene waters of the lake. We had planned on swimming to the island (pictured, right) until we heard that the lake wasn´t crocodile-free!

During our stay we checked out yet more Mayan ruins, firstly to Yaxha (pron. Yash Ha), the third largest area of ruins in Guatemala. There were five of us on the tour, and we were the only people there, which was just fantastic. We saw Howler Monkeys, a spider monkey and many beautiful birds as well as the ruins, many of which are still hidden beneath the undergrowth. You can just about tell what the mounds represent by looking at their shapes though: great triangular mounds are the pyramids or temples and rectangular ones are palaces. The tour culminated in us climbing up the largest uncovered temple and watching the sun set over the rainforest - it really was quite something.


The next day we took the 4:30am bus to Tikal for the early morning tour of the second largest set of Guatemalan ruins. We had a fantastic guide who had grown up there and pointed out a crocodile, all three types of Toucan resident in the national park, as well as lots of Spider and Howler Monkeys, a tarantula and all sorts of other birds. We hiked for kilometre after kilometre and up and down pyramids for hours. The scariest climb of all was up and down Temple 5 (pics to the right and left). The steepest, creakiest and wobbliest of woooden ladders lead to the top (which must have been 100m above the ground). When we got to the top I had to cling to the back wall and couldn´t look over the edge, despite all the other ruins we´d clambered up, there was something extremely vertigo inducing at that one, and on the way down I couldn´t stop shaking (Mamma, you would have been having kittens - but the brave soldier prevailed). It isn´t something either of us would consider doing again!!


Having gorged ourselves on Mayan ruins and enjoyed a good few swims in the lake we boarded yet another minibus from Flores to a tiny town called Lanquin, about halfway from Flores to Antigua, where we stayed in the ´loft´ of one of the wooden huts peppering the hillside next to the river at the bottom of a valley. A steep wooden ladder lead us from the decking outside the dormitories up to a snug space beneath the thatched roof (still made in the Mayan style with palm-like leaves that they´d learned to only cut during a full moon. Any other time of the lunar cycle and they would break apart easily.) It was tricky for us to get up and down the ladder, so imagine our surprise when we woke up one morning to see a cat sleeping on the other bed! She´d made herself quite at home among our clothes!

From Lanquin we enjoyed a trip to Semuc Champey where we explored just 400m of caves that worm into the cliffside for 11km! We waded through the waters - and often had to swim in parts - armed with just a candle, at points having to climb up a rope while a waterfall pounded down on us. It was such good fun, and Mark did a jump into a pool from a rockface (pic below right). When we finally emerged back into the light we went ´tubing´on inflatable tyres down the river before heading to the spectacular pools at Semuc Champey. We hiked up the cliff to the viewpoint to take this pic of the pools before racing back down to swim in them. The water was beautiful, and at points deep enough to dive into from one pool to the next.






Another long minbus ride yesterday brought us to Antigua. It´s similar to the Mexican towns of Oaxaca and San Cristobal we visited earlier on - cobbled pavements, beautiful old churches and pastel coloured colonial houses - but it´s surrounded by volcanoes. We´re hoping to take a trip up one of them in the next couple of days and have been told to take marshmallows to toast them over the lava (deadly serious - we have seen photos of people doing just that!).

The hostel we´re staying in is very quiet and laid back, but we may move in with a local family while i am doing the course to really immerse ourselves in a bit of Guatemalan culture. We´ll keep you posted as to where we end up. Hope all is well back home. Lots of love xxx