Home sweet home.

After 25 hours of flying, 11 hours of layovers and 1 missed flight, we are home at last! Unfortunately we both feel like the holiday was short (even though it wasn't) and wish that we were still overseas! Still, it is nice to come home to good weather and we're looking forward to hitting the beaches over the coming weekends.

Hope you have enjoyed sharing our travels with us, see you around!

Mel and Sam.

Another photos post

Sandboarding on Volcano Cerro Negro, Nicaragua

Parque Central in Leon, Nicaragua

View over Granada, Nicaragua from the bell tower of La Merced church

The route to get to the beach, Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. The cows were still there on the way back too.

Ometepe Island from a hammock

The scariest thing we have done so far on the trip- boat ride back from Ometepe Island. It involved huge waves (despite the fact that we were on a lake- albeit a very, very big lake), a crazily rocking boat, far too many people (I was one of many sitting on the floor) and when we got back into port, there was no room at the dock! So we had to climb from out boat to another boat, then from that boat to the dock using these walkways and "hand railings"- that meaning planks of wood held at each end by the boat staff!

 Zip lining in Monteverde, Costa Rica

Hi everyone! Here we are, almost at the end of our trip in what will probably be one of the last posts for our blog. 6 weeks has gone ridiculously fast and neither of us wants to come back home! So much has happened that I don´t feel like I can really write about it so it´s just a photos post this time.

At the moment we´re in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Tonight we´re visiting a hot springs spa resort (it´s a hard life) and tomorrow a horse riding trip to a waterfall for a swim. Day after that, it´s on to San Jose then home =(

It´s been an awesome trip, ups and downs of course and a few minor illnesses but, overall, I can´t really complain! Only 3 more sleeps...wah.

No, gracias.

Happy new year! Since leaving Antigua (for the second time) we headed to Copan for our one day stop in Honduras, then to Suchitoto for our one day stop in El Salvador. We've come back to the heat and warm weather, especially now that we're in Nicaragua.

We stayed in Leon for 3 nights and spent one day hiking up Cerro Negro Volcano to sandboard down. You could choose standing or sitting and we opted for sitting, since the people said it was harder than snowboarding and we've never even tried that. Turned out to be a smart idea and one of the people who stood ended up with a gigantic hole in the bum of his shorts from falling and sliding down. The people sitting had these little jumpsuits to protect us a bit but they were a couple short and one of the guys in our group who voluteered to go without one ended up taking a huge chunk of skin off both his forearms!

We had New Years Eve party on a private island which had a party with about 100 people. It was sucha  beautiful spot but so awkward to get to (and even more awkward to get away from). Totally isolated and really quiet- it had a backpackers on it but some of the girls staying there who we knew said that they'd had the place to themselves for the last 3 days!

Today we bused over to Granada, which seems to be a nicer city than Leon, with a good restaurant district that I'm looking forward to testing out! Here for 3 nights before going to Ometepe Island for a couple of nights which I'm looking forward to.

Can't believe the trip is nearing it's end already! Only 10 days before we leave :(

Pictures to come later when I have my USB converter thingymajiggy with me.

La cuenta, por favor.

Feliz navidad! After Flores (where we went to Tikal from) we went to Rio Dulce, where we stayed in another jungle lodge (thankfully with better amenities). The weather was shocking the first day but thankfully cleared up the second day so we could take a boat trip down to Livingston, a Garifuna town on the ocean with fantastic seafood.

After Rio Dulce, we headed to Antigua for the night then to Panajachel for Christmas. Panajachel is a town on Lake Atitlan in the Guatemalan highlands. Fortunately we had good weather (after the pouring rain in Caye Caulker, San Ignacio and the first day in Rio Dulce). We had a yummy Christmas eve dinner then on Christmas day took a boat trip on the lake. We had breakfast at a place called Casa del Mundo, a hotel built right on the cliffs on the side of the lake which is completely isolate from any town and you have to catch a boat to get there. The food was amazing and the views even better! We visited a few other little towns on the lake before watching sunset from Pana.

We're back in Antigua now and did the volcano climb of Pacaya yesterday. It's apparently one of the only places in Central America where you can see flowing lava- which was cool but to be honest, I'm not sure it was worth the 2 hour drive then 2 hour hike on dust and volcanic rock where you seemed to slide backwards half the distance you moved forward with each step! I can tell you, our quads, calves and gluts got a massive workout! At the top, where the lava river was, we could toast marshmellows over it, but some of the excitement wore off and the anxiety set in when Sam's shoes started melting... She wasn't the only one to have had that problem, as the shoe soles scattered along the path would suggest.

Tomorrow we leave on a early, early bus to Copan in Honduras. Hopefully good weather awaits us there!

Pictures from the last...goodness knows how long.

Chichen Itza, Mexico

 Isla Mujeres, Mexico

"Chicken bus" we had to ride for around 5 hours across the border into Belize

 

Snorkelling in Belize

Mel's caving trip to ATM cave in Belize

Sam´s canoeing trip to Barton Creek Caves, Belize

 

 

Tikal, Guatemala

Arright?

A quick post from Belize- we finished up our last few days in Playa del Carmen and Cancun in Mexico. Liked Isla Mujeres (a small island off Cancun) and liked the beach Tulum (but too many tourists at the ruins). Didn't like Playa or Cancun much, too touristy and the beaches didn't live up to our expectations.

We were on Caye Caulker, a tiny island in Belize the last couple of days. Went on a snorkelling tip in the worst weather we've have so far! We were sitting on the front of the boat getting drenched by rain and clinging onto the sides of the boat with the wind doing its best on the way out to the reef thinking, "This was a mistake", but when we got there the rain stopped for most of the day and the visibility was amazing! Best snorkelling I've done so far, that's for sure. We saw tonnes of fish, swam with sharks, rays and turtles. Will definitely upload  some pictures when I get a chance.

Now we are in San Ignacio, staying in an interesting "hotel". More like school camp really, with tiny cabins and eco toilets (you chuck a handful of sawdust in the toilet to "flush") and shared showers and toilets.

More news later!

Konnichiwa, senorita.

Hello from Merida! We had our second day in San Cristobal visiting the indigenous Mayan villages (where Sam got to dress up as a Mayan bride) and, in particular, a Mayan-Catholic church in San Juan Cholula. A perfect example of Catholic religion with Mayan traditions, that is, religious synchrotism (according to our guide). Apparently the church was abandoned by the Catholic church for 200 years after the villagers killed the last priest sent there (the next priest was sent just last year). Over that time they developed some interesting "rituals", including the use of shamans, sacrifice of live chickens in the church, laying of pine needles on the floor (to absorb up the bad feelings brought in by visitors) and the use of soft drinks to expel bad feelings (by burping). Unfortunately you can´t take pictures inside the church as it thought to steal part of their souls/the saints spirits, but it was a pretty fascinating scene with candles stuck to the ground over the entire church and a live chicken being pinned down by a girl.

The next day we caught the bus to Palenque (a loooong, winding bus ride through the mountains). The hotel in Palenque was really intersting- they were these bungalow-hippy things in the jungle, and the hotel had a restuarant that had really great live music every night (mostly rasta and jazz).

Palenque were one of our favourite ruins we´ve visited so far, as it´s set in middle of the jungle with monkeys and giant lizards climbing over the stairs. After the ruins we went to Misol-Ha and Agua Azul waterfalls. We went swimming at Agua Azul, which had these natural "swimming holes" below the waterfall. The water was beautiful and we didn´t want to leave!

The following day we travelled to Merida, which is sadly not as nice as we had hoped. The guidebook gave us the impression it would be similar to Oaxaca, but we didn´t find that to be the case. It´s a rougher neighborhood and the zocalo doesn´t have the same atmosphere.

Today we went on a day trip to visit some cenotes (natural swimming holes formed in caves) around the area. They were BEAUTIFUL. The water temperture was perfect and climbing down into the cave you could just see this amazing turqoise water with stalactites and vines hanging from the roof. Again, we just didn´t want to leave!

Tomorrow we head to Playa del Carmen (beach time, yeah baby!). There are also a few changes to the itinerary- much less time in Honduras (due to the upcoming election) and visiting El Salvador instead.

No me gusta!

Just a quick post today- we went to Monte Alban yesterday which was great because it was so quiet, kind of felt like we had the site to ourselves. We hit the markets in Oaxaca and we hit them hard- both morning and evening! I think we are going to have to slowly leave behind clothes and things we´ve brought with us to make room for the new things we`re buying.

The night bus from Oaxaca to San Cristobal was a bit rough, 8 hours leaving at 8pm and they put a movie on and the screen was right in front of me and Sam! So we not only had badly dubbed Spanish, but also the glare from the tv screens stopping us from getting a decent sleep! Not to mention the 3am toilet stop. Seriously, 3am???

A couple of recent interesting incidents include getting hit on by a Mexican policeman and fielding an arse grab by a pervy old man on the street.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Uno, Dos, Tres.

Hola! The last day in Mexico City we walked down to the zocalo to see the flag raising...or so we hoped! Unfortunately, even though we were there on time, the flag was already up! The square was still great to see though- we checked out the catheral, saw policemen on horses wearing their official sombreros (highlight) and grabbed some breakfast on the way back.

Later that morning we cuaght the bus to Puebla, a city aout 1.5 hours away. We found out our hotel was right on the zocalo so the location was perfect for wandering around and checking out the city. They have so many beautiful churches (the churches we´ve seen here in Mexico easily rival the churches in Europe for their ornate designs and overall gold shiny-ness). One other cool thing about Puebla is the hawkers selling balloons in the zocalo- they don´t hassle you but they look pretty funny with their Spongebob Squarepants balloons mixed up with their Virgin Mary balloons. We also sampled the local specialty, mole, which is a sauce which has chocolate and chili (and another 15 to 42 ingredients, depending on what recipe is used) which is liberally poured over anything and everything (enchiladas in our case).

The following day we caught the bus to Oaxaca, another city with a great zocalo filled with trees and park benches. There are restaurants all around the edges which are a great place to have dinner, especially since the zocalo is so lively, with live bands and dance demonstrations every night. Like Puebla, it also has some beautiful churches.

Today we went to Teotitlan so see a Zapotec weaving demonstration, saw the Zapotec ruins at Mitla, went to see the petrified (mineralised) waterfall and saw the world´s fattest tree (approx. 51m diameter). We als sampled mezcal, an alcohol made from agave plant (like tequila, but a different type of agave) in many flavours- from the original worm-containing variety, to cappucino, passionfuit and coconut flavours.

On the cards tomorrow is a visit to Monte Alban, then the night bus to San Cristobal de las Casas.

Buenos noches!

Hola!

19 hours of flying, 8 hours of layovers and 5 nauseating aeroplanes meals later we arrived in Mexico City. After a night's rest, we lept straight into things today.

Highlights included visiting Teotihuacan, having our first genuine Mexican meal (yum yum delicioso!) and taking sombrero photos.

Lowlights included being stalked by Mexican men at Teotihuacan who followed us around for 10 minutes, staring and giggling like school-girls.

Tomorrow we leave for Puebla, hopefully after catching the flag raising ceremony in Plaza de la Constitucion.

Here's hoping.

My sister Sam and I are 6 days, 17 hours and 5 minutes out from embarking on our 6.5 week trip to Central America! On the itinerary are: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

I'm getting more and more excited each day (note the countdown) and have to keep reminding myself that I still have exams to get through before then. In a procrastination effort, I have set up this blog despite the fact that nothing blog-worthy is likely to happen between now and the day we leave.

I really have no idea how much internet access I'll have while we're gone- this blog could be fantastic, or it could also be an epic fail.

Here's hoping, huh.