Approaching Lake Atitlán, our shuttle bus comes over the hill high above the lake, giving a sweeping view down below. The picturesque and huge body of tranquil water, surrounded on all sides by soaring volcanic peaks. We craned our necks to catch sight of the view as we swing around another hairpin bend. Probably a…
Tag: locals
A bone rattling ‘relaxing’ trip to Semuc Champey
There has been a bit of a delay in publishing blogs recently … Guatemala was a mixture of busy travel and learning Spanish with slow wifi, so here’s a big catch up: The next part of our Guatemalan adventure was to make our way South from Flores to Semuc Champney, the highland area in the…
Five days in Flores : Our first stop in Guatemala
Crossing the Belize-Guatemala border with Ben and Grace went without issue. We grabbed a taxi in San Ignacio that took us to the border. Coting $5BZD each. There is a legitimate exit fee to be paid on leaving Belize of $40BZD each. We then headed through the Belize Customs without hassle and made the short…
ATM caves, Mayan chocolate making and Green Iguanas: San Ignacio, Belize
After a chilled four nights, we left Caye Caulker on the 9am Water taxi ($10US each). No need to prebook, just turn up at the dock 15minutes before it’s due to leave for its hour long journey to Belize City. Unlike our quiet boat to the island, this time we were jammed on, all spaces…
Can you Belize we saw a manatee!?
We spent our first day on Caye Caulker enjoying the Caribbean vibe and embracing the island motto of “go slow”; walking the sandy streets lined with bars, Reggae music and beachfront BBQs offering seasoned chicken and super fresh seafood. We also booked a tour for the following day with the ecologically responsible snorkelling company; “Captain…
Crossing the Mexico/Belize border: Chetumal to Caye Caulker
A few weeks overdue but we are finally getting round to updating the blog, starting with our crossing from Chetumal in Mexico to Caye Caulker in Belize. We chose to cross the border from Chetumal in the most South-Easterly tip of Mexico, where we stayed the night ahead of catching a boat to Caye Caulker….
The Vinales countryside and a final word on Cuba
After four nights in Habana we are ready to escape the hecticness, noise and smells for the countryside. The shared taxi ride from Habana to Vinales took about 4 hours, travelling West it initially looked liked it would be tough going as Mark was not feeling well and had spent some of the morning in…
American cars, rum tasting and salsa : Habana continued
Along side the crumbling architechture, another iconinc symbol of Cuba is the abundance of retro American cars. In our first 24 hours we saw our fair share of these throwbacks but as yet hadn’t ridden in one. We headed to the Central Park, where the majority of the best restored vehicles were sat waiting in…
Cuba… Our First 24 hours in Habana
Here are our two cheesy grinning faces at the back of the taxi after landing in Jose Marti airport, Habana. It’s hot, we waited over an hour and a half for our baggage, had our first Cuban haggle for a taxi (we paid 25 CUC equivalent to $25 USD, after being originally quoted 35) and…
Uxmal – a must see Mayan ruin (just ask the iguanas!)
Apart from eating our way around Merida, strolling the colonial streets of Vallodolid and people watching in the various plazas, we also took a day to drive out to Uxmal a Mayan ruin, about an hour drive South. And we are so glad we did – actually this ruin turned out to be our favourite…
Izamal – The yellow city
Just a short blog from us to share the photos we took at this striking yellow city. Perfect as a day trip from Merida, or (as we did) a stop-over from the drive back to Valladolid, we highly recommend at least two hours of your time to walk and explore the yellow city of Izamal….
Merida – eating Yucatan… and beyond
After visiting Chichen Itza, we arrived at our downtown Airbnb in Merida, greeted by the young son of our host. There was a bit of a language barrier and their two excited, vocal dogs did insist on licking our legs constantly, but he welcomed us to their casa, with it’s high ceilings and polished marble…
Mark and Ju - Round The World 