Deemaguire

Getting up at the ungodly hour of 4am was actually OK. Reason being we had though that the minibus taking us to Tikal was going to get us there in time to climb a temple to watch teh sun rise. Of course no such thing happened - or could have happened - as we found out while watching the sun rise from the minibus seats that the gate of the site didn´t even open till 6am, well after sun rise. So feeling a little disappointed at this, we arrived at the site. Tikal was the thing I was looking forward to the most on this trip so I was very excited about arriving there. It´s one of the largest Mayan sites and it was dominate from about 600 BC to about 1200 AD, no one´s really ... read more

Wow! Wow! Wow! is all I can say!! Absolutely loving where we are, on the island of Ambergris, in the town of San Pedro in the Belize Barrier Reef. The Barrier Reef here is the 2nd largest in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We arrived here on the 7am ferry from Corozal after staying there for our first night in Belize. It's exactly what I imagined a tropical paradise to be like; crystal clear blue-green waters, white sand, coconut trees everywhere. But it's much more than that, it's the great food, relaxed, laidback atmosphere and most importantly the great friendly people. Everyone is so helpful and friendly and we seem to know half the people on the island after only 3 days; just stopping to say hello to someone here, waying at ... read more

Yesterday we spent the day wandering round the ruins of Palenque. This time we were guideless so it was just the information on the plaques that informed us. It's truly breathtaking there, so I'm just going to let the photos rather than me do most of the talking for this one. Some of the murals were from 600BC and extremely well preserved, it's amazing to think of the difference in artistic and architectural development of the Mayan people when compared to that of the Bronze age Celts who were just producing simple geometric patterns at the same time. Only downside was that it was so hot. The hotel man said it was around 35 degrees and I was totally melting walking up the temples with a bright red beetroot face! Still it was worth it. These ... read more

So, it was with a heavy heart that we spent our last day saying good bye to Mexico City. We all really loved it. There's so much to do there, we were tempted to extend our stay some more, but you could spend 6 months there and still have loads to do. Our last day was spent having a lazy morning (much needed after pyramid climbing!!) and then heading to the Mercado. This is the largest covered maket in latin America apparently and it is absolutely massive. We had heard there was great food stalls there and we weren't disappointed! Lots of amazing smells and fuit and veg stalls were there for us and we spent a few leisurely hours strolling through the rows and rows of stalls but didn't buy anything other than food. The ... read more

So, after a fab dinner in the Condesa neighbourhood last night, in an extremely veggie friendly restaurant (in a working book shop, very funky and the fact that it was mine and Dara's first experience of mole - delicious) we again headed back for an early night (it's tiring work sitting on a tour bus all day long I'll have you know!) So bright and early this morning, up I got to find another fabulous day's weather (the BBC weather forecast really need sorting out, it's torrential rain according to them). Once ready, we sauntered off to the metro (first time on it last night, very excited, that's another one for my 'try and ride every underground system in the world' list ticked off. How anal am I?) to join the overhead train to Xochimilco, also ... read more