Em and Frankie went to Austria to have some fun and of course watch the EURO 2008! As Austria crashed out so early, Em was free to support any team and Frankie was still hoping for Italia. It was the first time for us to use the new Terminal 5 and the decision was made not to check anything in and travel light. Departing from T5 involves a lot of travelling up and down and many flash shops but everything went well. We had tickets to see the quarterfinal Croatia against Turkey and we decided to visit Schoenbrunn before the match. [View Full Entry]

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Nearly 12 months gone and not a single trip for Em and Frankie, who are spending all their time working and staying in London again. Really missing seeing new places and was really pleased that I was sent to Poland on a short business trip. It's a bit sad getting exciting about a business trip, but I have never been to Poland and here we go. Em on her own arrived without local currency and only one cash card at the airport and then couldn’t get any cash. The taxi was pre-booked but not pre-paid and after a bit of haggling, [View Full Entry]

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From Tulum we took a bus to Cancun and yes the hotel zone looks as built up as we imagined! As Cancun does not really interest us we headed straight to the ferry to get to Isla Mujeres. Although Isla Mujeres is very close to Cancun and rather developed, it is still really nice and small. There are no high rise hotels and the beaches are all still public. There are quite a lot of umbrealls and sun chairs to rent and the beaches are not as empty as some otheres, but still far from Rimini or the Costa Brava. [View Full Entry]

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We have been over a week in Mexico already and the end of our trip is near! We first spent a few days in Palenque as Em couldn´t cross through Belize without a Visa. Not always good to have an Austrian passport! Anyway, we visited the ruins in Palenque but we decided not to bore you with more pics of Maya ruins. However, we saw this fantastic green snake when we were going from ruin to ruin. FRom Palenque we went straight to Tulum on the sea and we have been here since. It is very nice and laid back [View Full Entry]

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THis week has gone so quickly and we are actually already in Mexico (just arrived yesterday night!). Our English teaching job was based in a wonderful nation park with 3 Maya sites: Yaxha, Nakum and Naranja. We were based in Yax-ha to teach a bunch of care takers English. The guys were really lovely and highly motivated but for some of themit was very difficult to grasp the basic of a new language. We even had a student who didn´t know how to read and write and the students didn´t have a book or copies to follow....Hence, we did a [View Full Entry]

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On our first weekend in Peten we visited the famous Maya ruins of Tikal. As we haven´t uploaded any pics yet and are always behind with the blog, here we go. Tikal were our first ruins and hence we were really impressed (in hindsight there are better ones to visit, but hey there was no way of knowing)! We took a minibus on Saturday afternoon to get there after 3:00 pm as this meant that the ticket of Saturday will be valid on Sunday too. As staying in Tikal is pricey we only could afford a hammock space, but this [View Full Entry]

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Last week we arrived in Guatemala and we relaxed a couple of days in Rio Dulce. There is a very magic place called El Paraiso. It is a hot waterfall that plunges into a cold riverpool and there is a lot more to it than it looks. If you swim underneath the waterfall - the falls are boiling hot and you need to dive - there is a natural steam room and it is really amazing. From there we took a chicken bus to Flores El Peten and Lake Peten is really beautiful. We are going to stay in San [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Nicaragua behind was hard but we have to be in Guatemala for our voluntary work soon. No problems with the border crossing to Honduras except that you do not get an exit or entry stamp. We didn´t know that and tried to persuade immigration that we really need a stamp! Our first stop in Honduras was the capital Tegus and it was a lot nicer than expected. Everybody told us that it is really bad but they probably stayed in the area where the buses arrive and leave and that´s really not that nice. As we arrived in the [View Full Entry]

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The last 10 days we have spent in Nicaragua and it is a great country to visit. The people are reallly friendly and funny and this coupled with great nature and lovely old towns...We headed straight from Costa Rica to Nicaragua with one overnight stop in La Cruz on the Pacific coast. We saw a stunning sunset there and then crossed the border to Nicaragua. We love Nicaragua but travel is very slow here and the meaning of 'chickenbus' becomes clearer everyday, yes there are real chickens on the bus! The other interesting thing is that you never know where [View Full Entry]

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Yes, we know that you must be bored of seeing all these gorgeous beaches and us lazing around but to cheer you up we had really bad weather in Costa Rica! Anyway, let´s start with our journey from Bocas to Puerto Viejo, which is only a hop with a little border crossing. The boat trip from Bocas to Changinola (probably spelt wrong) was really scenic and very relaxing. From there we took a cab to the border, got the exit stamp and walked over a bridge into Costa Rica. The moment we entered Costa Rico it started to rain and [View Full Entry]

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