We left Pensacola on time, after a near catastrophe.. I left my backpack in the Jeep. After failing to contact Tanya to return, Monica got her on her cell phone. She was already returning because she forgot to give us our anniversary card. The flight from Philadelphia was long (9 hours) but smooth. We slept very little on the plane, arriving in Athens at 9am Friday. Upon arrival we discovered that my suitcase hadn't made the trip with us. Saturday morning and w'ere still waiting for it to be delivered! We took the airport express bus, for 3.20 Euros each, to [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick note to let all know we made it to Athens. The Athens International HI hostel is pretty typical. More later this evening when we've seen something to write about! [View Full Entry]

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Kali Mera! My wife (Manoli) and I (J.C.) are on our way to Greece and the Greek Islands. Taking the 6am flight out of Pensacola for Atlanta, then Philadelphia, and finally Athens. I'll try to make an entry every day, with some interesting photos. Feel free to communicate. See ya in a month...almost [View Full Entry]

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For Nickie Campbell et al, I tried to reply via email but it was returned. We booked our tour of Central America thru Tucan Travel. J.C. [View Full Entry]

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Since I didn't convince Manoli to do another tour, the ruins of Uxmal, today was pretty much a chill and do nothing day. First we went further downtown to the main market, where they had dozens and dozens of booths selling meat, fruit, vegetables, handicrafts and anything else you can imagine. Next, we decided to head uptown to the ritzy district and check out the local Wal-Mart. Very different in both appearance and products from the stores back in the U.S. We bought a bunch of local fruit; papaya, mango, watermelon, cantelope, oranges, pineapple, and a strange guanabana. We also [View Full Entry]

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After having our free coffee and toast breakfast, we boarded the tour bus for Chichen-Itza. The trip took a bit more than 1 1/2 hours. We all bought our 95 Pesos entrance tickets and wristbands and again I paid for a video pass (35 Pesos this time). Our first stop was the Temple El Castillo. This is the temple where the stairs look like a serpent on each side during the vernal equinox. Very cool, even without the serpent shadows. The guide gave very good explanations (ours was in Spanish for Manoli, but they also provided an English guide) as [View Full Entry]

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We left our hotel and boarded the 7:45 ADO bus to Merida. The 1st Class tickets cost just over $20 US each. Although a direct route with no stops, the trip took a boring 4 hours. When we arrived at the Merida station, we got directions to our hostel and decided it was better to pay the $3.00 cost of a taxi than to drag our luggage 14 blocks. Arriving at our hostel, Hostal Nomadas, we checked in, paid our bill of fifty some dollars for the 3 nights and deposited our luggage in our room. After getting the lowdown [View Full Entry]

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We left the hotel at 8am, and after a rest stop, we arrived at the Tulum ruins a bit after 11am. After Lisa got our tickets and my video pass for a fee of 35 Pesos, we had about an hour and a half to stroll around the ruins of Tulum and the gift shops before we'd have to reboard the bus for our lunch stop. Tulum wasn't as large as Tikal or as elaborate as Copan, but it had it's own beauty being on the ocean and of course, the iguanas! The buildings were fairly simple and the site [View Full Entry]

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We packed up and caught a boat at 10am to Belize City to reboard our Tucan bus for the trip to Bacalar, Mexico. Crossing the border into Mexico was a bit more involved than usual. It cost $37.50 BZ ($17.25US) each to leave Belize and nothing to enter Mexico. We had to show our own passports, fill out declarations forms, and carry all our luggage across for the entry into Mexico. Our hotel, Hotel Laguna, was only 30 or 40 minutes from the border and just outside Bacalar, right on the lake. The hotel is really cool and should be [View Full Entry]

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Today we decided to just chill. We did a bit of shopping, seeing most of the gift shops on the island. Manoli wanted to eat at the Bamboo Grill & Bar, where you could eat sitting in swings, so we ate lunch there. Manoli had a Lobsta Burga with grilled lobster and fries (which we both thought was very good), and I had a chicken, avocado, and veggies tortilla plate which was excellent. With a too-sweet smoothie, the bill came to just under $40BZ ($20US). For dinner, Manoli wanted to try conch, so we returned to Chan's Fast Food where [View Full Entry]

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