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Published: June 23rd 2006
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Well, I dont know where to start. Its been two weeks since our last blog and seems like we've travelled round the world already!
We've been on our Tour now for the last two weeks. There are eight other people (from the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand) and they are all a really good bunch. The Days have basically consisted of huge amounts of travelling one day, followed by a day in a new city/town/attraction the next. It can be really knackering but it ensures that we see the best parts of all the countries in a short time.
So, leaving Cancun, we travelled to Chitchen Itza, the capital of the Ancient Myan Civilisation. Pretty cool place and learned loads from the tour guide. The place is absolutely full of craft sellers, who offer everything for 'one dollar'! I later learned that that is one 'Mayan dollar', which at the current exchange rate is "whatever they bloody feel like!" From there we went to Merida, the Hammock capital of Mexico. Nadine wants one but seems to forget that we have no posts or trees in the garden!
We then had a nine hour bus trip to
Chitchen Itza
The main temple Palenque. Buses are good in Mexico. They have movies on board (although there seems to be little discretion, as we watched some Steven Seagal film with Gratuitous Violence and Sex scenes at 8.30 in the morning!I enjoyed it though) and you can almost fully recline without touching the person behind. Palenque itself was a hole, just a jump point for some wicked ruins in the jungle and very cool waterfalls at Agua Azul and Misol-Ha. Misol-Ha is a30m high waterfall which you can walk behind (very wet) and is exteremly beautiful. Agua Azul is a crystal blue (although not for us as its rainy season) set of waterfalls that extend 3km upstream. The whole lot us took our trunks and larked about in the river for a couple of hours until we got our first taste of the 'rainy season'. The heavens opened with the type of rain that was stinging our shoulders and we had to walk the three km back to the bus with it blasting with thunder and lighting. We've never been so wet but one of those moments we'll remember for years.
Onwards to San Cristobal de las Casas. Set in the mountains 2100m above
Mayan Ruins at Palenque
Hanging out at the 600AD temples sea level its home to a lot of indigenous Mayan tribes that live traditionally in the mountains. We did a tour to a few of the villages, and can honestly say it was one of the most surreal things we've ever seen! They have their own religion which is 80% mayan and 20% catholic. They worship in churches, but worship by passing live chickens, eggs and bottles of Coca-cola over each other. They then ring the neck of chicken, and drink the bottle of coke (in the church!) They believe that Coke has healing properties like no other (hence the richest man in the village is the coke salesman!) and when you burp, you are expelling evil spirts! Nadine thinks I must be posessed based on this principal, as I am constantly passing gas from one-end or the other! We would have taken photos, but unfortunately they think you are stealing their soul!
From San Cristobal, we headed into Guatemala, where our mode of transport changed to a less salubrious standard. Here was our first encounter with the 'Chicken Bus'! These are old US school buses that are taken down to Guatemala after they are finished with them. Built
Agua Azul
3km worth of Waterfalls to accomodate 40 school children, there were 64 people on our first bus! And believe me, you haven't lived until you've smelt/almost tasted the armpits of two breast-feeding Guatemalan women! These buses literally rule the road, and seem to defy the laws of physics by driving faster than any other vehicle on the road! They overtake on blind bends/ crests and are almost on two wheels on cliff side bends. In one of ther major cities, our driver pulled out on another bus and got seriously horned at. This was carte blanche to chase the other bus , overtake him at about 60mph with other cars coming the other way forcing them off the road! Immediately after clearing the bus, a local flagged from the side (there are no bus stops) and not wishing to miss out on the 10p fare the driver would get, fully locked up, getting the back end out, and slid into the dirt. My nightmares are still filled with the roaring of Claxons and horns. How we didnt get rear-ended I'll never know?!
Surviving the buses, we are now in the deepest highlands of Guatemala, which is full of stunning lakes and volcanoes. Lake
Atitlan is one of the most beautiful places we've ever been and Antigua (where we sit now) is beautifully coloured colonial city surrounded by towering volcanoes.
Well off tomorrow to another country! (Honduras) And if we haven't bored you too much then leave us a message which you should be able to do at the bottom of the page.
Blog you soon
Lots of Love
Stu and Nads
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Maureen
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Wow
Great photo's and text can't wait to see more. X X.