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Published: January 21st 2008
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Ben, Dot and Kat Skiing
Moving even slower than it looks For our final blog of the trip we see white snow, pink flamingos, green jungle and deep blue ocean. So without further ado, here we go....
Leaving London we flew to LAX, slept in the airport for the night (surprisingly tolerable) and then flew up to Vanvouver, where we got to Whistler about 30 hours after leaving London. Phew!
We stayed with Dan's brother Nick and his partner Sophie in their critically over full flat. It turns out Whistler has a housing crisis with all the pre olympics building that is underway there for the 2010 Olympics. Happily we didn't mind sleeping on the floor at the foot of Nick's bed as compared to some of the places we have been it was perfect luxury!
Dan's other brother, Ben, and his wife Kat were also there, on holiday from study and work in Victoria, near Vancouver. We had some great ski days up this huge mountain, including the final, deep powder day.
New Years was interesting, with the average cover charge to get into a bar at $100 and even a cover charge merely to walk into the village. We, and presumably the rest of the great
Up to Their Knees in...
Deep powder with Nick and Ben unwashed in Whistler, settled for a boozy night at home.
Leaving Whistler, Ben, Dot and Dan headed to Vancouver for a day. We found it to be a beautiful city, if somewhat quiet at this time of year, with the enormous Stanley Park a highlight. A low light was almost getting flattened by two huge plywood sheets which blew off the top of a nearby skyscraper and landed on the footpath. The construction gods were surely looking down on us that day.
Next stop... Mexico. We arrived into Cancun and got the hell out of there as soon as possible. Valladolid was our first real stop. It is a beautiful colonial town, one of many we ran into, with a wonderful town square and large pastel covered colonial buildings surrounding it. There seemed to be some sort of music and/or dancing in the square every night. From there we visited Chitchin Itza, a well preserved mayan ruin with a very elegant, 25m high pyramid. All of their building was done by hand, as they hadn't discovered bronze, or even the wheel.
We also cycled to a couple of nearby cenotes, which are naturally formed, water filled caves
Chichen Itza
The Great Pyramid that make picturesque swimming holes. These were formed after the huge meteorite hit earth 65 million years ago, creating the gulf of Mexico and wiping out the dinosaurs.
The city of Merida was another place with a beautiful colonial heart. There was a festival in the square every night of the week and some brilliant places to eat spicy and varied mexican cuisine.
From Merida we hired the cheapest car we could find, a VW Beetle, presumably built before the war. In the little Beetle, dubbed Phillis, we toured the Ruta Puuc road south of Merida. We stopped at the enormous ruins of Uxmal and also Kabah and Sayil. The next morning we drove trusty Phillis to more ruins. Suddenly on the middle of the road was a ginormous snake. I didnĀ“t have time to swerve or stop so I tried to drive over it without hitting it. This turned out to be poorly considered as it was a good three metres long and the diminuitive car no more than two metres wide. I can't say for certain if we hit it but we decided not to stay and find out.
The caves of Loltun were a
Vallidolid
Dancing in the Streets great sight. So huge, in some parts you could fit a cathedral inside it (if you thought that was sensible). Also there was some ancient rock painting and many stalictites and mites in it.
We said sad farewell's to Phillis and went to the fishing village of Celestun. Being in a Bio Reserve, it wasn't over developed and had a lovely feel to the place, with fishermen and locals outnumbering tourists. We went on a boat and saw the (extremely) pink flamingos in huge groups. There was also a large crocodile eyeing up the fat juicy american tourists.
We stayed at Campeche, a World Heritage walled town on the coast then headed inland off the beaten track to see some hidden ruins near Xpuhil (pronounced Shpooheel). With absolutely no one else around, the mayan ruins of Chicanna and Becan were eery and quiet, with Becan being the most spectacular ruins we have yet seen in Mexico. We climbed to the top of a mighty 33 metre pyramid and witnessed a human sacrifice. (That might have been a wee lie; it was only a 32 metre pyramid).
We decided our last 5 or 6 days in Mexico should
involve as much lazing as possible so we headed to the renowned beach town of Mahahual on the Carribean coast. Unfortunately we didn't realise it had been obliterated by Hurricane Dean a few months ago. The heart of the hurricane ripped through here, and we have never seen so much devastation. All the trees have been bowled or stripped bare, most the houses wiped out and even the beach was annihilated. They are working hard to get the place up and running again, so we stayed for a couple of nights.
Then north, to Tulum. More beach (undamaged by Dean), and more ruins to boot. The pace slowed to a crawl and we spend more time flat on our backs than anything else. We are now in the cheesy resort town of Playa del Carmen, and head off in a couple of days to LA, before flying home.
That wraps up our travels! Hope we haven't bored you silly. We look forward to catching up with those NZ based folks very soon.
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Kristy Rhoades
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well don't know if you're still checking - but awsume trip guys! I have enjoyed your blogs and the photos have been amazing!! Who exactly is the comedian who writes the blogs? You're great. Deserve a mike. Funny. Funny. Funny. Thanks for the postcard Dot - glad you thought of me in stinking, diseased, creepy man filled Eygpyt!! xx Looking forward to catching up when you're home in NZ. Well... you know what I mean. xx kr