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Chichen
The Pyramid of Kulkulcan, Chichen Itza My boyfriend and I decided to spend our two weeks off work in Central America this year, as neither of us had been there before. So we booked flights with American Airlines to Cancun and began our journey……
Day one
We flew the 10 ½ air hours from Heathrow via Miami and landed in Cancun at about 7pm. I didn’t think much of AA, it seemed like a no frills airline, and the service was appalling. It was easy to get from the airport into town, there are plenty of people willing to take your money and ferry you into Cancun. We decided to take the ADO bus for US$3.50. We stayed at the Soberanis Hostel which we booked on hostelworld, and went to bed early as we were tired from the long journey.
Day two
We woke up early so decided to make the most of the day and caught the bus to the beach. We accidentally got off the bus too early (as we did not have a clue how big Cancun actually is) and ended up walking about 7kms! Cancun is nothing to write home about. The beach is long, El Rey ruins are small,
Flores
Sunset over the lake in Flores and it was nothing as I had expected it to be. I think I was expecting Magaluf, but Cancun is far too spread out.
Day three
Again we got up early and caught the bus to Piste to visit Chichen Itza. The bus was 2nd class costing US$9, good value, but took 4 hours as it stopped a lot. We got to Piste at 1.30pm, chose a hotel, the Stardust Inn and got a taxi to the ruins. This was a good time to visit, as the bus loads were starting to depart back to the resorts. I was a bit disappointed with Chichen, as I had heard lots about it and expected more. The Pyramid of Kulkulcan was the highlight.
In the early evening we walked the 1 km back to our hotel, and went for some food in Piste. It felt like a ghost town, way past its peak. We ended up eating in a cafe opposite our hotel, as there was someone else already eating there. This acted as a magnet, as slowly but surely the cafe filled up with backpackers and even the owner was shocked 'happy days, party time'. The food was awful.
Tikal
Tikal Day four
We caught the 8am bus to Tulum for US$9.90, arriving at about 11am. We deposited our bags at the Weary Traveller and took a taxi to the ruins. These were pretty spectacular due to its unique location on the Caribbean shores. We went for a swim on a gorgeous little beach, the sea was azure blue and very warm.
We went back, picked up our bags and decided to head on down to Chetumal (so that our journey to Belize would be shorter the next day). We stayed in the Princess Caribe Hotel which was quite expensive, but it was only for one night!
We walked around Chetumal in the evening, and got some food from a street vendor. There were very few tourists here, so we got to see Mexicans going about their day to day business, which was a pleasant change from the tourist ghettos we had already been to.
Day five
Today we caught the bus to Belize city. This was the turning point in the standard of buses, as in Mexico the bus service was of a very high standard. The bus was a 60's US school bus and stopped frequently on the trip to Belize City. When we arrived at the main bus station we immediately realised that we were in a different world. The city can only be described as ramshackle. A very friendly taxi driver took us to the Swing bridge where the Water taxis leave for the Cayes. We found Belize City very intimidating and but were happy to walk around for a hour or two before we got a boat out to Caye Caulker.
Caye Caulker is a small island 20kms off the mainland, and was the paradise I had been waiting for. As you arrive you see 'Caye Caulker, Go slow' etched into the sand and you know you are about to indulge in some serious relaxation. We stayed in the Tropical Paradise Cabanas for US$22.50 in the quieter end of the island, which had its own bathroom and air conditioning. We stayed here for 3 nights and spent the time diving, snorkelling and kayaking.
Day eight
We woke up on the seventh day and um'd and ah'd about the prospect of spending many more hours in a bus to get to Flores in Guatemala. In the end we decided to make the trip and caught the 12pm boat back to the mainland to connect to the bus to Flores. We arrived at 8pm after stopping at various junkyards on the way, where the driver and his mates picked up random car parts?! We chose the Hotel Casa Amelia, which was the nicest hotel we stayed in for US$30. The owner there was very friendly and fired Spanish at us, which we could barely understand.
Day nine
We booked a bus the night before to take us to Tikal at 7am as we could not face getting up any earlier. The only problem was we were working with a Lonely Planet which hadn’t been updated for 5 years, and 2 years ago Guatemala changed its time to Daylight saving. Therefore we missed our bus as we were waiting outside the hotel at 8am. Luckily our hotelier rang San Juan tours and got us on the 8am bus.
Tikal was definitely worth the hours in buses, as the Mayan city was set deep in the jungle, with breathtaking views from the top of each temple, particularly temple iv. We managed to see lots of Spider monkeys and a Pizote. This was the highlight of my trip.
We headed back to Flores in the late afternoon to watch the sunset over the lake.
Day ten
This day was taken up entirely by travelling. We paid $25 for a direct bus to Chetumal, which turned out to be via Belize City, where we picked up a coach load of German tourists. After a break at the border where we had lunch for less than US$3, we caught a bus straight to Playa del Carmen.
We were quite shocked by how touristy Playa was. This is how I expected Cancun to be, it was heaving with Americans, and some English people. We stayed in La Ruinas Cabanas, which was very basic, with fans only. We decided we would only spend one night here as we were greeted by a cockroach as we opened the door.
Day eleven
We moved to a slightly better hotel with air conditioning and happily spent our last three days relaxing on the beach in Playa. After all the travelling we had done in such a short period of time, we felt we deserved some chill time before heading back to England and work. Playa was by far the most expensive place we visited, the prices were the same as back home.
So that was it…two weeks in the Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala. This trip would obviously have been better if we had more time, but we managed to see everything we wanted to, and had a much better holiday than if we had gone to an all inclusive in Cancun for 2 weeks. We went in early May and were fully prepared for some wet weather, however it only rained once on our first day for about an hour. The rest of time it was sunny and hot, with high humidity levels in Guatemala.
I would highly recommend this trip!
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MIni Minx
non-member comment
Time of your lives!!!
Well sounds like the minx couldn't even go the places you to have been! Fantastic blog, minxy will be following your lead. watch out Central Americaxxxx Minxy lovexxxxxx