Hola from Mexico

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Good morning! Here we are in Playa del Carmen, the strangest place on earth. Here's the rundown of the past few days...

Jan 17th 06

Travel day from San Ignacio to Caye Caulker, a small and laid-back island an hour off the coast of Belize. It has no cars or roads - only unsealed sand paths and the main mode of transport is golf cart. By the way, we found the Americans, they are at Caye Caulker! Spent the afternoon lazing about on the gorgeous beach and eating icecream.

For dinner we ate lobster from a 'roadside' stall and sat at picnic tables.

Demonstrating the poor long-term effects of marijuana, the same guy asked us if we wanted marijuana four times. Two times were within five minutes of each other. We politely declined.

Jan 18th 06

This day we took a sail boat out on the reef. The reef off Belize is the second largest in the world after the GBR. We stopped at three locations to go snorkelling. One of the locations had lots of stingrays and we saw four at one time. Our guide caught one and we patted it which was pretty exciting. They are incredibly graceful creatures and I was intrigued by their little eyes. We swam for a fair distance and saw all kinds of beautiful fish and coral.

For afternoon tea the men on the boat caught whatever seafood they could and made a salsa with it. I never would have thought you could just catch a conch, lobster and fish off the side of the boat and crush it up and eat it without cooking it first but we're not dead yet.

Jan 19th 06 - Playa del Carmen

Longgggg travel day from CC to Playa del Carmen (12 hours on two buses). The buses in Mexico are just sensational - air conditioned, brand new, comfortable seats with seat belts, three TV screens, curtains, clean toilet and an introductory video about how to fasten your seat belt. And what's more, the buses are 'hecho en mexico' - or made in Mexico, which I think is a lot better than them buying them from overseas. It made a lovely change from the 1960s American school buses we have been used to.

Playa del Carmen is a strange, overwhelming place after the simplicity of rural Central America. PDC is the -world's- fastest growing city, at a rate of 25% (population) per year. The buildings are new, airconditioned, large and American-style - complete with malls, parking lots, Christian Dior, Diesel, Nike and the rest. The city itself is impossibly well manicured and it reminds me of the town in Edward Scissorhands, with perfectly maintained lawns, exceptional footpaths complete with yellow marker to stop you walking off it, paved tourist walkways with Haagen Dasz and Baskin Robbins, and, of course, diamonds diamonds everywhere. There are LOTS of Americans - more than CC. I think coming to PDC and saying you'd been to Mexico would be like saying you'd stayed at a Bali resort and seen SE Asia. This strange city is surreal and frankly I hate it and I want to leave. Dinner last night was in the world's fakest Mexican restaurant - which was odd considering it is in Mexico.

20th Jan 06
Today we have had a walk around the shops and I must say there are some sensational prices here. I just bought a pair of New Balance runners for $39 US (normally about $100 in Aus) and I am leaning strongly towards a pair of Diesel Jeans for $120 (normally several hundred in Aus). Also saw 980mL Kahlua for $8.90 US - is this a joke? Ok so hate PDC or love it, they have some cheap stuff.

Andrew hurried me out of Diesel and I asked him why and he said he was tired of the male model convention in there. There were actually male models in there - I am sure of it - they were just impossibly and stupidly good looking and vain and they were arrogant enough to shop in a nice shop without tops on.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Chichen Itza, again one of the famous ruins. According to the Lonely Planet it gets a wow even from ruined out tourists and we're not even ruined out.

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Photos

Tikal, Temple I
This picture is taken of Temple I once we had climbed to the top of Temple II

Andrew and Temple I
Side view of Temple I, which tourists can no longer climb after two people died when they tumbled down trying.

Perdido Mundo
Tikal is unique among the Mayan ruin sites because the sites are surrounded by jungle.

Andrew climbing Temple V
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Andrew attempts to climb Temple V (we made it, of course!).

View North from Temple V
As you can see our hard slog to the top was well worth it! We didn't hang around for long as it started to get a bit crowded on the 1ft wide step we had.

Xunantunich
Another ruin site although much smaller. This is the view from the roof of the palace, or 'El Castillo'. Xunantunich is located near San Ignacio, Belize.

Maddy holding a taranchula
Andrew made me put this photo on. The taranchula had a three day training course to be up to this. The guy at the hotel said she might bite, but then lightning could strike too. Yes, but lightning DOES strike, doesn't it?

2000 year old pots
This photo was taken at the Che Chem Ha Caves.

Beach at Caye Caulker, Belize
Here's one for your wallpaper. You can see the waves breaking on the reef a few kms away.

Andrew 'Snorkelling'
This is my revenge for him making me put the stupid taranchula photo in. Here Andrew is apparently getting eaten by a shark.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Sigh, when's my flight.