Cancun to Caracas

Top 5s

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:17:00 +0100

Top 5 sites:

1: Tikal

2: Chichen Iza

3: Xunantunich

4: Tulum

5: Arenal Volcano

Top 5 experiences:

1: Snorkelling with sharks, rays and turtles at Shark Ray Alley, Ambergris Caye, Belize

2: Swimming with dolphins, Placencia, Belize

3: Climbing the tallest building in Tikal, Guatemala

4: Floating in hot springs in a thunder storm, Arenal, Costa Rica

5: Watching a lighting storm over lake Peten, Guatemala

Top 5 hotels:

1: Chan Chich, Gallon Jug Estate, Belize

2: La Lancha, Peten, Guatemala

3: Casa Las Tortugas, Holbox, Mexico

4: Casa Panorama, Tulemar, Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

5: Casa Cook, Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Last Post - Costa Rica

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:16:39 +0100

We’ve been really slack at posting as of late. I guess because we’ve been concentrating on making the most of our last weeks, rather than taking the time to reflect on them.

And what a great few last weeks.

I’ll be honest. When we first arrived in Costa Rica, we were a little let down. It’s a beautiful country, to be sure. But there’s something soulless about the place. But we quickly realised what it lacks in culture it makes up for in nature.

In our two weeks here we’ve stayed in the stunning Manuel Antonio National Park and watched spider monkeys and sloths hang out outside our window (see pic in previous post.)

We’ve surfed one of the best beaches in the world in Tamarindo:

floated in eco-thermal hot springs during a thunder storm:

and stared up at a 5,437 ft high Arenal volcano (which unfortunately refused to erupt).

And now we’re heading home. We’re happy and sad about that. Happy to be getting home to our friends and family and our own bed. But sad to be saying goodbye to this most stunning part of the world.

It’s been an amazing, amazing trip. And we probably won’t realise just how amazing till we’re back home and we can look back on it all.

(These photos aren’t ours… I’m writing this while waiting for the plane, and our camera is packed. I’ll update them when we get home.)

Our view in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:38:41 +0100

Our view in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Back in Guatemala

Tue, 31 May 2011 16:51:00 +0100

Speedboats are a pretty cool way to travel. Especially when it comes to border crossings. Another trip across the Caribbean sea and we arrived back in Guatemala, this time to Puerto Barrios.

We were instantly jumped upon by men offering to take us to Honduras, or Livingston, or lots of other places that weren’t where we wanted to be. We eventually worked out that we could either take a tour down the Rio Dulce for 5 hours, or get a taxi for 2 hours. Being hot and tired after the crossing, we went for the easy option and hopped in the cab of a very nice taxi driver, who was the Guatemalan version of Vince Vaughn. He seemed especially happy to be driving us. And when he stopped off at his house to pick up his wife and baby son, we realised why: he’d decided to turn this job into a day trip for his family. So there we were, racing down the highway, blasting middle of the road rock (just for us, he said), heading for the Rio Dulce and our hotel.

Cut to a couple of hours later and we arrived at Hotel Catamaran – a beautiful location on the edge of Rio Dulce with little cabins hanging over the river.

Catamaran is also a marina where loads of the boating set come to moor their yachts for the hurricane season in Central America, because the hurricanes never touch this place. So, we spent a few days hanging out with our new ‘best mates’ on their boats, wondering if any of them might just sail us to Panama. Unfortunately, no one was leaving. And given how lovely the place is, we don’t blame them. We now have a new plan for our lives – get a boat and spend all our time cruising around the world.

While there, we took a trip up the Rio Dulce which is breath-takingly gorgeous. The boat ride took us around the old fort that was used to fight off pirates, through lily-pad-filled tributaries, past small children in their dug-out canoes trying to out cute each other, and finally to Livingston – an old Garifuna town.

In Livingston we met Pollo Martinez, a Garifuna elder and musician. Pollo took us for an impromptu tour around the village and explained the poor situation of the Garifuna people there - unrepresented in government and pushed out by the Spaniards coming into Livingston they are clinging to their way of life. Pollo is doing whatever he can to protect his people, including a feeding programme for the kids and trying to educate them about how important it is to look after each other. It was quite an eye-opening 40 minutes.

As we were letting everything we’d learnt sink in, we sat and had a coke in a small bar where they were showing the Champion’s league final between Man U and Barcelona. Everyone was a Barca fan; cheering on Messi and the rest, while booing at Rooney’s antics. So we kept our voices down and smiled and nodded, hoping no one would realise we were a) English and b) didn’t really care less about who won. Football is a religion in Guatemala, so admitting we didn’t share their passion might have got us in a little trouble.

Back in our little cabin at the end of the day, watching the fish swarm around the cockroach we’d just fed them, we said goodbye to Guatemala and pledged to come back and explore it properly one day. Because tomorrow we were heading for Honduras and then our flight to Costa Rica.

Central American drink guide

Tue, 31 May 2011 16:29:00 +0100

Coca-Cola - Everywhere
The prolific traveller’s staple. Requires zero language skills.

Corona - Mexico
Thirst quenching cold beer. Slightly more cool than Sol. Drunk with Lime.

Sol - Mexico
Drunk by blokes in white jeans in the UK and by everyone in Mexico. With lime, cold, on the beach.

Pacifico - Mexico
Nice beer. Slightly darker and more tasty than others.

Gallo - Guatemala
Gallo means cock. It tastes better than it sounds.

Mojito - Everywhere
Rum, lime, sugar and mint. Classic fave.

Rum - Everywhere
White, light, dark, coconut. Cheap and available everywhere. Makes you feel like a pirate.

Rum punch - Everywhere
Mix of local fruit juices and rum. Strength varies from left jab to haymaker but hovers around right-hook.

Agua - Everywhere
As you’re in a constant state of sweatiness you need to keep topped up.

Coffee - everywhere
Good in Belize. Amazing in Guatemala.

Wine - everywhere
Expensive and often spoiled. Err on Chile, California etc. Mr Coppola’s were nice in his lodge.

Belikin - Belize
Available as regular, premier and stout. 95% of people drink regular - it’s great. The stout is 6.5%, often warm and particularly hard work in 34 degrees.

Limon/limonade
There’s a lot of sugar and key lime here… This rocks.

Guinness - Belize
Strangely, they brew it here. Cheap alternative to rice and beans.

"When a man with a shotgun asks you for a cigarette, you don’t say no."

Mon, 30 May 2011 17:19:00 +0100

“When a man with a shotgun asks you for a cigarette, you don’t say no.”

- Idle thoughs

Cacao, chickenbuses and crystal skulls

Wed, 25 May 2011 16:24:00 +0100

From Placencia we headed for a great little rainforest lodge called Hickatee in Punta Gorda owned by fellow Brits Ian and Kate.

Ian met us from the plane and informed us we’d increased the number of Brits in south Belize from 12 to 14. He knows because he used to work for the High Commission. Although now that he’d told us, he’d have to kill us… Strange that the people we’ve met that play the ‘I’m secretly a spy’ shtick are actually the least likely candidates in the known universe.

Hickatee is great. Good company. Great food. Amazing location. More birds, bugs and wildlife. Explaining we only had a day we asked Ian what he’d recommend. He told us that he had a great day adventure planned for us that may push us out of our comfort zones but would be an experience.

We woke early the next day and had coffee and were advised to knock up some jam sandwiches that would be our lunch. At 8.30am we were dropped at Ma’s in the vegetable market where we had fry Jacks, beans and cheese with the world watching. A local homeless dude joined in and gave us signs to feed him, so we promptly obliged and ran away.

We knew we had an hour or so to kill before our bus so wandered about a bit and stumbled on the Cotton Tree chocolate factory. Belize is full of cacao and this is the area where Green and Blacks work with the local farmers. We were given a very tasty tour around the factory and I had to drag Kim away from licking the bowl. (She was also eyeing up their brass-doored cold room strangely… I think she was dreaming about being locked in there).

Next step, an hour trip on the local chicken bus to San Miguel to check out some spooky ruins. We only had to stand half of the journey with half of the world watching us. Local Mayan families in traditional dress gawping like it was a new conquest. We exited gracefully on a dirt track at midday, into the baking sun, in the middle of absolutely nowhere. (Actually Chris slipped and fell on his arse which gave the locals a chuckle).

Turning off the road we followed the sign for Lubantuum home of the (in)famous crystal skull. A swift hour stroll and we arrived refreshed at the site. When I say refreshed I mean it looked like both of us had just showered in our clothes.

The local guide, Santiago, was great. Showed us around the visitor centre, explained that the crystal skull might have been planted as a treasure hunt find for a girl’s 17th birthday and showed us lots of pottery figurines and fragments - some that worked as whistles to call between the sites on various hills around the area.

Lubantuum is a pretty interesting site and we had it all to ourselves. It was nice to wander around in the cool breeze and explore the ruins for ourselves. We had our ‘famous five’ jam sandwiches and Kim noted that we didn’t have many photos of us - so here’s a quick one.

Final highlight was a visit to a butterfly farm that Ian helps manage. Here they breed hundreds of people-friendly butterflies that get shipped as pupae to butterfly houses all around the world and we got to hang out with them. An incredible end to a fun, hot, sweaty day.

Belize just became extra brilliant

Mon, 23 May 2011 17:28:00 +0100

It was while hanging out in Miramar, our air-con’d apartment facing the sea in Placencia, that I got a rather fantastic email. Well, a Twitter Direct Message, in fact. From an awesome agent saying that he’d like to take on my book.

I couldn’t quite believe it. And I waited for a few days, expecting him to message and say he’d only been joking. Or he had been drunk. But on Monday I gave him a call and it was serious. He liked the book and wanted to represent it.

So there we are. I now have an agent. And the moral of the story: you spend a year stuck to your laptop, waiting for an agent, then go away and ‘ping’ the message you’ve been waiting for arrives. Watched kettles and all that.

But now I will always remember Belize as the best place on earth!

Whale Sharks

Fri, 20 May 2011 19:48:00 +0100

Back over the border to Belize and a quick flight courtesy of Vern again (who we now like to think of as our personal pilot) and we arrived in Placencia – famous as one of the few places in the world where you can hang out with Whale Sharks.

Now, we’ve already snorkeled with Nurse Sharks which get up to about 9ft. But Whale Sharks can get up to 40ft! So we headed off the first day after the full moon hoping to catch a glimpse of the giants but also slightly anxious that they might, just by mistake, eat us. Or run us over. Or just look at us funny.

The plan was that we would work in tandem with a bunch of divers who were on another boat. They would hover around at 80ft below the surface, sending up bubbles (that the whale sharks apparently like to come and check out) while we floated about above. I’m not sure what part we were supposed to play in helping them – I like to think that we had their backs if anything went wrong.

Watching my reflection in giant, bowl-like bubbles, racing up out of the dark blue depths, is one of the most surreal experiences of my life. It was like the world had been turn upside down, and I was looking down at the sky while glass orbs fell towards me. Weird and wonderful.

Anyway, after a full day of hunting them we didn’t get to see the sharks this time. But we did get to snorkel with a couple of dolphins. Beautiful, graceful and happy-looking, they totally blew us away. I’d never even seen a dolphin outside of a zoo before, so I was in watery heaven. And personally, if it’s a choice between sharks and dolphins, I’ll go with dolphins every time.

That said, we are going to head back out and hope to see the big guys again.

Tikal

Tue, 17 May 2011 19:34:00 +0100

So you’ve probably guessed by now that we’re pretty keen on this Mayan stuff. And Tikal has been top of our ‘must see’ stops ever since we started planning this trip. So when we headed off to see it, early on Saturday morning, we were pretty excited.

All I can say is that it not only lived up to our expectation, but totally blew them away. And it’s going to take a far better writer than me to really express how utterly amazing it is. Awesome doesn’t even come close. Neither does spectacular. We’re going to need a new set of hyperboles to describe it. Awe-stagger-acular. Fantazing.

We were lucky to have a fantastic guide in the shape of Antonio who is a hugely informative guy. He knows Tikal inside out, the Mayan culture, as well as being pretty frank about Guatemalan politics (and has some great insider tales about working for and meeting the Coppolas – who, he says, are fantastic people).

What was really refreshing about Antonio is that he didn’t dumb down, he assumed a level of intellect and prior knowledge which meant for a really interesting tour and we learnt loads about Tikal, as well as getting an even better knowledge of all the other Mayan ruins we’ve visited.

He’s also a great fan of cinematic ‘kodak moments’ - making us shut our eyes and leading us to amazing views, sitting us down on the King’s throne to explain how later rulers skipped the gods and declared themselves divine.

Antonio helped us imagine how Tikal would have worked, who lived where, etc so it was easy to drift back a thousand years to when it was bustling with 100,000 people.

We started the 4-hour tour in a temple area they re-built every 20 years. Moved on to the central plaza where a ruler constructed a tower for his wife and later himself - each aligned with Equinoxes.

We also climbed the tallest temple (70m) that give incredible views across the metropolis and rainforest canopy. More vertigo moments were had!

The pictures don’t do it justice either. Look, you’re just going to have to come yourself one day, and see it for real. And when you do, ask for Antonio.

La Lancha

Sun, 15 May 2011 02:09:00 +0100

We had heard that the Western border crossing from Belize to Guatemala could be a little moody. So we took all sensible precautions: getting picked up by our lodge; hiding our money and cards in various ‘cunning’ places, including tucking $100 inside the packaging of a tin of sardines (why we have been carrying a tin of sardines all the way from Holbox deserves a blog post of its own at some point)! We were ready for anything. So when we wandered through a small hut, had our passports stamped and were instantly greeted by warm smiles and then our driver, we were almost a little let down.

An hour’s drive later and we were taken to La Lancha - Francis Ford Coppola’s lodge on Lake Peten, Flores, Guatemala. And I was instantly in love (with the place, I’ve never met Mr Coppola although I am sure he is delightful). The main lodge is built on stilts high above the stunning lake which is about 10 miles wide. A long, staggered staircase, winds down to the pool, down to the cabins and finally, 10 mins later, down to the lake itself. All these steps are good training for climbing Tikal tomorrow! Everything has been done with impeccable taste the rooms are decorated with local handicrafts, and I’m already eyeing up the Jaguar mask in our bathroom, wondering whether I can slip it into my bag with no one noticing. They even have a Shell Phone, for you to call reception.

In true filmic style, we had an amazing lightning storm last night, with great big forks, lighting up the sky. This morning, I’m sitting in our hammock, watching the Howler Monkeys clamber around the trees, while the first drops of rain make the lake ripple. I’m not sure I ever want to leave.

The San Ignacio Iguana Project

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:46:00 +0100

In the San Ignacio Resort hotel, where we’re staying, they have an Iguana project. So, with not much else to do with our day but watch a bit more American TV, we decided to pop down and see it. It was awesome.

Eddie, the guide there, set up the project to educate people about Iguanas as they have been hunted into dangerously low numbers being, apparently, pretty tasty. So we got to have some very close encounters with these little dragons.

Eddie takes eggs from the wild, lets the guys hatch safe from being eaten by Jaguar and what have you, then lets them back into the wild when they’re about 3 years old.

We had a great time having the lizards crawl around our heads. And holding the eggs was particularly amazing, as you could feel the baby iguana moving about inside. I hope the one I held makes it and lives a long, safe life.

Xunantunich

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:42:00 +0100

We’re hanging out in a town called San Ignacio, slap bang on the Guatemalan border, ready to cross over to Flores tomorrow, where we’re going to see Tikal. But as an extra bonus, we went to see another Mayan ruin, just 20min drive from San Ignacio –Xunantunich.

Xunantunich has been our favourite ruin so far. A beautiful series of castillios peeking out of the jungle, it’s only partially uncovered so as you wander around you get the feeling that you’re discovering it for the first time. It has the tallest ruin in Belize, and unlike our rather shaky experiences at the top of Ek Balam and Lamanai, this one was an easy climb, with lots of solid walls to lean against while looking the 120ft drop below. It had amazing views from the top too.

Belizean Tale

Wed, 11 May 2011 22:41:00 +0100

Holidaymaker: Hey! Whatcha doin’?

Local: Fishin’.

Holidaymaker: Wow, looks like a great spot there, friend. Imagine, you could charge guys like me and take them fishin’. Why, I reckon you could fill a boat full. Then you could get a few more boats. Hell, I reckon after a few years you’d have yourself a fleet. You’d be rich and you could retire. Just think what would you do with all that time and money then, huh?

Local: Go fishin’.

Chan Chich

Tue, 10 May 2011 22:18:00 +0100

What an amazing place! Our last day here and we’ve had an amazing time. Chan Chich is 40 miles into the interior of the rainforest, not far from the border with Guatemala. Originally it was the site of logging woods such as mahogany and cedar. Now it’s a luxury lodge within the Gallon Jug farmstead.

Chan Chich is an unexcavated Mayan ruin, the lodge and cabanas are situated amongst the mounds of ancient buildings. Around here you can wander the trails (alone or with naturalist guides), swim in the amazing pool (which is totally screened from bugs), canoe at sunset in the nearby lakes, horse ride and mountain bike in the jungle and take day trips to sites like Lamanai.

So far we’ve wandered the trails quite a bit and discovered ‘Norman’s temple’ and an ancient plaza with looted burial chambers. No Jaguars or puma yet, but they’re definitely about.

Food is great and we’ve definitely been overfed. Beef is particularly good and comes from the Gallon Jug farm (Hereford cattle in fact). If anyone’s considering Belize, this is a perfect pairing for a beach break. Come here and play in the jungle, then relax on a beach.

"The Fer De Lance is incorrectly called ‘the three step snake’. Three steps and you’re dead...."

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

““The Fer De Lance is incorrectly called ‘the three step snake’. Three steps and you’re dead. Actually, you have a few hours”.”

- – Marvin the birdman guide

Wild life update

Mon, 09 May 2011 22:23:00 +0100

So the jungles around Chan Chich are literally crawling with life. Without even leaving our cabana we’ve had frogs in the bedroom, lizards and humming birds in the porch and only had to see off a few snakes (which is becoming a bit ‘the norm’ in Curran-Goodson holidays).

Here’s a bit of a list of what we’ve encountered…

Birds

Lots of these. A danger of me becoming a bit twitchy I think… except I don’t know what most of them are so just give them silly names myself, like ‘small black and white bird’, ‘a bit like a turkey but isn’t bird’, ‘that bird over there’ etc. Some of them are birder’s dreams apparently and are called ‘live’ birds. People travel continents to see them. We’re just blissfully ignorant smuggits.

Here’s the ones our guide (Marvin, who is half birdman) has informed us about:

Ornate Hawk eagle - Really pretty white plumed hawk with a tufty head bit.

Pygmy Kingfisher - One of Kim’s faves.

Scaled pigeon - Pigeon that thinks it’s a lizard.

Oscellated turkey - Turkey that thinks it’s a peacock.

Keel Billed Toucan - Not a Kill Bill toucan as we misheard… “Cool. Wonder why its called Kill Bill?”

Jabiru Stork - Biggest bird in Central America. Kind of like a white stork that looks like it is very close but is actually really far away. Huge.

(It moved too fast for a photo!)

Hummingbirds - Hovering by the feeder on our porch. Occasionally fly about 6 inches from your face, check you out and then attack another one that’s eating the food.

Reptiles and amphibians

Crocodiles - One 5ft and one 7ft on the way to Lamanai.

Brown racer - Snake. Not racing, actually going very slowly across the road in front of our truck.

Green racer - (I hope). Caught on the porch eyeing up the front door.

Brown snake - Quite literally, seen escaping Kim’s foot on a trail.

Lots of lizards - Everywhere.

Sweet browny green frog - Chilling on the plants outside.

Sweet green frog - Chilling on the bedside window (inside).

Mammals

Howler monkeys - Everywhere. Make big noise in the morning and evening. Eat. Sleep. Scratch balls. Good life.

Spider monkeys - Nearly everywhere. Black and white. Much more manic.

Coatamundi - Cute raccoon type fellas.

Deer - White tailed. All around the farm and lodge. Could believe you’re in Bushy Park.

Bats - Amazing tiny fellas on a log. Almost invisible. Loads of them at night.

Creepy crawlies

Lots of biting things. Mostly flying.

Tarantulas - In holes on most of the trails.

Unidentified spider - On Kim’s pillow. Last seen in my hand and then sailing across the room. Current whereabouts unknown.

Alan the cockroach - Comes out in the cabana at night. Thinks he’s a dog (nearly as big).

Boris the wolf spider - Shared my footwell in the 2 1/2 hr trip to Lamanai. Glad to stay he slept most of the way.

Stuff we haven’t seen but know is out there…

Jaguar - Would be nice. Nocturnal.

Puma (mountain lion) - Apparently possible.

Tapir

"Climbing up a temple is physical, coming down is psychological"

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

“Climbing up a temple is physical, coming down is psychological”

- Mayan guide

Lamanai

Sun, 08 May 2011 22:29:00 +0100

A 2 1/2 hr drive and 1 hr boat ride from Chan Chich and we’re in Lamani, the longest continually populated Mayan site. Dates from 100BC to well into 1500s. Lamanai means temple of the submerged crocodile and spans 15 miles along the new river. Sadly most of it hasn’t been excavated.

Spanish conquistadores failed to conquest so they sent in the missionaries who built an Indian Church. Mayans pulled it down twice and left crazy pottery crocodilegoatsharks as sort of calling cards to warn off the Spaniards.

Temple of King Smoking Shells

At this temple they found the body of King Smoking shells along with five buried skeletons of children. Nearby they also found the body of a Mayan Queen ruler. They don’t know anything about any of them. It’s a real shame that more excavation hasn’t been done. But it’s all down to a lack of funding.

The temple itself has been built upon several times. It’s also a fairly easy climb, which lulls you into a false sense of security.

Temple to Cha Ak (we think)

Huge temple to the Rain God. Our friends from Boston - Kim and her son Alexander - started scurrying up this immediately and turned to us to ask. “aren’t you coming?”. Naturally, I followed and made my way up. After Ek Balaam I know I don’t like heights. Got to the top, pussied out of standing up and took a shot by just reaching my arm over the side. Suffice to say, going down is even worse. Kim sat at the bottom sensibly watching us. But got munched on by an ant as punishment for her laziness.

Temple of the Jaguar.

I let little Alexander climb this one by himself - didn’t want to steal his thunder.

Flying to Chan Chich

Sun, 08 May 2011 18:20:00 +0100

Meet Verne – our pilot. Let me say that again. Our pilot. I tell you, I could get used to this life. Or Verne’s life for that matter. Verne originally hails from Canada. He and his pilot wife were on holiday in Belize, when they saw an ad at Tropic Air – the local airline here – looking for pilots. So they popped in, were told a job would be waiting for them, went home, sold their flying lesson business and moved to Belize. A few years later they bought their own charter flight company – Javier’s Flying Service. And today, they spend their days flying tourists all over Belize. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted someone’s life quite so much.

Anyway, yesterday, Verne came to fly us to Chan Chic lodge, in Gallon Jug, near the border with Guatemala. We were brought to his Cesna Whatever (Chris will no doubt know the full name) and told to hop in. We’ve been in some pretty small planes when on Safaris, but this was the smallest yet. I was sat next to Verne in the co-pilot’s seat, where I had to try really hard to resist the temptation to pull the controls like a 5-year old on a arcade machine. Chris was in the back, relaxing. A couple of switches and away we flew.

It was a bit like being sat up front with a taxi driver. Except for the flying over hundreds of miles of jungle and Mayan ruins and the lack of bitching about immigrants. But other than that, just like it.

40 mins later we arrived at Gallon Jug airstrip, where our guide picked us up and brought us to Chan Chich. Chan Chich is a stunning jungle lodge situated in an un-excavated Mayan ruin in the middle of the jungle. Voted Condé Nast’s No.1 Lodge in Central America, it’s even in that ‘1000 places to see before you die’ book, if you care about such things.

Apart from a lovely woman called Kim and her 6-year old son, Alexander, we’re the only people here. Nature walks, canoeing, horse-riding, swimming pool, hot tub, 3 meals a day and a full mini-bar.

As I said. I could get used to this life.