I can't believe it's been over 3 months already?! It's gone far too quickly!
My last post was when I came back from Cuba and that seems soooo long ago! Where do I start??
So I spent a month going about Mexico (LOL at me thinking I was going to spend only two weeks there!), the place is huge, like, super HUGE! If I had no time limit at all then I would've spent much more time there. My route was as follows:
Isla Holbox - Merida - Palenque - San Cristobal De Las Casas - Puerto Escondido - Oaxaca - Mexico City - Guanajuato - Taxco
Holbox was a quiet little paradise, serene island. It felt a bit weird since it was the first time I was on my own since Cuba. It was nice, just not much to do about there. Tried a Poi class (google it) and can embarrassingly say that I nearly knocked myself out a couple times, thankfully there was no fire involved!
Went onto Merida and did all the touristy things like visiting ruins, cenotes (which were very cool to jump into, although my first ever attempt at diving resulted in a big belly flop!!), also Celestun where we went Flamingo watching! Have you ever seen a Flamingo run out of water - very funny! Also took a couple of salsa classes at my hostel which were fantastic! It helped that the teacher was quite cute as well...haha.
Palenque was a bit of a blur, me and the guy I was travelling with wanted to move onto the next place asap, so we did the ruins as soon as we got there (right after a 7 hour bus ride!!) and then Agua Azul and Misol-Ha (these beautiful waterfalls!) on the way to San Cristobal.
Got to San Cristobal late at night and it was freeeezinggg!! Couldn't actually believe the huge climate change! The place I stayed at had these big comfy blankets, so I slept like a baby. Was funny to think I was in Mexico wearing a thick duvet! Had a market nearby so I stuffed myself with fruit and salads for a couple days. Took a bus out to San Juan Chamul and I can say that it was definitely an experience to say the least! There's a famous church there and you go in and there'd be people/families all over the place praying/chanting/throwing alcohol onto candles/sacrificing chickens. YES, sacrificing chickens!! I kinda just stood there watching everything that was going on, the chanting was a little bit mesmerizing. I laughed at one point because there was this woman chanting with her family and her homie walked bye saying goodbye and the woman stopped chanting, shouted something back to her and then carried on chanting LOL, maybe it was one of those 'you had to be there' kind of things. The night I left to catch my bus to Puerto Escondido, as soon as I stepped out of my hostel, it PISSED down, the most rain I'd seen in Mexico! Getting absolutely soaked trying to walk 2km to the station was HELL. It would suffice it to say that I had a very wet bus journey!
Puerto Escondido! I spent 6 days here, the longest of my time in Mexico! Mainly because I was taking Spanish lessons, but also cos I think I needed a break from moving around so much, and what better place than by the beach in South Mexico! Met an interesting old fella here called Mongo, an 80 year old Japanese artist who just painted and drank mexcal all day! He was a good salsa partner though! One of the highlights of this place was getting to release baby turtles into the sea, SO COOL!
Next stop was Oaxaca, I took an overnight bus which ended up being 13 hours long as it broke down half way through wahhh! The food in Oaxaca was sooo good! Tlayudas (pizza type tortillas) were amazing! Went to a place called Carne Asada, where you just picked out the meats you wanted cooked and they bring into to your table BBQ'd with all the sides - kind of like Mzolis in Cape Town! Also, whilst here I got to visit Monte Alban, these ruins on top of a hill and Hierve el agua, natural springs on top of a hill overlooking the mountain scenery - EPIC! I think one of the funniest convos I've ever had was when my friend and I were trying to ask for bubble wrap in a shop and the stupid boy wasn't explaining it properly, so both sides were looking at each other like WTF, it took about a half hour to finally understand! I'm pretty sure my friend was ready to punch the living daylights out of this guy!
Mexico City (or DF as people called it) was next and I have to say, I didn't feel unsafe at all, even as a solo female! Loved using the Metro! You'd have people coming on at nearly every stop selling things, so funny cos as soon as the doors closed they would start shouting like they were in a market, opening up their bags and coats, couldn't help but stare every time! Got the same treatment back though, because I was OBVS a tourist with my shorts and vest, I would get stared OUT by some people, kinda glad the metro has a female and children only zone during rush hour! Wish I would've spent more time there, so many different places to see in the city! I did visit Teotihuacan, one of those surreal moments, like Chichen Itza, a place you'd read about so many times and then you're there! It was also spring equinox, so you'd have me trying to climb this pyramid in the blazing hot sun behind all these people who keep stopping to pray, weird experience!
I'm not really a museum type person, but am glad I visited the museum of anthropology, so BIG with soooo much to see, had to rest a coupla times!
Went to go visit a friend in Guanajuato, a beaaauttiful town outside of DF, so small and compact with loads of winding streets and alleyways, had such a European feel to it. THIS is where I had the best Cordita ever, it's like a thick corn pattie with whatever filling you wanted and I got queso and bistek (meat and cheese) FML it was so good! Had two!!
I also visited Taxco for the day, another little town filled with white VW beetles! This was a very trying day, my spanish was shit and taxi drivers were conning me left, right and centre! Grr! I did get to see one of the biggest cave systems in the world, with a Korean tourist group. They were a group of pastors and we were walking about with no one else around and came across an auditorium type place and then one of the pastors got onto stage and started opera singing?! So cool having his voice echoing throughout the caves! Had to run off and leave them to catch my collectivo on the roadside, which never came!! I was on my own, sitting there thinking no one knows where I am and my passport was 5 hours away in DF, anything could happen... so begrudgingly I went back to the taxis and willingly got conned into getting taken back to town...!
After DF, I couldn't bear taking a 22 hour bus to Guatemala, so I got a flight (out of my budget!!) to Guatemala City (Guat city bitch, guat guat city bitch LOL) and went straight to Antigua - no one ever willingly stays in G City! Antigua was loooveelllyyy, very colonial, what surprised me was the amount of tourists there, PACKED! I think what made me like the place so much was the hostel I was staying at, El Hostal, so laid back and comfortable, brekkies were EPIC, staff were lovely and I had the most perfectly positioned bed LOL. Did a mini trek up Paccaya and got to see such a sick sunset! The volcano had erupted a couple weeks back so we went to go roast marshmallows in some of the still-hot lava!
Next I went to Semuc Champey, another one of those 'see so many pictures of' and I was finally there! Semuc is a bunch of pools with water cascading through them, you have to do a bit of a trek to see them from a birds eye pov which was HOT, but all worth it once you got to swim in them! Clear blue, serene waters, went here on my own, SO wished I had my friends there to experience it!
Went back to Antigua and met up with a French couple that I've been bumping into throughout my whole trip, I first met them on my first night in Cuba, then bumped into them on the Flamingos trip and here they were in Antigua, such a nice couple. I went to dinner with them and a bunch of older French people they'd met, the night ended with me salsa dancing in an empty restaurant with the dad of the group LOL.
I then went onto Lake Atitlan, San Pedro La Laguna to be precise and met my other favourite couple I met in my travels, this time they were Kiwi. They're so nice, got on with them so well, I just wish we were able to meet up more along the way! San Pedro was a weird little place, cool for partying and chilling out, but maybe too many drugged out people...! Didn't do much here apart from celebrate MY BDAY! A very blurry night, easily done since the mojitos are around £1!! All I remember is jumping around from place to place and scraping my leg (OUCH) against some rock in an alleyway that we were trying to get through to get to an 'afterparty' with people off their heads on drugs.... a good end to the night! As many of you know I had the most amazing bday lunch, BBQ meat the size of my head with huuugee sides!
Time to leave Guatemala, I headed onto El Salvador with a bunch of peeps from Pedro, went smoothly through the border, thankfully! Got to El Tunco and headed out for food... CHINESE! Had a craving for it and even though it was one of my more expensive meals, it was so worth it. We stayed in EL Tunco for about 10 days, only because it was Semana Santa (Holy Week) and there was no way we were going to find anything in Utila (our next place) during that time. So it was a week of laying by the pool, going to the beach and... eating. Even though we were doing shared, cooked meals, they were BIG meals and they were goooooodd!! I didn't cook lol, but was very grateful to everyone who did! I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of the El Salvadorean papusas, even though you could get different fillings, they were still bland and not really interesting, bloody cheap though! Went to San Salvador for a couple nights for Fatboy Slim and Alesso, such a good night!! Even though I peaked waaayyy too early with the drink (what's new there??), the night was so good, all I remember is trying to jump as high as possible when Alesso started to play SHM! CRAY!
Had a long way ahead of us trying to get to Utila in Honduras. Took chicken buses all the way to San Pedro Sula, getting into the country you'd see guns allll over the place, the military, police, border control, random bus checks, security guards, bloody hell! The guys I was with got a pic with a couple military guys at the mall, the looks on their faces....! Made it to Utila the next day and sadly due to lack of sleep, I got ill and wasn't able to do a diving course : ( and so another week of laying about, swimming and sweating in the relentless heat! After 5 days I was ready to leave, but my friends got wind of a deserted island they could stay on and so I left on my own to travel through Honduras to get to Nicaragua! Spent two nights in two different cities, the hostel in La Ceiba, I got to go to Pizza Hut with these Aussies I'd met, but the hotel in Tegucigalpa I stayed in all night, could just hear shouting and arguing alllll night long! We'd met this Honduran guy back in El Tunco and he so sweetly met me before my bus the next morning with take away brekkies! Was so happy seeing as though I hadn't eaten the night before!
Headed for the border, and it's so funny whenever travellers go into a new country because most of the time we're just waiting to see if we get a stamp or not! Can not wait to see my passport at the end of this year!
Got to Leon and headed straight out for the supermarket for a salad. Got back and stood in the kitchen eating and noticed these guys walking in, I KNEW I recognised one of them (because of the trousers he was wearing!), and then it clicked. Do you lot remember me telling you my first night in Cancun there was this guy throwing up behind me into his backpack? Yes, it was him. Couldn't believe it, HE couldn't believe I'd actually remembered what he looked like! 2 and half months on and we're both still here and actually crossed paths again! We started talking and it turned out we were on the same flight as well!! How weird! He turned out to be SUCH a nice guy, first impressions eh? Haha.
I wasn't all too interested in the city of Leon itself, I was mainly there for the volcano boarding! Another one of those 'read about' things, felt surreal (again!) finally being there! Hiked up the side of Cerro Negro for an hour and then boarded down as fast as I could (failed miserably as I fell off twice!!), very cool (and dirty) day! This is the night that I did the Lava Shot challenge, 2 shots and then a double of mega chilli shit. Boy did I pay for it the next day, but I got a free shirt!
It was coming up to the weekend so I headed for San Juan del Sur, party central, to meet up with my friend! Stayed at this amazing place on the hill, owned by an old Aussie couple. Views of the mountains, sea AND an infinity pool. So Sunday Funday crept up and it was basically alcohol, pools and very small bathing suits (Not me!). Crazy day, going from pool to pool, bumping into people I'd met over the past couple weeks, getting pushed in and dunked in the pools! I was sober by 7pm and in bed by 10! Hardcore, I was.
Then went onto Granada for a couple days, not thaaat interesting, but glad I saw it. I then travelled to meet my friends in Ometepe - an island in the middle of a lake, but this lake is soo big you can't see the mainland at all!
So I'm in Ometepe now and it's been nice, my friends and I have unintentionally been moving from hostel to hostel each day, now we're going to try and make it 6 hostels in 6 days lol. Met up with my fave Kiwi couple again, they're off to Costa Rica now to work on a farm! I should be heading to Costa Rica within the next week and my beautiful friends from home are coming to Panama on the 31st - CAN NOT FUCKING WAIT!
On another note, I was made an aunty a few days ago!! My beautiful niece came into the world on the 7th, I was sitting in a cafe in Granada with tears in my eyes when the pics came through, the first time I soooo badly wanted to be home and with my family : ( I'll see you in a few months kid <3 p="">
So, I've got three weeks to make it to Panama City and then hopefully want to travel around and be done with Argentina by the end of September, if possible, I'm going to try and fit in few weeks of Brazil in there somewhere...hopefully!
Obviously I've missed out bits and pieces, here and there but oh well.
Easy peeps!
Until the next (overdue) post. xxx (Sorry for no pics, wifis slow here!)
No comments:
Post a Comment