… or whatever way you’d like to pronounce yet another word for “island”! Arright once again! After almost a week of gray skies, it’s time for a little more sunshine, blue skies and oceans, palm trees, reggae, yah man, etc! (Look here for more terminology!)

After a little bus-and-boat ride we arrived on Caye Caulker, home to everything which is slow, sunny and very Caribbean! Time to continue enjoying the sun, swimming, snorkeling and … surprise … diving! The first few days mostly consisted of “decelerating” - after all the motto down here is to go slow. This appeared to be pretty easy, even wildlife seems relaxed when approached! We also made a brief visit to San Pedro… Madonna might have fallen in love with the place, we sure didn’t!

Our “plans” sort of separated after a while; Mayo went off to do an Open Water Diving course, however due to a cold she could not complete it. Yes - Caribbean nights can get chilly - trust us! She’s happy to receive some comforting messages from you guys though ;) René (that’s me!) on the other hand did another six good dives at the Turneffe Atoll, the famous Blue Hole and some other keys (or cayes…). Yep - the diving counter has really started rolling now! :)

Right now we’re off to the jungle again, back on the mainland (in the hills, even…). Our main “concern” at the time being is where we should be celebrating Mayo’s birthday (Jan 27 people - don’t forget! ;))! Any suggestions are welcome or course! And again, enjoy the pictures and to all you guys in Northern America and Europe - good luck with the weather!

Take care!

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Our house! ("on the middle of the beach")

Our view!

Rene's hammock + content!

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Spending four days in a bus, only to arrive in a place that is more plastic than a 50-year old movie star … welcome to Cancun; so far the easiest place to dislike on this trip! This is Cancun in short: arrive, run to airport, pick up Mayo and get out!It’s always good to see elements from back home, but unfortunately Mayo brought along a bit too much of “Dutchism” - we haven’t seen a piece of blue sky for 5 days!

Alright, enough whining! Even in bad weather, there’s still plenty of stuff to do in Mexico so let’s get a move on; we visited Puerto Morelos, a small fishing “village” just south of Cancun. Pretty, and definately worth staying in! (By the way, say “Cancun” 10 times in a row and it starts sounding like a curse! :))

Since the weather wasn’t very much in favour of any beach-related activities we decided to use it for the better, that is, now doing the cultural stuff and bus trips so that we can make some shorter hauls later on! First up were the Tulum ruins, remains of an ancient Maya city built straight on the coast! Another bus trip south, a good night of sleep (which is increasingly becoming uncommon :)) and a stroll around Felipe Carrillo Puerto took us to the “Sanctuary of the Holy Cross” - a sacrified Maya site.

Enjoy a short batch of pictures for now. We’ll keep this one short in order to separate matters better; right now we’re in Belize and the weather has severely improved! So stay tuned for another post coming soon, with a lot more Caribbean elements to it!

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Puerto Morelos - darker than usual

All dressed for warm, tropical weather!

If only the sun would be there...

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Arright! Please allow me to break the silence down here, the last couple days have been sort of disconnected, if not hectic, if not both. Anyway, after two earlier intentions (aka semi-attempts) to go to the Corn Islands, I finally managed to get there! You know what they say - third time lucky ;)

The entire story on the subject is quite extensive, so bearing in mind the majority of visitors prefer a short story (and lots of pics ;)) you´ll find the “director´s cut” below. The full monte can be found by clicking on “read more” at the bottom of this article. Sounds fair, doesn´t it? :)

So here we go… As the islands are pretty isolated (70km off Nicaragua´s east coast), there´s basically two options to get there: by air (aka recommended and preferred) and by bus and boat (aka adventurous and dodgy). This makes for an easy choice: let´s take the latter!

That morning I got away from Lago de Apoyo by throwing both myself and my backpack over the fence. A quick busride took me to Masaya, famous for its “artesanias” - this is where I decided to buy a hammock, bearing in mind the large number of uncomfortable journeys I still had ahead of me (trust me, there´s more to come after this one!). Been there, done that and another busride took me to Managua. Three hours (and three attempts of theft, all unsuccessful) later I was on the bus to El Rama … what is it with Central American capitals!? One I got there all hotels appeared to be full so I spent the night sleeping in the bus - the hammock instantly came to good use :)

After being kicked out of the bus by its personnel (sorry, I have a hard time waking up!) I took the fast boat to Bluefields, and I mean F-A-S-T - the scenery was lovely though I didn`t get to see much as our boat hung almost vertical with speed :) Down in Bluefields I met up with some people (hello Rita and Mario) and together we learnt we missed the ferry to the Corn Islands by about an hour - bummer! Speaking to locals appeared to help though and we learnt a fishing boat would be leaving for the islands from El Bluff, a key just 1km off the coast. Friendly locals and even friendlier fishermen (yah man) allowed us to hitchhike and we got to Big Corn that same day.  We spent Saturday night on Big Corn (Reggae Palaca was nice!) and I left for Little Corn the next morning. I fell in love with the place as soon as I set foot on the dock - once again the pics should speak for themselves! Spent the next days enjoying perfect weather and, more importantly, went scuba-diing! You read that right: I CAN DIVE AGAIN! It was well worth it too; swimming among sharks and stingraysis quite an experience!

Unfortunately all good things come to an end eventually, and I now find myself in Cancun after spending 4 days on boats and buses, ready for the next journey. YAH MAN!

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Sunrise on Rio Escondido ... on the way to Bluefields

More Rio Escondido sightseeing

Our ride to Big Corn!

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