OK, short one this time - no too much text, lots of photos… just the way you like it right? :)

It´s been a while already, thus high time to update this site! So after leaving Merida (and with that, Carnaval and the heat) I got to San Cristobal de las Casas. (Yet another) colonial town, but with the difference that it´s in the middle of an area where indigenous cultures and traditions are strongly mixed into daily life! Besides it´s in the mountains (at 2100m altitude, so it´s C-O-L-D at night!), which means there´s lots of opportunities to be hyperacctive for a bit, which was just what I needed!

So here´s a little rundown; after getting off the nightbus (= 1 hour of sleep thanks to snoring Mexicans) I decided to go on a litle hike, just for the heck of it. It was fun though :) The next days consisted of cruising around town, visiting indigenous communities (San Juan Chamula, amongst others), finally (!!) going to a cave and … sigh … visiting a waterfall, which was really massive by the way! As for the Disneyland-factor (after all I was on a popular tourist trail, bumping into the same people over and over again :)), I visited Cañon del Sumidero; a nice-looking canyon but a huge tourist-trap (though a cheap one ;)). In light of being realistic (as I always am!!), see below for a picture of what was to be found “around the corner” once we went in.

Anyway, no complaints; it´s been great out there! Right now I went on to Xela (aka Quetzaltenango, Guatemala) - yet another good spot to be hyperactive so expect another article soon!

Take care!

Rene “where´s my backpack again” Miltenburg

Update 09-Mar: Cosmetics are done!

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San Cristobal´s main cathedral

Wanna see a church? WORK FOR IT!

... and this is the reward ...

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Update 20-Feb: comment function is now open. Sorry guys!

Dear diary Whatever. As promised, here`s a post which - in terms of quality - should exceed the previous two. Can`t be too hard, right? At least my predictive capabilities (”worst viewed posts ever”) still seem to work after all these travels, which feels like a delight ;)

Well then, so after having fun on Cozumel and spending most of my time in fairly small places, I felt it was time for some big city life. The place of choice: Mérida, famous for Yucatec culture, its “bustling” weekends, markets, architecture, people, surroundings… in other words: quite the place to get stuck in for a while! What can I say… the weather was nice (nothing but sun, 28C and rising temps), the company was very pleasant (hi guys!), the food was great and the beer was cold - what more could you wish for?

The city functioned as a base for exploring nearby cenotes (3 in total) - which was both fun and stunning. The latter is because in order to see one of the cenotes you need to climb down an 8-meter ladder… and the top step broke while I was climbing up, so I was almost part of yet another bodycount (sounds familiar?). I keep wondering how the people that were still down there got out though! :)

Also, we visited the Chichen Itza ruins (yes, more ruins), which were a bit of a Disneyland-experience but still pretty impressive. Other than that the city itself was good fun, providing basically everything one could look for. Cultural events such as traditional Yucatec dancing - which seems boring at first but then all of a sudden gets impressive - provide a little extra.

Still happy about cities, I moved on to Campeche and hooked up with some people I also met in Merida… yes, I`m still on a well-trodded trail at the moment! Campeche is nice but VERY quiet, the old city centre feels like walking through a candystore with all those hard-coloured buildings. Anyway, the company again was very good! Next day took a night bus to Palenque and after a nice little ride and even less sleep went to visit (MORE) ruins! Anyway, these were the most impressive so far and by now I`m getting a little ruin-tired (and so should most readers) so I promise I won`t post too much on these things anymore.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures (bigger series this time too, whoo-hoo!!) and on to… CARNAVAL! (This way, not this way!)

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One very weary traveler

This is how the Maya kept their kids under control

Chichen Itza skyline

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Lots of different things to write about this time, so let´s try to be efficient and write less than a complete book :) Also, this post won´t be as “blue” as the previous one, promise ;)

So after the ocean, it was time for an environment that´s a bit more “hilly” - we took off to the Cayo district in Western Belize, to a place called San Ignacio. We used it as a base to explore two different Maya ruins; Cahal Pech and Xunantunich (hope this is correct). Both are very different, though equally impressive.

Next up were preparations for a day of celebration: Mayo´s bday (see comments on previous post ;)). We decided to celebrate this one in Hopkins, a pretty out-of-the-way beach town with hardly any roads, no cell phone reception … you get the idea! Stayed in a highly hippy-oriented place - the owners were interesting, our fellow guests were not (ask Mayo for the full story)! After some nice fish-n-cake meals :) it was high time to run off; on to Caves Branch, time for cave-tubing! Surroundings and caves were really impressive. Tubing was fun, though not very fast, pictures should explain it all!

Following this we had the intention to visit the Lamanai ruins (yes, another one), however once we arrived it turned out the place was one giant tourist-trap so we skipped it and instead crossed the border back to Mexico to visit the ruins of Kohunlich! The only way to get there was by hitchhiking, which still is good fun, especially if you need to watch out where to put your feet as the bottom of the truck was full of holes. Anyway, Kohunlich was impressive as it´s still mostly covered by jungle, and has some really nice Mayan masks.

Time to weave further up north; we ended up near Valladolid to swim in a cenote; a sinkhole filled with groundwater. Quite an impressive experience, and it seemed the water was even clearer than in the Caribbean Sea! As we wanted to blend in some more “wildlife-related” activities we decided to head further north, up to Rio Lagartos, where we made a tour through some mangrove forest (incl the marvellous number of one crocodile and lots of birds) and spotted some flamingos in nearby saliñas.

So much for this “diary-wise” post for now - hope you enjoy the pictures once more!

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Cahal Pech

On top of Cahal Pech

Xunantunich - skyline

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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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