Hotel-Motel-Holiday-Inn - on route to Guatemala

After saying goodbye to Sam and Tulum, we began our journey to Guatemala. The easiest way to get into Guatemala from the Yucatan Peninsula is by staying overnight in a Mexican border-town called Chetumal, and catching an early morning bus to Flores (Guatemala) via Belize. So this is what we did.

The 3 hour bus journey from Tulum to Chetumal was uneventful, save for Grey holding his tummy and feeling rubbish the whole time. Upon arrival in Chetumal, we decided to check into the nicest hotel in town – THE HOLIDAY INN - so that he could have some much needed rest-time in a quiet and comfortable bed.

Happy at the Holiday Inn

After having a quick look around the very quiet town we decided that the best option for dinner was room service! We ordered guacamole, chicken soup, spaghetti bolognaise and flan (standard Mexican dessert) and ate it all in bed with the television on. Then we settled in for a long, solid sleep before a 5.30am wake up to catch our ongoing minibus.

Chetumal explorations did not go well for Grey

Room service!:)

… And then a wedding reception started downstairs in the hotel. Because the whole hotel surrounded a communal, concrete courtyard, the music and noise reverberated through the entire place. It was bloody loud. I gave reception a call to check what time the wedding would be kicking on until. 2am apparently. I slept okay nonetheless, but Grey had another bad night’s sleep.

After an early wake up, finding our way back to the bus station, expecting a “nice-big-bus” and ending up on an old, cramped minibus instead, an uneventful crossing of the Mexican border and entering into Belize, we were on the road! Although we only drove through it, Belize looked interesting. Within seconds of being on the road, the different cultural mix was evident, all the signs were in English, there were cows tied up in yards, and we drove past a couple of very cute looking markets. After being in a Spanish speaking country for so long, we wanted to jump out and talk to everyone! Being understood has become such a novelty!

Grey sleeping on the minibus. He was sick, poor thing

When we came to the Belize/Guatemala border crossing, things got pretty funny. Hoards of people approached the minibus, offering to exchange dollars or pesos at terrible rates because Belize or Guatemalan currency was needed to get out of or into the respective countries (I’m stlll not sure what the deal was). Also a lot of the people on our bus didn’t have the foresight to bring any cash with them over the border, and this created the need for a lot of borrowing etc. Grey was like a bank! 

A few more hours of driving and we arrived in FLORES, ready to check out a new country. 

Tulum, not as good as Thailand (if that is what you were expecting, which I was), but still good

We hired a car from Hertz (NEVER AGAIN) to drive from Playa del Carmen to Tulum and kept the car for a couple of days to make getting around and seeing the sights a little easier.

The drive from Playa to Tulum was unremarkable, except for our stop at the giant Pelican Superstore, possibly the biggest supermarket I have ever seen! We filled up a trolley with lots of things we didn’t need and paid too much at the checkout. It was fun though!

We stayed in an upstairs bungalow right on the beach called LUV TULUM. Sammy stayed next door in a place called S & S. Although our place was cute, Sam’s trumped it by a mile. But we were (and still are) on a budget (right)!

In our bungalow

View from our bungalow ... it's a tough life

By the time we had a quick look at the gorgeous, white sand beach (albeit with a few more waves than I was expecting), the sun was setting and it was time for drinks and dinner. We started with some tequila and lime on Sam’s balcony and moved onto big, juicy steaks at La Bistecca, an Argentinian Grill in the town. It had been a while between giant chunks of red iron (all the meat was chopped up so small in Mexico!), and the “classic cut” went down perfectly with chimichanga and Chilean wine.

The next day, after a quick morning run, we headed out for breakfast in the town. The food was served with a complimentary bowl of pickled vegetables, including pickled habanero chillies. Grey ate one and was not the same for days. After brekky, we headed to some spectacular Mayan ruins overlooking the beach (an ancient port-town), and then headed up the coast to Akumal, a big bay famous for it’s turtles! We hired snorkeling gear and saw a couple of really cute ones about 100 metres out.

Me and Sam at the ruins

G and Sam swimming at the ruins

Super pretty

That night we headed to possibly the most popular restaurant in the Tulum area, Mateo’s, for guacamole, ceviches, hamburgers and fish tacos (although unanimously NOT “the best in the world” as claimed by the restaurant).

Art-y photo #1

Art-y photo #2

Art-y photo #3

BALCONY DRINKS!! OUR FAVOURITE THING!

The remainder of our time in Tulum was a little rainy and dull. Grey was sick too, which made it double-sad. However, I will dot-point it for completeness:

• We had a couple of breakfasts in the town at a little French-style café called Elemental with green walls. Very cute with a very tasty tuna baguette;
• It rained;
• Grey stayed in bed a lot;
• Meanwhile me and Sam shared lots of drinks on various balconies, and a beautiful dinner at Om next door (such nice food right under our noses!!!);
• Hertz ripped us off when we dropped off the rental car; and
• We went walking one night to El Bistro for average pasta – the walk there and back was very dark and a little bit scary! Tulum is SO quiet at night. You definitely need LOTS of books.

Playa del Carmen – Welcome to America

After a couple of weeks on the Pacific Coast, arriving in Playa del Carmen felt like arriving in America. We checked into the Hacienda Real by Evanta which turned out to be a gorgeous hotel in a great location, near the main restaurant/shopping strip. We had long, well-overdue showers, found the first pub we could and sat down for a beer and soccer. Sam arrived later that afternoon – it was so much fun to see her!

Highlights:

• Chilling on the beach on our first afternoon with a bucket of beers;

Me and S

• Watching the sun set over the blue/green ocean and white sand (all while listening to techno music!);

S

• Dinner at Babe, an Asian fusion restaurant – tasty and strong mojitos and tequila shots and awesome meatballs and thai fish cakes!;
• Eating Haagendaz ice cream;
• Watching Grey try on cowboy boots; 

S and G

• Drinking giant Starbucks coffee’s for breakfast;
• Chilling under umbrellas on the beach at Blue Parrot, eating guacamole and drinking cocktails;
• Deep fried shrimp and fish tacos!;
• Dinner and giant margaritas at Cocina Mexicana on the main drag – meeting up with Shaun Janks et al and watching Grey drink most of a bottle of vodka by himself, and then getting sick (after knocking down a fence and potentially breaking a girl’s leg, falling out of a hammock and being accosted for trespassing by an angry Mexican, and not-eating a giant torta);

G and Janks

Danger

Dinner

• Talking about going to Cozumel, but never actually going;
• Dinner at El Fagon, a local favourite serving tasty tacos and allambre.

El Fogon

Our 30 hour journey to Playa Del Carmen

After deciding that we wanted to meet up with Sam on the Caribbean coast, we began what turned into a 30 hour epic journey across southern Mexico from Barra de la Cruz to Playa Del Carmen. The journey went something like this:

•  At 6pm on 5 January we took a 1 hour taxi from Barra de la Cruz to Huatulco.
• We had booked a 9pm overnight bus from Huatulco to San Cristobel and a connecting overnight bus from San Cristobel to Playa del Carmen at 4pm the next afternoon. This plan saved on 2 nights accommodation and gave us a whole day to check out San Cristobel.
• We arrived at the bus station in Huatulco at 7pm with plenty of time to have dinner and check out the town before our bus left at 9pm.
• We grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant and some tasty desserts (flan and rice pudding) from a street vendor and headed back to the bus station at 8.30pm.
• 9pm came and went and our bus did not arrive. No buses arrived. No one working at the bus station seemed concerned or had any information about the apparent delay.
• By 11pm people were starting to question the whereabouts of the buses.
• A fellow Spanish-speaking tourist eventually explained to us that villagers had blockaded the road and that no buses could get through to Huatulco. The bus station workers said that the buses should get through soon.
• At about 1am buses started arriving, including a bus headed for San Cristobel. We were momentarily relieved – BUT – as it turned out, the “San Cristobel” bus was actually the bus due at 11pm – it was full and we did not have a seat on it. “Never mind”, said the bus driver, “The 9pm bus is just behind us”. “Cool”, we thought. 2am came. Still no bus. “Sorry”, said the bus station man, “The 9pm bus turned back to it’s origin earlier this evening when it saw the blockade. It might come tomorrow”.  “Hmmm”, we thought, “Good information to know 5 hours ago!!!” The bus trip to San Cristobel takes 9 hours, and seeing as we had to catch an ongoing bus at 4pm the next afternoon (and were meeting Sam and had accommodation booked for the night after that), it left us a bit stuck.
• Some people wanted to split a cab with us to San Cristobel then and there, but something about it being 2am, the road to SC being notoriously dark and dangerous, Mexican drivers being notoriously crazy and the driver saying “I don’t need sleep – I have red bull!”, caused alarm bells to ring in our minds.
• We decided to hire a car or get a cab after a few hours sleep instead.
• We found a little hotel near the bus stop, woke up the owners, and slept from 3am to 6am. When we woke up, it became apparent to us that no hire car places would be open for at least a few hours. Instead we inquired about a cab to San Cristobel. 3500 pesos. Ouch. But no choice. We began our 8 hour taxi ride.
• We arrived in San Christobel at 2pm, with 2 hours to spare until our overnight bus left. Grabbed some food and had a quick look around.
• Then onto the bus at 4pm.
• At about 6pm, the bus stopped. We were driving through the state of Chiapas, and the road we were on was too dangerous to drive on at night without:
• A bus convoy; and
• Federal police guard.
• Therefore, we needed to wait in random town for a few hours until more buses and the police arrived.
• From 6pm to about 9pm, we hung out with a fun group of Aussies travelling through Central America. We ate tacos and chugged beer with some punk kids from the internet café.
• At 9pm, 4 buses (including ours) and the police started along the dangerous road. I tipped by seat back as far as it would go (so as to avoid a bullet in my head should one happen to be flying past), took a sleeping pill, and slept like a baby. I woke up a couple of hours from Playa del Carmen!

Hilarious experience. 

Grey feeling happy in our 8 hour cab

The religious icon will protect us :)

Barra de la Cruz – Time to relax some more for once

We travelled to Barra de la Cruz from Zipolite on 4 January 2011 via:

• a taxi to Pochutla;
• a bus from Pochutla to Bahias de Huatulco; and
• another taxi from Bahias de Huatulco to Barra De La Cruz.

Suffice to say it took a while.

We arrived around mid afternoon with just enough time to find accommodation out the back of a shop and rent a board. I (Grey) could only get a 7” pin tailed board, a bit bigger than my board at home, but it did the trick.

Grey climbing up to the cubby where boards are stored to pick one

On the road to the beach, break on the right

Barra is a small village a half-hour walk to a huge beach of the same name with a right hand point break. The break was made famous in 2006 when the Rip Curl Search event was held there. Apart from the break, the beach had one Palappa (thatched roof structure) restaurant and a toilet block.

The beach (empty) looking towards the right break

The wave breaks right on to rocks at the very end of the point. The take off is hectic and the wave was working amazingly at about 4-5 foot so only the best surfers could handle the initial take off.  There were about 15 people out, with about 5 out at the initial take off spot getting first dibs at the wave, while the schleppers (me included) waited maybe 50 metres down hoping that one of the better surfers: 

• missed a wave; or
• fell off, 

or for a wave to break a bit further in from the point.

From the point, the wave breaks perfectly right, all the way to the beach, probably 200 metres. If you learnt how to surf here, you could become pretty good in a week, as you get so much time to make turns and get minute long rides all the way to the beach.

The first afternoon I struggled with the new board and the speed of the wave and was getting pretty disheartened, especially after spending close to a week getting pummeled in P.E. By the end of the session I think I caught a decent wave.

The next morning was a different story with the waves a little smaller and me now being more used to the board. I surfed from about 10am to 12. Caught about 10 amazing waves, with turns etc … my best surf ever by a mile. By the afternoon, the high tide and dropping swell meant I was the only person out in the water, but couldn’t really catch anything worthwhile. WE called it a day – the end of a great surf spot to which one day I shall return.

There is very little else to say about Barra. Very quite and very small town. The only place to eat is the beach palappa - it serves a great ceviche for breakfast or lunch, but it's not open at night. 

Great place to surf though. Wow.

In our room at the back of a shop ... rustic

Zipolite – Time to relax some more

Zipolite is a small beach town a couple of hours south of Puerto Escondido. It has a hippy vibe, a small village and is a “clothing optional” beach, which we learnt when we walked onto the beach for the first time and saw naked bodies everywhere! The beach is beautiful, with rocky cliffs at both ends, but the surf is infamously dangerous. We went for a swim and could feel the strong undertow trying to drag us out to sea!

Looking north up the beach from our balcony

We stayed in a hotel right on the beach for 400 pesos a night – the balcony literally overhung the sand. At night the sound of the massive waves crashing almost kept us up. It was ridiculously nice. Sunsets on the beach were also beautiful – the sun set directly over the water. We went on a tough beach jog one sunset as it was way too hot to run in the middle of the day.

View from our balcony looking south

On our 2^nd day we took a cab to San Augustinillo, the next bay along to the east.  The beach was beautiful and a little more mellow surf wise, with great waves for body surfing. We had a cheap but tasty lunch on the beach – guacamole and ceviche!

The main road in Zipolite is closed at night and hippies fire twirl and sell trinkets out the front of shops and cafes. We had a nice dinner one night at Posada Mexico – a new place right on the beach – ceviche (we can't stop!!!) and BBQ prawns = NOM!

2 for 1 Pina Coladas!

Puerto Escondido - Time to relax

Puerto Escondido is a big town on the Pacific Coast. The main tourist area is the street along Zicatela beach, and this is where we spent most of our time. Zicatela has a very Byron-esque feel to it. There are a lot of decent restaurants lining the main street and cute shops selling beachy stuff.

Paddling ...

Grey surfing!

Our typical day (or pretty much every day) in Puerto Escondido went something like this:

• Wake up in our hilltop room in Casa del Mar – great view and relatively cheap, but a little bit sucio;
• Go for a morning run/surf (me/Grey);
• Eat and/or drink something at Café Cito - the most popular café on the main street which made an awesome fish with vegetables and soy sauce (love soy sauce), and baked great bread and pastries;
• Hire an umbrella and beach chairs to sit on until sunset. Request beers and coconut juices as required. Swim, read, nap as desired. Watch skydivers continually land on the beach;
• Sunset or happy hour drinks – usually mojitos or beer, accompanied by guacamole;
• Dinner followed by more drinks at Casa Babylon or one of the bars on the main road.

We stayed in Puerto Escondido for 5 days, including over new years  – and all more or less followed this schedule. Pretty relaxing.

View from our room

View from our room with skydivers at sunset

I heart Oaxaca

We arrived in Oaxaca about 8.30pm and found a cheap but friendly and clean place to stay – Posada del Centro – in a good location a few minutes from the Zocalo. About $30 a night with a shared bathroom. TIme to suck it up Grey.

Oaxaca is a beautiful, Spanish colonial town, with well-preserved architecture and cobblestone streets. 

My favourite things about Oaxaca:

• Our first night was the “Festival of the Radishes”.  The whole town was out for the festival and the town centre was filled with little radish dioramas! Very quaint;
• 5 hour Christmas lunch at Las Dezantes. The food was amazing and after weeks of drinking no or bad wine, we splashed out on a nice bottle. We ate duck tacos, chimichangas (like Mexican spring rolls), Habier Santa (a big leaf stuffed with local Oaxacan cheese which is like a mix between feta, ricotta and squeaky haloumi (AMAZING)) and coconut prawns;
• Avocados stuffed with tuna salad – a staple on most menus in Oaxaca – two of the best things in the world = one of the best things in the world;
• “Jogging” to Monte Alban, an ancient Aztec town set on a mountaintop. The road to get up there is steep and long, and running at altitude isn’t fun;
• There were festivities in and around the Zocalo on Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Kids with sparklers and fireworks, a parade of trucks with kids on the back dressed up as angels and other nativity characters, families everywhere. We sat at a bar on the Zocalo drinking beers and margaritas and watched the action;
• Checking out the town markets;
• Watching Grey freak out while getting an old-school blade shave at a barber;
• Oaxaquena hot chocolate – spicy, nutmeg-ey, cinnamon-ey goodness.

Before ...

After ... 

Explorations of the city ... in a church

Explorations of the city ... beside some flowers

Explorations of the city ... buggered at Monte Alban

Explorations of the city ... on a road at night

Christmas lunch at Las Danzantes

My style fish!

No thank you, I would not like any corn smut cream today

Drunk at Christmas lunch!

Another day, another awesome taco

Market snacks

On route to Oaxaca

We caught an 8 hour bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca. Our seats were near the back of the bus and Grey needed had hectic stomach cramps the entire time from wild boar pasta the night before … nice! 

Highlights of the bus ride:

• Eating the baguette I bought from the “Basket Lady” on Calle Londres in Mexico City. Pate and crunchy bread!;
• Seeing tiny puppies being sold on the side of the highway (sad);
• Winding around the Sierra Sur mountains and seeing strange cacti (and generally amazing scenary).

I didn't take any photos to remember the experience. Also sad!

Mexico City = Absolutely Awesome

We arrived in Mexico City early in the morning ready to by robbed, kidnapped and murdered. However, contrary to all of the DANGER warnings we received from people whenever we mentioned we were headed to the DF, we didn't experience any issues during out stay. We absolutely loved it.

We checked into Hotel Principado in Zona Rosa, a bustling area with heaps of shops, restaurants, bars and emos.  The road outside our Hotel (Londres Street) was dotted with food stalls selling tacos and taquitos, fruit juices, corn, tortas, hamburgers and pretty much everything in between. It was here that we ate the BEST TACO EVER with the yummiest condiments – guacamole sauce, tomato and onion salsa, beans and chilli sauce. Grey talked about it for days. We also had a massive fresh fruit juice for a dollar or two.

Following an after-snack-nap, we met up with Johnny and Carly who had come to meet us for a couple of days to hang out. My favourite things:

• Drinking giant margaritas and micheladas (tomato juice with beer and a spicy salsa) on our first night in a busy bar on Genova Street;
• Eating mole (a rich, spicy, chocolate-y sauce usually served with chicken) and watching Johnny and Grey go on “the mezcal journey” in a cute restaurant on Liverpool Street;
• Dancing with yard long margaritas at the cleverly named “Yard Bar”;
•  The Saturday Artisan Market in San Angel – set in and in the park area surrounding a beautiful colonial building with a huge courtyard – with the most beautiful art, jewellery and “other stuff” that I saw in the whole of Mexico (WISH I had bought something!);
• Discovering the tastiness of elote en vaso or "corn in a cup", a cup of corn kernels topped with a dollop of mayonnaise, a few tablespoons of parmesan-like cheese, lime, chilli powder and butter-type stuff (and Grey bringing it to me for dinner when I was sick);
• The history and scale of the Zocalo in Centro Historico which contained a giant ice-skating rink for the holidays;
• Eating Pozole, a traditional Mexican soup, at a back-street cantina;
• Dinner and drinks in Condesa for Grey’s birthday in a beautiful Italian restaurant;
• Sunday park day – on Sunday the main thoroughfare in Mexico City is shut to traffic and everyone rides bikes around the city and the main park, Chapultepec. We walked to the park in the morning sun, caught a little train around, visited the palace in the middle, then caught the (extremely crowded) subway back to Zona Rosa for lunch which included Zucchini Flower quesadillas!;
• Day trip to the Basilica de Guadalupe (and the "miraculous story" of this most popular Mexican saint) and the Teouhitican Pyramids (absolutely incredible to see, but a bit of a scary climb); and
• Dominoes, tequila and margaritas at Covadonga, a trendy but very traditional cantina with an antique bar and square wooden tables. They make a great tortilla Espanola.

After J and C moved onto Guatemala, we spent a few more days in the DF. Highlights:

• The National Museum of Anthropology. There are literally thousands of Aztec artifacts on display including the Aztec sun stone and a jewelry piece made of black Obsidian depicting a monkey, which experts reckon would have taken 25 years to carve given the tools available to the Aztecs; and
• Walking around Polanco, the richest area of the city, with beautiful restaurants and bars, and classy Mexico City folk having 6 hour lunches in the lead up to Christmas.

Lowlights:

• Me getting sick for the first time; and
• Grey getting sick from eating wild boar pasta (should have known better:)!

A little pool pitstop at the markets

Crafts at the markets

Paintings at the markets

Big palace (possibly?) at the Zocalo

Dinner in Condesa

Drinks after dinner

Cactus and Grey

On the Pyramid of the Sun. Grey is so far from the edge still :)

View from Pyramid of the Moon + annoying lady spoiling picture

 

Covadonga

Drinks and dominoes at Covadonga. Tequila + Sangrita + Lime

Dominoes!!!

Sick at the museum after I already spent money on the audio tour!!!

 

Aztec sun stone

Obsidian monkey vase, 25+ years to make

Juice bar