17- Mexico: sinking our teeth in

After our little holiday within our holiday in Belize, it was back on the road to Mexico. Relatively easy to get from one to the other as a boat goes each morning which takes you directly into Chetumal, Mexico and from there we hopped on a bus bound for Playa del Carmen.

We hummed and hawed on what our first stop would be in Mexico and Playa was the final decision- the main reservations being that it is very touristy as it is a major American holiday destination, smaller than its neighbor Cancun but similar idea. We said we’d go for it anyway and see what all the fuss was about.

The first thought that comes at you when you get to Playa del Carmen is “where am I?”. You thought you’d gone through Mexican immigration but you’ve found yourself in an American town. It’s a funny place, obviously beautiful as why else would so many people go there but has been so overrun with tourists that it has definitely lost the charm it must have had to begin with. The shopping there is incredible for a Mexican town, more high street stores then you can imagine. It cracked us up when we saw ATMs that issue only US dollars- so many tourists who happily spend weeks in another country but never touch that country’s currency. Very weird! I have to say that Mexico was one our favourite countries- so beautiful and the people are wonderful but we really didn’t experience any of that until our second stop. Playa del Carmen is Mexico in name only and everyone seems to know it.

Thankfully our itinerary for the majority of the two weeks covered “real” Mexico as we worked our way west towards Mexico City. Our second stop was Tulum, an hour from Playa del Carmen and our stop off point to get our teeth into some Mayan ruins. From here we did our day trip to Chichen Itza- voted in as one of the Modern Seven Wonders of the World. It is the postcard you’d see most of Mexico- either that or a Mexican lad with a sombrero swilling tequila- whichever you feel encapsulates the country most! The main pyramid is a spectacular site and as it is cordoned off to stop people ascending it, you just get to stand back and enjoy the view uninhibited as it towers over the surrounding areas. Besides the spectacular site, it is also world famous for the way it was built and the way it interacts with the sun at certain times of the year- similar to Newgrange and Stonehenge. It’s hard to assess sites like these as to their worthiness to be listed on the Seven Wonders of the World but it is hugely impressive and well worth a visit.

We found that all of the Mayan sites had different charms so didn’t get “templed out” at any stage- Tikal in Guatemala was the most rustic as it was right in the jungle and you could go and climb all of the monuments for views out over the jungle, Chichen Itza has the most spectacular single monument, meanwhile on the outskirts of the town of Tulum was one of our favourites. We cycled there one morning and thought it was absolutely gorgeous. Mayan ruins set right on the cliffs overlooking a beach and its turquoise water. If I was a Mayan emperor I don’t think I could come up with a better place to build my temples!

It was in this area that we spent time visiting cenotes- these are swimming holes formed when underground rivers erode away the limestone underneath resulting in the collapsing of the ground above. They are a feature of this part of the country with some being hugely deep, others being beautiful, others you can go scuba diving between them through caves. We just went the swimming route and loved it. When it’s 38 degrees and 60% humidity, a nice ice-cold swim is very much appreciated. We had been in this one for a couple of hours when we took the waterproof camera into one of the caves and photographed back out- wasn’t expecting this spectacular a photo but it worked out pretty nicely!

So with just two night buses to go we said it was time to set a personal best and hopped on the bus from Tulum to San Cristóbal de las Casas - nineteen and a half hours of fun and games later we arrived. Go hard or go home they say! In fairness it is a big distance that we travelled but the fact that the bus stopped four different times during the night for immigration officers to come on and check our papers didn’t impress us much! 3 white people on the bus and we’re the ones who’s papers you’re checking, one time they came on and only checked mine! I’m sure Mexico must have a huge problem of white people illegally immigrating here! Focus on the important issues lads.

San Cristóbal de las Casas is a lovely town. We used it as a base to do two day trips but the town itself was great to walk around too. Lots of locals selling their wares, lots of cafes and restaurants and as with any good Mexican town, lots of churches!

The first day trip we did was to Sumidero Canyon, a huge canyon formed around the same time as the Grand Canyon. It’s an hour out of town and you can do an hour boat trip through the canyon. Really beautiful views- the canyon walls are up to a kilometer high in parts and as you wind through the canyon we got to see loads of wildlife, especially birds. Our boat driver was more then happy to drive his boat at full speed towards any flock of birds resting in the water which gave us a few opportunities to catch all of the birds “flying up out of the water through the canyon” or “flying away for their lives” as I’m sure they saw it.

The second day trip we did was to two different indigenous villages. I’m not sure what I expected from the trip but expectations weren’t too high, we’ve done a number of these type trips before with differing results. However this was one of the best days we’ve had on our trip. The reason we visited two different villages was to compare and contrast them- one is a relatively modern indigenous village where they are generally in line with Mexican customs, religion and life. The other village has their own way of doing things and they’re sticking to them!

A walk through the village is literally like visiting another world- they have their own laws, their own spiritual leaders, all 200 of them each acting as protectors for a different saint and their statue. They have their own political leaders elected each year. They have their own jail which is on public show so not only do you have to spend time in a urine soaked jail with appropriate iron bars but you have to do so in full view of the village- crime is low as you can imagine and the jail was empty when we passed! Men can have multiple wives. They even have their own time- they couldn’t be bothered adhering to Mexican time so they’re half an hour behind- this one village with 20,000 inhabitants on a different time zone- hilarious.

The real highlight was when we visited the local church- from the outside it looks like any other Mexican Catholic church but what goes on inside bears no resemblance to Catholicism. With good reason, cameras are banned inside and they have people policing to make sure this is adhered to- probably for the best as otherwise I would have spent hours inside there! Oh, where to start? I’ll go for the basics and work from there- there are no pews in the church, there is no priest, it is open 24 hours, no mass ever occurs, there are pine needles all over the floor, various statues of saints are placed around the church for worship. With me?

But amongst the pine needles you’ll see gaps and in them people will have lit and stuck candles on the ground with wax- no candle holders here!, I don’t mean a few candles either I mean thousands of candles. People will come in to pray and light a bunch of fifty candles of varying colours depending on what was required. It’s an incredible site but I’m not sure what the insurance companies think about it! In front of a number of these masses of candles a number of people gathered. From what was explained to us these people were the people praying but in case of emergency they brought along some loved ones as well as their shaman of choice to help out. Depending on the emergency, the shaman would be praying on their behalf and amongst the tools to assist the problem were bottles of Coca Cola & Fanta (a modern adjustment- they used to bring black and orange corn instead but soft drinks are easier these days!) and a live but soon to be very dead chicken! That’s right, we’d walked into what surely must be the only Catholic church where chickens are sacrificed in prayer to Jesus! Necks were snapped right in front of us- now you know why tourists weren’t allowed bring cameras in! They’d have a field day.

As I said it’s a different world. Of the Mexican population, 15 million of them are Mayans out of 115 million total population- obviously most of them don’t sacrifice chickens in Catholic churches but quite a lot of them don’t seem to recognize the Mexican president as their elected leader and live a life completely separate to Mexicans- that’s a hell of a lot of people. Our guide spoke to us also about the problems they’ve had with foreign missionary’s coming to try and convert them and the locals just wanting to continue doing what they’re doing. His quip was “they fought the Spanish now they’re fighting the Americans”. The Mayans aren’t for changing was the general gist.

So after that feast to our senses we took our final nightbus (tears at midnight!) to Oaxaca, pronounced Wa-hacka, where our taste buds were the focus of our attention. Between here and Mexico City, our final stop we went into overdrive to taste as much food as we could. Mexican food is world famous but per the Mexicans what we know as Mexican food is only from the border region with America- burritos, fajitas, enchiladas etc. All world famous but only represent a small part of Mexico- this would be Tex-Mex, we wanted Mexican.

Most street corners have taco stands- a taco will cost you 10 to 15 pesos (about a $1) and you’ll be stuffed after two. A fine cheap dinner. We tried to follow the crowd where possible- if there’s a pile of locals around a taco stand you’ve a fair indicator that it’s good. You’ll have a choice of main topping that they cook and put in the taco and from there you pick and choose from the big bowls of toppings they have all the while playing Russian roulette that you don’t end up with a salsa picante i.e. a sauce that will result in a serious heat explosion in your mouth or even worse a bout of Montezuma’s Revenge, the Mexican version of the Delhi belly! Easy to avoid and a little bit surely won’t do too much damage! As we went on we got more and more adventurous with the foods and enjoyed them more and more. Definitely the best food we’ve had since Asia. For us it still doesn’t come close to toppling Asia as number one but it does a good job of competing.

Oaxaca is famous for its food and we took a couple of trips to food markets and restaurants to taste our way around town. A few highlights: molé, which is a Mexican chili sauce that comes in seven different varieties of varying spice and gravy like consistency. Grasshoppers are surprisingly common in markets but also in restaurants- once we realized what it was they were selling we started seeing them everywhere. They fry them with a variety of things such as garlic and chili- chopped up they could be anything, I’m told when eaten whole they’re a lot juicier then you’d expect! In one of our favourite markets they have installed barbecue grills and chimneys at the side of the street so after a lot of figuring out the process, you walk down and choose meat from one of the stalls to be cooked for you, you can then find another stall to sell you sauces, guacamole or maybe even some onions to also be grilled (whole!) then you find a third seller who’ll sort you out with tortillas. As simple as that! Now all you need to do is find a seat and you’re good for another great taco eating session. Love Mexico!

It also wouldn’t be fair to talk about food and not mention the Fruit- this is true for all of South and Central America of course but the fruit is just so good here, so juicy and full of flavour, I suppose it makes sense that they’re so much better at source, obviously dehydrated after flying thousands of miles around the earth for us to consume.

In Mexico City, we went on an organized food tour- what a great idea. As we’d been to lots of markets before we went for the restaurant option which involves them bringing you on a walk of a neighbourhood and bringing you to recommended restaurants to eat different Mexican dishes. What a great day! A whole array of tastes consumed from tamales, to tacos (traditionally Mexican tacos are soft corn tacos not flour tacos- Tex Mex strikes again), to ceviche, to tostados, to Mexican chocolates, to Mezcal (tequilas less famous older brother) to Mexican ice cream. In a city as big as Mexico City I’m sure you can do a lot yourself but its great to have the good stuff picked out for you.

Mexico City, our final stop, was a wonderful surprise. It’s a really gorgeous city with lots to see and do. Just an hour from the city centre was the final Mayan temples on our journey, Teotihuacan, again really spectacular this time consisting of a number of different pyramids with the added bonus of being able to climb them to get views of the others. Well worth a morning of your time. All over the country we’ve seen Mayan buildings but there aren’t any in Mexico City- the reason? Mexico City was built on top of ancient Mayan ruins and as a result parts of Mexico City have a very real problem in that they are sinking and there are lots of buildings which are showing very visible signs of it. Maybe this is their final revenge?

Mexico City has a very good metro system that makes it easy to get around and one of the quirks we noticed is that all of the stations are represented not just by names but also by symbols (e.g. the stop for the zoo was a snake, the stop for the market was a bowl of fruit)- the reason for this was so that people who couldn’t read could still relatively easily use the metro- they say a picture tells a thousand words. Definitely true and in my case I’m a few thousand words in so for those who just look at the pictures, I hope you like them!

All in all, Mexico was a fantastic stop on our journey. It’s a big, big country (they all seem to be!) but from what we saw it a must visit country in the area. Next stop for us is another must visit country- Cuba. If we had a dollar for every time someone said “go to Cuba now because it’ll change completely once the Americans get in” we’d have at least 20 dollars. We’ve heeded the advice so off we go…………

Click here to see a selection of photos from our Mexican trip

Our route:

Boat and bus to Playa del Carmen, Tulum (day trip to Chichen Itza ruins, day trip to Tulum ruins), night bus to San Cristóbal de las Casas, night bus to Oaxaca, bus to Mexico City

16- Belize: No shirt, no shoes, no problem

Our journey continues in Central America by taking a bus over the border from Flores in Guatemala to Belize City. Interesting to drive over a border like that as you could immediately see the changes along the roadside. In the space of a couple of kilometres you could see that Belize appeared to be a much more affluent society. The border crossing itself is always interesting, we’ve done a few, this one was relatively uneventful although we were amused that we were charged 20 Guatemalan quetzals ($3) as a departure fee. It was only when we got to the other side and people started talking that there were a number of ways to avoid this charge:

1- Tell them you don’t have any money and ask can you pay by credit card!

2- Ask them for a receipt!

In either of these scenarios they either just wave you through or else they get you to fill out some sort of form. So it slowly dawned on us that we’d just paid our first ever bribe! Wahoo. Clearly being border security is one of the most lucrative jobs in Guatemala!

Our bus arrived to Belize City and from there we took a boat directly to an island called Caye Caulker for four nights. Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye are both islands where majority of tourists head towards- Caye Caulker is much smaller and less developed so that was our choice. It’s a lovely sandy island where the only motorized vehicles are golf carts! The other transport options are by bike or using your own two feet- the B&B we stayed at had free bikes so that was how we rolled for the few days.

It could be a product of lack of research but for whatever reason neither of us had looked up the language of Belize- we got a pleasant surprise when we found out that it was predominantly English, gave us a chance to put away the remedial Spanish for a few days! Belize is more like a Caribbean country then Central American (although we did only see a limited portion of it) and certainly Caye Caulker lives up to that stereotype. The locals love to shout “Go Slow” at people because on an island like that nothing moves fast! Everything is just really chilled out, we realized exactly how chilled out when we were cycling one day and came across this long straight road across the island- delighted with ourselves to be off the roads made of either sand or mud we continued on. The delight was relatively short lived as after a few hundred metres we realized that this lovely long straight road was the runway to their airport! Sure why would you need signs or a fence?! Thankfully we didn’t affect any departures or arrivals on the day, my guess is that there aren’t many but still, put up a sign lads!

So on some our travels, we may look for sympathy (and likely don’t receive it!) due to long trips on buses, unsavory bathroom conditions and just general roughing it- here, not so much! I’m not going to lie, it was bliss. Relaxing, swimming, snorkeling, drinking- rinse and repeat. The big rush of the day was for where to watch sunset! This was definitely not a high stress location. In our defense, we were just doing what the locals do, take it slow! For example there’s a lovely restaurant on the island run by an Italian couple, one of the most popular places on the island. We were amused when we saw that they don’t open on Fridays or Satudays- when we enquired why not as obviously that’s generally peak time for restaurants, the answer we received was that they liked to party too much and those are the party nights! Not a mantra to run a typical restaurant by but certainly a mantra to live happily on Caye Caulker by!

One of the highlights of the few days was a snorkeling day trip we did with the main stop of the day being to “Shark and Ray Alley”. A self explanatory name as the location is known for having sharks and rays going through it- however we did not grasp exactly how much activity would be there! When we got into the water we were literally surrounded by fish, with sharks (toothless type thankfully) and rays swimming around us also. Amazing. You just didn’t know where to look there was so much activity in the water. Definitely some of the best snorkeling we’ve ever done.

We had a few more stops on the day but from a wildlife standpoint, nothing compared to that stop. However, we did get to see turtles on another stop as well as lots of coral and had the chance to swim through an underwater tunnel- maybe 3 metres below the surface filled with fish. My ears felt like they were going to explode so I got nowhere near it but my wife showed her skills by getting down to it and swimming through driving all the fish out to meet us. Fantastic. So proud!

So that was our few days in a piece of Paradise, now where will we watch sunset tonight?

Click here to see a selection of photos from our Belize trip

Our route:

Bus from Flores (Guatemala) to Belize City, boat to Caye Caulker, boat and bus to Playa del Carmen (Mexico)

15- Guatemala: Guat’s up?

Our first stopping point in Central America is Guatemala as we make our way up to Mexico and beyond. After arriving to Guatemala City airport, we headed straight for Antigua rather than stay around as we had heard there’s not much to see. Antigua was lovely, very much a tourist destination- it has a population of just 35,000 versus 4.5m in Guatemala City- a bit of a different scale. It was also the first time we realized that Guatemala was obviously very close to America as there were so many tourists there. The influence can be seen clearly, not just in the higher prices of items with lots of touristy businesses catering to the US dollar but also in the t-shirts on sale on the streets- “Guat’s up” and “Guatever” were the two that stuck as my favourites- pretty sure these weren’t being produced for the locals to wear!

Antigua was also the place where we began to see a huge amount of street traders plying their wares selling anything and everything- no different from a lot of the countries we’ve visited. However, the big difference we found, and something we hadn’t been aware of, was that a large number of these traders are children. It’s one of these things where first you take a picture of this wonderfully “foreign” scene as you see a child, cute as can be trying to flog something on the street. It’s only when you stop and look around you realize that this isn’t a child out for an hour a week at the weekend helping her parents, this is a child who’s daily life is to try to bring home money to feed the family. Some of these children couldn’t have been older than six years old. As you continue to look around, you realize that the person pushing a wheelbarrow down the street filled with peanuts for sale might be fifteen, the person shining shoes looks to be about twelve and a whole variety of children in traditional outfits try to sell bracelets to tourists or simply pose for photographs for a few quetzals.

When I did some research online, I found out that they estimate that 15% of 7-12 year olds in Guatemala work for a living and don’t go to school at all. How any seven year old could perform a task well enough to earn money seems amazing in its own right. This isn’t a tourist problem either, selling to tourists is just another sales category to them, it has just become a feature of their society. Obviously tourists don’t help these situations by giving money to them- we heard a number of people reasoning that they were “assisting the families by helping to put food on the table” or “isn’t it good that they learn English by talking to tourists”- technically that’s true and you buying a beer from a ten year old on the street does put money in the families pocket but it also encourages the parents to keep the children on the streets as a source of income for the family.

Just a very sad life for them and really a road to nowhere- what happens to a cute kid selling goods to tourists on the street? Well they’ll grow up, will be unable to write their name, will have no education and will just be another grown up selling goods on the street and that’s no doubt the best case scenario for them. You’d hope that someone in the country has plans to try to fix this cycle as you’d imagine it will only continue to get worse.

Well that’s not the cheeriest opening I’ve ever written so …….. anyone for chocolate?!

I thought that’d cheer you up- one afternoon we attended a chocolate making course called “From the bean to the bar” where we got to make our own chocolate bars right from the cocoa beans. Actually really fascinating as it also involved talking about the beginning of chocolate (the Mayans used to drink hot chocolate), the development of chocolate (the conquering Spaniards return home and made hot chocolate for the King but added vanilla, cinnamon and a few other ingredients to change the taste (i.e. improve it) and make it worthy of a King)) to chocolate today (Henri Nestlé was the first person to make chocolate into bar form for consumption). But in between all the learning we got to spend time making actually chocolate- crushing the cocoa beans with pestle and mortar, grinding them, heating them and adding our own ingredients to make our own chocolate- nice little reward for ourselves.

Between all that, we also did a half-day tour up one of the local volcanoes- this is a very active area for volcanoes with at least three active ones around. We went up, Pacaya, who’s last eruption was in March 2014, not a long period of dormancy but enough to allow us to go up the top and to even toast a few marshmallows in some of the steam vents near the top- as a delicacy volcanic melted marshmallows are right up there near the top of our list, liquefied insides while toasting the outside- bliss. Easily makes the hike up worthwhile!

So after enjoying the delights that Antigua had to offer we hopped on a shuttle bus to Lanquin. Every country you visit, you find a different take on the best way to get around. Obviously in countries with not much public transport you end up relying on tourist transfers (if available)- that is where we ended up in Guatemala and they are really handy as they effectively take you from your hostel in one town to your hostel in another town. Cuts out interaction with locals but certainly makes movement within the country easier if not faster. Per Google maps, the trip from Antigua to Lanquin is 230km and by car will take just over 4 hours. By shuttlebus, the scheduled time is 6 to 8 hours. It took us nine and half! The amusing part of all of these trips is the acceptance that you’re unlikely to get there on time- the fact that they offer a 2 hour variance for arrival time is hilarious, the fact that they then missed their “worst case scenario” by another hour and a half reaches into the realms of absurdity. I suppose, when your driver pulls over to get the bus washed, while running so far behind schedule, kind of sums up their level of urgency! As if to say, “I mightn’t get you there on time but I will get you there in a nice clean bus”!

Our main motivation for heading to Lanquin was to do a day trip to Semuc Champey. As tours go, this one has rough and ready written all over it and when that’s the case, start as you mean to go on. With that in mind, the tour guide turned up with a van with an open back- twenty in the group so seventeen of us end up standing in the back of the van as we set off on the hour long trip- “OK, we must have booked the backpacker trip”! Such home comforts were never considered necessary for us as we were well aware that there would be no comforts where we were heading- our first stop of the day was to the caves of Semuc Champey. These caves are famous because in any developed country they could not possibly be a tourist attraction! In Guatemala, the rules are a bit more lax and as such tourists flock to explore the caves. Before you go inside, the guide handed us each out a candle, kindly lit it and told us not to get it wet, as it had to last us the next two hours. Sounds easy!

Off we go into the caves and within twenty feet, our feet are wet but candles are still comfortably dry. No problem so far- just an hour and fifty nine minutes to go! Five minutes later, we began to realize that keeping this candle dry was going to be like a challenge from The Amazing Race- the depth of the water escalated fast and soon you’re left without a choice but to swim through the cave, one armed obviously, as you’ve a lit candle in the other hand! Such a bizarre site to see a long line of tourists (although you mostly just see candles!) swimming along through the caves looking for the next ladder or rope to climb or maybe just a rock to stand on- health and safety requirements were left in the back of the van!

At no point did the guide ask if people could swim or required life jackets- besides informing us that the candles weren’t waterproof, his guiding basically ended with “follow me”! But as with all these things, the manicness of the situation was half the fun so as long as you didn’t kick a rock too hard or fall too far behind the group then you would have had the most amazing time. We certainly did and for the record- no our candles did not stay dry- we did pretty well until the point where we came to a tunnel and one by one we were told to slide down through it into a black hole where we couldn’t see what was beyond it- the answer? A few foot drop into a big pool of water and a certain dunking for us and the poor candle! It was a valiant effort on our part but I think it was a test that everyone fails!

After we got back to some natural light and dried ourselves off, we walked to the pools of Semuc Champey- beautiful turquoise pools on a number of different levels with little waterfalls flowing between them. Really gorgeous. You’re also able to do a twenty-minute hike up a hill to get a view down over them which is really nice but not much can compete with swimming in such nice water. Just a great day out.

After a day like that, it’s really nice to come back and have a hot (or warm) shower to relax but as is the joy of travelling, we’ve hit a bit of a bad patch when it comes to facilities! All of the accommodation we stayed in Northern Colombia didn’t even bother including a second tap on the sinks or showers (i.e. a hot tap)- sure I suppose what’s the point in making empty promises! Its funny the little privileges you miss like a hot shower when you turn on the hot tap (if available!) or being able to throw toilet paper in the toilet rather then in a bin next to the toilet (ideally with a lid on it), maybe having shower curtains that don’t allow the entire bathroom to look like a scene from the titanic or as my wife points out, there hasn’t been proper lighting in a room we’ve stayed in six months- oh the woes we have while travelling!

Our favourite Guatemalan quirk though was saved for the ATMs- it’s always a challenge to find ATMs that work. We’ve had no trouble in most countries, Brazil’s ATM’s were particularly fussy- only one of the main banks accepted my card- yes, all expenses are coming from my card. My wife has this marriage thing down pat! Anyway, back to Guatemala and their ATMs. The first three ATMs we tried all brought up an error saying “the chip on your card cannot be read, please try again later”. Getting frustrated we tried another ATM as having no cash would make travelling that bit more difficult. The fourth ATM brought up the same message but had a different sequence so when we took out the card, a message popped up saying “Please enter your PIN”- it was then we realized that all of the ATMs we tried were showing an incorrect English message on their screens! So the chip in our card is fine but the English of whoever made the ATMs in Guatemala is slightly off!

Our final Guatemalan stop was to Flores. It is a small island connected to the mainland by road and the main stopping point for those wishing to visit Tikal. Flores itself is a nice place, easy to walk around and with plenty of taxiboats ready and able to find you a beach to bring you to. Most people who visit here only have eyes for Tikal but it is a nice spot in its own right. The aforementioned Tikal is the first set of Mayan ruins that we visited but we have a long list on our to do list for Mexico so this’ll be a good trial run. From talking to various people, each set of Mayan ruins all have certain things that make them “must see”. Tikal’s main selling point is the scale of the monuments and the ability to climb up them and get amazing views from them over the jungle or down to other monuments.

A bit of trivia for you- Tikal featured in the first star wars movie! There’s a shot over the jungle featuring two of the temples (similar to the photo to the side but with no aliens in it). Not a big star wars person and it was released in 1977 but I have verified that this is correct. No idea how George Lucas decided on Guatemala all those years ago but there you go.

We had a really cool day out in Tikal and it was good to dip our toes into Mayan culture and their history. The temples are amazing. Really big and well preserved. There’s a lot of renovation going on but we got the impression that this was constant- either polishing up temples that have already been restored or trying to recover other temples which have been taken over by the jungle many years ago- the site was abandoned in the tenth century. Well worth a visit but as to where it stands in the pantheon of Mayan ruins, we’ll have to get back to you on that.

In the meantime, we’ve a little pitstop in Belize to focus on. Four days of rest & relaxation ahead since as I’ve explained the touristy business can be a whole lot of hard work!

Click here to see a selection of photos from our Guatemalan trip

Our route:

Fly to Guatemala city, straight to Antigua, bus to Lanquin (day trip to Semuc Champey), bus to Flores (day trip to Tikal), bus to Belize