After the Moth Attack, Lanquin

We had a very unfortunate moth attack and had to sleep in the hammocks outside... Emma looks like a refugee!!! Not very "PC", Sorry....

Tubing in Lanquin and Semouc Champey, Guatemala.

Lanquin, Guatemala

Guatemala part 2

After leaving Flores we headed south to an eco-farm run by an american woman(her husband set it up with her in the late 80's but he was murdered by the guatemalian government in 1990 and this contributed to the US cutting off aid to guatemala in 1995). It was set in the middle of a forest, lots of hills but it rained the whole time so couldn't really do much but eat, which suited me nicely!! After two nights we moved on to Lanquin, it took us 5 busses and 10 hours to get there, all on little mini-busses packed with up to 30 people. It was really cool though because we went throught the countryside and places tourists dont normally get to. As the crow flies it was only about 120km but it took 10 but thats Guatemala for you!!!

Linguin is in the middle of the mountains on the edge of a valley and is absolutely stunning (like all of this country). The hostel we stayed at was set of by an English guy and is on the hill leading to the valley floor and the big river. Its all huts and cabanas with a good restaurant. I'll attach a picture of it onto this. There;s lots of water activities you can do here, so we went tubing down the river, not a good idea since i'm probably the worst swimmer known to mankind!!! It was amazing but some parts of the river had very strong currents and there was fallen trees across the river at parts and you couldn't really stop your self flying into them and in doind so, i cut all my hand and half ripped a nail from one of my toes... its all part of the experience though!! when you come to the hostel your supposed to hang onto a rope and pull yourself in... that didn't really work and Emma ended up hanging onto an overhanging branch with no where to go....eek! a local had to save her, i couldnt do much because i was hanging onto a different part of the tree. We all survived and really enjoyed it!

We also went caving in Semouc Champey and hiked a mountain and went to the most stunning natural pools.... From there we came to Antigua which is the Old capital of Guatemala until it moved to Guatemala City in the 1700's after an earthquake. Its an old spanish colonial place, all cobbled street and overlookd by volcanoes all around the town. Buena Vista Social Club play here twice a week but are very hard tyo find out where they are actually playing, so hopefully going to catch them tonight or on the way back (we have to pass through here in about 3 weeks). Tomorrow we're going straight to Nicaragua on an epic 36 hour journey via El Salavador and Honduras and on to Managua and then Granada... Fun Fun Fun

Guatemala part 2

After leaving Flores we headed south to an eco-farm run by an american woman(her husband set it up with her in the late 80's but he was murdered by the guatemalian government in 1990 and this contributed to the US cutting off aid to guatemala in 1995). It was set in the middle of a forest, lots of hills but it rained the whole time so couldn't really do much but eat, which suited me nicely!! After two nights we moved on to Lanquin, it took us 5 busses and 10 hours to get there, all on little mini-busses packed with up to 30 people. It was really cool though because we went throught the countryside and places tourists dont normally get to. As the crow flies it was only about 120km but it took 10 but thats Guatemala for you!!!

Linguin is in the middle of the mountains on the edge of a valley and is absolutely stunning (like all of this country). The hostel we stayed at was set of by an English guy and is on the hill leading to the valley floor and the big river. Its all huts and cabanas with a good restaurant. I'll attach a picture of it onto this. There;s lots of water activities you can do here, so we went tubing down the river, not a good idea since i'm probably the worst swimmer known to mankind!!! It was amazing but some parts of the river had very strong currents and there was fallen trees across the river at parts and you couldn't really stop your self flying into them and in doind so, i cut all my hand and half ripped a nail from one of my toes... its all part of the experience though!! when you come to the hostel your supposed to hang onto a rope and pull yourself in... that didn't really work and Emma ended up hanging onto an overhanging branch with no where to go....eek! a local had to save her, i couldnt do much because i was hanging onto a different part of the tree. We all survived and really enjoyed it!

We also went caving in Semouc Champey and hiked a mountain and went to the most stunning natural pools.... From there we came to Antigua which is the Old capital of Guatemala until it moved to Guatemala City in the 1700's after an earthquake. Its an old spanish colonial place, all cobbled street and overlookd by volcanoes all around the town. Buena Vista Social Club play here twice a week but are very hard tyo find out where they are actually playing, so hopefully going to catch them tonight or on the way back (we have to pass through here in about 3 weeks). Tomorrow we're going straight to Nicaragua on an epic 36 hour journey via El Salavador and Honduras and on to Managua and then Granada... Fun Fun Fun

Guatemala part 2

After leaving Flores we headed south to an eco-farm run by an american woman(her husband set it up with her in the late 80's but he was murdered by the guatemalian government in 1990 and this contributed to the US cutting off aid to guatemala in 1995). It was set in the middle of a forest, lots of hills but it rained the whole time so couldn't really do much but eat, which suited me nicely!! After two nights we moved on to Lanquin, it took us 5 busses and 10 hours to get there, all on little mini-busses packed with up to 30 people. It was really cool though because we went throught the countryside and places tourists dont normally get to. As the crow flies it was only about 120km but it took 10 but thats Guatemala for you!!!

Linguin is in the middle of the mountains on the edge of a valley and is absolutely stunning (like all of this country). The hostel we stayed at was set of by an English guy and is on the hill leading to the valley floor and the big river. Its all huts and cabanas with a good restaurant. I'll attach a picture of it onto this. There;s lots of water activities you can do here, so we went tubing down the river, not a good idea since i'm probably the worst swimmer known to mankind!!! It was amazing but some parts of the river had very strong currents and there was fallen trees across the river at parts and you couldn't really stop your self flying into them and in doind so, i cut all my hand and half ripped a nail from one of my toes... its all part of the experience though!! when you come to the hostel your supposed to hang onto a rope and pull yourself in... that didn't really work and Emma ended up hanging onto an overhanging branch with no where to go....eek! a local had to save her, i couldnt do much because i was hanging onto a different part of the tree. We all survived and really enjoyed it!

We also went caving in Semouc Champey and hiked a mountain and went to the most stunning natural pools.... From there we came to Antigua which is the Old capital of Guatemala until it moved to Guatemala City in the 1700's after an earthquake. Its an old spanish colonial place, all cobbled street and overlookd by volcanoes all around the town. Buena Vista Social Club play here twice a week but are very hard tyo find out where they are actually playing, so hopefully going to catch them tonight or on the way back (we have to pass through here in about 3 weeks). Tomorrow we're going straight to Nicaragua on an epic 36 hour journey via El Salavador and Honduras and on to Managua and then Granada... Fun Fun Fun (pics to come, its not letting us do it right now)

Photos from Tikal

Guatamala part 1

well the border crossing this time was not as smooth.we made a group of friends on the bus one guy could speak fluently so when we played dumb to the unofficial fee into the country,he said none of us would pay without a receipt to show it was a legitamit tax...well that didnt go down well at all,she let all 6 of us go without paying but told him he couldnt enter for being such a hot shot.He had to bribe a randomer to get in,but never got a stamp into the country so now he´s illegal...kinda funny, kinda not!!but it didnt bother him so much that he wasnt going to enjoy himself while he was here and this morning at 3.30 am a group of 6 of us got picked up to go to Tikalñ for sunrise. Tikal is an amazing Mayan Temple, though not just one,set among the jungle where we saw many endangered animals. We saw monkeys,stange colourful insects etc...we got a guide for the ruins who took us around for 5/6 hours, teaching us about the Mayans and their beliefs,rituals and how they may have built the temples. It was great, and we were done before the mid-day sun came out to torture us!!planning to leave Flores tomorrow,which is were we are staying in a small cute village in the middle of a lake.We want to go south to some hot springs and waterfalls,so you´ll get some photos in a week or two.

Belize

First off, sorry about how the pics went up... we blame Guatemala!
the trip overland from mexico to belize couldnt have gone smoother and we got to the islands ( Caye Caulker)in one day!!the people were so lovely and it was such a break to speak english with everyone. The place is so relaxed with just one street. People drive around in golf carts,we only saw one car which was the police tho i cant think what they do all day except hang on the streets watching basketball or chattn to the rastas.Food was great and its lobster season,so a huge full lobster with loads of side dishes for $9 on a bbq out by the sea!!heaven!!backpacking is hard work...tho i feel we deserve a break after our reception in cuba.We went snorkling out by the reef which is the 2nd biggest after austrailia,and swam among sharks and loads of sting rays (scary at first but then really cool) and then all your usually tropical suspects like colourfull cute fish,crabs,coral...although sadly the turtles didnt make an appearane for us but im sure we´l catch them in Honduras!!So that was mostly it for Belize ,sun, sea,tanning (burning),eating,drinking etc..We didnt stop anywhere else in Belize but are considering going back up through it on the way back if time permits.

Viñales Horseriding

Havana old school cars

Havana

Cuba pics

Viñales

Cuba Part 2

After leaving the airport we (as part of the package got a hotel for 2 nights, the night we came and the last night) went to the hotel. Supposed to cost $80 a night, most hostel i thought would be better!! Everyone was smoking and a think smell of cigar smoke in the room, didnt help my helpless little lungs!! The following night and the rest of the nights we stayed in casa particulars, which are much like bed and breakfasts, in Havana these copst $25 for a room and this is "budget" accomodation. It didnt take us long to notice that everyone wanted to "help" you, but their hand was out all the time looking for money. even the post man just gave us directions to one of the casa´s and the hand was out!!! got really annoying, could never tell if anyone was genuine!!

Havana was a cool place, vcery old and lots of old colonial buildings and old 1940 and 1950´s cars roaming the streets. Good atmopsphere but again you wpuld never know if people were genuine. The majority of times they weren´t!!! I will bring you through a dialogue of a typical conversation..... Emma and a randomer...

Cuban: Oh my ffriend where you from.
Emma (trying to ignore him)......
Cuban: Talk, I´m not the Mafia....
Emma: Irlanda
Cuban: Oh Holland, very good!!
Emma: No... IRELAND!
Cuban: (confused look on his/her face)
Emma: Beside England...
Cuban: Still confused... Oh Beautiful place!!
Emma: Argh....
Cuban: My friend, you have milk for baby?
(Baby happens to be 15 yrs old, babies are old in cuba, must be the communism or something!!!)
Emma: No
Cuban: Snotty face and walks off...

This can happen for a number of options, depending on the approach of the person. they ask for
1) Milk for the Baby.
2) U like Cuban cigars...
3) Can have your trousers?
4) you have t-shirt for me in your hotel room... "no"... Reply.. "do they not have t-shirts in your country"
5) Can i have your watch?
the list could go on..... and this happens at least 20-30 times a day in havana!!!! Good job the mojitos are so good!!! I dont thin we have met as rude of people in my life unreal! really put us off the experience!

After spending 2 nights in havana, we went to the Pinar Del Rio region and the town of Viñales. This was a small town, with ox and cart in the street, it was an absolutely amazing place, very beautiful. It has mountains called mogotes, only found elsewhere in the world in Southern China, They´re square limestone mountains. I will post some pics after this. We went horse riding through them which was an experience (and a sore arse!!!).

We stayed there 3 nights then back to Havana for the rest of the time. I must point out that the food in Cuba is absolutely terriblñe, a delicacy to them is rice and beans!!! or spam for that matter. at our hotel we had a "HUGE BUFFET", here´s how it went...

1) the fruit counter consisted of a few manky pieces of mango and pineapple with some beautiful slices of grapefruit! all very appealing...
2) The pancake section (which was ok) with a dish of beautifully sliced spam with a handul of delicately sliced process cheese on top!
3)(my favourite section) Croquettes (which are supposed to have potatoe in them, right?) but yet again, they had spam inside them... i can hear your bellies rumbling from here...mmmmmmmm! This was served alongside some sort of fried veg, possibly cabbage with a few sporatic carrots thrown in there for good measure!!

Are you suprised Emma got food poisoning... I think not!!! EMMA DID NOT EAT THE SPAM!!!!

Same bloody plane back...grrr

Overall, we were both really glad that we went to cuba, and got to see just how crazy the place is with its comminism and all that. The people were extremelly rude which kind of spoiled it at times, we also got to see tobacco plantations and coffee plantations which was also cool and how all that works.

Verdict: If your thick skinned and have money to burn, go to cuba!!!

Cuba

hey all, just got back from cuba this afternoon and where do you start or try to explain that place, its absolutely nuts!!!

I could just give a reference to a Jeremy Clarkeson book which he wrote a chapter on cuba, it describes it to a tee, we read it the other night and were in stiches about how true it is.... ill put the refernece up some other time, you must check it out!

Part 1.

We flew from cancun airport, we were there in good time, got to relax. just the way you want to be at the airport. After sitting at the gate for 2 hrs, the flight was then delayed for an hour, thats grand sure its only an hour (and my book was getting good..."star of the Sea" by Joesph O Connor). So finally we were allowed to board, this invlolved getting a bus to the plane which was situated about a mile away (we further realised that the airline was probably too embarissed to park their plane beside the shinny American Airlines planes and the like). We eventually arrived to the plane where there was a que to work up the steps to board the plane. we remained standing there for about 15mins barely moving. Looking at the plane, it looked a tad worn, you could see where the external panelling was fixed (from most probably rust) and didnt look too exciting (would make ryanair look like airforce 1!!!). we eventually made it up the steps. You had to see this, the door was about 3 foot high, it should have featured in lord of the rings or something (would suit a hobbet), i had to practically get on my knees to get into the plane. Hilarious!! Once inside we just looked at each other, we couldnt believe it! it was like something from 1940 with russian signs everywhere (obviously cuba got it off the soviets about 100 yrs ago). I have never seen a plane like this, there was lots of people like us who couldnt believe it. you though ryanair was bad for leg room, there must have been like 10 inches leg space. we got to our "assigned seats" but somebody was sitting there, they wouldnt move so they said it was freee seating so me plonked ourselves down! These abnoxious americans came and moved us on! so we were left with no seats, we eventually got two seats together and that worked out fine! Then here is for the good part, we seen smoke rissing from the seat in front (never a good sign), we started to panic and asked whats going on but never really got an answer, loads of us just looked at each other and were amazed! then we were told that it was the air conditioning(????), it was like a cheesy smoke machine at a club where you can not see two inches in front of you. They gave their "safety" announcement which was not much and off we slowly went down the runway.., it was a bit wierd because it felt the plane was really struggling to get up and the plane was full of this "smoke". It was all just really weird. the rest of the flight was ok and landed in havana. We had to go through customs first which took an hour and the customs were sooo rude. i had to take my glasses off and turn my head at different angles, he didnt really believe that it was me, suppose i had not shaved in nearly 3 weeks and am 16 in the passport photo!!

With that done, all we had to do is get our bags then hit the town, we might even get a walk around before bed.... oh cuba had other ideas!!!

Waiting patiently at baggage claim, one bag from the flight would be put on, that would go around for about 15 mins then they would but another bag on, and another 15mins would pass before another one would be put on... an hour passed and no sign of the back, and somebody said to us that this was going good, god i wonder what bad would be like???

we ended up waiting 2 hours to get our bags, and we were one of the first to get them... thats cuban efficiency for you!!! part 2 to come.....

Cancun and the like....

We made it to cancun fine, glad we flew, it would have taken sooo long on the bus, prob would have just arrived today at some stage. we got off the plane and your just hit back with the heat, its soooo hot!! its like 31 degrees but feels like 41 degrees (thats how the weather channel put it) and there is about 100% humidity. you just sweat the whole time!!

The first night here we stayed in a new hostel called the blue hostel, extremelly clean, nearly too sterile looking, it had no character at all, apart from the bar on the roof which had a hot tub. At night it turned into a rave with a dj, strobe lights and a giant projector screen with music videos on it, quite strange (ryan you would have loved it). Possibly had thee worst nights sleep ever there, we were staying in the dorm which had no air con. you couldnt lie there it was so hot, remember thing at about 12 that i could just cry it was so irritating!! We both fell asleep eventually and woke aroiund 7. we packed our stuff up and got lonely planet out to see where there is a hostel with aircon. by 7.30 we were in a different hostel with aircon. The woman here is really nice, she has made a backpackers hostel in her own house, its very homely and clean. She gave us breakfast once we arrived from the other hostel, that was really nice of her. So we are staying here tonight again the we leave for cuba in the morning.

I had this really bad image of cancun built up in my head, that its just going to be full of american and european package tourists out on the piss for a few weeks. The high rise tourism is about 8km outside the downtown area of cancun (where we are staying). Its all high rise hotels and clubs, pubs and there like, much like spain (i think...never been on a package holiday). the beach is amazing, and the water is so warm. Each hotel is directly on the beech, but my mexican law you can plomp yourself anywhere on the beech, regardless if your in front of a fancy hotewl. So we set up camp on the sun loungers of some fancy hotel and kept our mouth shut.

Mexicans come here on hols too but they tend to stay downtown and then go out the beeches in the morning (like us) and then come back in to the town in the evening and eat here. There is a square in the town where loads of stalls are set up at night and where all the locals hang out. The food is good and cheap (unlike 8km away at all the hotels). so it was quite cool to hang out there.

We are going to cuba in the morning, got some sort of package and a hotel for two nights, we are staying in cuba for a week so we will find other little places when we are there. its supposed to be a crazy place so im looking forward to it....

The mexican presidential elections were on over the weekend (of which no winner was announced due to it being so close, both men have very different, radical ideas so it will be interetsing to see who wins). there was an all out drinking ban over the weekend for the elections, so we might go out tonight! imagine how that would work in ireland???

Anyway better run, ill up date this when we get back from cuba.

clothes...yay!

Emma has pointed out that my spelling, especially of the word "Licorice" is awful. anyway... my bag arrived just after i wrote on the blog, soooo nice to have a shower and get some clean clothes!! so we booked a flight for 1pm to cancun, $50 more expensive than the bus. the bus takes 26 hrs, flight is 2hrs.. do the math. although on our way back up to fly home we will overland it to check out some of the south, especially planque etc.. which is supposed to be amazing.

Emma is also giving out about how i´m writing depressing stuff on the blog... so on a positive note... we have made loads of friends (including irish), we went to lots of touristy things, like zocalo square and the angel (however it was taken down and covered in scafolding !!!), we also went to Frida museum, Diego Riverias wife (check out the movie "Frida" its actually really good) which was cool. So Mexico City isn´t sooo bad! Note my positive manner once i´ve recieved my bag!! Its great having broadband in the hostel for free but there is no way of getting to internet or calling ireland from cuba...eek.

Aidios Mexico City

We haven't really done that much since we got here, the weather has been really bad and kinda cold, i'm sure dublin is nicer at the minute!! My bag has yet to arrive and it is now saturday morning, so i have been wearing the same clothes since tuesday... i smell like roses!!! I think it is in the airport this morning so hopefully i will have it this morning at some stage!

Mexico City is alot more developed than i thought it would be it really could be any european city, especially in areas like zona rosa and La Reforma. Al though there is sewage drains everywhere and especially when it rains it smells so bad.... eek! The people are friendly but there's no english speakers anywhere. Emma is good at her spanich and she is getting to use it alot which is good.

The food here isn't great[i'm not bitching or annoyed, just saying]. there is not that many restaurants, alot of street vendors though/ they eat alot of pork, you see lots of pig noses and intenstines going into the tacos. We went to a traditional mexican place the other night, and me and emma are by no means picky eaters, we would eat anything or at least try it. We had a set meal, we had a broth thing first which was nice but then we got the strangest thing ever. i had some some chicken in the most hidious looking and tasting brown sauce with rock hard refried beans, it did not look or taste appetizing [although it was by no means as bad as the ox tale in Mbeya, Tanzania]. Emma had some chicken thing with molet. for you's who dont know what moley is, its a sauce thing thats made of cocoa beans and lots of spices. I have never tasted anything so disgusting in my life!! It was a plate full of brown smudge.... we tried or best but the waiter couldn't understand how we didnt like the food... he seemed to look very disappointed in us!!! so for the final course it was jelly. You cant go wrong with jelly can you.....

Out he came with licorice flavourded jelly, I HATE LICORICE. both of us hate it!! we had to eat it though, i wasnt sending back a bowl of licorice.

We have just stayed our last night in the hostel, Hostel Amigo, good place and have been helpful about my bags and stuff. last year it was voted the second best hostel in north america. Hopefully today we're going to fly to Cancun [if my bag comes] and stay there for a night then onto cuba [which i hear from people here that its just a mental place, two currencys, one for locals and one for tourists and tourists can't use the local one!!].

We'll let yous know how that goes....