California USA, Mexico, Guatemala & Belize

Barcelona, Spain

carolwil — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:09:00 GMT

Arrived in Barcelona on Thursday. It is a beautiful city. Have been walking around looking at the beautiful buildings. Today visited Barcelona Cathedral and visited La Segrada Familia {but didnt pay 10 euros to get in} and looked at it from outside. Staying in a hostel in the posh area of Barcelona L'Eixample which is close to pretty much everything. Have also visited La Rambla the famous street in Barcelona with lots of buskers and the colourful market.

Taxco

carolwil — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 08:00:00 GMT

Wow what can I say about Taxco the silver capital of Mexico but that its absolutely beautiful!! The city is on the side of a very steep hillside. The Spanish first came here and when silver was discovered Taxco became the main silver export. The mining of silver here has long since finished and after the mining ceased it became a very poor region until an American came and opened up a silver factory here. From there his apprentices went into business themselves and since then the main employment here has been making and selling silver. Today I visited the Teleferico (cable car) which goes to the top of a mountain where there is a very expensive hotel!! The views are amazing of the city though!!

The streets here are very windy and narrow and the VW Beetles and VW combis offer the main public transport here. I dont know how many times I have got lost here as a lot of the time the maps show streets which are in fact little lanes with steps but really dont mind as its so beautiful here!! The Mexico government has gone to great lengths to keep Taxco´s beauty. Houses are renovated when possible and when new buildings are built they have to be built in the old style and use the old type materials whenever possible. There are no signs on the shops. Normally the signs are just simply written in black paint. Im going to relax here until Saturday when I go to Mexico DF for my final few days in Mexico.

Palenque

carolwil — Sun, 1 Jun 2008 05:33:00 GMT

Palenque has some ruins about 20 mins drive from the town centre which are amazing!! They are in the middle of the forest and are absolutely stunning. I went this morning when it was still raining (so there werent too many tourists) and was amazed at how beautiful these ruins are!! There is a Tomba de Reina Roja (tomb of the red queen) as when they found the tomb the remains were in were painted a red colour and there were many precious jewels in her tomb. The tomb next door contained the ruins of the king (Templo de las Inscripiones) which led people to believe that buried next to him must have been his wife. There are many other ruins such as El Palacio (the palace). It is thought that this was built in 5AD. There is also Templo del Sol (Temple of the Sun) which as many beautiful carvings, Templo de la Cruz (Temple of the Cross) and many more. I think these ruins and the ruins I saw in Guatemala (Tekal) are by far the most beautiful that I have seen. There is not too much to do in Palenque as it is only a little town.

Campeche

carolwil — Sat, 31 May 2008 09:37:00 GMT

The first Spanish landed on the shores here in the early 1500´s and were allowed to stay temporarily by the Maya leader. When the Spanish took no notice of this the whole crew were killed. It wasnt until 20 years later after the Maya leader died and numberous attempts to attack Campeche that the Spanish managed to defeat the Mayas. It become a major port to Europe of wood, silver and gold. Pirates (English and French) soon became aware of the richness of the city and would frequently attack it. This led to the Spanish building a fortress around the city to help protect it. Some of this fortress still stands today. The city is very famous for the pirates. Lots of money has been spent here to renovate old houses and it is now a Unesco World Heritage site. The houses are all terraced down narrow cobbled streets and are all different colours. It is a very quiet city.

Merida

carolwil — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:55:00 GMT

Merida is a Mayan city where people walk slower and there are lots of plazas scattered around. It is however quite a busy city and the traffic can be quite dangerous sometimes!! Its easy to find your way around as all the streets are numbered with even numbers horizontally (calle 32, calle 34 etc) and with odd numbers vertically. There are a number of very old churches here that were built in the 1500's and 1600's. They are very beautiful. There are also some very old beautiful houses here that are empty and just rotting away which is a bit sad. Visited the market yesterday which is a busy bustling place with lots of colour and basically you can buy everything there.

Chichen Itza

carolwil — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:52:00 GMT

Chichen Itza is located about 4 hours west of Cancun and are famous ruins. There is a famous time ruin there. It has 4 sides with steps and there is a temple on top of that. The area is extremely touristy and there are people trying to sell you all kinds of souvenirs.

Isla Mujeres

carolwil — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:30:00 GMT

Isla Mujeres is a 25 minute ferry ride away from Cancun. The beaches are very beautiful with white sand and with the gorgeous blue sea in the Caribbean. The only thing is, is that it has caught the Cancun disease and it is very expensive here compared to the rest of Mexico and it is getting very americanised (but still isnt as expensive as Cancun)!! Asked today in some shops prices of things and some things were as much as 6 times the price of the same thing in other parts of Mexico. When I said this in one shop I got told to get out by one of the owner - nice!! Mmm dont think i will be buying anything here!!

Tulum, Mexico

carolwil — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:01:00 GMT

Tulum is absolutely beautiful. Tulum is on the Caribbean Coast. Im staying in a hostel in the town which offers a free shuttle bus to the beach which is 3km away. The beach is like a postcard with very fine white sand and the water is beautiful!! When you get in the water it is so warm!! There are some Myan ruins situated right on the beach here. The only downside here is that the closer you seem to get to Cancun the more expensive it seems to get (tourist prices!!).

Caye Caulker

carolwil — Sat, 24 May 2008 09:34:00 GMT

Caye Caulker is a tiny little island about 45 mins by boat from Belize City. There are no cars here but then you dont really need one as you can walk around the island quite easily. The streets here are all sand and the houses are mostly built from wood. The taxis here are golf buggies!! Most of the people here speak Creole (a mixture of languages), English and some people also speak Spanish. Most of the people here are decendents from Africa. Its very strange going back to speaking English all the time!! The money here is the Belize Dollar and has Queen Elizabeth on it!!

Flores

carolwil — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:27:00 GMT

Flores is one of many little gorgeous little towns on the edge of a lake. There are many cobbled little lanes here off main streets and some of the houses here are very colourful. Today I visited a Maya ancient ruin site called Tekal which is located about 1 hour 15 mins away from Flores. There are some crazy tourists here that leave Flores at 3am to catch the sunrise at 5am from one of the highest temples in Tekal. Luckily I found out that today there wasnt a good sunrise because it was too foggy so felt better that I had got there at about 8am. It is a huge site that requires a lot of walking set in rainforest and has animals such as jaguars, spider monkeys, crocodiles. By about 11am it starts getting very very hot there so its best to get there as early as possible to see the sights.

Coban

carolwil — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:07:00 GMT

Coban is a pretty little city with the cathedral and plaza in the centre (the Spanish liked to do this!!). Today I went on a tour and visited a place called Chimpey which is a group of beautiful lagoons surrounded by rainforest. We did a long walk up to the viewing area and then walked down for a much deserved swim as it was so hot!!! These lagoons are absolutely beautiful. It took about 2 hours to drive there and for about an hour of that was just along windy dirt track. We then visited Lanqin Caves which are near the village of Lanqin and are also beautiful. Guatemala has such beautiful countryside and it very mountainous and the people are so friendly. When you drive along these roads you often have to turn very sharp corners where the driver is required to beep to tell other drivers coming the other way that they are there!! Most people here speak 2 languages - Spanish and Maya (their native language).

San Pedro and Chichicastenango

carolwil — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:43:00 GMT

San Pedro is one of the many little towns surrounding Largo de Antitlan (lake Antitlan). The lake is very big and the scenery is beautiful here. The countryside in Guatemala is very lush and green. The indigenous ladies here dress very elegantly in pretty woven surongs and pretty tops and always wear an emboidered belt. It is very cheap for a backpacker here (1quetzal = 7.45US$). I have a very basic room here for 20 quetzales which amounts to about pound1.50. The hotel is called Valle Azul (Blue Valley) and the building is certainly blue!!! With it being very cheap here there is some very bad poverty. So far though all the main roads have been paved. On the bus on the way here it was very funny as they are widening the main road so sometimes you have to wait a while for traffic coming the other way as it can be one lane. As soon as you stop you see people jumping out of their cars with baskets selling anything from car phone chargers to food. As soon as the traffic starts moving all the vendors make a mad dash back to their cars. Talk about take advantage of a selling opportunity!

Visited Chichicastenango today which has a famous market every Sunday and Thursday. The market has many bright colours and is very busy especially at 10am when buses of tourists swoop in on the town!! The journey there took about 2 hours around a steep and very windy road.

San Christabel de Las Casas

carolwil — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:19:00 GMT

San Cristabel has cobbled little streets and churches dating back to the 1500´s. There are many indigenous people here and they often wear the traditional dress. The women wear very similar clothes and have their hair in plaits very much like the indigenous women in South America (Peru and Bolivia). They just wear different colours to the women in South America. The main market here is busy and bustling and you can basically buy anything here. I could have bought a live chicken if I wanted or a DVD player.

Mazunte

carolwil — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:48:00 GMT

Mazunte is a tiny little coastal town with only about 5 shops. You walk down a little lane to the beach where there are about 6 different restaurant/bars all of which rent out cabanas (cabins). Last night I had a cabin for 100 pesos which is about 5 pounds so cant complain about that. This place is like heaven as there is hardly anyone there!! The only problem i did have was a young guy begging for money from me saying he was hungry. He came back later and I realised that he was drunk and was asking me for a beer. When I said no he said (in Spanish) but you are alone? The masculinoism here is very funny sometimes as men seem to think that women cant be alone!!!! Managed to get rid of him eventually thankfully!!!

Puerto Escondido

carolwil — Sun, 11 May 2008 07:49:00 GMT

Puerto Escondido is a beautiful little sleepy beach town. The weather is really hot here and it is a relief to have a cold shower!! You cannot walk very far here because of the heat!! The beaches here are beautiful with the white sand!! What better way to cool off but to have a little dip in the sea!! Its very nice here as it is not too commercialised!!

Oaxaca

carolwil — Sat, 10 May 2008 09:52:00 GMT

The town of Oaxaca has lots of cobblestone streets and lots of old colonial buildings. Today I visited Monte Alban (means White Mountain) which are ruins located about 6kms from the city. It was first occupied in about 500BC by the Zapotecs. The city comprises of many temples. There are also many tombs. The market here is really good and I tried the local delicacy here Mole Rojo which is chicken served in a sauce of fruits, chocolate, chile and spices with rice. It sounds a bit odd but it was actually very nice!! There seems to be a lot more poor people in Oaxaca then anywhere else i have been so far.

Mexico City

carolwil — Wed, 7 May 2008 04:41:00 GMT

Mexico City is a huge city of around 22 million people. Sometimes when you cross the road here you risk your life hehe!!! So far have been on a tourbus of the city which is well worth it because of the size of Mexico City!! There are many beautiful buildings here and many museums to see. Have visited Aztec ruins (templo mayor) in the middle of the Historic City which were uncovered by electricians in 1978 and the decision was made to excavate the site by demolishing other buildings there. Have been staying in my friend Luisś house which is in the south of the city. Im staying in the Historic Centre and have visited El Museo de Frida Kahlo (Frida Kahlo Museum). She is very famous artist here in Mexico and is known for her paintings showing a great deal of her physical pain. She was also married to another famous artist here Diego Rivera and they had a very tempestuous relationship. She contracted polio as a child which made one leg thinner than the other but a major event in her life was being involved in a tram accident when she was about 17 in which she broke her back, leg, arm. She started painting when she was in the hospital bed. She was very lucky to walk again but her life was plaqued with back pain and operations to try alleviate the pain. She died in 1954. I have also visited the Palacio Nacional which has some beautiful murals painted Diego Rivera and I visited the Cathedral which is very beautiful. Another entertainment here is the Metro during rush hour. Its like a competition to see who can set a world record for the largest amount of people on the train squashed together like sardines haha!! People often panic and barge their way through the door and run to get a seat!!

Queretaro

carolwil — Thu, 1 May 2008 07:04:00 GMT

Queretaro is a sleepy little city with lots of cobbled narrow streets and old buildings. I have visited the Museo de Arte (Art Museum) and Museo de Regional de Queretaro (Regional Museum) which were both very good. The regional museum had artefacts from prehispanic times. Today I took a bus to a little town called Tequisquiapan which is famous for thermal baths. I have a friend here called Marianna and we have been meeting up and she has been showing me around the city!!

San Miguel de Allende

carolwil — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:25:00 GMT

San Miguel is another beautiful old city with cobbled streets,old churches and lots of plazas dotted around. There is a church called Parroquia de San Miguel that is painted pink and with its spires looks like a wedding cake!! In front of that is a plaza. The other churches a few blocks away are Templo de Oratorio and Templo de San Fco. They are very old buildings and again they have a little plaza in front of them. It is a place well known for its handycrafts and there are many beautiful arts and crafts here. Today I visited the market where you are spoilt for choice with silver and reasonably priced as well!! Today visited some hot water pools located just outside town called Escondido. There were about 8 different hot water pools scattered around with lots of room to picnic. It was very beautiful there. I had a marriage proposal from a Mexican guy here who said that we could live here and have 4 children but I had to turn him down!!!!

Guanajaunto

carolwil — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:27:00 GMT

Guanajaunto is a beautiful little city with lots of narrow cobbled streets and has lots of history. The main roads are in tunnels underneath the main city and there are so many plazas that you are spoilt for choice. I have visited the museo de las momias (museum of mummies) which was very interesting. Apparently because of the mineral content of the soil here and the dry conditions bodies can become mummified here in 5 years. Apparently they still dig up bodies in the cemetries here when relatives cant pay the upkeep fees of the graveyards!!! I also visited la casa y museo de diego rivera (the house and museum of Diego Rivera) who was a famous muralist in Mexico. He was born in this house but moved to Mexico City when he was about 8. He later married another famous artist Freda Kahlo.