LoznLou´s adventures

towards the seperation..

lounloz — Sat, 22 May 2010 03:06:00 GMT

Soooooo, we loved Suesca, both very happy to go back for the second time, meet lots of other nice colombians and relahar (relax) lots. We were gonna get a night bus south to Cali but I came down with a narly fever and couldnt face it, so we spent another night at our colombian friend Willys house in Bogata.

Got to Cali and met Midget aka Daniel easily, and had a bloody good catch up. The next day we did the mish to a wee village in the jungle called San Cipriano. The 3 hour drive was beautiful and was highlighted at the end as there was no road, the locals had devised an ingenious way of transport.. they have a fully funcioning railway, so attached motorbikes to a wooden platform with train wheel-thingees. This is the most scared ive been for my safety as we were prob going like 60-70km/hr at one point. When other devises (or massive trains) come the other way they have to pick up there thingees and lift them off the tracks! Crazy and very fun. The river was beautiful, perfect for swimming, jumping and tubing but we all felt the town had a wierd vibe, very poor, taking advantage of tourists in a negative way. A dude we met told us that they dont like work, and wont buy their kids school books, so they are roaming free all day learning nothing. Most people there are completely illiterate, including business owners. Its a shame the town people have a bad attitude because the place is gorgeous.

The journey back to Cali wasnt without incident, as there was huge roadworks and no organisation we were stuck in solid traffic jams for 5.5 hours. When people had decided they had waited long enough they started overtaking the line of trucks, which clogged the road so much worse. It was the craziest traffic jam we have experienced!

So we are all leaving today, Lou and Midgee are heading south to another Colombian town, and Im off on a night bus towards the border of Ecuador to work on my farm. So this is it for the joint blog, the adventures we had have been life-changingly amazing, we have seen and experienced things we will remember forever, we have learnt things that we will never forget and our perfect friendship is stronger than ever. This trip as the Colombians would say was muy chevere!

The end of the Central American Adventure...Colombia!!

lounloz — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:12:00 GMT

After the city of Leon, we missioned to the Island of Ometepe, on Lago de Nicaragua. After a beautiful boatride, we arrived at the small island with 2 massive volcanoes, and very questionable roads. We couldnt believe that it would take 3 hours on the bus to the other side, but after bouncing around in the chicken bus, 3 hours later, we believed. The next morning, with our local young guide, in the searing heat...about 35 degrees, we trecked up a volcano nearby. It was such a challenging trek, and the most interesting, in the last part scrambling on all fours hangin onto tree roots, all worth it for the amazing view of the crater lake, and the monkeys we saw close up on the way. 7 hours later we were completely buggered and extremely dirty. Perfect trek.

We decided that due to time flying we wanted to beeline for Colombia, stopping only in Panama with our friends for a few nights, staying in a cool beach house, in Bocos del Torro. Kayacking, snorkelling, drinking a wee bit, avoiding arrest from misunderstandings with the cops.. all good.

Almost all tourists get to Colombia either on a very expensive tourist boat for 5 days or fly and miss all the good stuff so we did lots of research and found the cheap fast local way. It was amazing. We flew from Panama city to the border of Colombia, flying over the world renound 'dangerous' Darien gap on the smallest plane youv ever seen, fitting only a few people, and pilot right there with no safety briefing or anything. The 'airport' consisted of a runway, and a sign. Thats it. The border town was gorgeous, the locals and the military alike were fully friendly, and getting the tiny local boat over the border was amazing. The coastline is gorgeous, the boatride was funny bumping along.. riding the waves, with young locals happily pointing out exactly where the countries meet. Because there wasnt alot of info around about this crossing, we never really knew exactly where we were going or how long it would take. It worked out perfectly when we docked at a beautiful fishing village in the middle of nowhere with no road access. Dangerous is definetly not how we would describe this beautiful, mellow, welcoming town. Only horse and cart for transport, horses grazing on the green which served as a football pitch, a 'road', walking track, and paddock.

Next leg of the crossing was another boat, slightly bigger this time but small enough to really feel the impact of the waves, luckily it didnt rain as it was entirely open boat, with a couple of locals sleeping at the bow. Then we bussed to the city of Cartegena, staying with a local family in their house slash hotel type situation. Nice city with great street food, interesting old town.. But a city nonetheless.

Another highlight was the mission to find this mud volcano close by. We had no idea what to expect, and it was better than we could have imagined.. we had to take a motorbike ride with young local dudes to get to the 'volcano' which was actually a 15m mound, with natural mud crater, bubbling sulfer. It was very strange getting up the top, there were some people bathing covered in grey mud like it was an everyday activity. So we stripped off and Lou jumped in, pulled in by a man working there, who proceeded to massage her, the looks on her face were priceless. We got into it tho and rolled around massaging each other for ages. Getting to the lake for a rinse off, the local ladys pulled us into the lake, and started roughly washing us, we had no idea what to do so went along with it, laughing the whole time by the way.. before we knew it we were naked getting scrubbed the old fashioned way. Hilarious.

It pissed down with rain, and when taking shelter had classic conversations with the locals, one women in particular who washed us explained how the colombian guys have large packages. Hehe..

Next stop along the carribean coast was Taganga. A nice wee bay hidden from the nearby city. Made friends with some young local dudes who were flipping around on the beach, and got shown some good places for rock jumping. The mango smoothies here were astounding. There is a national park close to here but it costs shitloads, so on the advice of a local we blindly headed for another bay, up a bumpy dirt road on the back of a truck. It was gorgeous, with hardly anyone around, just us, the hills, and the clear blue carribean.

That was the last of the Carribean for now, we headed south to a town called San Gill, on a river in the mountains. The drive there was beautiful, rolling green hills and cute wee villages. We decided to 'splash out' and go rafting, but it only ended up costing about 12 bucks! The 'guides' were just young local dudes who were very relaxed about the mission, it was just us so we stopped on the river at a random house for a beer on the way.. hehe... One of the local dudes offered to take us on a mission that afternoon which was amazing, we went to a village close by and walked through the hills, stopping to sample the local drink guararapa which is a slighly alcoholic drink made from flowers. We reached a river running down from huge rocks which we clambered up, down and around for ages. We jumped off rocks along the way, including the ultimate jumping from a tree above the rocks, and slid down the natural slide made by moss. Only downfall was the wee worms living in the water which made their way into our swimmers. Small price to pay. As the sun went down we lay on the warm rocks, then missioned back, drank some rum and experienced some salsa dancing!

Just when ya think Colombia isnt ultimate enough, we found another ultimate destination. In search for rock climbing we came to this small village in the green hills called Suesca. Its sooooooo beautiful. Set among a green valley and huge rocks perfect for serious climbing, the locals wrapped in blankets are so friendly. There are vertually no other tourists, we arrived a bit late and hitched a ride to our hotel with a man who was to be the key to our experience here. I mentioned that I was here to climb, he took me the next day with all the gear and some other climbing buddies to have the most amazing day. Clambering around in the sun with great people, listening to reggae, while Lou and our other friend Nat wandered around appreciating the valley with its amazing views and welcoming vibe, with lots of dog friends along the way. The hotel we started to stay at was hilarious, reminding Lou of her grannys house, with a fire dangerously close to our bed, which we were sharing, pretty much a single bed with a double mattress ontop. The first night we met a Colombian couple on vaccacion, who were extremely friendly and offered for us to stay with them in the capital city. While they were in our room, in strolled the hotel handy man to light the fire, then in strolled 2 15 year old boys in suits bringing us tea. It was the funniest picture, our very own faulty towers moment.

The guy who took me climbing, Willy, also has a house with a few beds he lets out, so we moved there, now we have our own wee house, for cheaper than the hotel, with amazing views, a huge lawn, a kitchen and friendly neighbourhood dog. We love it here, its beautiful, the people are amazing, and after hearing the bad reputation for Colombia we are so pleasantly surprised. It is the safest county we have been to, the people are the nicest and the scenery is the best. It is very different to Central America and we are sad we dont have more time here...

Honduras, Nicaragua

lounloz — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:50:00 GMT

We hadnt quite had enough beach time after the island, so we headed for a wee town on the carribean coast of Honduras, planning to park up for a few days because easter over here is massive and everything gets booked up. It worked out perfectly, staying at a place right on the beach with heaps of Hondurian families on holiday. We made friends with some of them, talked spanish and did lots of chillin. We went to go snorkel on a shipwreak up the coast a bit but shame that people for a long time have dumped lots of rubbish and crap, making the beach disgusting, but braved it and did see some huge starfish and tropical fishies. I (Lauren) met a local dude who i was assured was trustworthy, and he took me on his motorbike so the other side of the peninsula which we would have never known about, it was beautiful, and he climbed a coconut tree to get some down which was amazing..

One night as we were preparing to light a fire with our friends on the beach, a massive bull appeared, just chilling with us on the beach.. strange we thought, but apparantly not.. Dotted around that coast are wee garifuna carribean villages to explore, they are full of culture, and the beaches are beautiful, Lou tried the traditional Coconut fish soup, we would have attended the night time drumming on the beach, but its a good thing we didnt cos apparently its actually rather dangerous to be there at night.

Our next stop was Lago de Yojoa mid Honduras, which was gorgeous, we stayed at a brewery in such a cute wee town, with fiendly locals who always gave us rides on the back of their pick-up trucks. We went to see a massive waterfall, went hiking into coffee plantations and drank a fair amount of homemade beer.

Next we were off to the capital, as one of our new Hondurian friends lives there and promised to take us camping. It was awsome, even though the 3km walk was actually more like 11km uphill into the mountains. But it was worth it, there were 6 of us, staying in the bush in the middle of nowhere, just us and the big snakes... The tents that our mate borrowed didnt have flys, and yes it pissed down with rain, but luckily there was a palm-thatched shelter nearby, so we could toast our marshmellows without getting saturated. The bus ride back was as entertaining as they always are, this one had even more extremely loud music, (it always amazes us how villages can be quite poor but there is always a quality sound system nearby, blasting from the most unlikely places). Most of the time here they are blasing reggae or latin pop so its all good. (not when you are trying to understand spanish however..)

After a couple of days in the capital, we decided it was time to head for the Nicuraguan border, which was interesting, I wasnt sure I understood the bus guy that we needed a bike to get accross the border but it was clear when we pulled up at the border town and were ambushed by a million dudes with bikes with things on the front to take us and our bags the 3km accross the border. We agreed and laughed our way accross untill they tried to charge us extortionate prices. Luckily we are much more onto it now and can speak and understand spanish, so we ended up paying an 8th of what they were asking. Buggers.

Learning the Nicuraguan dialect.. the word for wife here is the same as the word for handcuffed. Interesting. The men here are by far the most forward and sexually intimdating as the other central american countries. We are good at ignoring them, but its a shame because they really do create an atmosphere of unapproachability.

Our first Nicuraguan experience was amazing, after 10 hours and 6 local buses we arrived at a tiny poor fishing village called Jiqilillo (pronounced hekelayo). Our palm roofed, sand floored ranch was gorgeous, right on the beach. The only other foreigners here were the few at our ranch. Surrounded my local fishermen it was a true insight into Nicuraguan life. All of the buildings are palm roofed huts, there is no such thing as a floor, and the people here are just going about their daily life calmly. I got into some surfing, and Lou got into some body-boarding, the current was soo strong ya wouldnt wanna just swim. The young local boys loved having a go on my surfboard, apparently surfing is just becoming much bigger here. Needless to say the fish here is amazing, our staple diet here was fresh fish cooked by a lady on the beach, with rice, salad and fried platano (which is sort of like a banana). A meal out at the only other ´restaurant´´ was the funniest eating experience we´ve had, with a giant pole in the middle of the table blocking views from each other, and no light at all (we were on a deck outside) so we ate with a headtorch, and faught to talk above the blasting of terrible pop music. This dinner though created the most amazing day the next day.. I mentioned to the guy working there that I would like to learn about building the palm huts, so he invited me to help them the next day! It was awsome, the whole extended family (alot of them) were so welcoming and generous, and patient with me and my spanish.. They taught me about the palm huts (we ran out of nails soon into it though so it was a short lesson.. and gave me fresh fish they caught for lunch. They put me on their horse and let me ride off on the beach, and showed me how they grind the maize to make fresh tortillas. When I mentioned that I wanted to learn to climb coconut trees, they jumped at it, gave Lou some shoes and took us to their farm. First we picked magoes, then went to the cashew plantation (I was incredibly excited about this), then I had my lesson in coconut tree climbing. It wasnt as hard as i imagined, but when I got to the top, legs shaking, I was ready to come down! Bruises to prove it and fresh fruit in hand, we drank the coco milk and headed for home. Later that night we went back for shark for dinner, and to make a fire to roast our newly found cashews. It was too windy for a fire on the beach though, so we built one behind the counter! (remember its a sand floor..) Out of nowhere some other locals turned up, with a guitar and we sat around listening to latin accoustic music, Lou playing persucussion on an awsome massive shell and me drumming on an old bucket. Amazing. I was filled with warm fuzzys at the amazing hospitality, and made them some flowers from palm leaves, which they proudly pinned up on their wall.

We are now in Leon, tomorrow heading for what sounds like a beautiful island on a lake, to hike a volcano! Hasta luego! (Until later) :-)

Utila, Honduras

lounloz — Sun, 4 Apr 2010 03:11:00 GMT

Well we were both amped to get to a wee tropical island, and we had a blast! After a few buses and a boat we arrived on the island of Utila, where I (Lauren) needed to pick a place to sit my diving cert. Found an awsome place with lots of free bonus stuff and cool people and embarked on a few days of diving and snorkelling! Every day we went out on the boat with a local dude called Captain Cookie blasting the reggae and good vibes, jumping into the coral filled clear blue water was amazing. There were tons of tropical fish and we both saw a big eagle ray which is apparently quite a novelty. We learnt lots about diving stuff, made some great diving buddies, and loved missioning around this beautiful island which was a mixture of dense jungle and coral filled waters. Good times. We are now getting used to the local transport, and feeling alot more comfortable and confident getting around. The Hondurian ways seem very different to Guatemala, so far we have not seen much traditional culture as is in Guatemala, mainly because here is a huge mix of many different races, mainly Garifuna, Carribean, and Western. All makes for an interesting mix of people who overall are very friendly, and several times we have talked to locals who go out of their way to help us get where we want to go. Easter is huge here, so there are millions of army and police with big guns everywhere, which Im not sure if it makes us feel safer or more wary... We are now in a place on the Honduran Mainland called Trujillo, staying in a place that is actually owned by kiwis and frequented by lots of locals on holiday. We have made friends with some Hondurian people who are gonna take us on some adventures when we get further south. Yesterday a local dude took me for a mish on his motorbike to a beautiful beach on the side of the peninsula that we would have never known about, and climbed a coconut tree, so we could sit on the beach drinking fresh coconut. One of my life dreams! While we are here we are swimming lots, soaking up the relaxed carribean vibe, there is a shipwreak just offshore that we will check out, and just off the beach at night there are flourescent phosphorus that glow in the dark, Lou went swimming in amongst them last night. So yeah thats basically it, not moving fast, chilling, exploring, learning and smiling lots. Content. Hasta Luego!

Photos: Bay Islands, Honduras

lounloz — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:42:00 GMT

Caribbean

Guatemala over n out

lounloz — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:04:00 GMT

Well the San Marcos experience was amazing, we spent the 2 weeks there doing spanish classes, we both learnt heaps and can now hold up basic conversations. Louise can understand more and I can speak more so that works out well.. We made friends with some local guys who make jewellery, and spent a fair bit of time with them playing music. Brought a local instrument called a Tum Tum which is a wee percussion instument. Our days were spent doing yoga, eating, cooking, talking, walking, swimming sauna-ing, playing music, dancing, laughing and eating more. Louise managed to meet two ppl at the hostel who were traveling with fiddles so she exchanged some music. I played some basketball with my spanish teacher and his mates on the local court which was awsome, getting in amongst the local ways, although the rules were different and I probably looked like a lost confused chicken, but twas fun. Our dorm was cool, for the most part just us and 2 cool chicks from the states that we made friends with. One day we came home to find an almost dead scabby puppy, so we washed and fed him, made him a wee bed and picked all the fleas and ticks off him (which was a huge mission), after a couple of days he was walking and wagging his tiny tail, which was awsome considering when we started he didnt even have the strength to hold up his cute wee head. There are soooooooooo many wild dogs here, a few ppl we knew got bitten a couple of times, at night time in the village its a bit scary with no street lights, the dogs dominate the village in packs. The locals are super friendly, always going out of their way to say hi, we walked to another tiny village San Pablo around the lake where there are literally no tourists, and wandered through some farms n stuff, talking to the farmers in our broken spanish, they were really nice, keen for a yarn and stoked that we were interested. All of us girls had upset stomachs there, possibly from swimming in the lake which has dormant bacteria, cos now that we have left its much better.

We went to a local festival last weekend which was great fun, made friends with some local guys on the way over which was lucky because we were stuck there for the night as the boats stopped earlier than the festival, so they looked after us. We all loved grooving to the local tunes, playing on the trapese and laughing with the locals. So we will remember San Marcos and the lake with love, we had such a great time there. We were going to go to some hot springs in a near-by town next but decided we didnt want to pay the entry fee, so just went to visit the city, which we didnt really like except for the best indian meal ever, but it was lucky we didnt go far because I lost my bag at the festival and a lovely man emailed me to say they found it! Whtats the chances ay I thought it was definetly gone for sure! So we made our way back, not without adventure... we were on the local chicken buses because they are way more of an adventure and cheaper (slightly more dangerous). They have guys on the bus whose job is to yell the destination while hanging out of the bus door whilst driving along, and collecting the money. There are no set prices for anything in guatemala, just what they think you look like you will pay. So when this guys tried to make us pay almost twice the cost of last time, and I argued it, he proceeded to go onto the roof where our packs were tied, and smash the locks off them and rummage through. We wondered what he was doing up there and did see the spanner in his back pocket but didnt think anything of it untill later when we realised. But haha there was nothing he wanted and he didnt find the money stashed in there. All part of the adventure and it could have been much worse.

So after getting my lost bag we headed north towards a lakeside riverside town closer to the carribean called Rio Dulce. On the way there we met an amazing local lady who really helped us because we had to change bus termails in Guatemala City which is apparently extremely damgerous and she was so worried about us that she got us a taxi and came with us to make sure we were ok! Altough at first we were dissapointed to be put on big more normal buses, we were extremely happy to be safer when because of a massive crash we were stuck on the road for hours. We made it later at night in the dark and decided to stay in the closest hostel which was a bombsite with rude people, but we made my bday fun anyway by going to the local waterfall hot springs which were amazing. We met a nice english couple and played around, a local dude took us to walk in the bush to see where the sulpher springs come out, its gorgeous. We could go under the 80 degree water under the rock wee cave things. There were local young girls selling homemade banana fritters there which were a yummy treat. We walked to the next village with some other new friends, and swam with the local boys in rather dirty water but it was so hot i didnt care. A few bday drinks later, we were satisfied and ready to head to the carribean. We are now on a coastal town in Honduras called Tela, which is distinctly carribean, the people here are sooo different and it feels like we are a million miles from Guatemala, whereas in fact its so close. We are looking forward to getting some snorkelling and diving in, heading to an island called Utila tomorrow yay! So thats a pretty good update... until next time!

Photos: Guatemala

lounloz — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:04:00 GMT

The cutest place in the world

lounloz — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:29:00 GMT

Our next stop was Antigua, which was nice for a city, but too big and busy and expensive for us, especially since we got fully ripped off for a volcano hike.. good lesson to learn, dont believe ppl when they say that its all included cos ya get there then they slap another extra fee on top. Thems the brakes of bein a tourist tho, and day by day we are getting better at being more onto it to not get ripped off. The volcano was wicked though, with hot lava pouring out of the crators, and the rock underfoot being dangerously hot and crumbly. Gotta love the Guatemalan safety.. apparently they have been expecting an eruption for a while and thought about calling off trips there, but all good in the end. After a couple of nights and some great market bargaining action we jumped in a van with some funny Isralies and headed for Lago de Atitlan, which we were really looking forward to. High in the jungle covered mountains lie the cutest wee villages that you would never expect to see. The lake is surrounded my mountains and volcanoes, the locals dressed in their brightly coloured traditional dress, coffee being harvested and worked here which stinks like silage by the way.. San Pedro was our destination which is a funky village with cool bars and restaurants, we got talking to a cafe owner slash organic shop about how they should sell real Chai Tea, and he wants us to come and brew the Chai for him in exchange for free food and drinks| Perfect we thought. There are too many tourists here for us though so instead of staying here for the 2 weeks we ventured on the local boat over the lake to San Marcos which is much smaller and more local feeling. We met some lovely people there, swam and jumped of cliffs, and decided to stay. We have organised spanish classes starting tomorrow and will live in the local hostel right on the lake, and work to pay our way. I wanted to stay with a local family but things arent working out that way, so when our spanish gets better we can go hang with the local women and ask them to teach us some traditional weaving, cooking etc. The hostel is perfect to take yoga clásses which will help pay our way as well. So we are off to this wee island feeling paradise so learn, relax, swim, speak spanish and be healthy. Happy as wee clams we are. Smiles and love from way over here whoop whoop

the begining of the Guatemala adventure.............

lounloz — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:50:00 GMT

So the mission to Guatemala started in the bus station in Chetumal at about 6am where we met some other backpackers on the same mission. So we now had an Irish, a kiwi, a german, a dutch and an english couple. So we left the land of comfortable buses and head for the land of small pokie buses with all our luggage piled on top and us hoping with every pot hole we hit that it wouldn´t fall off!! The roads had definitely taken a turn for the worst and the rope bumbs on the roads that we experienced in mexico turned into lots of stone ones that the bus driver never cared to slow down to cross over!!!

So 1st we had to cross the border into belize and then into Guatemala which turned out to be a very expensive exercise taking into account charges for crossing boarders and being ripped off by the money exchange guys at the borders, but hey its all part of being a tourist! At one stage I (louise) asked the immigration officer at the belize border (which i might add was out in the middle of nowhere) if it was ok to take fruit into the country and he suggested i´d ask customs which was comical as customs who was a rather plump older lady fast asleep at the desk behind him so I took it that they didn´t have very strict rules on the subject. We stopped for lunch in belize and had our 1st street food experience of the mission which did not disappoint. Along the way we came across trucks full of sugar cane and the people took better care of their gardens than their houses. There were heaps of churches and men with machetes on the sides of the roads making clearings which would have taken them weeks! Lauren hit up the locals at lunch time about local produce and we came across some cashew and banana trees.

We eventually made it to Flores at about 5pm and we booked into this awesome hostel called Los Amigos for our 1st night of sleeping in a hammock. This wasn´t by choice it was because it was cheaper and all the beds were taken, but its always good to try new things. We met a Swiss/Asian family we were traveling round the world playing music for food and board. The mother was an amazing violinist and she got pretty excited when she heard that I paled Irish music so a few of us got together and had a jam. There was an ozzie guy who was carrying around an electric drum kit on his mission which was pretty crazy but great for the jam session. The hammock idea turned out to be not the best considering we were a few bambo twigs away from the bar and the lights didn´t go out and we had to get up at 4.45am for out trip to Tikal.

Tikal is a massive mayan ruin site nesstled deep in the jungle, it took about 5 hours to explore which was cool and we saw monkeys and other different wildlife along the way. So far the most exciting thing about Guatemala for me (Lauren) is the tuk tuks. They are the cutest thing ever, ripping around carelessly competing for road space with the scooters makes crossing the road an interesting challenge. The town we stayed in Flores was a gorgeous wee island town, with colourfully painted houses and smiling locals (apart from the army dudes with machine guns).

Bus rides in between villages give such a great insight into poor country life.. we squeezed way too many ppl into a wee mini van for 8 hours but seeing the sights made the rather uncomfortable trip worthwhile.. tiny locals carrying goods and alsorts on their heads, trapsing seemingly miles along the road heading for rivers to wash their clothes or other villages (which by the way are miles away over big hills). Its mindblowing to realise the extent of effort it takes out here just for daily activities. It makes ya feel guilty that we can just jump in a van and drive by. Especially when its scorchingly hot. As the van started making wierd noises (we were constantly looking behind to see what had fallen off the roof hoping that it wasnt our bags..) we can only have faith in the driver, and i had to laugh looking around at the crew asleep as their heads flailed around widly as we avoided the massive pot holes in the road.

Our destination Lanquin is the definition of the middle of nowhere.. 11km down a valley in the jungle its amazing that there is a wee village all the way out here. We are staying in cabins on stilts, with straw roofs in the most beautiful setting on the river. I had the idea to teach a yoga class, and got offered a job here doin that which I might come back to do towards the end of the trip. For now its good to get us some free food and I am giving the owners wife a massage maybe in exchange for free accomodation. Semuc Champey is a series of waterfalls in the jungle.. so beautiful as we are piled on the back of a truck, heading down another dodgy road it was smiles all round when a wee 4 or 5 year old girl tries to get us to buy chocolate they have made straight from the cocoa plant. We went caving which was amazing.. especially cos we were given candles instead of torches, and several times had to swim holding the candles out of the water. Challenging. There was time for a couple of rope swings into the river and tubing down before we hiked up a bloody massive hill which nearly killed us but for the most amazing view of the torquoise waterways and thick jungle. The afternoon was spent swimming in the clear blue natural pools, and jumping off rocks and waterfalls. I did my first back flip yay! Its so primo here we love it and will remember it, but the mission must go on, in the morning we are headed for Antigua. Until next time hasta luego! whoop whoop

Adios Mexico!

lounloz — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:06:00 GMT

Well we werent in Mexico for a huge amount of time, but we can always come back, we are keen as beans to get to Guatemala which we both feel is calling us.. and because we need to get to the spanish school before we embarrass ourselves anymore! So the first full day exploring was set back for Loz coz she got a bad stomach relapse and had to shit and sleep for the morning. All good though, in the afternoon we jumped on some bikes and explored the town - in a massive search for the extremely hard to find supermarket, especially with conflicting directions which is the standard for Mexico seemingly... then to the beautiful white sand, turquoise water, straw hut dotted beaches for the afternoon. Playing tourist was fun, we went to whats called The Grande Cenote which is a huge whole created by tree roots basically eating the ground, then the forest floor collapsing, exposing amazing azure blue waterways running under-ground. We swam around with the wee fishies in and out of the caves underground it was gorgeous. Popped into some old Mayan Ruins but so did a million other tourists and the heat made us a bit delerious so we beelined for the beach again. Strolling along up the coast was amazing.. from collapsing straw and tin huts to Mexican cabanas with taste and everything in between.. locals singing ´¨Hola!¨¨ every 2 seconds, with big smiles it was very welcoming. We couldnt leave without stopping at a local stand to lap up a cold coconut (Loz´s) first time yay and met some lovely old locals who took a shine to us and offered to take us on an expedition on their boat the next day which we agreed to... we turned up to the hotel they owned which by the way wasnt like your usual hotel, beautiful wooden buildings surrounded by palm trees and hammocks right on the white sand beach. But they must have partied too hard the night before coz they didnt show so we decided we would move on. We are now in a big smelly city called Chetumal which is an in-between stop on our way to Guatemala in the morning. We wandered the streets tonight looking for a typical local mexican feed which we did find, after sketching out about our safety in these crazy streets, being very obviously tourists upon night fall. All good though, we forgot our phrasebook so closed our eyes and pointed to things on the menu which turned out Primo and we are satisfied. Guatemala here we come! whoop whoop

The beginning of the start -

lounloz — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:02:00 GMT

Meeting up in LA went without a hitch even though we had no flight details for each other or phones or anything.. Meeting up in LA went without a hitch even though we had no flight details for each other or phones or anything.. fate lead the way. After arguing with 300 taxi drivers about where we were headed - to meet Loz`s mate, we made it, and headed for Ari`s folks house in Orange County. Lush pad. Luckily we had Ari and Alissa to host and guide us or we would have been hummung around Venice beach as the public transport is vertually non existant. We started the LA experience with taking part in our friend`s friend`s ammature movie where we played the part of some homeless tramps, which would have been great fun if we weren`t seriously tired but good fun anyway. The next day Alissa took us missioning around LA - Santa monica, Rodondo beach, Manhattan Beach for the sunset. After a solid sleep we got up and went surfing california style (it`s winter over here by the way) but still not as cold as NZ and Ireland in the summer.. Then to make one of Loz`s dreams come true.. to see the Harlem Globetrotters play Bball! After dinner and a game of ten pin bowling it was time to head for the airport! The customs in LA were the most relaxed randoms.. providing good entertainment for us and them - completely puzzled at a water bladder causing slight delays but all good. After a million hours we made it to Cancun, Mexico. Big city, not much interest for us so we stayed the night in a cool hostel then boosted south to Tulum where we are now! We had a quick dip in the Caribbean Sea before we got absolutely pissed on (A.K.A saturated). Tropìcal style! Its not even rainy season. Unusual they reassured us...? Its warm and nice here so we`ll stay for a few days and report back soon.. lead the way. After arguing with 300 taxi drivers about where we were headed - to meet Loz`s mate, we made it, and headed for Ari`s folks house in Orange County. Lush pad. Luckily we had Ari and Alissa to host and guide us or we would have been hummung around Venice beach as the public transport is vertually non existant. We started the LA experience with taking part in our friend`s friend`s ammature movie where we played the part of some homeless tramps, which would have been great fun if we weren`t seriously tired but good fun anyway. The next day Alissa took us missioning around LA - Santa monica, Rodondo beach, Manhattan Beach for the sunset. After a solid sleep we got up and went surfing california style (it`s winter over here by the way) but still not as cold as NZ and Ireland in the summer.. Then to make one of Loz`s dreams come true.. to see the Harlem Globetrotters play Bball! After dinner and a game of ten pin bowling it was time to head for the airport! The customs in LA were the most relaxed randoms.. providing good entertainment for us and them - completely puzzled at a water bladder causing slight delays but all good. After a million hours we made it to Cancun, Mexico. Big city, not much interest for us so we stayed the night in a cool hostel then boosted south to Tulum where we are now! We had a quick dip in the Caribbean Sea before we got absolutely pissed on (A.K.A saturated). Tropìcal style! Its not even rainy season. Unusual they reassured us...? Its warm and nice here so we`ll stay for a few days and report back soon..MMeeting up in LA went without a hitch even though we had no flight details for each other or phones or anything.. fate lead the way. After arguing with 300 taxi drivers about where we were headed - to meet Loz`s mate, we made it, and headed for Ari`s folks house in Orange County. Lush pad. Luckily we had Ari and Alissa to host and guide us or we would have been hummung around Venice beach as the public transport is vertually non existant. We started the LA experience with taking part in our friend`s friend`s ammature movie where we played the part of some homeless tramps, which would have been great fun if we weren`t seriously tired but good fun anyway. The next day Alissa took us missioning around LA - Santa monica, Rodondo beach, Manhattan Beach for the sunset. After a solid sleep we got up and went surfing california style (it`s winter over here by the way) but still not as cold as NZ and Ireland in the summer.. Then to make one of Loz`s dreams come true.. to see the Harlem Globetrotters play Bball! After dinner and a game of ten pin bowling it was time to head for the airport! The customs in LA were the most relaxed randoms.. providing good entertainment for us and them - completely puzzled at a water bladder causing slight delays but all good. After a million hours we made it to Cancun, Mexico. Big city, not much interest for us so we stayed the night in a cool hostel then boosted south to Tulum where we are now! We had a quick dip in the Caribbean Sea before we got absolutely pissed on (A.K.A saturated). Tropìcal style! Its not even rainy season. Unusual they reassured us...? Its warm and nice here so we`ll stay for a few days and report back soon..eeting up in LA went without a hitch even though we had no flight details for each other or phones or anything.. fate lead the way. After arguing with 300 taxi drivers about where we were headed - to meet Loz`s mate, we made it, and headed for Ari`s folks house in Orange County. Lush pad. Luckily we had Ari and Alissa to host and guide us or we would have been hummung around Venice beach as the public transport is vertually non existant. We started the LA experience with taking part in our friend`s friend`s ammature movie where we played the part of some homeless tramps, which would have been great fun if we weren`t seriously tired but good fun anyway. The next day Alissa took us missioning around LA - Santa monica, Rodondo beach, Manhattan Beach for the sunset. After a solid sleep we got up and went surfing california style (it`s winter over here by the way) but still not as cold as NZ and Ireland in the summer.. Then to make one of Loz`s dreams come true.. to see the Harlem Globetrotters play Bball! After dinner and a game of ten pin bowling it was time to head for the airport! The customs in LA were the most relaxed randoms.. providing good entertainment for us and them - completely puzzled at a water bladder causing slight delays but all good. After a million hours we made it to Cancun, Mexico. Big city, not much interest for us so we stayed the night in a cool hostel then boosted south to Tulum where we are now! We had a quick dip in the Caribbean Sea before we got absolutely pissed on (A.K.A saturated). Tropìcal style! Its not even rainy season. Unusual they reassured us...? Its warm and nice here so we`ll stay for a few days and report back soon..