From Flores to Cancun
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2005
1
3
6
Trip End
Aug 11, 2005
Cancun, Mexico
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Its been a while since Ive email now so Ive got lots to tell! Im having a fantastic time..cant believe that 10days has passed now. We've arrived in Cancun in Mexico. 15 people from our tour are leaving.. just 3 of us left...Alex, Sharon and I...there both doing the long tour with me. Later on this eve we get to meet the new people that will be joining us from here through Mexico and back to Antigua in Guatemala.
Its been quite a hectic but fantastic few days. We left Flores at 6am on Monday and took a 6 hour minibus ride to Tikal the largest Mayan site on our tour. It was amazing the Mayan temples were massive...in my pictures I look like a small dot compared to them. This site was where bits of the 6th Episode of Star Wars was filmed. Ill try and upload a some pictures soon and then all you star Wars geeks will know what Im talking about!! At the site we had a local guide who give us a 5 hour tour...told us about Mayan culture and he also knew all about the animals there and coax a taranchalar out of its hole in the ground so we all got a pic...Ill blow this bad boy up for u Sam!!!
After the tour we had a 2 hour drive to the Belize border. We got our passports stamped and got a short taxi ride to our hotel in San Ignacio. Our hotel was wicked we had lovely rooms with Sky TV and a Swimming pool...luxury!! They served amazing cocktails, so we all sat round the pool drinking these and deciding which optional activity we were gonna do the next day.
I decided to do the Achtun Muknal Stone Sucuplure Cave tour with 5 others....it was wicked!! We managed to persuade the tour company to add an extra bit onto the caving and that was to absail down a 120ft drop into the cave. I was petrified as I had never absailed but the experience was amazing and I wanna do it again!! Once we got into the cave we had to wade through water up to our necks to the dry cave where all the pottery was that the Mayans had left as offerings to the gods in 600AD. There was so much of it. We had to climb up the dry cave in just our socks so that we wouldnt step on any of the pottery and break it. It was really strange rock climbing in socks!! After walking passed all this pottery at the end of a cave was the bones of a womans body who had been sacrificed...it was quite spooky!!!
On Wednesday we left San Ignacio and made our way to Belize city...it only took 2 hours and we were at the coast. We then got a water taxi ride for 45 mins to Caye Caulker....a small island only 8 km long....the moto on the island is GO SLOW...so it was lovely and relaxing!! there are no cars on the island and the streets are all sandy! Our hotel was located on the beach and before it got dark we went to the bar at the end of the island...drank really strong cocktails and watched the sunset....beautiful!!
The next day some of us decided to do a full days snorkling...a guide took us in a speed boat to 3 reef sites. One was Shark Ray ally...here we swam with loads of obviously harmless sharks, sting rays and other big fish. We also saw lots of brightly coloured fish and at the last place there were Manatees (sea cows) which we swam with.....we were lucky cos its only lately that they had been swimming in the area.
On Friday we spend the whole day travelling...passed through the Mexican border and ended at Playa del Carmen which is an hour down the coast from Cancun. the beaches are bright white because of the coral....so we sunbathed and ive done lots of shopping cos the jewelry here is beautiful. Now were in Cancun... last night I tried to meet up with Steve Hewitt my cousin but there was a massive thunderstorm so no one wanted to venture into the hotel zone...so we stayed and listen to the live band at the restaurant...playing amazing Spanish music.
Tomorrow weve got a long travel to Merida in Mexico but today were off it another island where our toucan tour guide Lisa lives and tonight its time to meet all the new guys!!!
