A magical morning in Guatemala

Crossing the boarder from Belize into Guatemala was quick and easy so I arrived in the town of Flores early afternoon.

The town is on a lake and is quite cool for a local Guatemalan town, with a relaxed laid back kinda vibe. We wandered the streets, checked out a random cake stall and popped into the shops. I picked up a beautiful blanket ... well you never know when its going to get cold in Central America!

It was coming up to Christmas so the locals were in full swing with their Christmas decorations. I got chatting to a family in english (me) and spanish (them) while they were madly putting up thousands of Christmas lights around their house. They invited me in to their home to check out how they had transformed their lounge room. Crazy right? But they were very proud ...

There was a large christmas tree in the town square. Rather than have a star or angel on top it had a chicken head. Not a real one, but still a chicken head. Well the logo for the local beer is a chicken head so I guess that's the connection???

You will need to look closely but the tree is at the end of the street...

Flores is used by tourists as a base to visit the Tikal ruins.

I decided to join the group to watch the sunrise over the ruins .... so prepared myself for a 2.30am wake up.

Wearing nearly all the clothes in my pack, I grabbed my torch and jumped on the mini van.

We walked through the jungle for about an hour in the dark. We were deep in the jungle, what was I thinking??  Then we climbed a pile of stairs and up a towering pyramid. And sat in the dark. And sat.

The howler monkeys were serenading us as we huddled together in the cold.

Next thing the sun started to rise, siloutetting the pyramid and the jungle canopy.

What an experience .... it was totally magical.

We then had a walk around the site. The pyramids rise up out of the jungle and some are over 60 metre high.

The Mayans settled in Tikal around 700BC and had built a series of stone ceremonial structures by 200BC. By the middle of the 6th century Tikal covered an area of over 30 square km's and was thought to have a population of over 100,000.

The ruins of Tikal weren't discovered until 1848. What a find it was ... thousands of ruins hidden by the jungle. The most impressive structures for me were Temples I and II.

And nearly impressive as the ruins was the amazing expresso I discovered at a little kiosk on the way out. Sometimes its the big things and other times its the little things in life .... on this day I had it all.

All the pics...

Guatemala - Flores / Tikal

 

Belize .... discovering a tropical paradise

The boarder crossing from Mexico into Belize has a reputation for being crazy. So rather than spend hours trying to get into Belize we decided to take a boat.

Our destination was Caye Caulker and there was a regular boat service going straight there .... with one stop on the neighboring island of San Pedro to pop into a sandy floored hut to clear passport control. Too easy.

Welcome to Belize!

Caye Caulker is a small island, about 800 metres long and only 3 streets across, aptly names front street, middle street and back street. There are no cars on the island but if you can't bring yourself to walk a few hundred metres there's always a golf buggy for hire.

 

Caulker has such a Carribean feel and the locals are some of the most relaxed people on the planet. Understandable really as they live in paradise.

Fruit stalls set up each morning and there is some amazing coffee to be had at any number of the beach front cafes. A tropical island and good coffee .... I was one happy girl!

Walking the streets I loved watching the children play. The sandy streets are their playground and the whole island is like their backyard. They seemed so happy and had so much freedom.

Being an island the seafood on Caulker was amazing. Dinner one night was had at Fran's sitting outside a tiny hut munching on delicious prawns or lobster for a few dollars ... or whatever the local currency was called. I should have taken some pics of the currency as they still have the queen on their notes. It's an old shot as Lizzie looks a teenager!

My time on the island was way too short. Why I didnt try and get residency here I'll never know!

Belize - Caye Caulker

Life's a beach in Mexico

For those of you that know me, you know that I love the beach. I crave very hot weather, powdery white sand and crystal clear waters.

 

 

I didn't have a lot of time to to discover secluded beaches is Mexico so made the most of the popular tourist haunts.

My stays in both Playa del Carmen and Cancun were little pieces of luxury. Together with three new friends, we checked into all inclusive resorts in both beachside towns.

In Australia it is rare to find an all inclusive resort so I had never experienced this type of holiday. It was good but there is a trap .... the cocktail intake was very high and drinking commenced quite early in the day. But it's hard to refuse ... actually I didn't even try.

I loved Playa. While it is jam packed with tourists it has a load of charm ... kinda like Palm Cove in far north Queensland but on a much bigger scale.

Cancun on the other hand is the Gold Coast on steroids. You wouldn't be mistaken for thinking you are in the US rather than Mexico. But the beach was amazing. And the fact that a little man would deliver cocktails to you on the beach made this place perfect.

There were loads of random dudes dressed up like this ... one way to try and make money I guess.

 

With my fabulous friends Teresia, Olga and Gemma ...

After this luxury I headed south to Tulum. Mmmmm amazing beaches. Think the finest white powdery sand you've ever seen .... it compares to White Haven beach in the Whitsundays. I spent a few days relaxing on the beach and swimming in the clear blue water.

But I did manage to do a little bit on sight seeing. It wasn't hard as the Tulum Ruins are perched on a cliff overlooking the beach. I wandered around checking out the ruins but actually had more fun watching the iguanas that seem to run the place.

I wandered through the ruins for a bit but soon the water beckoned .... there is nothing quite like the waters of the Carribean.


A few more pics .....

Mexico - Last Days

Mexico - Tulum