Playa Del Carmen Part III / Coming Home

Day 7 – Bite the bullet – Playa Del Carmen

After spending the usual lazy morning, we were at a bit of a loss of what to do. Neither of us fancied getting on a crammed and hot local bus again. The wind was up too so no guarantees of spotting turtles. After a bit of debate, we decided we would bite the bullet and head to Playa Del Carmen, find some shade, and try to ignore the irritating loud yanks.

It’s about a 20-minute stroll to the beach where you must run the gauntlet, fending off hawkers selling tacky overpriced tat, restaurant owners and boat ticket sellers. We then walked a further 15 minutes along the beach to try and find some shade, we didn’t!

Our options were: A.  head back to the apartments and the mozzie infested pool or, B. suck it up and sit in the sun. We decided on the latter as there was a lovely breeze

 

We had a cooling off dip where we entertained ourselves practicing a couple of endurance exercises we had seen on a marine survival download we had recently watched. Opting NOT to do the backward crab in the shallows where the water laps into your nose and you must hold the position because: A. Glenn can’t do a crab, B. I didn’t think the sun worshipers would appreciate a view of my lady garden and C. we would both look like a couple of complete pratts!

Instead, we started with swimming with your arms tied behind your back, harder than you would imagine but I won, coz I’m ‘floaty’.

Glenn, who isn’t floaty at all and sinks like a stone, quickly moved onto the next exercise which was standing waist height in the water, arms tied behind your back and diving down to retrieve a mask (we didn’t have a mask so just improvised and had to make it to the bottom). As predicted, Glenn did this with ease.

My turn and given I need to strap the weight of an obese small child to me in order to submerge when Scuba Diving, I wasn’t feeling hopeful, like I said I’m very ‘floaty’. After a bit of coaching from Glenn, ensuring I had no more air in my lungs, I dived. Eureka, I touched the bottom, unfortunately with my nose grazing along the sand, that’s going to look pretty when I get back!

Exhausting all options here, we headed in to dry off, eat our rolls before lathering ourselves in layers of lotion. Feeling decidedly greasy and uncomfortable, we then pegged ourselves out in the sunshine, in the hope that some shade would become available soon.

It worked for a short while until the wind decided to pick up a pace and smother our sticky skin in layers of sand. Humph!

Another dip to get rid of the sand and there was nothing else for it. (Shel followed by Glenn) headed for a slither of sand, shoe-horning ourselves amongst fellow shade seekers, both taking great care  not to meet our new neighbour’s stern glances at us encroaching on their now very tight personal space.

We managed to stay there (we really aren’t beach people) until around 4:30 where we made the long traipse back to the apartment, stopping off for supplies on the way.

 

The evening was spent polishing off Glenn’s Chilli, a bottle of red and chilling.

Day 8  - Our last day, what to do? Do nothing!

Our plan today was to spend our last day on Turtle beach. However, waking up, neither of us really fancied the trek, plus it was still quite windy and no Turtle guarantee. We would have a long travel day tomorrow, have seen lots of beaches and turtles and not too fussed about coming back tanned. So instead we settled down to keep ourselves busy by doing not a lot a lot at all.

We had to vacate our apartment at some point to get it cleaned so we ventured down as far at the outside communal area around noon, neither of us fancying going to the next-door pool to be snacked on by mozzies.

It’s a weird set-up here at our apartments, lots of people seem to be retired long-term residence escaping the winter cold. Mainly French, or French Canadian. It’s nice though and we are feeling guilt free about not doing a lot whilst we are here, it was always our plan. Plus it’s nice to be the youngest for a change!

 

Another uninteresting fact (you can see I’m trying to fill the page). There’s a tip box in our apartment and In the hope that we will be stuffing it with the kind of money that doesn’t rattle come the end of our stay, we’ve[ some rather artfully arranged towels left each day by the maid. They exceeded themselves with yesterday efforts as not only did they arrange the bath towels but we had weird and wonderful heart-shapes made from the handtowels too. However, I think they thought we were checking out today and not tomorrow as the today’s towels have been un-ceremonially dumped on the bed, and the cleaning looks a bit iffy too.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up with the blog (right up to date now), reading and lying in hammocks, with some attempt at preparing for home by sorting out insurance, phones etc.

 

By the way, did we tell you? Our super-duper and very expensive GOLD cover insurance company has a clause outlined in teeny weeny tiny small-print on a back page? They don’t cover mobile phones! Whilst we are both glad that we haven’t had to use it for the most important reason, our heath, it would have been nice to be covered for the 2^nd most important thing, Glenn’s Android and my I-phone!

We managed to cobble some leftovers for our evening meal. It’s amazing how far you can stretch 4 tomatoes, a few eggs, some leftover chorizo and a stale roll!

Opting to spend our last night home and save our pennies for new soft furnishings for Glenn’s flat (well, Shell more than Glenn here), we had a few drinks, watched a bit of TV, both of our minds turning towards home.

Day 9 – ‘And now the time has come’

Or more to the point ‘tell me why I don’t like Monday’s’...managing to avoid that horrible Monday feeling for 16 months, today we got it in spades! The alarm didn’t signal the start to a new working week, but the end of our 16-month adventure together.

We fly to Gatwick from Cancun around 5pm local time tonight. Our transfer is booked and we have our room till 1pm so all that’s left to do is pack.

We are wandering around the apartment in autopilot packing. But this time with a difference, discarding long cared for and now unwanted items.

Out with those hole ridden knickers…point to note, don’t buy anything trimmed with lace if you intend it to last for 16 months, it won’t, my backside looked like a bag of marbles towards the end! Out with those chewed up bits of soap we thought we should keep, just in case. Out with the stained and raggedy clothes, you’ve served your purpose, it’s time to go.

We arrive at Gatwick around 7am tomorrow UK time and as we lost our jackets, we are hoping the UK weather will take pity on us.

But we are so excited to be seeing our family again, we’ve missed you all!  first stop to Maidstone where we will be staying with my wonderful Mum and Des who has my favourite dinner waiting, cold ciders and ales in the fridge, my family knows me so well!

We won’t be unpacking for quite a time, March will be a bit of a road trip, visiting and catching up with family and ending with a trip to Jersey to see Glenn’s parents, Sandy and John. I can’t wait to see the reunion between Glenn and his mum, I reckon it will be a real tear jerker! Really looking forward to seeing you all.

 

So whilst we are feeling a little bit melancholy, it’s time to come home and it will be ‘Good to touch the green green grass of home’ (couldn’t resist!)

Don’t worry, we wont finish the blog with that really cheesy ending, we aim to post a summary of our experience too to round everything up.

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Playa Del Carmen - Pt II

Day 4 - Akumal

After another lazy morning, we thought it was time to get a grip and explore some nearby beaches.

We were told that you could pick up a Collectivo from the end of the road that would take you on a 30 minute journey to Akumal which had a lovely beach.

The minivan turned up immediately but as we slid open the door, we found no seats available. As there was no headroom to stand, we tried to squeeze in and sit on the floor, on our knees. This is not an easy task for a very VERY inflexible Glenn.

We bumped along for a bit until a lady got off and vacated a seat. We (me and another passenger) helped Glenn to his feet so he could be more comfortable. Believe me, manners aside, it was better that he took the seat rather than me.

Another 10 minutes and another seat became available. By this time my ankles were numb and I had the imprint of the bus floor pattern on my legs.

We arrived at our destination and set off in the direction we thought would lead us to the beach, it didn’t! after about 15 minutes of walking in the blazing sunshine, we stopped at a shop for water and was told it was totally in the other direction.

Retracing our steps (becoming a bit of a habit) we finally found ourselves at a lovely, not too overcrowded bay with fishing boats and palm trees you could seek some shade from. After a ‘welcome to Akumal’ beer, we found some shade, donned our masks and hit the water.

 

We had heard there was a chance of seeing turtle grazing on the seagrass and to our delight, Glenn spotted one within about 2 minutes of entering the water.

The turtle wasn’t so skittish as others had been so we hung around watching it at a respectable distance for quite some time. Only disturbed when another turtle came hurtling in my direction and I had to practically climb over Glenn to get out of its way.

A few other snorkelers came along and we were afraid that we were crowding the poor fella so headed off to see what else we could find. This turned out to be a big Barracuda! I signalled to Glenn who came over and we both spent some time at a VERY respectable distance watching it before we headed off.

Our final spots were a Puffa fish and a Stingray! Brilliant! Who needs to pay all of that money to scuba when you have all of this for free?

We left the water feeling very upbeat, we were finally starting to like Mexico. Just a shame we didn’t have Glenn’s GoPro which we would be sure to bring with us next time.

The rest of the day was spent reading and spotting turtles coming up for air, we must have counted about 5!

 

We didn’t want to leave it too late to make the journey home as we didn’t know what time things stopped running. Around 5pm, we headed back up to the highway where there were waiting Connectivo’s and were quickly ushered onto a bus with available seats. We waited for it to fill up before we headed back to Del Carmen.

We arrived back at the resort and decided to stay out and head straight for dinner. The restaurant from the previous night had a sister restaurant, a bit closer so as we both wanted to try Mexican food again we headed there.

Glenn really enjoyed his dish but I didn’t enjoy mine, a bit greasy and the beans were very over cooked and gluey. We should have gone back to the original place!

Not fancying any of the over-crowded bars full of brash Americans, we picked up some supplies and headed back to our apartment for the night.

Day 5 – Tulum

Today’s adventure would be another collectivo to another beach called Tulum. This one had ancient ruins located just off the beach.

Opting not to sit on the floor of the overcrammed bus, we stood with our heads and shoulders bent for a while before two seats became available. As we are the last stop out of town, we were to lean that the buses would always be full.

We arrived and for a change, headed in the right direction towards the beach. We had been walking 20 minutes with no sign of the road ending, so stopped at a nearby restaurant to enquire.

 

It turns out that we had another 3k to walk! We ordered a ‘welcome to not quite there yet’ Tulum beer and waited to see if Collectivo’s were passing and watched nearby travellers thumbing a lift, without much success.

We finished our beers and hailed a taxi and after some negotiation got in and headed to the beach. Again, very pretty and much longer than Akumal. We found some shade, went for a dip and then a long walk along the beach to dry off and see if we could find the ruins.

 

We eventually found them way off in the distance and has we didn’t have our camera with us, we opted to head back to our spot where we spent the afternoon reading and taking the occasional dip

 

Another collectivo home, we showered and went in search of an Argentinian restaurant with good reviews. A bigger schelp which took us passed the original Mexican restaurant. Weirdly, despite all the fancy hotels here, the pavements are very bad, cracked with holes and very slippery making it much harder work.

We arrived at a very empty restaurant. Given the walk, we decided to give it a go anyway, took our seats and ordered our steaks.

The restaurant started to fill up and we were quickly given our meals. It was pretty good, but not brilliant! We got talking to the Argentinian waitress who told us that the meat was actually from the US. She also gave us some tips on other beaches we might want to explore.

Finishing our meal and not fancying the long walk home, we treated ourselves to a taxi to take us.

Day 6 – Akumal Again

Once again it was another lazy morning catching up with E-Mail’s/Facebook and getting up to date with our blog, you may have noticed we are firing them out now.  Around midday Shell prepared some food for the beach and we headed to the mini-bus stop.

We didn’t have to wait long for the bus, but once again it was full so we had to stand bent almost double with no air-conditioning present.  Riding along for a bit a seat came free for Shell, however when more seats came available I let the women take them as it appears that the locals aren’t so chivalrous!

It was a very hot, sweaty and uncomfortable ride down the road (about 25km) and we were glad to get off.  We then had a short walk to the beach where we stopped at the bar/restaurant to rehydrate after sweating so much on the mini-bus ride.

When we felt refreshed enough we made our way down the beach to see if we could find a shady spot, we couldn’t so we figured we would go snorkelling and hopefully we would find some when we came out.

Both feeling really excited about what we would see this time and with a fully charged Go-Pro to hopefully capture some nice turtle action we donned our masks and snorkel’s and headed into the sea.  Once immersed we found that as there was a bit of a wind and a few waves the silt was kicked up and our visibility was very poor.

We swam around for a while seeing nothing but a few fish so we headed out further hoping that the water would become a bit clearer.  The water was still pretty murky so unless we passed directly overhead of a turtle we were not going to spot them. After ½ hour of spotting nothing of note we headed back to shore a little disappointed and why I have no photos of turtle action for the blog L

 

On a positive note, after we got out of the water a shady palm tree had become free so we set ourselves up underneath it (sounds terrible doesn’t it!!).  For the rest of the afternoon, we spent reading and enjoying Shell’s ham and tomato sandwiches until we felt it was time to go  home.

As the colectivo’s were waiting for passengers at the top of the road we got a seat each and the journey back was far more pleasant. Once we were dropped off, we headed for the supermarket as we thought as we were in Mexico and we had a kitchen at our apartment, that I would cook up my now famous Chile instead of going out to eat.  So, we picked up the ingredients I needed (along with more wine and beer) and then schlepped it back to the apartment.

In the early evening, I cooked up my chili whilst Shell showered and then played some music from artists that would be playing Boomtown in the summer, we then relaxed until we felt hungry.  Once again (if I say it myself) the chilli turned out pretty well, despite not quite having the ingredients I usually used and we washed it down with red wine.

For the rest of the evening we watched a special forces recruitment series that Shell had downloaded on her Ipad, before turning in for the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mexico / Playa Del Carmen

Day 1 – The penultimate journey

Arriba Arriba Andale Andale, were off to Mexico…

Feeling decidedly groggy we woke, packed and booked our 11am transfer to the airport. It was time to say goodbye to Guatemala and hello to Mexico.

We had chosen Mexico as our final destination as the flights were relatively cheaper to London from here and we wanted to find a beach resort for our last location. Neither of us fancied Cancun which is full of tacky bars and loud annyoying Americans, but a few people had told us Playa Del Carmen was much nicer and only an hour away from the airport.

Todd, the guy we met back in Bolivia, had given us details of an apartment he rented in Del Carmen too so we had booked it and was looking forward to having our own space to chill out in for our final week.

After an incredibly slow check-in, we made our way to the food court for a very much needed hangover burger and to spend our last Quetzales.

Our flight wasn’t until 3:30 so we went to the gate and read, blogged and used up our final data allowance. Here, we bumped into Rory (from the snug) and his family. He had told us the previous day that they were off to Cancun, on the same flight and had offered us a lift. We had declined the lift as I think we both had a bit of foresight and didn’t want to share a car with two very active little boys, we were right. They became even more excited, running around and destroying the airport lounge when Glenn gave them the rest of our change.

It was then that Rory asked how the band was at the snug (he had left after the boxing). Glenn and I shared a quizzical look together and said ‘what band’. It was only later when we went through the pics we saw this!

The flight landed in Cancun and after waiting for around an hour for our luggage, we said our goodbyes to Rory and headed out to find a bus. We needed pesos so Glenn went in search of an ATM whilst I found a tourist desk. This turned out to be a taxi desk in disguise who promptly told me the bus would drop us at the wrong side of town, blah blah blah but we could share a collectivo which would drop us off at our apartments.

Glenn returned from the ATM, it seems the airport ATM only gave dollars. You would then have to change the dollars at a ridiculous rate to Pesos. Losing a lot of money in the process.

We um’d and ar’d for a bit and decided to go with the Collectivo. We could pay for it with the dollars we already had. More waiting about until the agent told us that it would cost more because our apartment wasn’t in the Playa district, it was at this point we walked off.

Getting a bit pissed off, we weren’t sure what to do, we didn’t have Pesos for the local transport so after trying a few other agencies, we ended up getting a taxi for the best price we could, knowing we were being royally ripped off.   Note if ever going to Mexico, take Pesos with you!

The taxi took us to a darkened street which seemed in the middle of nowhere and announced we were at our apartment (we may have done a wrong-un here). We went to reception where we paid the first night with our final dollars, agreeing we would pay the balance after we visited an ATM.

Glenn asked where the nearby bars were so we could get our ‘welcome to Mexico’ beer and was informed that as it was Sunday, they were all shut at 5pm, government rules. However, there was one that served till 9pm, not too far. It was now 8pm.

We were shown to a lovely apartment and quickly unpacked. It was here that Glenn realised he had lost his phone, probably at one of the airport kiosks! After over 15 months of travel he had lost it on the penultimate leg! There was nothing for it but to make our way to an ATM and then find the one and only bar to commiserate with a beer.

 

 

The first ATM was out of order so we had a bit of a Schlep to find another. There were about 3 in a row, all behind glass booths so we chose one at random. We entered the details, the ATM counted the cash and then nothing!

We waited with our hearts in our mouths but after 15 minutes of waiting, nothing was happening. It seemed the ATM was stuck with the screen displaying ‘transaction in progress’. I went outside to see if there was a number we could contact and spoke with a local who had great English and a lot of empathy, he then spoke to someone else who said that it had happened to him before and you just had to wait.

We had no choice, if we left, the cash could come out and worse, the card. Glenn now frazzled by the airport and lost phone wasn’t in a happy mood. I sent him outside to calm down and have a smoke whilst I stood guard. He went outside only to be accosted by a local drunk. He came back in exclaiming ‘I fucking hate Mexico’.

After an agonising 30 minutes with people coming and going either side of us, making seamless transactions (why did we chose this machine!)  the ATM spat out the cash, the relief…..didn’t last long, the card didn’t follow.

 

 

Another agonising 30 minutes (not exaggerating here) where there was a lively debate between us on whether we should leave or stay (I was for staying) the ATM chugged into life again and spat out…. The receipt! no card!

Another 30 minutes of trying to look inconspicuous in the middle of the city, at night, outside an ATM! The machine chugged into life once again and presented our card. The bliss, the joy, THE RELIEF!

We hugged each other and then set off to the minimarket. It was now around 10:30 so we had to settle on a bottle of sprite, some bread and a packet of ham which we ate back at our apartment before turning in.

Welcome to Mexico, Ariba my arse!

Day 2 – Exploring

 As we had promised ourselves a relaxing week before we came home, we had a lazy morning drinking coffee, having b/f and catching up with the blog.  Enjoying the fact that we had an apartment with some space, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen/living room, all of which meant I could wake up and smell the coffee (Shell getting up before me and starting the percolator). She had received some not so great news about returning to her previous job so was feeling a bit down at heart.

Around midday we thought we would venture out and see what Playa Del Carmen’s main drag had to offer, so heading out in hot sunshine we made the long walk to the beach front.  When we got there, it was quite an assault on the senses with lots of tourists/holiday makers, hotels, bars, restaurants and tacky gift shops.

We wandered around for a bit and checked out a couple of scuba-diving shops as we fancied doing a dive (if Shell’s cold clears up) later in the week, but neither of them really inspired confidence and they were quite expensive.
 

In order to get out of the sun and avoid the numerous street hawkers trying to offer us boat trips, tours, etc we took refuge under an awning of a nearby restaurant.  We stopped here for a few welcome to Mexico or should I say Playa Del Carmen beers.  We sat and drunks our beers in relative silence.

After a couple of hours, we decided that we would head up the other side of the road to where we had spotted a beach bar.  We arrived at the bar and found a table right on the beach in the shade of some palm trees, the beach was very nice but way too packed with tourists.
 

Sitting there supping some more beers we watched as hundreds of tourists walk up and down the jetty to catch a boat trip to one of the nearby islands and trying not to get our feet wet as the occasional big wave flooded our area. Whilst we sat there a quite bog standard band was playing in the main bar just above us.

We sat there without saying too much to each other until the dam broke and we finally admitted, ‘we don’t like it here’ it was too much like a holiday resort and very tacky, it was a bit too much for us after so many nice dusty beach towns we had been used too.  So, we just agreed we would have to make the most of it (considering we had 8 days here) and explore places outside of town, maybe hire a car to get out of dodge.

Feeling a bit better after we had voiced our feelings and looking on the bright side, we wouldn’t be so sorry to leave here for the journey home, we headed back towards our apartment.  We briefly stopped at a shop to pick up a bottle of local rum and ingredients for cubre libre’s. We then returned to the apartment where I discovered that I had lost the room keys (Mexico isn’t going very well for me!), fortunately the receptionist gave me some spares telling me to keep quiet and he wouldn’t charge me for them.

Back at the apartment we cracked open a couple of Dos Equis and broke out some music.  A couple more beers and the Rum got broken out (after I had a knife fight with the bottle top and sliced my finger!) and we started on the Cuba Libre’s.
 

Our night turned into a private party with us trying to find and play the most tacky/bizarre you tube music video’s from the 70’s/80’s the best/worst we came up with was ‘Einstien A-Go-Go’ (Shell)  me following up with Lene Lovich’s ‘Lucy Number’. I’m not sure the neighbours appreciated the ‘eh who a who’s’ that we were singing along to. 

By the end of the night I think we had exhausted all the bad songs we could think of and as the Rum bottle was almost empty and with a final rendition of Brotherhood of Mans Angelo… long ago, high on a mountain in Mexico…. we took that as a sign to go to bed.

Day 3 – Another Lazy Day

Not feeling very inspired to explore Del Carmen, we spent the morning lazing around, blogging and having a late breakfast. Occasionally hiding from our neighbours and feeling a bit embarrassed about the noise we probably made the previous night.

By the afternoon, we decided to investigate the pool area that was housed in the sister hotel opposite ours. Unfortunately, a dip didn’t look likely as the whole area was in the shade and the pool looked a bit unkempt.

We settled down on a couple of sunbeds to read but it was like lying on a rack as they were wooden and minus any cushions. Moving to a nearby table, we settled down again to blog and read however was quickly chased away by the mozzies (Shel 3 bites, Glenn 1).
 

We headed back to our apartments shared area and once again settled down. I found the most uncomfortable hammock and Glenn a table to continue blogging.
 

As we hadn’t really achieved much, we decided to tripadvise an authentic Mexican restaurant and treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Glenn found one, which whist was about a 30-minute schlep, had great reviews and was cheap. So, that’s where we headed in the evening.

It would have been a 30- minute schlep had we not gone in the wrong direction. After almost arriving at the beach, we turned around, headed back and after asking for some directions, we arrived, a bit hot and bothered and stood in line at the huge queue of people waiting to dine.

It wasn’t long until we were seated and ordered two huge slushy cocktails which were very welcomed and downed very quickly. We placed our orders and waited for our food.
 

It was delicious, you could see why it was popular. We had a ‘on the house’ bean and mince soup together with a side of garlic beans and salad. For main, we had an Arracherea dish (cut of steak) which was incredibly tender and served with charcoaled salad onions, a jacket potato, Guacamole and washed down with a cheap bottle of wine.

Fed and watered, we headed back on the long journey to our apartment, stopping by a nearby Wallmart to pick up some supplies.

The rest of the evening was spent feeling over full and watching downloads. Tomorrow we would venture a bit further.

Shell's Guatemala Round-Up

GUAT EM MA LA we loved you! We only had 13 days but I think we covered the best you have to offer. A country full of wonderful lakes, volcano’s, jungle, Cacao and coffee plantations and even the odd Mayan ruin thrown in, what’s not to like?

The only thing we would do differently, if we had more time, would have been to take a short boat trip to Belize from Livingston and chilled out on a beach somewhere.

Unlike some Central/South American countries Guatemala still has a real authentic feel. Traditional dress is still worn in small villages which are hand woven colourful prints. Long skirts and tops for the girls, and the men look like colourful cowboys. Equally colourful chicken buses roar up and down roads and can take you to your destination for penny’s.

The food, despite the corn tortillas, is pretty decent too, try Pepian if you come, a spicy and delicious soup.

We avoided Guatemala City, deciding not to stay there as it didn’t have a lot to offer apart from being a bit dangerous in parts and pricy accommodation. Guatemala is reportedly dodgy, but despite the security guards with their sawn-off shot guns and machete wearing guides, we didn’t run into or hear of any trouble.

By far our favourite was Semuc Champey, elsewhere I’m sure it would be crammed with tourists. It is absolutely stunning and we could have easily spent another day there.

Don’t be put off by the long and cramped bus journeys, it does have airports, we just took the hardened traveller route which whilst uncomfortable, allowed us to appreciate its beauty.

The Snug was by far the best bar we have come across on our travels (and we’ve been to a few). Coming back to Antigua and receiving a warm welcome from our new friends was a delight. I still smile at a story a Brit Ex pat called Andrew shared with us. He got kicked off a fox hunting protest by his fellow activists for eating a ham sandwich J

I’m so glad that we opted for Guatemala over Nicaragua,  If we’ve sold it to you, I’m including the details of the tour company we went with should you be tempted.

www.cometoguatemala.com

alicia@cometoguatemala.com

Antiqua - Part III

Day 1 – Travel Day

Awake around 6:30am, I took myself outside so as not to disturb a snoring Glenn and had a coffee whilst enjoying the sunrise over the harbour and listening to the boats put-putting along.

The hostel was relatively new. The owners had lived in GC and had a holiday home here (I can see why) for many years. They tore the original house down as it was riddled with termites and halfway through the rebuild decided to turn it into a B&B. It meant they lived out of one room and shared the living space with their guests. Not sure if I could do that, even if it gives me a little slice of paradise.

 

We had a delicious breakfast, coconut flavoured tortilla for Glenn with eggs and cheese arranged into a smiley face, and eggs for me.

Our boat wasn’t due to depart till 11 so we lazed around, chatting to other guests and enjoying the view until it was time to lug our bags back down the hill.

You could only purchase your ticket on the day of travel, so we got to the harbour around 10:30, purchased our tickets, found some shade and settled down to wait for the boat and did a bit of people watching.

Someone somewhere hollered that the boat had arrived and everyone made a mad dash to the dock. When we got there, the small boat was rammed packed so we weren’t sure if there was room. After a bit of cajoling and pointing, two lines were ordered to squeeze up and make room for us. Luckily it was only a 30-minute journey.

 

The journey itself was lovely. Flat seas and blue skys also meant that our luggage, which was piled up on the front of the boat wouldn’t get wet either. After one brief stop to let people off at what looked like a nice beach resort, we arrived in Puerto Barrios.

From here we needed to take a short taxi ride to the bus depo. We jumped into a waiting taxi to find ourselves sharing it with the driver and two huge dudes with yellow eyes and went in a totally different direction. It was at this point I scolded myself for not being a bit more careful. We weren’t to worry though, the driver just decided to give us a tour of the un-scenic dusty town, dropping each of the dudes off first before depositing us at the bus station.

 

We had around an hour until our bus (another Pullman) arrived so bought a cold drink and found some shade.  When it arrived, to Glenn’s delight, it had an entertainment system built in (like you get on planes). After trying and failing to find the movies, Glenn settled down with his headphones to listen to some music and then proceeded to sing rather too loudly, or speak to me at the top of his voice for the duration of the journey. Fortunately, the other passengers also had earphones in so weren’t treated to the delightful rendition of ??? at the top of his lungs.

The 5hr journey turned into 7 as we hit traffic just outside of GC. We were due to transfer to a small minivan that would take us on the rest of our journey to Antigua. However, when the bus turned down a very darkened street with suspicious looking locals peering through the window and no sign of the van, we did start to worry. Are we being dropped off in the middle of the city, at night, with all our valuables?

Suddenly a huge metal gate slid open and an armed guard appeared and we were ushered into the waiting minibus hiding behind it, phew! Very security conscious here!

We arrived back in Antigua around 9pm and after dragging our bags to our hostel, went in search of some food. After briefly popping into the snug to say hi, we then headed for home, both a bit travel weary.

Day 2 – Fight Night (Well Afternoon Actually)

This morning I had a lie in (Glenn not Shel), she always gets up at stupid O’Clock) as we did not have anything planed until the afternoon.  Once up we went to the upstairs sun terrace and had some coffee and spent the morning blogging.

Around 12ish we then headed out to the cigar shop to pick up some tobacco (it’s the only place in town that does it).  After this we then went in search of a restaurant as we knew we would have a bit of a boozy afternoon and evening so we thought we should get something inside our bellies.

We were looking for a particular local dish that had been recommended in our guide and after putting our heads in a couple of places we found a nice little restaurant where you could dine in the shade of their courtyard.  Shell ordered the local dish, Pepian, which is a spicy sesame-seed sauce served with chicken and I went for the stuffed peppers, both when they turned up were very nice.

After lunch our intention was to go back to the hostel and book our airport transfers for the following day. However, as we walked past The Snug, the owner Rory called out to us, he was about to go to the charity boxing match we had tickets for and he offered us a lift there, which we gratefully accepted.

We drove a short way out of town and through a couple of backstreets and then parked up outside a school.  Helping Rory with some provisions he had brought along for the bar-be-que stall we entered the school gates, showed our tickets and then handed over the food to the stall.

Inside the school playground they had erected a very small looking boxing ring, crudely constructed in 4 by 2 and ordinary ropes, raised on a platform of beer crates.  Amusingly there was a statue of the virgin Mary in a recess in the wall directly behind the boxing ring, maybe she will look over/after the boxers. Also, there was a stretcher and medical staff standing in close attendance if divine intervention did not help them!

 

Today was an event for the ‘Children of Guatemala’ charity and it was boxing matches between local bar staff (mostly ex-pats) and sponsored by local businesses, The Snug being one of them.

First, we headed to the makeshift bar and were welcomed by the barmen from The Snug, Ed and Dom and we got ourselves a couple of tinnies.  Whilst we waited for the first fight to begin there was a DJ spinning good tunes and we chatted to Rory, who was telling a tale about the last time he was in custody in New York (he’s got loads of stories).  By now there was quite a sizeable crowd and everyone was drinking and having a good time in the sun (not us, we had found some shade).

It was now time for the first fight and they had a MC that introduced the two fighters into the ring, a very big American fella and a smaller wiry looking guy.  As the fight started the crowd became very vocal supporting the American guy, it was quite a good match up as the American was quite slow and had the power but the other guy had better skills and in the first two rounds (3 x 1 minute rounds) he got the better shots in.  The only real damage that was happening was when the fighters accidently slipped out of the home made ring.  In the third round however the wiry guy had to throw in the towel as he was exhausted, that or he had too much to drink.

 

The second bout once again was fairly evenly matched and to our surprise once again it was quite a decent fight.  Apparently, all the participants had been training down the local boxing gym for the last month.  Another way they had devised to raise money was by having a bookies there to take bets on the fights, which added to the crowd atmosphere. As with the Thai boxing we had seen, Shell had her blood lust up and was shouting like a goodun!

The third fight on the bill was between two of the local barmaids, so we were cheering on Lori who worked at The Snug and who we had chatted to when we had been there.  Again, it was quite a close match with Lori seeming to shade the first two rounds much to the delight of the crowd, Lori was obviously a very popular girl around town and most of the crowd were routing for her.  In the third she seemed to tire and the other girl started to get on top, but in the end the referee awarded the win to Lori (2 rounds to 1).

 

Obviously the beer had been flowing very easily and the next two fights were fought and received very well.  The final bout was the best of all with the two young guys looking very toned and it was an extremely good contest, which even had the first bit of blood spilt in the ring (not just from slipping out).  In all it had been a very different and enjoyable afternoon, it was nice to see the ex-pat community out and supporting a local charity.

 

After the event had finished, we then had to work out how we were going to get back to town, fortunately Ed and Dom were heading back to the Snug for the after party so they said to tag along with them.  We are glad we did as they took us to a bus stop where we caught our first chicken bus, we rode this to the edge of town then walked the rest of the way back to The Snug.

Back at The Snug the atmosphere was great and the music was playing and everyone was having a good time.  Many beers were drunk and peanuts eaten (by Glenn not Shell), we were enjoying our last time in this great little pub.  At some point, late in the evening, we’re not sure when, we then said our goodbyes to everyone and headed home for the night. Fortunately we did not have an early transfer in the morning (plus we had not got round to booking it yet!).

Livingstone

Day 1 -The Caribbean?

The boat for Livingstone was due to pick us up from our hostel at 9.30 which meant we had time to enjoy a nice breakfast (incidentally larger than my dinner the night before) in the restaurant right next to the river.

After breakfast we then waited for our boat to arrive, for once our transport was on time so we loaded our bags on board and clambered on.  When I had booked the tickets I was informed this would be a bit of a boat tour as well as a mode of transport to Livingstone.

The boat darted around the river picking up other passengers from different hostels and it was interesting when we went down side creeks seeing some nice properties with very large yacht’s moored up next to them, there’s money here!!

 

Once we had picked up all the passengers and Shell and I had picked out which river pad to buy, the boat started its tour.  First we headed to a nearby fort that used to protect something or other, the guide only spoke Spanish so no idea about anything on this fort, but it made for a nice picture.

 

 

We then turned around and headed back the way we came passing our hostel along the way.  A quick stop for petrol and we motored along for about 20 minutes (looking in the hope that we saw Manatee) until we got to a couple of Islands, the skipper slowed the boat down and circled these so we could see the large number of birds roosting in the tree branches.

 

 

Continuing along, we then came to a small settlement at the side of the river where there was hundreds of water lilies so we putted around here for another photo opportunity.

 

 

Surprisingly after about an hour of motoring along we pulled up to a riverside restaurant/hostel where we were told we were going to stop for 20 minutes for a refreshment/comfort break.  We got off the boat and noted that they did have natural hot springs at the side of the river, but with only 20 minutes we were not going to indulge.

When the pointless 20 minute break was over we then all clambered back into the  small boat and headed off again.  Although this boat ride was very scenic and pretty the best was saved until last and we entered a gorge called, La Cueva de la Vaca.

The gorge was quite spectacular its walls hung with great tangles of jungle foliage and the humid air noisy with the cries of tropical birds.  It looked like a film set for Jurassic park and once again plenty of photos were taken.

 

 

Finally, we started to exit the gorge and we were entering the estuary where the river met the see and after a short journey,  the port of Livingstone was coming into view.  The first thing we noticed as we got close to the quay was that several boats had been commandeered by the local pelican’s, they are going to take some cleaning!!

We disembarked on the jetty and were immediately met with loads of local hawkers trying to get you on other boats or get you to their hostels.  Quickly moving past, and trying to get our bearings we thought we would go to a nearby restaurant/bar to get a drink.

Entering the restaurant, we found a seat next to the balcony which overlooked the little port and ordered ourselves a couple of welcome beers.  Just as they turned up a traditional Garifuna band struck up, they consisted of three large drums, a turtle shell (which is banged with a stick), some maraca’s and a big conch shell.  It made for quite a nice welcome and as described in our guide, Livingstone had a completely different feel to the rest of Guatemala, very Caribbean!!

 

After our drinks, we had the job of finding our hostel which when checking the phone sat-nav was up a nearby hill.  We carried/dragged our bags up the incline and after looking round for a bit, we found the hostel and  were met by the very friendly owner who showed us to our rooms.  The hostel, although hard to get to, had a beautiful view over the whole of the port and estuary.

Once unpacked we quickly went out to explore as we really only had an afternoon here. We headed to Livingstone’s main street.  Livingstone is pretty much a dusty two street affair but it does have a lovely vibe about it.  Before we headed for a beach the hotel owner recommended we stopped at a little café/bar for a quick light refreshment.

 

 

We then headed down the road in the direction which we were told the beach was in, having failed to find an empty tuk-tuk to take us there.  It was very hot and after a while Shell checked with a local shop owner that we were heading in the right direction, we were but the lady indicated that it was a very long way and we should get a tuk-tuk.

Waiting on the corner for some time we eventually managed to catch the eye of a tuk-tuk driver, he already had two school children in the back, but he managed to squeeze us all in.  It was just as well as the journey must have been two or three miles.

Driving through Livingstone it was very pretty and as we neared the end of the journey we headed down a very bumpy little track and at the end we were deposited next to a foot bridge, checking with the driver who said we needed to go across this.  Shell and I followed his instructions and whilst crossing the bridge we could see that this was a very pretty little spot.

 

 

Over the bridge, we then followed a small path that led to the beachfront which was fringed by palm trees and backed by jungle vegetation, very pretty indeed.

 

At the end of this path it then opened out into a small beach area with a restaurant/bar and only a handful of tourists/locals.  It was a lovely little place dotted with coconut trees and had a little jetty with a tower at the end that contained hammocks.

 

 

First things first, we found a table in the shade and had a couple of drinks whilst we took in our beautiful surroundings.  We then managed to secure a couple of sun loungers that we could relax and read on for the rest of the afternoon.

As it was hot we then decided to go and have a dip and when we put our toes in the water , it was pretty warm and remained quite shallow as we waded out.  However, we did not stay in for that long as although it looked very nice and had crystal blue water, there was a lot of rotting tree/plant material in the water which didn’t make it feel as pleasant as it looked.

We returned to our sun lounger and waited to dry off, being amused by some German tourists trying to get coconuts down from one of the tree’s, nearly hitting/knocking out one of their friends in the process.  An hour more of relaxing and it was getting later in the afternoon and we were a bit worried about the transport to get back to town.

Following the path back to the bridge we then crossed it and I spied a tuk-tuk loitering at the bottom so I signalled to it that we wanted a ride.  When we got to it he had one passenger already inside but we all manged to fit in and we rode back to town, Shell loves a tuk-tuk.

 

 

Back in town we then headed back to our hostel where we took the opportunity to sit on the balcony and catch up on a bit of blogging whilst admiring the fabulous view across the water below.  We sat there until the sun went down and then decided that we would go back into town for dinner.

 

Once again, we followed the hostel owners recommendation and went to a little café/restaurant on the main road.  We both opted for a traditional Livingstone dish which is call Tapado, a fish stew made from fish, shrimp, shellfish, coconut milk, and plantain, spiced with coriander.

When our food came up it was very large and quite intimidating as when we investigated properly we found it to contain a whole crab, a whole fish (head included) sea snails and a lot of other bits and pieces.  We both gave it a good go, but neither of us could really fathom what to do with the crab.  I wouldn’t say it was our favourite meal, but it was different and very good value for money.

After eating we didn’t really feel like going for more drinks so we headed back to the hostel to have a fairly early night, reading for a bit before turning out the lights.