23/10/04- 25/10/04 Acapulco

Another beach city- miles and miles of it and not much else except for hotels and shopping malls. It was pretty quiet when we were there apart from the thunderstorms- we saw the famous cliff divers there- Fiona thought she could do it until she found out you had to pay to see it.

Though having seen it I still think that I could jump it, it isn't as high as the Elvis films make it out to be.

Fiona on the beach- sand very hot- phew.


This is where the divers dive from- you see where the little grotto things are for the Virgin Mary? Yes, from there. It is much higher than it looks as the cliff goes down some way from the wall where those tourists are- yes, those ones.


Very impressive sunset, behind Roger's hair


And here he is about to go- aiiyyeeeeee


NB You get a complimentary drink or ice lolly when you pay to see this extravaganza- if you do watch this, go for the drink as the unnatural content of the ice lollies will stain your innards forever.

20/10/04- 23/10/04 Puerto Escondido

Arrived in after the worst overnight journey where the air conditioning temperature was set to the equivilant temperature of a siberian winter and the drivers choice of music was worse than Pat Sharp's hair. Still no overnight journey is ever going to be good.

We did make it in time for sun rise over the Pacific Ocean, which was beautiful but in our state it was as much as we could do to find a hotel room before crashing out.

We then spent the next four days lazing by the ocean and reading our new books. We did get up occassionally and on a couple of occasions even hired bodyboards and took up the noble sport of surfing. Well our attempts weren't all that noble, mostly just getting knocked off the board and swollowing half the sea, but it was very good fun and I even mamaged to catch a few tubes... and get even more sunburnt.

This is the closest beach to the hotel, we spent most of our time here further up on a nicer beach and next door to the best beach for surfing in México, maybe even the world!

16/10/04- 19/10/04 Oaxaca

After yet another hellish overnight bus, (we were told was an 16 hour journey and turned out to be a 23 hour one with the benefit of two showing of Bruce Almightly, I told you it was hellish) we arrived safely in Oaxaca. Lovely town full, again, of colonial charm.

Roger treating the locals to a diet coke moment
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Having heard that entrance into the local ruins was free on Sundays we headed there first thing the next day to discover that it was only free to residents of Mexico, to everyone else it was quite expensive. Still what price can you put on enlightenment. We had a wander and wondered how many more of these temples etc we could be bothered to look at and enjoyed the sunshine. Despite my sarcasm I promise it was quite lovely, and the view over the valley and town below quite breathtaking.

Roger having his breathe taken
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Note: This is not a Mayan site but a Zapatec one- Mayans are sooo last town

The following morning we were rudely awoken at 8am by the workman in the hotel rebuilding the leftwing, so there was nothing for it but to jump on a bus to the nearby town of El Tule which plays proud host to the biggest tree in the world ever. Now for those paying attention you will see a theme running through our travels. We do like our big trees and I have to say that this one truely dwarfs most including the largest ever cashew nut tree in Natal.

See- hay un árbol grande
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In case you didn't believe me that tiny, but lovely, dot you see is Roger
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Having seen that there was only just enough time to head back into town and grab some delicious chocolate milk and locusts in the market before heading off on another overnight bus journey, though this time we are prepared. We have lots of books and our torches.

Food Glorious food, what more could you wish for...


The market above was amazing- it really was like seeing the light... shining on grilled meats.

I haven't got much to add- lovely town, you get used to its pronunciation after a while. Lots of tourists here so a bit more begging but delightful with it. Lots of music in the square and political activism- a perfectly good, thriving news stand yesterday was burnt to a cinder today with notices plastered all over it (after it had been extinguished). I am sure he deserved it- these people know what they're doing.

Fiona didn't mention that on the extra long journey on the way here we saw a local push his wife off a cliff- no idea why.

14/10/04- 15/10/04 Mérida, Mexico

We arrived back in Cancun for the third time utterly exhausted and determined not to stay another night in this rather unpleasant place so we headed straight off to the bus station and took the next bus to Mérida. We arrived quite late at night in the pouring rain and went straight to bed.

The next morning the weather had improved slightly so we took to wandering the streets and reaquainting ourselves with western ways, namely buying stuff we didn't need.

Mérida is quite pleasant, it boasts the oldest church in Latin America, but then quite a few towns that we have passed through on this trip have boasted that.

One thing it does have that I believe is an orginal is a "Blistering Jesus". Now I have seen a blinking Jesus but never one that blistered so I was quite intrigued and made Roger sit around the square in the rain (it had started again) until the Cathedral opened at 4pm. As I understand it some time ago a tree was hit by lightening and burnt all night. That's not that usual I hear you say, but in this instance the tree remained intact. In order to celebrate this amazing immortal tree the locals decided to cut it down and make a statue from it. Lovely. Not surprisingly they chose an image of Jesus and placed it inside a church. To show his pleasure at these activities the good Lord decided to burn down the church (I have no evidence by the way that he had a hand in the aforementioned arson), but low and behold the statue once again survived, albeit slightly charred. Unfortunately the church did not far so well and such the statue was again moved to another church, presumably because nobody wanted it in their home. Remarkable.



By the way I am very aware that Roger´s sarcasm is starting to have an effect on me.

I found the town of Mérida pleasant though unfortunately the weather was inclement- contemporary art gallery contained some fine pieces.

Fiona's getting terribly rude isn't she?

11/10/09- 14/10/04 La Havana, Cuba

After a rather bleary eyed day in Cancun and an even more bleary eyed goodbye to Libby and Andy...


...we caught a fisherprice plane to Cuba. I am not kidding I was expecting the airhostess to have yellow plastic hair. Still we landed safely in the land of all things red and we were quickly ensounced in our not so luxurious, expensive hotel.



After a brief walk along the Malecon we decided to get a bite to eat and having done so had to rush back to the hotel to vomit. The following morning we chose to fill up with breakfast from the hotel before heading out to explore. Havana is really very beautiful. It is full of all that we have come to expect from a colonial city plus all those old cars and happy, helpful people everywhere. This really is most civilised. We spent the next two days walking our feet off in order to take in all that this wonderous city has to offer and understand a bit of the recent history, unfortunately on that score the Revolution museum was not all that enlightening, but I understand that everything before was very, very bad and now everything is very, very, very good. I can certainly vouch for the ice cream.

Above- their former government building, Below- one of Havana's charming squares


On our final night we felt duty bound to experience the local tipple and ended up sort of Salsa dancing the night away at the Casa de Musica with a couple of German girls. I can promise you all though that despite the numerous mojito cocktails consumed we did not take part in the conga.

Had a good time La Havana- it is a lot like many colonial cities we have been to except for the funny old American cars they have there which are about 2 lanes wide. There is also no advertising at all anywhere and I don't think there was on the cable TV we had in the hotel either (seriously, we are slumming it while we are away)- had a look around the shops and there are shelves and shelves of the same detergent and no choice in that- actually, it took us ages to find any shops of worth which weren't just selling tourist tat and cigars.




There is a funny ice cream 'shop' called Coppelia in Havana which we were really confused with- people were hearded into different rooms to have ice cream and there was no menu- people just seemed to be handed a dish of ice cream. We got confused and ran away and found a Coppelia Comercial outside where we could buy the stuff the way we like (with money) though I am sure Fi and I did something wrong and it is just an ordinary shop- if anyone has ever been there please tell me what one is supposed to do. Here is a picture of it:



Lots of people who effectively beg by starting conversations with you and follow you around and tell you about things in Havana which are mostly lies- they then ask for money. Conversation usually runs as follows:

Begger: Hello my friend!
Roger: Hello
Begger: Where are you from?
Roger: England
Begger: England! A beautiful country.... David Beckham... Big Ben... etc

This can go on forever - one guy did it for about 45 minutes and we didn't give him US$3 for his kid- Uncle Fidel should provide.

Not a very good photo showing some of their funny old cars:

Lots of Russian cars there as well. They don't buy Russian underpants anymore, trade embargo or no trade embargo- v. old joke.

These buses were funny too:



They really like this Che fellow there- he's dead now of course- died in Bolivia. He fought with Castro to overthrow the other dictatorship.

04/10/04- 10/10/04 Tulum

Oh what a beauty.



We checked into the most basic of accommodation, no electricity or running water or bathroom door which was not pleasant and so immediately found a very plush hotel right on the beach and then proceeded to spend the rest of the week either in the sea, on a hammock or at the book exchange. Andy decided I read too much.

We did very little whilst we were here, but have been having a very lovely time. The beach is like a bounty advert beach so I have been practising my Bridget Bardo exit from the sea, so far not met any odd scottish men waiting for me with a license to kill.

We did decide, yet again, to blow the budget on a couple of dives into the cenotes which was absolutely brilliant. Although not technically a cave dive we got to explore under the jugle in both fresh and salt water, one of the cenotes (known affectionally as temple of doom because it is in the shape of a skull) was half fresh water (at the top) and then salt water which meant that the temperature changed as we went down and there was a weird effect where the two different types of water merged which looks a bit like the heat shimmer you get off the roads on a very hot day.






The cenote diving was excellent though I landed on my bottom after a 3m dive into the second dive site and it really did sting. Wonderful places and Tulum beach is gorgeous but I think we upset a few of our neighbours in the hotel as it was a bit fancy (because we didn't want to stay in a wooden shack like the smelly people but I think they were just smelly because there was no water) and a family resort and we were a bit noisy. Well, Libby and Fiona were.



Roger and Andy brushing up on their DIY skills
(you need to look back at the last entry to compare it to the Mayan attempt)



That took us hours- it was about a metre high and other holiday makers came along and congratulated us on it and took photos- we were like the Chapman brothers except we didn't scatter lots of little model dead Mayans on it.

03/10/04- 04/09/04 Valladolid

Stayed overnight here in order to go early to Chichén Itzá, both very nice. The main square in Valladolid is very pretty with the niftiest seating arrangement and the cathedral was also very pleasant, however I still can not get used to people taking pictures of those praying especially during mass.

We got up exceptionally early, mostly because the beds in the hotel were incrediably uncomfortable, and were the first people at Chichén Itzá which meant that we got to enjoy the ruins and hear the bees before the coach loads of tourists in their binkinis turned up. Roger, Andy and Libby managed to coax me up to the top of the very high temple for which I was grateful as the view from the top was superb.

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Getting back down was terrifying and a very slow process with Andy taking the mickey out of me the whole way. I think he has some video footage of it somewhere.

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I was particularly impressed with the cenotes (caves) both in Chichén Itzá and Valladolid. Here take the tour from the comfort of your own workstation (or get on with some work) http://www.mysteriousplaces.com/mayan/TourEntrance.html


We went to the scariest bar ever when we first turned up to Valladolid but we looked around for bullet holes and blood of which there was none, but it had just been painted.

29/09/04- 03/10/04 Isla Mujeres

Yesterday we explored the island in a golf buggy, blimey can they go fast we were overtaking everyone (who were walking, slowly) and we saw loads of turtles. Today we did a spot of snorkling and tomorrow it is more sunbathing. Life is soooo hard.

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He's a maniac behind the wheel
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And a maniac on the floor, dancing like I've never danced before etc.

The golf cart had a pathetic maximum speed and an infinite 0-60 time, even when it fell down hill it put its brakes on automatically. However, we didn't get overtaken by any other cart on the road (of which there are many) as we dragged ourselves round this beautiful island and refused to stop for speed bumps which meant that when we returned the vehicle at the end of the day it made a funny noise- probably defective.

Lots of fancy hotels here and we staying in none of them- over the water in Cancún we can see the biggest flag I have ever seen in my life flying over the hotel district- looking forward to seeing that as it looks to be the height of a 12 storey hotel building at least- this will satisfy me more than that cashew tree (see previous, wasting my life and all that)