Central America - Costa Rica to Cancun

Hola amigos,

Hope everyone is cheering loud the victory of the Canucks going on to round three! I know I was! We are currently in Playa del Carmen, after spending an incredibly beautiful week in Tulum. The beach of Tulum has been the most beautiful we have come across in all of Central America. The water is as blue at

Belize

but the beach is sandy and you can swim and snorkel from shore without all the seagrass.

We are getting ready to come home in a week today. I think I am ready. Im getting excited to see my dog most of all. I am definetley coming home with a new found appreciation for everything I have, from where I live, to the people in my life, my friends and family, to my music collection, to my material things. I miss my clothes! I even actually miss the overcast rainy days (don’t hate me for saying that).

The first day in Tulum we spent at the Weary Travellers. We got a private room for 350 pesos which was just a room, and it smelled terrible like those toilet cleaning pucks. It was overpriced and nothing special so we only spent one night. The next day we checked out but still took advantage of the free shuttle the hostel offered and went to the playa. It was so beautiful! Breathtaking! We snorkeled the day away, and had some cheap tacos, before heading back to our new hostel Casa del Sol which was ten bucks cheaper for a much more decent room.

The second day we rented bikes (which were terrifying) and rode to two nearby cenotes. For those of you who don’t know what a cenote is its basically a freshwater pond, fed by an underwater spring. Sometimes its in a cave, sometimes its only partially covered, sometimes it just looks like a lake. The entry was 50 pesos each and you got in to both cenotes. The first one looked like a pond and had a rope swing, so Greg was in his glory. The second one was much deeper and had a cave system in it, we could tell because we saw some diving gear roped up underwater. It is pretty cool to think there are people diving in the cenotes you are swimming in and I often thing of where they might lead to. A lot of them lead to the ocean and are mixed with saltwater called halocline. Apparently it is a mixture where the saltwater is below the freshwater and creates a defined line with separate reflections. It also creates a lot of light for the divers. Next time we come to Mexico we will definetley dive a cenote.

The third day was Gregs 23^rd birthday! I had a super secret surprised booked, a trip to a cenote park called Hidden Worlds. I actually kept the surprise up until the last minute when the shuttle pulled up and had huge photos and HIDDEN WORLDS CENOTE PARK written on the side. So close. When we arrived we rode in this ghetto jungle buggy to the first event which was the skycycle. You get in this recumberent bike and ride through the treetops and down into caves. Secondly we got to do two ziplines and a rappel. One of the ziplines was into a cave and you landed in the water, which was awesome. The third, was this unbelievable rollercoaster waterslide zipline, if you can imagine it. It was so scary, but I did it, twice, and felt so cool. Lastly, we got to swim wit ha guide through the cenote which was so awesome. There are no words to describe it. It was like something out of a movie. Stalactites everywhere. The water glowed a beautiful blue when we turned off the lights to experience total darkness. It was an epic day, and we finished it off with a fabulous steak dinner, and shots of tequila. Greg got the photos on his camera so keep posted for those when we get home.

Day four we took the collectivo to Akumal. We had heard the snorkeling at Yalku lagoon was some of the best. After a long walk from Akumal Bay, we paid the 12 dollars each and went in. It was a pretty sight to see, but the snorkeling was nothing special. But then, how do you beat the snorkeling in Belize, really? We spent most of the day there, since it was quite pricey to get in. I got to see some rainbow parrotfish which are my favorite, so I was pretty satisfied. Afterwards we headed for delicious chicken tacos with this incredible chipotle tamarindo salsa. We spent the sunset on Halfmoon Bay, watching turtles poke their heads out of the waves. I attempted to swim with them but they made themselves scarce once I got in, buggers. But we did get to see some squids, and the biggest needlefish ever. The snorkeling there was much better, and free.

The next day, we decided to go to another cenote. We did some research and decided to skip the touristy Gran cenote and opted for the lesser known cenote Calavera, which was a little closer to town, and five bucks cheaper per person. We made a really good decision as we had the place to ourselves besides a few divers that would come and go. The place was amazing, just a hole in the ground basically, with a shelf to jump off, which was about 8 feet. It was about 25 feet in diameter but once you got into the actual cave, it opened up to about 80 feet. Underneath the overhang there were adorable little bats flying around and little birds which had nested in some of the holes overhead. It was really beautiful. Calavera means “temple of doom” in español. It really felt like it since the water was making all sorts of gurgling noises around the edges, especially when the divers were down in there. It also had two smaller holes in the top and when you swam to the very back it looked like a skull. Those pictures are also to come on Gregs camera. We walked back into town and had delcious ice cream at our favorite place in town. That was also the night the Canucks advanced to round 3! What a day!

Yesterday we checked out of the Casa, and headed to these cheap cabañas on the beach. It was 350 pesos a night, and had nothing more than a bed, but what an incredible place! It was on the most beautiful beach in Tulum just left of the ruins. For the same price as our original smelly room in Tulum it was quite the steal. We spent the whole day snorkeling which is my new favorite thing. I dream of it at night. We saw a spotted moray, a French angelfish which are one of my favorite fish, and this gigantic trunkfish. I have really great eyes underwater, I love it. We spent the rest of the day lounging. We had some great fish fajitas for dinner, and took a taxi to the Zona Hotelera to see what all the hype was about. There was really nothing, and the beach wasn’t even nice. It makes me feel sorry for those poor souls spending all their money in these resorts that most of them don’t leave, when they don’t realize there are much better beaches and cheaper bungalows down the road. But I guess some people need more than a bungalow with no electricity and shared bathrooms. Not me! We walked the beach back and enjoye the sunset, a couple drinks, and a nice early bed time.

This morning we took the collectivo here, to Playa Del Carmen. My first impression was “Whats the big deal about this place” until we walked closer to the beach. The place is like Mexico meets Las Vegas. Everything is super expensive and glamorous. It is quite funny to be in the tourist zones and to see how much strange people are in comparison to all of the cultures we have seen throughout Central America. Greg and I bought two pairs of sunglasses for the price of one of our budgets for a whole day. It is so hard for me to pay the prices they are asking when I have been to Guatemala and Nicaragua. The room we got is probably the most skeptical room Ive stayed in this trip. I saw two huge dead cockroaches in our room and am a little terrified to sleep. But its only for one night. Tomorrow we will head to one of the Islas off of Cancun. We are going to spend the last week of our vacay spending as little as possible and swimming and snorkeling a lot to cut down on costs. We might splurge on another dive before we come home.

I have basically stopped drinking. Not for any particular reason so much as I just hate being drunk, and hate the way I feel the next day, especially mixed with the heat. I have found traveling at this age to be quite strange as I don’t really know where I fit in. It is mostly a young party crowd of people who are totally ignorant to the impact they are having on the environment or the culture. It feels really clicky, kind of like high school, and everyone puts up this facade of who they think they should be to impress everyone else. I feel so incredibly blessed for the fabulous handful of people I have met along the way which have changed me in some way. I miss them a lot everyday. I guess some people travel to meet people, and use it to kind of hide who they really are, because they have an opportunity to be someone different everyday. I think its kind of sad. I travel because exploration is in my heart. Its like a fire burning, to see whats out there, and seeing these places just fuels it more. I am grateful for the people I meet on the way, the people that are in my destiny, but I don’t feel any need to impress anyone. I am just happy to follow my heart.

I think I fit in better with the retirees. Or the hippies…oh the hippies. <3

Anyways, I will try and do another update before we fly home. I hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather and looking forward to May long weekend! Happy BC Day!

The computer keeps rejecting my photos from Playa del Carmen, so Ill try and post them later :)

Hi Everyone,

We left Belize early this morning. After taking busses across borders we decided to make our last border crossing special. We took a boat to Chetumal, Mexico, then a bus up North to Tulum. We have just arrived and are pretty exhausted.

Belize was INCREDIBLE. We took a bus from Flores, Guatemala to the border at 5am. We were real tired since the processions the night of Semana Santa had pipe bombs exploding all through the streets. We were supposed to meet our friends at the Water Taxi, but what I didn’t realize was that there were 3 different water taxis. I waited from 9:30am, all the way until 2:30 before I took a taxi to the airport to ask if they had actually arrived. Continental assured me that they had, and I figured they must be on the Island. Greg and I took the next water taxi over.

We were pretty amazed at how blue the water was. It was like something you only see in a movie. Even my camera couldn’t capture how incredible it truly was. We got off the taxi and asked someone for directions to the Reef House, the house that Brian had rented for us. When I walked up I was pretty unsure since the house was huge! I still didn’t know if this was the right place but I walked in anyways and woke up Brian and Ali who were passed out after such a long day and night of travelling. It was so exciting to see friends from home after months of travelling and meeting people you just get attached to then have to move on. We didn’t do much the first night, or a lot of the nights for that matter. We just enjoyed each others company which was all I really wanted. We rented bikes and rode around during the days. We watched a lot of hockey and drank a lot of beer, at Lloyds bar, my future husband. Ali and I cooked up an incredible coconut curry with garlic toast. We also made homemade sangria. We adopted a dog, which followed Ali home from the bar. She named him Wrinkles and he slept outside on our porch every night. We bathed him and bought him some food. We found out later that he follows tourists home quite often. He was really nice, it was sad we couldn’t bring him back to Canada.

But the highlight for me was the snorkeling tour we booked for the Friday we were on the island. We showed up at about 10 and got fitted for masks and flippers. We ordered fish burgers for lunch which was included in the tour. We were told we were going to three sites, one in the Hol Chan marine reserve, one called Shark and Ray Alley, and one called Coral Gardens, just off Caye Caulker. When we tied the boat up we jumped in, and immediately were surrounded by turtles. It was so incredible, the turtles were just chowing down on sea grass, every so often they would look at you but they didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered that we were there. We continued swimming and saw hundreds of fish, beautiful corals, hundreds of stingrays, Eagle rays, HUGE fish, a moray eel, basically everything we saw diving, plus some.

The next stop was the Shark and Ray Alley. We pulled up and the guides started throwing pieces of fish into the water to attract the ´sharks´. The sharks were nurse sharks that didn’t have any teeth, just big suction mouths. They were very cool and looked like giant catfish. We moved the boat a bit and jumped in again. The sharks were swimming a couple feet beneath us. The guide was even able to grab one and flip it upside down. We got to pet it like a dog and it was surprisingly warm and spongy. They were just SO COOL! We also got to play with rays, and had the chance to free dive through this small cave, but I was too chicken. We also saw barracudas, needlefish, more Eagle rays, so much life. More than we saw diving in Utila. And the corals were so colorful and beautiful. It was a nice change from the beaches of Belize which are all covered in sea grass. The snorkeling off the island is less than impressive so I was really happy about the tour.

The third stop was my favorite stop, the Coral Garden. What I didn’t realize was that it was a manatee breeding ground, and although the season hadn’t started yet, one eager male had shown up a Little early to get his pick of females. I never realized that manatees lived out in the middle of the ocean. I thought they were only in estuaries and rivers. But to my absolute surprise, the guide spotted one surfacing for air an called us over. When I got there I saw this huge walrus like lump on the seafloor. I was a Little concerned because he didn’t look like he was moving but the guide assured me he was just resting and would come up again soon. He was right, about 8 minutes of watching and he surfaced again for air. He was very graceful and cute and I just wanted to go play with him. We got some great photos of the snorkeling tour with Greg’s underwater camera which we will post when we get home.

We all left the tour exhausted from swimming all day and had a little siesta before watching the hockey game. I honestly can’t remember too much of what we did on Caye Caulker.

On Sunday, we left the house and went to Ambergris Caye, to the town of San Pedro. We stayed in a luxury hotel and felt so spoiled and pampered. We ate really good food, drove around in a golf cart, watched a lot of CNN given the current circumstances, and definitely took advantage of the pool. Ali and I had a little too much happy hour one day, but only one day. I also did a lot of napping and a little shopping.

This morning we said goodbye to our friends, and took the boat to Chetumal, Mexico and onto Tulum. Now we are here and excited to see the beach. Our hostel has free breakfast and beach shuttle so it should be convenient, and there are a few cenotes around to keep us occupied. We have about 2 weeks left before we fly home. I am getting really excited to see all my friends, and Greg is also. I am most excited to see my dog. Greg’s mom has agreed to pick us up in Chilliwack instead of us bus all the way to Kamloops so I will get to see him even sooner than I thought. Anyways, hope everyone enjoys the pictures. I will try and do a couple more posts before we leave. We are back to somewhat reasonable prices again, which is nice. Here is hoping the Canucks make it to round 3 of the play offs!! Go Canucks Go!!