July

So, my goal for July is to get through Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama in around 3 weeks, leaving the last week of the month to take a 5 day sail boat trip through the San Blas Islands from Panama to Cartegena, Colombia.

This would mean that I get to Colombia for the start of August, starting what feels like stage 2 of my trip, South America.

This is pretty quick to be venturing through these countries, especially Nicaragua, but looking at the vast scale of South America and taking into account the many good things i've heard about the countries down there verses Costa Rica & Panama (which are very Americanised), I think it's the best decision right now.

As I write this, i'm on schedule and on the road almost daily with a couple of Aussies and a fellow Brit who are on the same timeline and course.

Map Update

Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, USA, Costa Rica and Nicaragua in one month. It's time for a map update.

Las Vegas

I've always wanted to go to Vegas, so a friends Wedding combined with a wider group of friends from the UK was the perfect excuse. Further to this, it felt like good timing to catch up with some Londoners after 4 months on the road filled with multi lingual conversations and brief, transient relationships with fellow backpackers and locals.

We spent the first night in the Belaggio, then moved over the to Wynn Encore, which is a new Hotel on the strip (thanks Tom), and a pretty amazing place to say the least.

The home of excess and zero taste truly lived up to it's reputation. It truly is a disgusting place, full of disgusting trashy people, staying in mostly trashy Hotels (luckily ours wasn't), eating shit food and throwing their money down the drain.

However, having said that, we approached the week by mentally bypassing this and it was a blast. It flew by, mainly in a drunken haze whilst leaning over a roulette wheel or hanging out by the pool. The Wedding day was great fun, held at the Graceland Chapel and hosted by 'Elvis' it was the perfect Vegas Wedding.

It was great to catch up with the guys who were there, and I only left about $20 down out of my gambling budget. Some lucky gamblers in our group left a few hundred bucks up, no such luck for me unfortunately. Where I am now a few hundred US$'s would go a looooooong way.

Can't say i'll be rushing back, but i'm glad i've been. Box ticked in style!

A Day In Mexico City

En route to Vegas I spent a day in Mexico City between flights. Landing early in the vast metropolis that is Mexico City, I headed to the central square (Zocalo) to get my bearings.

It was the morning of the Mexico v Uraguay World Cup match and Fifa had taken advantage of one of the Worlds Largest City Centre Squares and set up a multi giant screen outdoor arena to watch all the games. This was a big game so the Zocalo was packed. With an atmosphere and crowd like a huge carnival I had a great time here getting into the game.

Following this match they screened the iconic England v Argentina (hand of god) match, which was great to watch in such an awesome setting, surrounded by Argentinian fans waiting for their match at 1.30pm.

After a little stroll, I then got back on the Metro that evening and headed to the Airport to catch my plane to Vegas.

Tikal

Yaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnn... more Mayan Ruins... but these were different. They are deep in the Jungle. They are huge, well preserved and surrounded by amazing wildlife. Welcome to Tikal, the best Mayan ruins i`ve been to by far.

Straight out of an Indiana Jones movie (although a scene in Star Wars was shot here), this site is north of Flores and is well known to be one of the best. Along with a bunch of other backpackers, we hopped in a minibus at 4.30am and hit the road. We arrived around 6am just after sunrise in the hot, sweaty jungle where we were met by our guide Cesar - a Brooklyn born Guatemalan.

Tikal was one of the most powerful Cities of the ancient Maya and was at it`s peak between 200 & 900 AD. The site has a selection of well preserved/restored pyramids, some of which we were able to climb. Once at the top, you are above tree-level and the views were spectacular, across to the other Temples and Pyramids and far out across the Jungle. The air was filled with noises from the Jungle, the most eerie being that of the Howler Monkeys, who scream at each other across the treetops.

I`ll spare you the detail, but if you`re interested, find out more about Tikal here.

Back in Guatemala...

From the beautiful Belice Cayes I hopped on a rickety old bus with no AC and headed back to Guatemala. The mission, to check out the northern lowlands. So I crossed the border and made a bee-line for Flores. A beautiful little town on a small island on lake Peten Itza. The plan, along with my fellow backpacker friend "Shane the Aussie", was to find a nice Hostel and set up camp for a week and do some more Spanish Study. And long story short, that`s what we did.

It was the perfect spot to relax and focus on learning a bit more of the lingo. All in all a great week. Days were filled with study, laying in hammocks sweating in the boiling heat, swimming in the strangely warm lake, watching documentaries, chatting to locals about stuff and chatting to fellow travellers about their adventures. As always when studying, the week flew by, so now i`m en-route back up to Mexico to catch a plane to Vegas for Will & Lyd`s Wedding next week - via a selection of beautiful beaches and towns to enjoy the World Cup in.

Snorkeling Heaven

I went Snorkeling again yesterday on a beautiful Sailboat with a bunch of fellow backpackers. We spent the day at three different sites and it was without question the best Snorkeling i've ever done. I forgot my camera, which was a really good move, so i'll use the power of the interweb to describe what we saw.

We swam with Manatee's (pictured above), which was the most amazing underwater experience i've had, we were lucky to come across them apparently. It was amazing to swim alongside these huge, placid animals, they just hung out with us in the deep blue water, really amazing. Next up we swam with huge Turtles, Sharks, Sting Rays, Manta Rays, Moray Eels and tons of tropical fish. A really amazing trip, i'm excited about diving the Bay Islands in Honduras now, that's meant to be even better somehow...

Caye Caulker, Belice.

Right now i'm on Caye Caulker, an Island off the coast of Belice. Formerly British Honduras this little Central American countries first language is English, which feels quite strange after so long in Spanish speaking surroundings.

The cultural change from Guatemala & Mexico to here is huge, This is the Caribbean proper, with the majority of Islanders being black rather than latino. The people here are amazing, super chilled and super nice. The most refreshing aspect is that when you talk a local person, they're not trying to sell you shit.

Yesterday I went spearfishing on the reef, a short boat ride off the island coast took us to stunning water bursting with wildlife on the worlds second largest reef after the GBR in Australia. Another great day in the tropics which ended in a barbecue of our catch. Tough times...

Map Update

Exciting news, i've updated My Google Map.

A Little More Mexico...

From the bustling towns of Campeche and Merida I headed to Isla Holbox, a tiny, stunning and surprisingly underdeveloped island off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. Here I found a great little place to stay in some basic beach Cabanas, where I stopped for a few days. My time was filled pretty much with sitting in hammocks reading and laying on the beach. I also did a little fishing, where we were joined on the way back to shore at sunset by 7 or 8 Dolphins, which was pretty special.

After Holbox, I headed over to Isla Mujeres, a similar size to Holbox but dramatically more developed to service the day trade of fat, lazy tourists visiting from Cancun. A great spot for Beach Volleyball, swimmimg and people watching.

Then I headed South to Tulum, the home of a fantastic beach and some famous Mayan Ruins on the coast above the beach. A nice little spot to hang out for a day or two, but as with most places in this region it's a little expensive and geared up for vacationers rather than backpackers.

All in all it's been a great couple of weeks here, good to be on the move, great to be on the beach, but at the same time i'm looking forward to getting South into the less developed countries like Honduras & Nicaragua.