Happy Monday - Flores, Guatemala to Antigua, Guatemala

Hola!

Since leaving Flores last week we headed south to the town of Coban. After five hours on a very hot shuttle bus we arrived in the mid afternoon heat and wandered around trying to find a recommended coffee tour, only to arrive to find that tours had ceased in 2013! We settled instead for a coffee and some tasty tostadas. During our two night stay we trekked it over on public transport to a beautiful place called Semuc Champney, a natural water park with a collection of cool blue-green pools....

One of such pools

Amazingly refreshing and relaxing- ace!

The journey there was a little peculiar a mixture of public transport and intermittent local trucks that run back and forth to the pools, but it was so worth it for the few hours we spent swimming walking and relaxing by the beautiful pools. 

Our next stop after yet another 6 hour bus ride was Antigua. A really cool beautiful town, a little bit like Flores but much bigger, and surrounded by imposing, misty volcanoes....we arrived here on Thursday and decided to spend a good few days here soaking up the culture and coffee! A few of the highlights have been amazing chili mochas at the Chocolate Museum....

Chilling out in Central Park...

And experiencing the colorful sights of this beautiful town...

We leave Antigua on Wednesday and will head on down to Honduras.

The weeks highlights:

Best food: Chocolate fondue and chilli mochas at the Chocolate museum, Antigua. Guatemalan breakfast at The Rainbow Cafe, Antigua (developing a real infatuation for refried beans!)

Yum!

Best View:  While at Semuc Champney we trekked 1.2 kilometers uphill  (pretty much vertical!) in midday heat to experience this awesome view over the natural pools....

Love Monday Funday: This morning we arose at 6.00am to travel to the nearby Pacaya volcano. We hiked up the 3 kilometers to experience amazing views and toast marshmallows over the  hot lava rocks...

Lesson Learnt: Where possible book shuttle buses for long journeys. Getting 7 local 'chicken buses' for a couple of quid less is just sometimes not worth the hassle! Holding on to the back of a pick-up truck over bumpy roads is fun for all of about 15mins... 

Number of hours on buses: 13

Number of hours on 'Chicken Buses': 4.5 (two of these hours were spent with us being packed in like sardines and me sitting on Rachel's lap)

Colin felt at home on top of the volcano...

Lots of love

Lisa and Rach xx

Happy Monday - Bacalar, Mexico to Flores, Guatemala

Good evening all!

We've been very busy over the past week. Last Monday we left our Laguna paradise and headed for Belize. We originally planned to skip Belize as we hadn't heard great things about it, but after discovering that we pretty much had to travel through it to reach Guatemala, we thought that we may as well stay a night or two, and we're so glad we did. Such a friendly country!! After an initial quite stressful trip over the Mexican-Belize border we arrived in Orange Walk, a rural town where we felt very out of place and a little intimidated, but everyone we met was so friendly and helpful that we actually really enjoyed our stay, while we were here we visited the Belizian ruin site Lamanai after boating down the river spotting toucans, spider monkeys but no alligators ...

Excuse the hat: It was so hot we had to buy them... Yes that's right we have matching shit hats!

After our two nights in Orange Walk we took a bus to Belize city before catching a water taxi over to Caye Caulker, a beautiful and very slow paced island. We chilled out here for three days sipping iced coffee and eating fresh doughnuts, snorkeling and finding a shadow in the form of a hilarious German chap who was staying in the same hostel as us....

Said amazing doughnuts - made in front of our very eyes and dusted with a massive amount of cinnamon sugar! 

Shark and ray alley- also swam with a loggerhead and green turtle

The last leg of our trip involved a VERY hot VERY delayed five hour journey from Belize city to Flores in Guatemala. But the journey was worth it. Flores is an extremely pretty and romantic little island......

Again very slow paced and a great base for surrounding activities. During our stay we took a day trip to Tikal, the ancient Maya site. Below is the view from an almighty 70 meter temple!

Tonight is our last night in Flores, tomorrow we head south to Coban.

The weeks highlights:

Best view: watching an Eagle Ray jump two meters out if the water while snorkeling off of Caye Caulker...sorry no picture, a 'you kinda had to be there' moment.

Best food: Soooo much good food this week...amazing fresh doughnuts on Caye Caulker, authentic home made tostadas on the streets of Flores and hearty local  chicken stew in Orange Walk, Belize to name a few!

Lesson learned: Easter week or Santa Semana is HUGE in Central America. The world literally stops! No booze or buses on Good Friday for us, I guess there are worse places to be stranded than an island in the Carribbean sea though....

Best question asked: While watching Rachel climb an extremely tall Mayan ruin, our tour guide asked me in a funky Caribbean/Belizian accent, 'So, are you guys friends or are you soul mates for life?'

Love Monday Funday: Our Monday treat this week was getting up at 4.00am to head to Tikal. Amazing ruins, amazing wildlife. Colin came too:

Number of borders crossed: 2

Number of hours on buses: 12 

Number of hours on boats: 5 

Have a super week everyone.

Big Love Lisa and Rach xx 

Love Monday - Cancun to Bacalar, Mexico

Happy Monday everyone!

We've been on our little trip for a whole week now and have loved every minute so far! We flew into cancun last Tuesday and have thus far made our way down the coast, first stop Playa del Carmen and ending the week in Bacalar.

On our first morning we walked into town picked up an amazing coffee and had our first taste of a Mexican beach, it was glorious! Pure white sand and the sun on our faces, and it was only 9.00am.....

Being British and very pale we both made a rooky error on our first day....too much excitement and not enough sun block!! We were forced to take shelter....in a bar with a beer! We visited this bar twice during our stay mainly because of the cheap very tasty beer but also because we had the most amazing tortillas and guacamole. Served both times by a very friendly local bar man, Martin.

First taste of Mexico, local beer and tortilla chips

After our stint in Playa del Carmen we headed south to Tulum, beautiful beaches and ancient ruins...

Ancient Maya site, Tulum. 

We ended our week in Bacalar a small town formed around the beautiful Laguna Bacalar.....

The weeks' highlights:

Best food: amazing home cooked food in Tulum. Chicken mole and meatballs with refried beans and rice. It felt a bit like being in someone's house but the flavours were awesome. Tacoquinta, Tulum town.

Best view: The view from our room over Laguna Bacalar:

Lesson Learnt: Say no to hippies who've made their own yogurt with cacao, almonds and cardamom! 

Love Monday Funday: we plan to do something interesting and exciting every Monday of our trip. Today we woke at dawn and kayaked across Laguna Bacalar to watch the sun rise......

Colin loves Mexico too...

Number of hours on a plane: 10

Number of hours on buses: 5

Much Love Lisa and Rachel 

Happy Monday! We are offf....almost!

Hi guys!

It's time! It's time! We are off on our RTW trip tomorrow and we'll be keeping this blog updated so keep an eye on it if you'd like to see where we've been and what we've seen. 

Our first stop is MEXICO and then we'll travel on down through Central America to catch our next flight from Panama to Peru.

But we're not alone! We'd like you all to meet Colin.......

.....our Dino mascot kindly donated to us by Rachel's godson, Morgan. Colin will feature in many a world wide landscape so keep your eyes peeled, you may even find him perched on top of Machu Picchu....

The next time you are us we'll be on the other side. Speak soon!

Much love

Lisa and Rachel x