Mexico findings

Almost 4 months to the day when we arrived in Mexico it was time to leave for pastures new, so thought it was a good time to pen our findings.

Food and drinks
The best flan we have found across the entire country (and all our travels for that matter) was at Caesars in Tijuana. It doesn't stop us trying to find another good one though.
We've tried most of the local dishes of the regions we visited, such as mole (many different rich sauces made from roasted peppers and other vegetables), Chile rellenos (stuffed poblano peppers), Chiles en nogada (stuffed poblano pepper fried then coated in a creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds),  Chilaquiles, pipian (sauce made from nuts and seeds such a pumpkin), lots of fish and cerviche and various cheeses to name just a few.
Real chocolate drinks, Jamaica (hibiscus drink), flavoured fruit waters such as melon and lime, horchata (made with ground almonds, rice milk, cinnamon and spices) and not forgetting margaritas and local beers to wash it all down with.

Favourite places
Central Mexico was our favourite, with cities such a Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Patzcuaro and Puebla City. Beautiful old buildings and architecture with central squares in front of the cathedrals. We saw jaw dropping scenery crossing the Sierra Madre mountains through drug growing country to Durango and some fantastic beaches along the Pacific coast. 

Ruins and cenotes
So far we've seen the archaeological sites of Tingambato (near Uruapan), Teotihuacan (Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon), Great Pyramid of Cholula, Monte Alban (Oaxaca), Edzna and Uxmal (on the way to Merida), Chichen Itza and we will visit many more as we journey south. Our favourite cenote was the first one we visited, Yokdzonot, but the others were still worth a visit for a nice cool swim on a hot day - Zaci at Valladolid, Ik Kill at Chichen Itza and Escondido at Tulum.

So, now we are in Central America and the next leg of our adventure.

Vesta curry

Is alive and well in Belize - just like mother used to boil in the bag. If it had chunks of swede and sultanas in it would have been like my childhood - but not in a good way.

Left Mexico this morning, spent the best part of an hour going through the hoops on both sides of the border - no queues, just third world bureaucracy.

The first thing that we've noticed about Belize is - ITS QUIET. No collectivos honking horns, unmuffled busses, street hawkers ringing bells with spanners, strolling xylophone players and every shop or passing idiot with a portable loudspeaker competing with all the other idiots to share his crap choice in music with the world around for a 3km radius....

Playa del Carmen

The city started as a small fishing town with ferries across to Cozumel, the world famous diving spot. It is in the Riviera Maya along the Caribbean Sea. Unfortunately, at the moment the nice beaches are covered in seaweed as it is drifting in on the currents from the Sargasso Sea. 

We caught up again with Yvonne and Tony and I got to spend some quality time with my mate. Mark went diving most days as he'd not done it for a while and this area is renowned for it.

We decided to stay on in the apartment for an extra week so we could go to a Spanish language school and build on what we had learned listening to the CDs. It wasn't the traditional classroom style either, which helped. We'd meet in coffee shops or a beach club, play games similar to a kids version of trivial pursuit - in Spanish where we'd need to understand the question first then formulate the answer in Spanish, in addition to learning new words and trying to understand past and present tenses. I have enough problems with the present tense!  Four hours a day was quite exhausting as there was just the pair of us with one teacher, so it was fairly full on. The saying about teaching old dogs new tricks definitely related to us but I think we, especially me, are more confident in constructing sentences now.

Tomorrow we head to Tulum for a few days, then further south before crossing the border next week into Belize, where they speak English and drive on the left :-) 

The light at the end of the tunnel has been switched on

We've booked to stay in Rio for carnival for 8 days in late Feb/early march 2019 as an end to our central and south America tour, flying back to Frankfurt so should be back in the UK in time for Brexit....oh joy.

Ruins and Cenotes

On our way to Merida we stopped at the Mayan archaeological site of Edzna.  Founded around 600 BC, the city was occupied until around 1500 AD and is estimated to cover 25 sq km. The city also had a complete system for capturing, storing and distributing rain water.

One of the local residents came out to say hello

Next, on to Uxmal. The area was settled in around 500 BC but it wasn't until around the 9th and 12th centuries AD that it became the seat of Mayan political and economic power in that region

Then on to Merida to surprise Yvonne and Tony a week early. We'll catch up with them again in Playa del Carmen

Merida has large Mayan and Spanish influences and has the highest percentage of indigenous people of any large city in Mexico with approximately 60% of the population being of Maya ethnicity. The city has a number of old colonial buildings and some nice monuments. It was nice city to visit, however, we have seen many other cities in Mexico that we prefer to Merida

On the road again, this time heading to Valladolid. On the way we visited Yokdzonot cenote, a natural swimming hole. We were the only ones there (and a few hundred birds nesting in the caves) and it was magical.

In Valladolid we were just around the corner from their most famous attraction, Zaci cenote, so we had to go and visit. We had our feet nibbled by the fish in the pool, or as I called it, a Pescado pedicure. You normally have to pay for that in a beauty salon.

We visited Chichen Itza which was amazing. Many of the ruins have been well preserved

Even though we arrived before 9am, it was still really hot so afterwards we visited cenote Ik Kill to cool off. This one had lots of hanging roots and a couple of small waterfalls to stand under

Tomorrow we head to Playa del Carmen and meet up with Yvonne and Tony again.

Pacific Coast to Gulf Coast plus some ruins inbetween

From Acapulco we drove along the coast to Zipolite on the recommendation of someone we met in Puebla. Apparently it has the best beaches in Oaxaca, (including this 'clothing optional' one) so we had to go and this is what we found

We had a very nice afternoon chilling out in a bar on the beach, and no, we didn't bare all (nobody wants to see that.)

The following day we said goodbye to the Pacific once more and headed inland over the mountains to Oaxaca. The city is on the foothills of the Sierra Madre and has a number of  colonial-era buildings as well as the native Zapotec and Mixtec cultures.  There are lots of churches, a basilica, cathedral and very ornate Templo de Santo Domingo (below)

The Basilica 

 In the hills outside Oaxaca is the archaeological site of Monte Alban. As well as it being one of the earliest cities of Mesoamerica, it was also the political and economic centre for the Zapotec people for close to a thousand years. It was founded around 500 BC and at its height had a population of around 17,200.

From Oaxaca we had a very long drive through the Sierra Madre mountains to Veracruz, a major port   on the Gulf of Mexico. The city isn't really a tourist destination although they are promoting themselves with a number of new attractions and the renovation of historic ones such as Naval Academy.

From Veracruz we headed across to Cuidad Del Carmen visiting Salto Eyipantla waterfall along the way, which was really impressive

Cuidad del Carmen was a small fishing port until the 1970s when oil was discovered in the area. We could see the offshore rigs from the shore. The city is on Carmen Island which is in the Laguna de Terminos. Up to the early 1980s you could only get here by ferry boats or small motorboats. The causeway bridge (or Puente El Zacatal) to the mainland was constructed in the 1980s with a second built in 1994 and is almost 4kms long.

From Cuidad del Carmen we headed to Merida via the archaeological sites at Edzna and Uxmal (see next blog). Under normal circumstances we would have travelled a little slower but we wanted to get to Merida to surprise our friends Yvonne and Tony a week early  :-)