Giving birth to turtles...

The sea turtle and a bucket of eggs

Cancun, part two
We're back in Cancun for a few days before we catch our flight to Cuba. On the first evening back, we were amazed to find that despite Cancun's hideous over development, giant sea turtles still come onto the beach after dark, to lay their eggs. We saw these incredible creatures scramble up the beach and continue to dig a 3 foot deep hole and then lay 30 or 40 little baby turtle eggs. It was such an amazing sight and we couldn't help thinking we were taking part in a David Attenborough documentary for the BBC.

It was all splendidly supervised by a conservation employee who's job it was to scoop out the eggs into a bucket of sand and issue commands of 'NO FLASH' to onlooking, camera laden tourists. Some arse-witted brit thought he'd be OK and carried on filming by saying "Lights not on turtle, it's on eggs." Idiot.

Later that evening the eggs were planted in a specially created protected area on the beach where two months later the little eggs will hatch and tiny turtles will scuttle down along the white sandy beach and into the sea. Bless. Lucy and Barbara went back the next day to see how they were getting on.

Looking knackered after laying 40 bloody eggs.

Sleep well little baby turtles.

Chichen Itza - Yucatan, Mexico

Chichen Itza

Our trip around the Yacatan wouldn't be complete if we didn't go to Mexico's most famous Mayan ruins. As we had heard that it is also extremely busy we decided to stay in a hotel nearby and get to the ruins early the following day before all the hordes of people arrive on the tour buses from Cancun. It was the best thing to do and we even got to see some of the light and sound display in the night (well before it started to rain torrentially).

The atmospheric night show at Tikal.

Minutes later, the torrential downpour ruined everything.

Chichen Itza is a great example of the Mayan civilisation, the buildings were architecturally impressive, especially the huge temple in the middle of the great Plaza as well as the buildings that had up to 1000 columns. Going early in the morning allowed us to wander round the site without the huge groups of people so we could enjoy the ruins and take pictures.

Many stone pillars, no longer supporting anything.

Mayan stone sculptures.

Cancun - Mexico

Isla Mujeras from our hotel window

Cancun - Mexico

As we were meeting our friend Barbara in Cancun we got on a bus directly there from Tulum and booked ourselves into a cheap hotel near the beaches in Zona Hotelera. I had heard from several people that Cancun had too many tourists and was over commercialised. I didn't find it as bad as other people had made out, after an afternoon of drinking Corona and catching up with Barbara we headed into the centre for some traditional Yucatan food and a couple of bottles of wine.

Lucy, getting up to mischief on the boat to Isla Mujeres.

The following day we decided to get a ferry to Isla Mujeras, a small island 30 minutes away from Cancun. Historially is was meant to be where buccaneers or pirates kept there women (hence the name "Women Island" or Isla Mujeres). It is a beautiful island, crystal clear water and white sands but we had come here for the whale sharks which migrate here at this time of year to feed on plankton. We booked ourselves a whale shark tour for the following day and enjoyed the busy town.

It was an early start which proved to not go as smoothly as we hoped. Our captain left us sat waiting for 30 minutes whilst someone was ""checking" his boat. There was something clearly wrong with it! He finally managed to get it started and we were on our way into the open ocean... it wasn't very calm and our friend started to go very pale as she became more and more sea sick. When we finally arrived at the correct point we were informed that there were about 100 whale sharks there. They were huge, easily 20 to 25 feet long but they are completely harmless and vegetarians.

Some whale sharks were bigger than our boat

Lucy and Barbara look on as the sharks pass by.

Barbara had never been snorkelling before so that added to the sea sickness and being nervous about being in the ocean she found it quite a struggle but she managed it. We got about 2 hours in total swimming with these gentle giants before the sea sickness was effecting others and Barbara announced that she felt so bad that she wanted to die. We set off back to Mujeres as quite as the boat could go. Before he took us back we stopped near the north beach for some more snorkelling in a reef nearby. The captain also made shrimp cerviche and brought cold beers, it was a great way to finish the tour.

Lucy and Barbara in the water.

Under water with the sharks.

Our underwater camera was a bit rubbish, but captured the moment.

Me on the boat.

The next day we decided not to do anything quite as extreme as yesterday so we booked Barbara to do a 'Sealife adventure tour' and the nearbly dolphin park. Barbara got to meet Manatees, Sea lions and dolhins up close and could touch and feed them. It was a great experience for her especially getting to swim with dolphins. The rest of our time on the island was spent relaxing on the beach and drinking cocktails and tequilla shots in the bars!

The manatees dining on letuce

A pelican overlooks the feeding of the seals.

Tequila. Going, going...

...and gone.

Tulum - Mexico

Tulum - Mexico

From Caye Caulker, we took a boat to the mexican border town of Chetumal. The weather was awful this morning with a tropical storm making the crossing very bumpy and splashy. Once off the boat we head straight to Tulum, home of some particulary nice seaside mayan ruins.

We check into a fine hostel, The Weary Traveller, who offer bookable tours to surrounding Cenotes (freshwater sink holes) and 2 dollar, 16oz cocktails that are wonderfully strong. We book a cenote tour for the next day and quoff large amounts of cocktails every day.

Ready to meet Mr Turtle

They were as happy to see us as we were of them.

Still pestering the turtles.

Underwater and handsome.

Next day, the cenote tour started with a quick dip in the caribbean ocean to wet our snokels and witness amazing sea turtles who seemed blissfully unbothered about our presence there. Then we were on our way to the cenotes. The sinkholes around Tulum share a underwater cave system of some 270kms making them a perfect location for divers and snorkellers alike. It was pretty popular when we arrived but didn't ruin the experience at all.

The water was cold and a bit of a shock after the bath water warm temperature of the caribbean sea previously, but we soon adjusted to it. Armed with an underwater flashlight and camera, we were guided through caves with overhanging stalactites and fresh water fish. A somewhat chilly but worthwhile experience and would love to have the opportunity to dive something like that in future.

I think that I should have the snorkel in my mouth.

Inside the cenote underwater caves

Another cenote cave

The tour ended at 2pm and we set out to visit the nearby mayan ruins which are situated on the beachfront overlooking the breathtaking, turquoise caribbean sea. The site itself was pretty small and except for the view of the ocean nearby, not especially memorable as mayan ruins go, but still worth the effort. We walked back along the beautiful white sand beaches and then hopped into a cab back to Tulum town.

Tulum ruins' amazing location made it worth the trip.

Caye Caulker - Belize

Caye Caulker - Belize

There are roughly 1000 islands off the coast of Belize, we were interested in only one, Caye Caulker. It remains a back packer favourite due to it's cheaper accommodation whilst still retaining it's Caribbean culture. We were going there specifically to snorkel and to dive the famous "blue hole".

Shortly after we arrived we were settled into a nice beach resort hostel and we set off to explore the tiny island and organise our excursions for the following day. Once we had booked everything up we went straight to the beach and relaxed in the warm clear waters of the Caribbean sea.

White sand beaches and colourful huts.

Dining on Caribbean swine. The first nights dinner.

The following day I set off to do some dives whilst Rich went to do some snorkelling. I had three dives organised, firstly the "Blue Hole" (a sink hole in the middle of a reef about 400 feet deep and 1000 feet wide). It is a popular dive as you get to see various species of sharks and swim through and under stalactites. I had imagined sharks and fish everywhere but it didn't quite live up to my expectation although we still got to see about 12 Belize reef sharks which was amazing. The dive in itself was quite technical as it required a quick descent to a depth of about 60 metres. After this we got two more dives in the reefs around half moon bay and lighthouse reef. The waters were clear and warm and the fish were plentiful.

The beautiful Blue Hole.

Would you step off the boat into this lot?

The amazing Manatees

Mmmm, lovely mango daiquiri.

Rich was also having fun on his day of snorkelling, he got to snorkel with shy manetees, sharks and rays. As well as snorkelling in a reef. However I think the highlight of his day was the rum punch which was handed out in copious amounts on the way back!

On the way to shark alley.

Our lovely wooden gaff.

Flores & Tikal - Guatemala

Flores

We left Mexico by taking a boat upstream for 30 minutes and we were soon in Guatemala. We were hoping to have a shuttle bus waiting for us but we were soon informed that we would be catching a chicken bus for the journey to Flores.

It was a hot and dusty 5 hours in the rickety old bus which appeared to stop every 100 metres, much to our frustration.

When we finally arrived in the small town Flores we were feeling tired and dirty and ready for a couple of drinks. The evening didn't turn out to be as relaxing as we were hoping. We ended up having a disagreement which resulted in Rich storming off leaving me to pay. I then managed to leave our wallet (with all our credit cards) by the computer in the hostel...we were not aware of this until the following morning.

The following day resulted in us running around trying desperately to find it. It was long gone. Thankfully some nice backpackers lent us a bit of money and from there we were able to get our lovely relatives to help transfer some money and send out our credit cards. It would mean surviving on bread and bananas for a few days until the banks opened and also staying in the small town Flores for a week while a new credit cards arrived.

Despite this we made the most of our time there. Flores is a small town built on an artifical island in the middle of a lake. It is a very attractive and colourful town and serves as the stopping of place for the Mayan ruins Tikal.

Chilling at a colourful, local restaurant

The credit cards arrive!

Tikal

The Mayans were reputed to have settled in this site around 700BC. It is set on a low hill, surrounded by thick jungle. The site is said to have more than 4000 structures and at it's most succesful supported a population of around 100,000 people. The most interesting buildings are set around the central Plaza, the pyramid structures tower over the canopy of trees. We spent half of a day wandering around the site admiring the architecture in awe of the amount of hours it took to build.

Rich was especially interested in taking a photo from the top of Temple 4 as the view from here was featured in Star Wars - Episode 4. For all you geeks out there this is the rebel base.

The scene from Star Wars (cough...'Nerd!')

The same scene overlooking Tikal. Minus nice weather.

The main plaza at Tikal

Bonampak & Yaxchilan, Mexico

The view from the top

Bonampak

From Palenque and on our way back into Guatemala we paid for a tour to see two other Mayan sites, the first being Bonampak. Bonampak a pretty small site really and you only need 30 minutes there, but what marks this as a worthy visit is it's murals which are set in three rooms half way up the main acropolis. They depict various forms of torture and sacrifices all in a brightly coloured narrative. The view from the top of the acropolis is pretty cool too looking out over the canopy of the nearby jungle. In the early morning while we were there, the atmosphere was amazing, with distant exotic bird calls and monkeys echoing from mile around.

Lucy at the steps of the main acropolis at Bonampak

The murals at Bonampak.

Yaxchilan

Next up is the mayan city of Yaxchilan, which is only reachable by a 30 minute boat ride along the Rio Usumacinta. The ruins are nestled deep within the jungle and as sunlight pours through the thick foliage and the howler monkeys holler loudly from the tree tops, we realise that this is an utterly unforgetable experience.

Temple at the top of the acopolis

Another temple. This one had bats inside.

Stone tablet with engravings

On the boat ride back