Palenque, Mexico

Palenque ruins

Palenque is home of some very impressive and incredibly well preserved mayan ruins. All the towers and temples are climeable here (some sites don't allow the visitors to step foot on the ancient buildings, for obvious reasons i guess), which makes for some incredible viewpoints to see the mayan city below.

San Cristobal De La Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

San Cristobal's town hall. Where it all kicked off

San Cristobal De La Casas

San Cristobel is a small city located in the Mexican state of Chiapas. In 1994 a small guerilla band, called the Zapatistas, came to the World's attention when it took over San Cristobel along with other surrounding communities. They're goal was to politically unite the indigenous people of Chiapas, seperating them from the Mexican government and bringing in their own, unique voice to Mexico's political landscape. Led by pipe smoking Subcomandante Marcos, on the 1st January 1994 they read their proclamation of revolt to the World and then laid seige to a nearby military base, capturing weapons and releasing prisoners from Jails.

Charismatic leader of the Zapatistas Subcomandante Marcos

San Cristobal is a very touristy and friendly place to visit today and the perfect midway point to get from Guatemala to the Mayan ruins at Palenque. Whilst there, we visited Chamula a small indigenous town on the outskirts of San Christobal. There was a religous festival taking place and we were strictly told that taking photos of the church, the priests and the events would lead to imprisonment. Taking photos of local people without permission would lead to a punch in the face. The camera stayed in the bag for the majority of the duration of our visit, but even so, we managed to bang off a few photos while no-one was looking. He, he, he!!

The festival was absolutely brilliant actually and was an amazing insight into their local lives and customs. Fireworks were being let off constantly and whilst in the church we saw the locals offering drinks and chickens to their God. Outside, the local people were playing music and getting absolutely pissed on fire water (ponch), which they happily shared with us as long as we drank it down in one gulp. It's made from sugar cane and although strong tasted OK.

Afterwards our guide to us to a local home where we saw the family making dresses and fabrics and were treated to try their local food. An amazing day.

Mother and daughter making their fabrics

The Chiapas family cooking

Simple food but tasted wondeful

Chichicastenango, Quatemala

Chichicastenango

Chichi is best known for it's twice weekly markets on Thursdays and Sundays where local traders sell food, handicrafts, masks, flowers and... machetes!

We are continually told by our guide books and tour operators not to take photos of local people without asking them first but when we do ask, the answer is usually a curt 'no', (a tourist was apparently punched in the face a few years ago for not asking permission). With this in mind, I hand Lucy the camera and let her take all the photos for the day, albeit covertly. She is smaller than me and therefore doesn't stand out of the crowd too much. She takes some great photos of the local market life.

Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala

Lago de Atitlan
Lago de Atitlan is a large endorheic lake in the Guatemalan Highlands. The lake is shaped by deep escarpments which surround it and by three Volcanos on its southern flank which make it an extremely beautiful location. It is also further characterised by towns and villages of the Mayan people, predominantly Tz'utujil and Kaqchikel.

We started our lake tour in San Pedro de Laguna, noted as a lively but attractive town on the opposite side to Panachel, we stayed only for a day and decided against doing anymore volcano hikes after our last effort in Panama. The next destination was a small village called San Marcos which is very laid back and offers plenty of holistic treatments and massages and also the opportunity to see traditional Mayan life. During our time here we hired a kayak and decided to do some tomb-stoning. This was probably the stupidist thing I've done since coming away but seeing Rich jump in again and again I decided to follow suit...it ended up with me being severly winded and bruised! Never again!

Lucy contemplates the 30 foot drop.

Our little cabin in San Marcos


A traditional Guatemalan dish from Casa del Mundo

The next day I treated myself to a massage before we left to go to Panachel. On our way there we stopped at the most famous (but reasonably priced) hotel on the lake - Casa del Mundo - for lunch. They told us that the lake has risen 5 metres in the past year alone causing problems to all the houses close to the water.

Our final stop was Pananchel, a busy and touristy town. We stayed here for only a night so that we could catch a shuttle to our next destination.

Antigua - Guatemala

The Santa Catalina arch

Antigua

Our guide book describes Antigua as a city lacking of the 'genuine Guatemalan' feel but well worth a visit. On first arriving into the city it appears to be a very attractive old colonial town surrounded by three lush green volcanoes and with a pleasant main plaza. However it doesn't take long before you see gingos everywhere closely followed by beggars and merchants trying to sell their fabrics and jewellery. On every street there seems to be several travel agencies and restuarants geared up for the tourist infux. Of course there is nothing wrong with this but it isn't easy to find the genuine Mayan culture, especially in only a few days.

We spent a couple of days here but it was enough time to explore the lovely cobble stone streets and churches, some of them in ruins after various earthquakes.

Earthquake-wrecked ruins of a church

La Merced Church

Local horse taxi driver wearing great hat

Copan Ruinas - Honduras

Copan

This small town is situated on the western part of Honduras, 12km from the Guatamalan border and is famous for the archeological ruins of a Mayan city that was occupied for over two thousand years. The site features an impressive Acroplis, step pyramids, plazas, sculptures and a huge ballcourt with surrounding seat steps where an early Mayan football game was played, the losers of which were hideously executed.

Impressive two thousand year old statues

The Mayan ballcourt

Gurning old skull sculptures

Toothless old geezer statue

While at Copan, we visited a bird sanctuary which homed hundreds of rescued Macaws, parrots and toucans. We were disappointed at not seeing any exotic birds up close whilst doing the Amazon trek in Ecuador so we were pleased to be able to get alot nearer (sometimes too near for comfort) to these amazing birds in a real, dedicated sanctuary.

This cheeky little fella wanted Lucy's watch

Two beautiful (but very loud) blue and yellow macaws

A big hit with the birds

Nicaragua - Roatan, The Bay Islands

Roatan - Bay Islands, Honduras

The beach at West End (Half moon bay)

The bay islands are made up of several islands but there are three main islands which draw the most crowds. We opted to go to Roatan, although this isn't the cheapest island it is meant to have the best beaches and we wanted to get away from the backpacker scene on Utila. It didn't disappoint! We arrived early in the evening after a two hour ferry ride and a taxi journey but as it was dark we didn't get to see any of the scenery. The next day we were blown over, golden sands and crystal clear water greeted us in the early morning sunshine. We immediately hired snorkelling gear and headed out into the Half Moon bay.


The quiet main street through West End.

The following day we decided to walk 45 minutes along the beach to the most popular and beautiful beach on Roatan - West Bay. It is a stunning stretch of golden sand but full of tourists and all the paraphenalia that goes with it. We later found out that cruise ships choose this beach as a stopping point on their Caribbean tours. Despite this, we made the most of our time relaxing and snorkelling and at the end of the day we had the luxury of enjoying it after all the people had to go back on their cruise ships!

I wanted to stay for longer in the Bay Islands exploring this paradise but due to time constraints and also because I wanted to do some diving in Belize we had to leave after only three days. Oh well next time!


Stawberry daiquiri please.


The amazing sunset in West End


The beach at West Bay