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Back to the real world…0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on February 23rd, 2007

After a 38 hour trip which included five separate flights and took us across four borders, we finally made it back to Edinburgh. Its good to be back, even if it is nearly 25 degrees colder here than what we had become used to. The very end of our trip saw us exploring the tiny Cuban town of Trinidad, which is very pretty, and has a great collection of pubs and cafes that host live music. However, even when it is played by great musicians, 12 days of constant salsa music is a but much…

We are now back in Edinburgh for approximately one week. This time will be spent drinking beer, trying to see everyone, finding all of our stuff and sorting through it to see what we need to take with us, biking and drinking. Then we head off to Ireland where Kate has a job (a real one!). And I need to start looking for one.

The question that people most frequently asked us when we told them that we were travelling around the Americas for 8 months was: “How do you manage to afford it?” But looking at the price of accomodation and the general cost of living in the UK, the real question is: “How can you afford NOT to?” The rent for a single room in Edinburgh will easily cover all the living costs (including eating out) for two in South America.

Once more with feeling0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on February 16th, 2007

Munch munch munch - the last post we tried to upload got eaten. So here we go again.

Updating from Neils post on our behalf we have now left the tabacco growing regions and are in sugar cane country.  The weather seems to realise we are heading home soon and is trying to get us back into the swing of a European spring (its raining …..a lot).

We started our Cuban trip in Habana and managed to avoid the government sponsored hotels and resorts by arranging to stay with a Cuban family in their home. On the surface, everything seems to be trundling along fine rather like all of the 1950s cars that you see all over the place. And there you have the first sign that you´re not just anywhere, but in Cuba. The city of Habana itself is huge, dirty and falling apart (some of the buildings look like they are held up purely by willpower and just under half of the residents of the old town are living in buildings deemed unfit for human habitation) but underneath it all you can still imagine how grand and beautiful it would have been in the 1930s. A few days here was enough, so we headed to the little town of Vinales a few hours to the west. As Neil mentioned, it is prime tobacco growing country. The valley has field after field of bright green tobacco plants growing in the red soil, and every so often you see a large thatched barn-like structure which is used for storing the leaves while they dry out. After that they are sorted and sent to the rolling factories in Habana. We took a few days wandering (and riding) through the valley before moving on to the south coast and the beach. And thats when the weather decided to remind us of home. So here we are in Trinidad, sitting inside avoiding the rain!

Theres only one thing to be done: add to the Grand Cuban Mojito Count. We have reached 60 so far, leaving 4 days and 40 to go…

Cuba Libre?0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on February 14th, 2007

Dave and Kate are in Cuba and getting on fine. They’ve been hiking and sightseeing and are currently in the tobacco producing region. They’re hauling ass back to Edinburgh for the 21st. The reason I’m writing this is because the site ate their post for some reason and they ran out of internet credit.
Neil

Kate and Dave’s pictures0
neil posted in Photos, Travel, Kate & Dave on February 8th, 2007

Kate and Dave have been uploading pictures to their gallery here. Their earlier stories are being updated as they come in so check back.

Ruta Puuc and beetle country0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on February 7th, 2007

Somewhat north of Campeche, across the state line into Yucatan, but before you reach Merida, you pass through the Puuc hills. These are the only hills in the otherwise pancake-flat northern part of the Yucatan peninsula, and here you will find some of the most interesting Maya sites around. The only problem is that there is no way to reach them using public transport, and if you take a tour, you have to rush to fit it all in one day. The solution: rent a car. So we went back to our friend Mohan, who rented us that lovely dark blue VW beetle the first time we were in Merida, and persuaded him to let us use the car again. And off we went.

We managed to visit the sites of Kabah, Sayil, Xlapak and Labna all in one day and still have time to wander round the nearby massive set of caves called Grutas de Loltun before dark. Uxmal we visited the next day. Each of these ruins were fairly small - certainly they were nowhere near the size of sites such as Chichen Itza or Tikal, but I think I enjoyed them more than the larger sites. What they lack in sheer scale they make up for in the incredably intricate carvings that still cover most of the buildings. And best of all, hardly anyone visits them, so we often had the whole place to ourselves! The Puuc hills have no year-round reliable sources of water. No rivers, no lakes. So the Maya living in the region had to rely entirely on rainfall to provide them with the water they needed. To overcome this problem, each household dug an underground reservoir to collect water during the rainy season, which would have to last them through the dry months. Not surprisingly, the rain god Chaac was of supreme importance and his image covers almost every available surface. (Im sure Chaac was the inspiration for Gonzo from the Muppets - he has exactly the same nose.)

Editors note: Kate and Dave have been uploading pictures to here. Their earlier stories are getting updated as the pictures come in, they’re not quite caught up yet.

Chiapas and Campeche0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on February 7th, 2007

After leaving Guatemala, we headed across the border to the highland town of San Cristobal de las Casas, in the Mexican State of Chiapas. Like Guatemala, Chiapas has a very large proportion of ethnically Maya people, and particularly in the smaller highland towns, Spanish is often spoken only as a second language (if at all) - and here as in Guatemala, indigenous people have always been treated as second class citizens. San Cristobal was the centre of the 1994 Zapatista uprising, which sought to address this problem and improve the living standards of Mexicos indigenous peple. The Zapatistas took control of the town (and several others nearby), but were driven out by the Mexican Army after a few days. Still, on the bus trip in and out of town, we passed though several villages which declared themselves “autonomous rebel territories” and there were quite a few army checkpoints on the roads. Interesting times…

Just about 12 km outside of San Cristobal, lies the village of San Juan Chamula, which is home to the Tzotzil people, one of the most fiercely independant groups in the area. The most striking feature of the town is the large church, which combines the Catholic faith with older religious practices. Being inside the church is a wierd experience: it is filled flickering candles set up in rows on the floor, and with groups of people worshiping by kneeling on the pine needle carpeted flor, chanting in Tzotzil and making offerings of liquor and soda. (Coca Cola appeared to be the favourite of the gods, closely followed by Fanta.) Catholic imagery is simply layered on top of traditional Maya imagery. An example is the image of the crucifixion, which ties in very nicely with the Maya concept of ritual sacrifice. The blood of Christ was spilled literally to make the sun come up tomorrow, just as the blood of a captured “Holy Lord” (as the ruler of a city was called) had always been used. You definately get the impression that this was not quite what the Spanish missionaries had in mind when they first started converting the Maya.

Time to move on - time to leave the cool, dry pleasant climate of the highlands and return to the sticky lowland jungle and on the the Maya site of Palenque. After a brief stop there we moved on again to the colonial town of Campeche, which was raided so frequently by pirates in the 18th century, that an enormous wall was built right round the city, complete with eight bastions and two large fortresses bristling with canons. Most of the fortifications are still standing and we spent a couple of days just climbing all over them imagining that we could see pirate ships on the horizon.
But where has all the rum gone? Yo ho ho…

Through Guatemala0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on January 30th, 2007

Crossing the western border from Belize to Guatemala, the differences between the wealth of the two countries could not be more clear. The road to the border on the Belize side was a well maintained highway, with a large passport office at the end of it. As soon as we passed through this office and entered to Guatemalan border checks, everything changed. The passport office was a tin shack and the road disappeared entirely, being replaced by a crumbling track covered in a layer of slippery mud a few inches thick - the result of recent rains. The “road” continued like this for at least 25km, making for an interesting bus trip, as the driver fought to keep the bus going in a straight line. The biggest challenge was a large hill about half way along the road, which had a line of trucks stuck at the bottom of it. They didnt have enough traction to make it up the hill through the mud. Dont worry, we didnt hit anything, but other vehicles did collide…

We took this bus to a small village called El Remate, in between Tikal and Flores (where most people visiting Tikal stay), because we wanted to be able to get to Tikal early to avoid the crowds. (We decided this was important after having to wait over an hour to get our entrance tickets to Chichen Itza.) So at 5.30 the next morning we were already on the shuttle bus to Tikal. It worked - we only had to share the main plaza with 4 or 5 other tourists. The site itself was absolutely stunning, and on a massive scale, with 6 enormous pyramids, several smaller pyramids and hundreds of smaller buildings and palaces forming maze-like clusters around the main squares of the city. Exploring it took nearly 4 hours. The whole complex is deep in the jungle, and some areas have been only partially cleared, or even left covered by plants and trees, and birds and howler monkeys provide the background music. A particularly impressive sight is the view from the top of the larger temples - you can see the tops of the other large buildings poking up through the jungle canopy. In the morning, there was still mist clinging to the trees and around the tops of the temples, making the place seem even more mysterious.

After 4 hours of trekking through the jungle and exploring the city, we had had enough of ruins, so we decided to head back to Flores. It is a small city built on an island in Lake Peten Itza, and linked to the shore by a causeway, so the plan was to spend a night there before heading on to the highlands of Guatemala. (It was also the site of the last Mayan city to hold out against the Spanish and maintain independance.) But here was where the problems started: we had only changed enough money on the border to see us through one night and it was impossible to withdraw money from any of the ATMs in the city (I tried at least eight) and it being a sunday, the banks were all closed. The reason for this apparently was that the central bank had decided that the old notes had to be replaced, so they recalled and destroyed large quantities of old notes. But they didnt bother to wait for the new ones to be ready. Simultaneously, two commercial banks went bankrupt. The result was a severe shortange of physical cash. Nothing for it but to buy a bus ticket using the VISA card, and move on.

Next stop: Antigua Guatemala (which literally means Old Guatemala). Antigua used to be the administrative capital for all of Central America during Spanish colonial times - an area spreading from what is now southern Mexico all the way to Costa Rica. (Panama was part of modern Columbia, and therefore officially in South America.) It also used to have a different name, but sometime in the late 1700s, the regional governmant, and the catholic church both moved their headquarters to a new site (to be safe from earthquakes which have repeatedly destroyed parts of Antigua), which they called Guatemala City. So Antigua was renamed - it was the old city.

We spent most of our time there just wandering through the streets admiring the colonial buildings, almost all of which are still in their original state. The town is surrounded by three volcanoes - real picture postcard stuff. After a few days we decided to take a trip to Lage Atitlan, a beautiful lake which is also surrounded by volcanoes and which has a number of little villages dotted around it. We took a tour that took us by car to the top of the ridge of mountains surrounding the lake. From there it was about 35km by bike (all downhill!) to reach the village we were staying in. Kate took the road all the way, along with most of the group, but after lunch I went with Victor our guide, and Mark (from N Ireland) along a rocky walking path that took us down to the lake. Possibly the most difficult mountain biking trail I have ever taken - it was incredibly steep, very rocky and narrow. Great way to arrive though, and the looks we got from the locals were fantastic! The next day we rented kayaks and paddled about 8 miles along the lake, before stopping for a swim and then hiking back through beautiful scenery. After all that excercise, what better way to spend the next day that an 11 hour bus ride (starting at 4am) to take us across the border into Mexico?

David

Photos, finally0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on January 24th, 2007

I finally got round to putting some more photos online. The photos so far include pictures of Merida, the New Years party, various Mayan sites in Mexico and a couple of pictures of Belize. More photos will be added soon.

 

Pictures can be found HERE

Viva Guatemala4
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on January 20th, 2007

So back tracking a bit as we haven’t posted in a while. We last left you for a tropical carribbean island. Dave has now officially gotten his open water diving certification …. and you will be glad to hear I have abandoned the corn rows!

Daves dad, Andy joined us for a few days (much beer was consumed, as we were trying to do our bit for the Belizian economy)and we took in Lamanai, a huge mayan site. They estimate it has over 900 individual buildings, of which only a tiny proportion have been uncovered. To get there you jump on a speed boat at Orange Walk town (somewhat close to Gallon Jug, dont you just love the names… there is even a place called Pulltrouserswamp) and head 30 miles upriver.

After a few days in the jungle we headed back for the coast. This time to Placencia, a small town that up to ten years ago didn’t have a road, so they built the main st along both sides of a pavement…really, main st is only 4 foot wide. It’s in the guinnes book of records as the world’s narrowest street. We booked ourselves a 4 day kayaking trip, not much kayaking got done as the weather wasnt great but we got to live on our own desert island for 4 days. Just us, our guide and cook, the hermit crabs and 6 palm trees. Dave walked it and it was 360 paces or (one fifth of a Roman Mile) to a complete circuit (tiny).

Andy left us yesterday, on a tiny tiny plane and we did the 5 hour bus trip north to Cayo. There we saw xunantunich, another really impressive maya site (I know I know, no pictures yet, but soon I promise).

We left for Guatemala this morning and head to Tikal tomorrow so more pictures of that soon too.

Feliz Año Nuevo!0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on January 6th, 2007

The Latin American journey continues….

We arrived in Cancun on the 29th December, and left as soon as we could. The plan was to celebrate the new year in Merida, a beautiful old colonial town in north-western Yucatan. Which we duely did. Its amazing how friendly people will become after a bottle or two of rum. We ended up partying the night away at a small street party thrown by someone the hotel owners knew. There was music and tequila and piñatas, what more could you ask for? We had no idea…but we got it anyway. A burning effigy, complete with petrol!

Once Dave had recovered from the mother of all hangovers (I personally have never seen anyone that particular shade of greeny-grey before) we hired ourselves our very own VW beetle, the old kind. Mexico is choc-a-block full of them as production only ceased in 2003. Armed with reliable (!) transport, we set off cross country, stopping at Coba and Tulum ruins. These were incredible and make the Inca ruins in Peru look like 5 year olds built them. Photos to follow I promise.

After all that time sweating in the jungle, we thought it was time to head for the coast. Cue one Caribbean island (Caye Caulker, Belize), some palm trees, and a little more rum. Apparently we haven’t learnt our lesson yet! Tomorrow we start our 4-day diving course. And to stop Kate being driven to distraction by her hair (which has a life of its own especially in the wind and salty air) she has gone native and now has partial corn rows. You can expect the reggae album any time soon.