The time of my life

Im still alive! Sorry for the month-long gap in communication...I've been very busy doing crazy things.

As I said in the last post, I was going to Oaxaca City again to meet the family. It was very weird seeing them again (obviously absolutely brilliant also). And for the week the travels snapped from crazy independant travels to 'family holiday'. Very weird.
Had a great time ofcourse doing lots of cultural stuff and getting lots of free meals! (the best kind of meals).
Stefan had food poisoning which kind of sucked, because he was tired quite alot, but it was still really fun and cool to see him.
Ate in some really nice restaurants (that's right, not streets stalls for a change), went to some great markets- where a bought a cool wooden lizard (which i can see on my Leeds bedroom wall), saw some cool museums, little indigenous villages and a mezcal factory. oh and also 'the widest tree in the world'. it was pretty wide. Also met up with 2 cool danish girls i met in zipolite.


After 5 days with the family here, I ventured off to San Cristobal de las Casas. This city is absolutely amazing. Its about 2500m up, and surrounded by mountains. Its considered the capital of Chiapas- the main indigenous region.
I met some really great people here- two of which, Emma and Annie, I hung around with during alot of my time there. Im sure they'll be friends for life.
We went to this crazy little village just outside of San Cristobal called Chumula. Its a very weird place, not catered for tourists at all. Even our guide there said he found it hard to spend the night there, as you have to gain trust from the people.
The church here is filled with pine needles (apparently to keep the dead separate or something). There were lots of mayan people praying. Several of them holding a live chicken for sacrifice. I saw one family swing this chicken over the candles, whilst praying, and then break its neck. They then shared a bottle coke and spite and burped loudly- apparently to 'burp out their sins'. Our guide told us that one of his group the previous week got arrested for taking a photo inside the church. Weird experience.
Met up with the parents here also for a bit, and had more expensive meals for free...! (and of course great family time!). But otherwise hungaround, ate chicken, drank coffee...
Oh and i bought a hammock. I had to before the parents left (so they could take it home for me...!)



After 5 days, I (with the parents who were traveling the same way) left at 4.30am to Palenque. This is an amazing mayan site near to the Guatemalan border. We stayed in a crazy little cabana in the middle of the jungle. It was hot, mosquito filled, but great. The ruins were the most amazing thing; these massive mayan pyramids peeking out of the jungle canopy. Surrounded by this rainforest filled with howler monkeys, toucans etc.

This was my first experience of monkeys in the wild, and it was the most insanely brilliant experience. The noise the howler monkeys make can only be described to be like some sort of dinosaur (apparently the guy who made jurassic park used howler monkeys as the noises for the dinosaurs...). On the way there we stopped at these really amazing waterfalls called Agua Azul. Brilliant fun rope swinging into this crazy jungle river surrounded by rainforest. Also two different groups of people came up to me and asked for a photo, so instinctively i thought id be taking the photo, but no they wanted to take a photo OF me with their friend. The only explanation i can think of is that they must think im amazingly attractive...what other reason could there be?! Pretty weird thinking ill be some random peoples photos..but also very funny..!

We also went on a trip to these two very remote mayan sites right next to the guatemalan border- Bonampak and Yaxchilan. This is reallyreally amazing. Their right in the middle of the Lacandon Rainforest, and are literally poking out of the jungle. Its very easy to imagine the mayans living here, just because it looks so untouched. Cool times.


After these fun times I headed over the river which separates Mexico and Guatemala and after two buses (one of which involved speeding along the bumpiest road ive ever encountered for several hours) and a boat ended up in Flores. This is a very small town on an island in north Guatemala. Its incredibly nice, surrounded by the beautiful lake which has a perfect pier to jump off. Stayed in a really cool hostel and met really cool people, and delayed going to Tikal (the 'mother of all mayan sites') for a few days of sitting around, jumping-off-pier fun. On the day before I actually thought I was going to go there, I found a thing which someone had written about trekking to a place called El Mirador in the middle of dense jungle for 5 days. It sounded great. Coincidentaly I heard that some people in my hostel were also planning on going, so I found them and signed up. We left our bags with the people, and just packed the essentials in a small rucksack.
After a 3 hour van ride to the last little village we would see for 5 days (and meeting our local guide), we set off. There were 6 of us, a German girl (majanne), Argentinean girl (lucila), 2 American guys (mike & grant), and an Australian girl (kris). None of whom i knew before, but by the end of the trip we were a strong group of friends.


We had 4 mules carrying out bags, water and food, and 3 local indigenous people (a cook, a guide and a mule man).
The first day we trekked for 5 hours to our first camp, where the tent was set up and food being cooked. It was reasonably tough trekking, but also really cool to be in the middle of the Guatemalan jungle. The second day we walked for 8 hours and finally reached El Mirador. El Mirador is the largest Mayan city, and had the biggest temple/pyramid ever build by them. It's insane when your walking around because you can see lots of little hills, all of which have remains underneath but just havent been excavated yet (although lots have been raided by thieves).
The camp here was great, right next to a favourite spot for Toucans and spider monkeys. Day 3 we spent looking around the ruins- including climbing up the front of the largest mayan pyramid ever built. The views were unbelievable. All you can see if jungle, and few other pyramids around.

Later we bribed the guard to let us in tunnels underneath the temple (not normally open to the public). This was truly amazing. There was still paint, carvings and remains around, and very weird knowing that very few people had seen what we were seeing. Given the earlier bribe, the guard also let us sleep on top of the Templo del Tigre. Its very hard to describe just how incredible this was. Stunning views of the never-ending jungle, birds noises, monkeys screaming all around... It was rocky on top, and there were no barriers so i put a large rock next to me so i wouldnt roll off (its was a long drop).
Me, majanne and lucila were there, and managed to actually sleep ok (no encounters with the mayan spirits). I doubt ever again I'll be able to sleep on top of a Mayan Temple in the middle of the Guatemalan Rainforest.

Saw lots of other crazy animals too; chameleons, hummingbirds (see pic of hummingbird just hatched), spiders, bats, monkeys, and also we found jaguar fur and the scull of a small animal, jaguars were close by.... pretty crazy times.

After we arrived back, me and lucila went to Tikal the next day. It was insanely impressive; similar to Palenque in the fact that these pyramids are poking out of the jungle, with parrots, toucans and coatis wondering around.


Hard to compare to El Mirador, considering that we had to trek for 5 days to get to El Mirador (and was therefore more rewarding), but it was really impressive- and absolutely massive.
The next day i said goobye to the jungle trek crew, which was actually very sad as i got close to all of them, and then got on a bus on way to Belize. Its a very small country on the Caribbean sea. Expensive but worth it. I arrived in belize city and was astounded by the difference to everywhere else. Everyones speaking English....this is insane. Also the fact that theres alot of caribbean people (obviously), makes it very different to mexico and guatemala. The mix of people if crazy too; as well as the caribbean, theres chinese, guatemalan-looking people and garifuna. Oh yeah and the Caribbean accent is sooo cool. The locals are so friendly its insane, takes a bit of getting used to though....remarks of 'eyyyy white boy' and 'you 'av a nice day sir' are an everyday thing (which i think is hilarious and brilliant).
Im now in Caye Caulker, which is an island just of the mainland. Its just a perfect caribbean paradise; clear waters, diving,snorkeling, palm trees, cool little caribbean wooden houses....
I dont think ill diving because its expensive here, but I thinks snorkeling would be good.
Soooo much reggae- you would have thought they'd got bored of bob marley by now, but noooo. and they've got pictures of him up everywhere in a jesus like pose. Its also very strange to see the queen on the money again. Shes obviously doing well, she looks much younger here...

So yeah thats what ive been doing....I kind of rushed this because im on a perfect caribbean island and the last thing i want to do is be on the computer. Probably missed out alot, but ill maybe add stuff in later.

Think ill stay here a week or so, then head into the rest of Belize. Maybe ill do some sort of volunteering project. Or maybe ill get stuck on this island for 4 months (like alot of people seem to) who knows..!

Update soon (if i dont get eaten by sharks)
Love Simon
p.s tell me whats happening in your lives more!