Manu's travel diary

Around Mexico City: Teotihuacan

2009-08-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Around Mexico City: Teotihuacan

Well our last ruins visit in Mexico prior to fly back to England! Teotihuacan and its pyramids! Ones of the largest in the pre-Columbian Americas...as a city also when Teotihucan was at its zenith during the first half of the 1st Millenium CE. Around 100,000 people was living here, probably under various ethnic groups. The site was made UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Teotihucan was so the last archeological site we visited and we have not been fully enthousiastic...the pyramids were absolutely massive but the surroundings were too neat, all the paths were on asphalt like "the Avenue of the Dead"...we did not find real charm as other sites in Mexico or some others countries.

- The two main pyramids with on the right, the Pyramid of the Sun and on the left, the Pyramid of the Moon,
- The Pyramid of the Moon, the smallest. We did not like the asphalt all around the monuments. Don't think that during the Aztec time, asphalt was covering their roads!!!
- The Pyramid of the Sun, the second largest pyramid after the Pyramid of Cholula (see older post for Cholula),
- Lee went at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. Nicely, I stayed at the bottom to take the picture. To tell the truth, this pyramid was too high to climb and I don't like height!!!

Around Mexico City: Pachuca

2009-08-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

Around Mexico City: Pachuca

Pachuca, or formerly Pachuca de Soto, is the capital of Hidalgo State. It is situated 1.5hrs North East from Mexico City. The town is a starting point to visit the mines in the nearest mountains.

When we arrived, we went directly to the tourism information to get a map to go to visit a couple of museums and interest points. They gave us the worst map we had had so far!!! Only a couples of main streets with no direction or anything, very disgraceful! And the name of the streets were even not all indicated in the streets! We tried to find the Museum of photography (as Lee likes photography) and the "Casa de Artesania" (handicrafts shop) . Impossible! So we decided to take a city tour (and really we don't like that normally). We visited the town during an hour but there was really not too much interest and when we arrived to the main site, the "Monumento de Cristo Rey" (the Monument of King Christ) which offers nice views of the town, we only stopped for 5 min! Lee hated as he needs time to take pictures. As soon as we came back, we took the bus back to Mexico City!! We did not really find anything special here and probably the fact to not having a nice map makes us feeling that. But I need to correct that as Lee enjoyed the Cornish pasties!!!

- Views of Pachuca from the "Monumento de Christo Rey". As the bus did not leave us enough time to take pictures, I could not go closer to the edge of the hill to get closer pictures!
- I like this picture and specially the different colours of the houses,
- The Reloj Monumental (Monumental Clock) is the central clock tower built in 1904 in the city centre. The bell that chimes in this clock was made by the same company that made the original Liberty Bell and London's famous Big Ben,
- The Monument of Christo Rey is 20m bronze statue of Jesus set atop the summit of the mountain Cerro de Cubilete and is one of the most important religious monuments in all of Mexico. The monument was built in 1950 in place of the smaller original monument which was destroyed during the Mexican Revolution. The statue is said to marks the exact geographical center of Mexico,
- Here we are! The famous Cornish pasty from Pachuca and following Lee, there were fantastic !!! and better than any Gregg's pasties!! So why Cornish pasty in this part of Mexico? Well workers from Cornwall came to work here in Pachuca in the mines and brought with them the pasties which have been accomodated with Mexican taste. There also brought the football! There are still some vestiges of the Cornish architecture. Pachuca is now twinned with a town in Cornwall and both have kept good relationship.

Around Mexico City - Tepoztlan

2009-08-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Around Mexico City: Tepoztlan

South of Mexico City, the town of Tepoztlan is known since 2002 as "Pueblo Magico" and according to the myth, is the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god widely-worshipped in ancient Mexico. It is surrounded by the Tepozteco mountains where a temple ruins can be visited at the top. We went to visit the town to see this pyramid but the energy (and the hot weather) left us at the bottom of the mountains!!! So we stayed in town, walking around the market place, where we found original notebooks (that we bought for family gifts) and around the ex-convento of Dominico de la Natividad. Hippie ambiance here too!!!

- The Tepozteco mountains. Very impressive and we just stayed at the bottom!!!
- The ex-convento of Dominico de la Natividad dating from the mid-16th century is a UNESCO World Heritage. The convento was free to visit and was offering nice views over the mountains,
- Inside the Convento. Many of the walls, especially on the ground floor, have fragments of old paintings in earthen tones on the walls and decorating the arches,
- The door of the entrance of the park surrounding the convento. The fresco is made by symbols of Aztec belief.

Mexico City - photos 4

2009-08-16T06:04:00.001-07:00

Mexico City: on the corner...

We really enjoyed Mexico City, the city was rich in various architectures, superb buildings and monuments. And also others things which made us enjoying more the city...

- Avenida 5 de Mayo: we liked this atmosphere here, very Paris-like with its building and architecture. Nice taxi in the front of the picture,
- Chinese district: this district was smaller that what we were expected and was composed mainly by restaurants. Lee was happy to be taken in picture in front of this bar!!
- This statue can be admired on the Paseo de la Reforma avenue. Everybody was intrigated by the design of the statue. We stopped for 5 min on the bench in front looking at the reaction of tourists in front of the statue. The blanket which is covering the animal was puzzling people! This blanket was an integral part of the statue and everybody was trying to remove it from the beast!!!
- This building was a couple of streets from the Zocalo and was a little "falling down"!!! And what a good contrast with some of the magnificient buildings around!! That gave a real charm to the city,
- We saw lots of these statues in the streets east and north of the Palacio Nacional. It shows a skeleton wearing bright colour dress. It is representative of Mexico and the "dia de los Muertos" and it is called "catrina", from a etching made by Posada in 1913 called "la calavera catrina". You can find lots of representions of this "catrina" in souvenir shops in various costumes or activities.

Mexico City - photos 3

2009-08-16T05:58:00.001-07:00

Mexico City: various buildings

Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Park)
Chapultepec from Nahuatl language means "grasshopper hill". This is one of the biggest, most beautiful and most visited park in the world. There are lots to do around and museum to visit and there is also a zoo. There are artificial lakes too (see left top picture). On this picture, we can distinguish the high buildings from the Polanco district.

Parque Alameda Central
At the end of the 5th De Mayo Avenue, there is the parque Alameda Central. We walked a couple of times in this park during the day or the night and each time, there were some entertainment and lots of people. Close to the Avenida Juarez, the "Hemiciclo a Benito Juarez" is a marble monument (see picture) built in honor of President Benito Juarez, who is considered to have been the benefactor of America.

Centro bursatil (stock exchange centre) and Avenida "Paseo de la Reforma"
I like this picture of the stock exchange centre with the palm tree in the centre. All along the Avenue "Paseo de la Reforma", there are high tech buildings, posh hotels and ambassies. Half of the way (and it si a very long avenue!), the "Monumento a la Independencia" (Independence column) has became the symbol of Mexico City. Populary known as "El Angel", the monument is a 36m column crowned by the figure if winged victory.The inauguration was made in 1910 to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of Mexico's Independence and pay homage to its leader whose figures can be seen at the base of the column.

Bellas Artes District
The Palacio de Bellas Artes (fine arts palace) is one the most distinctive buildings of Mexico City. Its construction began in 1904 under the Presidency of Porfirio Diaz and the building was intended to imitate European art, style and customs. It was designed by the Italian Architect Boari, who draw also the "Palacio de Correos" (Post Office building) whose picture can see bottom right. The end of the construction took longer than planned and the building was completed in 1934 with the gardens only completed in 1994! The walls of the Palace are covered with frescoes by Rivera, Orozco...The theatre is used for classical music, opera and dance.

Mexico City - photos 2

2009-08-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Mexico City: Around the Zocalo

The Zocalo is one the biggest square in the world and it is the symbolical centre of the city and the country. It is surrounded by several government buildings and the Cathedral Metropolitana. Unfortunately when we were visiting the city, there was an exposition about science and a huge white tent was covering the Plaza so I could not take any good pictures on the Zocalo!

Palacio Nacional:
The National Palace is the main office of the executive power of the nation. It is a three storey building and some areas can be visited free. Inside the patios, the work of Diego Rivera can be admired, relating the history of Mexico. There is also an important area dedicated to Benito Juarez and the botanical gardens.

Templo Mayor:
The area of the Temple Mayor partially correspondsto the place where the Aztec Empire carried out religious and ceremonials. On the picture the archeological site. Close the museum which is displaying pieces of Aztec Art.

Catedral Metropolitana y Sagrario:
It was the main religious center during the Spanish colonial period, itys architecture combines 5 different styles. It is the biggest church in Latin America, within it, outsatanding pieces of art and a crypt where all the city's bishops are buried. The first picture was taken from the Zocalo. Inside, it was absolutely amazing, clear and bright.

Mexico City - photos 1

2009-06-25T14:25:00.001-07:00

Mexico City: view of the city from the Torre Latinoamericana

Here we are!!! Mexico City!!! 9 months after landing in Buenos Aires, we reached the last stop on our trip.

We stayed in Mexico for 1 week and half spending time visiting the city and the surroundings but also finishing to buy some presents for family and friends. Our hotel was situated in the Cuauhtemoc Colonia, close to the Hidalgo Metro station which allowed us to be pretty mobile as the Metro system in Mexico City was excellent. We used it all the time!

Mexico City Metropolitan Area has a population exceeding 22 million people. That is the third largest in the world. What was strange was the fact that the streets were quite empty and even in the Metro the wagons were not over crowded.

The "Ciudad de Mexico" was officially established in 1585. Before, in 1325, the city was an Aztec city called Tenochtitlan (and was built on a island) then known in 1524 as Mexico Tenustitlan after the Spanish conquest. Cortes, helped by the Tlaxcalan arrested first Montezuma, the Aztec chief then defeated the new chief Cuauhtemoc in 1521 after a siege of three months. Mexico City was rebuilt on the ruins of Tenochtitlan as Cortes razed the Aztec city. Due to constant flooding, during the 17th Century, the lake was filled and the water drained. The city then prospered specially due to its location close to both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The independence of Mexico was declared in 1824 with Mexico City being its capital.

- The Torre Latinoamericana was built in 1956 and with 183m with 45 stories, was the tallest building in Mexico City (until 1972) and at this time the tallest in Latin America. Situated in the historic center, it offered a superb panoramic view of the city...

-...and was nicely illuminated after the sunshine with a variety of colours and a lightshow. The pictures were taken from the Alameda Central and the gardens of the Palacio Bella Arte.

- The Plaza de la Constitution or Zocalo. We were surprised how far we could see over the town. We knew that Mexico City was suffering from poor air quality but that was not so bad. This picture is the best I had from the Zocalo due to the installation of white tents here for a temporary exposition. These tents were masking all the Plaza and the picture of the cathedral was only possible from the Palacio National (see next post). We can recognise on the left the cathedral, in front the Palacio National and in the center of the Plaza the impressive flag. This flag was created in 1821 when the Independence movement had ended victoriously.

- The Alameda Central was created in 1592 as a public park. It occupies now an old Aztec market place. In the left center of the park, we can distinguish the "Hemiciclo a Juarez", a semi-circular monument dedicated to Benito Juarez. Our hotel was just at the end of the park (where we can see the high buildings),

- The Palacio Bella Arte. The theater is used for classical music, opera and dance. The outside are made of italian white marble and inside the murals are from various known artists like Diego Rivera. It was built during the Presidence of Porfirio Diaz and its construction took 30 years due to various building problems and the Mexican Revolution,

- West view of Mexico City. In the background, on the left, Santa Fe. Then the Torre Mayor, the tallest tower in Mexico City. On the background right, the Torre Pemex. On the center left, the Chapultepec park.

- North view of Mexico City. On the bottom left (white roof), the Senado de la Republica with on its left, the Postal Palace and in front, the Museum National of Art.

Around Tlaxcala - photos

2009-06-22T10:01:00.003-07:00

Around Tlaxcala: Cacaxtla and San Miguel del Milagro

Cacaxtla:

Cacaxtla was the capital of the region occuped by Olmeca-Xicalanca settlements, probably a Mayan group coming from Central Mexico as early as 400AD. After the decline of Cholula (see previous post), Cacaxtla became the chief power of the South of Tlaxcala and the Valley of Puebla. By 1000AD, the city was abandoned. The site was only discovered in 1975.

- On the way to the ruins from the entrance, we could admire this nice view of the volcano Izta (see previous post) and its glacier,

- The "Gran Basamento" or the main platform was covered by a huge metallic roof to protect the paintings. Here were located the religious and civil buildings,

- Painting from the "Vestidos de Sacerdotes" or "priestly altar". This painting represents the bird man probably a ruler-priest of the Olmecas-Xicalancas. This bird man was associated with Quetzalcoalt, the generous deity who taught people art and agriculture. These paintings are unique as they combine the symbology of Altiplano cultures and Mayan influence,

- Part of the "Batallas por el Poder" or "battle for the power" wall. These paintings have been interpreted as confrontation between the local group and one from the South of Mexico. This painting could also represent a ritual in which the conquering warriors display their arms and the conquered warriors are sacrified. The painting is made from mineral and vegetal pigments,

- Detail from the Battle Mural. The wall was protected by a glass or plexiglass so the colours are faded.

San Miguel del Milagro:

San Miguel del Milagro is a small village close to the Cacaxtla archeological site. Why this name? Well probably a relation with San Miguel Archangel? Right!

The story is that San Miguel appeared in 1631 to one of the first baptised local men and told the man the location of a water fountain which will cure all the illnesses. But sceptical, the man kept for him the apparition and 2 weeks later, he became gravely ill. San Miguel appeared again and brought the man to the fountain telling him that he had to make the fountain known or he will be badly punished. So the family of the man, which was the only persons to believe him, started digging following the advice of an supernatural light to give the exact location and the help of a young man of an extraordinary appearance to remove the heaviest stones. And appeared the fountain but the local man, by the fear of people, kept the secret for him. Six months later, he started to feel lots of pain. San Miguel appeared again accusing the man of not complying with his desire regarding the fountain. So the man went to the fountain, filled two buckets of water and gave them to the priest who forwarded the water to the hospital. All the ill persons were cured after taking the water.

And so started the pilgrimage to this little village. The fountain, in front of the church, still exists but is often closed for lack of water.

- The decorated entrance of the church,

- On a side part of the church, the statue of San Miguel is visited by pilgrims who left all sorts of clothes and objects of sick relatives around the statue.

Tlaxcala - photos 2

2009-06-22T10:01:00.001-07:00

Tlaxcala:

- La "Plaza de Toro" or the "bull ring" was the first plaza de Toro of the continent built during the 19th Century and still in use,

- We were surprised to hear some music from the Zocalo on Friday late afternoon. Coming closer we saw lots of people from all the ages dancing to the music of the local band. Everybody was smiling and happy to show their knowledge on ballroom dances. Very nice ambiance!

- And Sunday we were also surprised to see these people playing chess on the Zocalo. The chess boards were placed here, we supposed, by the municipality and were free to be used,

- Lee tried the famous "mole poblano con pollo", chicken in a sauce called mole speciality of the nearby city of Puebla. The sauce was made of chocolate, cinnamon and nuts with various hot peppers. Lee said it was an interesting experience but will not add this dish to his most favourite meal!!! Not for my taste at all either!!

Tlaxcala - photos 1

2009-06-22T10:00:00.001-07:00

Tlaxcala:

From Puebla, we headed off to the very quiet and peaceful Tlaxcala, our last stop before reaching Mexico City. We could have gone directly to the capital but we wanted to have a look to this not too well known city. Well to be described as quiet, the town was quiet, not sure where were the 16,000 inhabitants! We had a nice time discovering the town and visiting the ruins of Cacaxtla and what a relief...very few tourists...

Tlaxcala or Tlaxcala de Xicotencalt is the smallest capital of the smallest State in Mexico. Only around 16,000 inhabitants! And it is even not the most populous city in the State! The city was originally settled by indigenous people who fought fiercely when the Spaniards arrived in 1519 but formed an alliance with them to combat their former Aztecs oppressors (with the exception of a chief Xicotencalt the Younger who is now a Mexican hero).

- View of the town from the capilla del Cristo del Vecino. The tower which can be seen on the right of the picture belongs to the ex-convento Franciscano de la Asuncion (16th Century) and ...

-... was not built on the church building but attached to it giving a unique "touch" to this Temple. Also this church could be where the first baptisme of Native American was made by priests associated to Cortes,

- Close to the ex-convento, the "capilla" or "chapel" del Cristo del Vecino (17th Century). There were 5 others capillas dispatched all around the town,

- The Basilica and Santuario de la Virgen de Ocotlan. The Virgen de Ocotlan is the saint patron of Tlaxcala and the close State of Puebla. The legend says that the Virgen appeared here in 1541 to a young native of Tlaxcala. Since then it is an important pilgrimage site in Mexico. The church is located on a hill overlooking the city,

- The very peacefull plaza of Xicotencalt where the craft market takes place every Saturday and Sunday.

Around Puebla - photos

2009-06-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

Around Puebla: Cholula

Cholula is 15Km from Puebla and hosts the Great Pyramid, the largest man-made pyramid and monument by volume in the world. The pyramid has not been fully excavated and restored because the Spaniards built in 1594 a church, the 'Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de los Remedios", which is a major Catholic pilgrimage. So the first sight of the pyramid is a natural hill with a church on the top! But inside the pyramid, 8 km of original tunnels can be visited.

- The church or Sanctuary at the top of the hill. Only on one bottom side of the hill, the remains of the pyramid can be seen,

- Lee was posing in front of the 2 volcanoes, Popocatepelt and Iztaccihualt, called by the locals Popo and Izta. Popo, on the left, is an active volcano and is the second highest peak in Mexico. Its name in Nathualt means "smoking mountain". Izta, which name means "white woman", is the third highest peak in Mexico and is constituted by 4 peaks which depict the forms of a woman. These volcanoes can be also visible from Mexico City depending on atmospheric conditions,

- View of Popo from the highest platform leading directly to the church. The fume leaving the volcano is well visible,

- View of Cholula from the Church. In the center of the picture, the ex-convento de San Gabriel.

Puebla de Los Angeles - photos 2

2009-06-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Puebla de Los Angeles:

- Passive protest of farmers on the Zocalo,
- Still on the Zocalo, every Thursday at around 6pm, the town band plays for hundreds of people. They were lucky this Thursday because all the rest of the week it was pouring rain at this time. But nicely, the rain waited the band to finish its recital to start,
- 20m from our hotel, we found a local Taqueria ''El Gran Taco'' which was serving the best tacos we had tried so far. The speciality was tacos with Arabe bread. On the first picture, I ordered ''tacos con carne Arrachera'', a fine beef meat. Unfortunately for me, they arrived full of raw onion and coriander and I hate coriander and raw onion. But once removed, the meat was very tasty. Lee's taco was made with beef and pork meat and as Lee says: ''it was damn tasty''. In four days, we went three times in this restaurant!!!
- How cute was this police car! We called them the ''policemobile'' {as a reference of the papamobile of course}. Very practical and ecological!

Puebla de Los Angeles - photos 1

2009-06-16T19:01:00.000-07:00

Puebla de Los Angeles:

After Oaxaca, we headed off to the superb city of Puebla de Los Angeles which is the fourth most populous metropolitan area in Mexico. We stayed here a couples of days to visit the city, the town of Cholula and the safari zoo (no picture will be posted). It was obviously raining all the mid-afternoon or early evening.

Puebla de Los Angeles was founded in 1531 by the Spaniards and was built on the ruins of Amerindian settlements. Half way between Mexico City and Veracruz, it became the second most important city during the colonial period. Its historic centre is classified UNESCO World Heritage Site but lots of the colonial buildings were damaged during the 1999 earthquake with some of them being restored. It is surrounded by 4 volcanoes, Popocatepelt and Iztaccihualt at the West, LaMalinche at the North and Pico de Orizaba at the East.

- The cathedral of Puebla whose top appears on the 500peso notes. Its construction started in 1575 and was totally completed by 1690. It possesses the highest towers in Mexico.
- One of the sides of the Zocalo. The plaza was surrounded by arches (except the side where there was the cathedral) where cafe and restaurants were proposing the specialities of Puebla,
- Night view of the cathedral with the main plaza in front,
- The facade of this building was made with tiles of "Talavera", a fine earthenware of colonial origin and very famous around Mexico,
- I liked the facade of this building, not very colonial but more beginning of 20th Century. Remember some streets in Paris!

Around Oaxaca - photos 3

2009-06-15T17:34:00.001-07:00

Around Oaxaca: Pueblos Mancomunados and Sierra Norte

From Oaxaca and the office of 'Expediciones Sierra Norte', we organised 2 days of hiking in the Sierra Norte, the southern part of the Sierra Juarez; one day in Llano Grande and the next day in Cuajimoloyas, village part of the Pueblos Mancomunados community or ''Commonwealth of Villages''. We spent the night in Llano Grande in a cabana which was comfortable with hot water shower and a fire place where Lee was happy to make a fire with proper wood. There was no heating system in the cabana and the night was particularly cold and rainy. The second day, the rain came late morning and instead of the 5hrs hiking, we only did 3hrs but we were quite happy because we were tired and freezing {well me anyway}. We had not done any mountain walks for a long time...our leg muscles were just not responding!!! But we had a good time and saw superb landscape and it was hard to believe that in the hot Mexico, there were typical pine forest mountains!!

- On our way to the Piedra Larga mirador, we saw hundreds of these ''mariposas'' flowers, specific for this part of the mountain,
- Lee at the top of the Piedra Larga mirador. Lots of clouds but still superb view...
- From the Mirador, we could enjoy the view of this rock formation. Can you distinguish the figure of a man?
- The second day, we went to the Piedras Coloradas Mirador which was offering a nice view of the pine tree forest. To reach this mirador, we needed to climb a steep rock formation and I can tell you I was pretty scared as I don't like heights but I managed it and I was proud of myself!
- This type of cactus is called a ''Maguey''. They produce a flower every 20 to 25 years and it takes around 1year for the flower to grow. On the left, we can see the stork of a future flower...looks a bit rude doesn't it.....

Around Oaxaca - photos 2

2009-06-15T17:30:00.001-07:00

Around Oaxaca: Hierve El Agua

Following the recommendation of our friend Fernando, we went to visit this incredible site, Hierve El Agua. And it was amazing...

From Oaxaca, we took a bus to Mitla. Here, due to the lack of tourists {locals and foreigners}, we had difficulty to find a colectivo to bring us to Hierve. We managed to get a good price just for us and the driver waited for us for 1hr while we were visiting the site. It is nice to go to visit during the low season as there is less people around but things like transport can be a problem sometimes. When we arrived to the main site, we were surprised to see all these locals laughing and having good time around the swimming pools. The most surprising was to hear them talking the ''Zapotec'', a ancient language from the Mayan civilization. It was like being in a different country!!!

- From the car park, a little walk brought us to the main site with 2 artificial swimming pools. The water here is highly concentrated in salt making the colour turquoise green. The water is not hot but effervescence brings the water at the edge of boiling so the name of the site,
- Here is one the rock formations with the 2 swimming pools. View from the main 'waterfall',
- On our way to the main waterfall, we crossed this group of Zapotec women wearing the traditional costume. Lee was having attention from them as I am not too sure they are used to meet 'gringos' often!
- The top of the main 'waterfall'. The ambient temerature water slowly runs over the cliffs and evaporates leaving behind minerals and in particular calcium carbonate forming like a waterfall,
- The main 'waterfall' with a height of 30m. The picture was taking from the smaller waterfall,
- Side view of the waterfalls.

Around Oaxaca - photos 1

2009-06-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

Around Oaxaca: Monte Alban and the ''Arbol de Tule''

##Monte Alban is a former capital of the Zapotec civilization founded around 500BC and was dominating much of the Oaxacan highlands. By AD500-750, the city lost it's political dominance and was thereafter abandoned. The site stands on a flattened hilltop west of Oaxaca {30min in bus}.

- Panorama of Monte Alban from the South platform. In front, the edifice J or 'observatorio' then the edifices G, H and I and on the background, the North platform,
- Panorama of the West side of the site with from front left: edifice O, system M and edifices L and N,
- Staircases of North Platform. These were forbidden to the public,
- Due to its position 400m above the valley floor, Monte Alban offered nice aerial views of the valleys,

##El Arbol del Tule is situated in the village of Tule, 10km from Oaxaca and is considered like the largest in the world. The trunk of this 'ahuehuete' or Montuzema Cypress, possesses a diameter of 14m!!! The tree is 42m high and more than 2000 years old!!! It stands close to the 17th Century Church.

- El Arbol del Tule is situated left of the church. On the right, its son,
- Lee in front if the trunk of the Tree. This Cypress looked massive!!!
- A part of the branches of the tree...amazing!

Oaxaca - photos

2009-06-15T17:19:00.001-07:00

Oaxaca:

From Puerto Escondido we took a colectivo van to Oaxaca. The route used was Highway 115 and we were happy when we arrived because we were not feeling very well...so much turns and turns...

Well in Oaxaca and especially around Oaxaca, there were lots to visit: archeological sites like Monte Alban or Mitla {that we did not go to visit as we went to see Monte}, the Valle Centrales, Valle de Tlacolula, Valle de Etla and Valle de Zimatlan and the Sierra Norte. Due to our schedule, we went only to visit some spots in Valle de Tlacolula and the ''Pueblos Mancomunados'' in the Sierra Norte. These various sites will be described in other posts.

Oaxaca, or Oaxaca de Juarez in honor of the 19th President and national hero Benito Juarez, was founded in 1522 by the Spaniards on the old Aztec settlement of ''Huaxyácac'', area which was primarily occupied by Zapotecs and Mixtecs. Oaxaca has been the theater of the major social action from the teachers in 2006 which resulted in several deaths including teachers and a journalist.

- Well when we arrived in Oaxaca, there were banners everywhere on the main plaza Zocalo and settings in front of the Government Palace. The protesters were asking the liberty for political opponents. We were also witnesses of a pacific protest of teachers who blocked the ring road making for us difficult to go to visit the Tule Tree and Hierve El Agua.
- Our friend from Newcastle, Fernando who is coming from Mexico City, gave us a list of local dishes which could be interesting to try. Here we are...Tlayuda con Tasajo y Quesillo {a tortilla with beef meat and cheese}...a 'delice' and a very nutritious dish. The brown sauce on the tlayuda is called ''mole'',
- The theatre Macedonio Alcala,
- The superb church and former convent Santo Domingo de Guzman. Built between 1555 and 1 666, the inside of the church is all covered by gold leaves like we can see in the next picture. The covent area is now the guest of the Centro Cultural Santo Domingo.

Puerto Escondido - photos 2

2009-06-13T18:49:00.001-07:00

Puerto Escondido:

- West from the Bahia principal, the lighthouse was accessible by a nice pathway which was following the coast,
- Playa Manzanillo was a main spot for the locals,
- Superb sunset on the Bahia principal. The gray clouds and the rain were approaching...
- During our stay in Puerto Escondido, we enjoyed a late afternoon swim in the swimming pool of the 'hotel' {it was not really a hotel as there were only individual cabanas},
- The cat Fifi. We thought she was the cat of the place but the lady cleaner told us that she was not from the owner but she was staying around as people gave her food. And she really appreciated staying with us, spending the morning or the afternoon sleeping in the diner area after a full can of tuna! Lucky cat...

Puerto Escondido - photos 1

2009-06-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

Puerto Escondido:

Our last destination on the sea side was Puerto Escondido, the best surfing point in Mexico...Lee has been waiting for this moment for a long time...Well, the waves were decent size especially early morning, 8 foot and barreling but Lee was a little disappointed because the waves here can reach 30 foot and can be very spectacular...as our friend Dave will say, Lee was to close to the beach for that to happen!!!

At Puerto Escondido, we here also relaxed, walked along the different beaches, enjoyed the swimming pool and played with the cat Fifi {the name we gave her} which took to our cabana like her new house! It was difficult to leave the place because that was our beach stop and no more sea views until we come back to England!

- Still the rain season in the Oaxaca State...every evening, dark clouds appeared and it was pouring rain. The sea became rougher with bigger waves. This picture was taken at the east point of Playa Marinero,
- Bahia principal where locals were proposing sea fishing trips,
- Playa 'Punta Zicatela', the eastern point of the surf beach. Here too, people can surf but there were only few waves and few surfers when we were here!
- I captured some waves that for me looked pretty decent size. Lee, of course, got better pictures from his early morning sessions but to wake up at 6am to take pictures was for me not possible!!!
- Playa Marinero was The Playa for the body surfers.

San Agustinillo and around - photos 3

2009-06-12T17:48:00.001-07:00

San Agustinillo and around: boat trip

We went for a 3hrs boat trip even if I am not very comfortable in a boat. Just for the last time in our voyage!

- This massive rock was the house of hundreds of birds. The white colour is coming from the guano of the birds,
- The gray object on this beach, close to Ventanilla beach, was a remain of a drug-traffickers plane which crashed in the sea. The plane was taken out of the sea by the police but the traffickers had escaped with their drugs...It is one of the attraction of the beach now!
- Lee enjoyed fishing and was happy to catch a decent size fish. The captain caught also 2 more fish and kindly gave us all the fish that we cooked in the oven of our little kitchen. Un delice!
- We saw only a couple of marine turtles and normally dolphins can be seen too but unfortunately they were not on view today. Not very lucky!! But we enjoyed snorkeling and swimming in the sea.

San Agustinillo and around - photos 2

2009-06-12T17:45:00.001-07:00

San Agustinillo and around: Mazunte

Mazunte is a small beach town 1km from San Agustinillo. Here, we went to visit the ''Centro Mexicano of the Tortuga'' or ''National Mexican Turtle Centre''. This museum also a turtle research center and turtle nursery, opened to the public in 1994 after the Mexican government decided to ban completely and permanently the exploitation of sea turtles. This was the main local activity of the village. The Centre possesses too an animal health area.

- This baby turtle was waiting to be released into the sea. One of the activity of the Centre is to collect the unburied turtle eggs, incubate them and grow the baby turtles until they are big enough to be released in the water,
- This marine turtle was spending her time swimming in the water tank. Unfortunately for her, a stomach problem {which could not be fixed} was stopping her to dive and she was floating at the surface. The main species of turtles found around Mazunte is the Golfina characterised by a green olive shell,
- These two yellow wood turtles were taking the sun after a bath. I can't blame them!
- Mazunte beach. Nice turquoise clear water and white sand...

San Agustinillo and around - photos 1

2009-06-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

San Agustinillo and around:

From las Bahias de Huatulco, we headed off to Pochutla where we took a colectivo for San Agustinillo bay and beach. We decided to stay here and not at others beaches like Zipolite or Mazunte because this area was more quiet and from here, it was easy to walk to the other beaches.

Well we did not do too much here just relaxing, appreciating the nice sea views from our hotel, swimming, visiting the ''Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga'' and enjoying {well me not too much} a boat trip.

- San Agustinillo beach the night we arrived. The rain season has started and from late-afternoon, dark clouds were building up in the sky and by early evening a nice stormy rain was refreshing the air,
- The next morning, no sign of these clouds and the water was showing a superb turquoise colour. This little house is a shrine with inside the statue of the Virgen Mary. The fishermen, before heading to the sea, pray to the Virgen to bring lot of fishes...maybe Lee should give it a try next time.....
- What a nice place to have his breakfast! Lee was enjoying the sea view early morning from the balcony in front of our room. On the evening, we were playing cards enjoying a glass of wine or a beer or two..
- These 2 dogs were playing gently on the beach. I got a 2 min movie from their game. Absolutely hilarious!!!
- This rhino-beattle joined us during the evening on the terrace. What a really bizarre face, isn't it? But very useful to combat other males!

Bahias de Huatulco - photos

2009-06-12T06:37:00.003-07:00

Bahias de Huatulco:

From Tehuantepec, we took the bus to Santa Cruz de Huatulco and more precisely La Crucecita where we will stay as the area was more accessible on price. It was nice to be back to the sea side and during 3 days we went to visit various bahias.

They are nine bahias de Huatulco; Bahia San Augustin, Chachacual and Cacaluta were accessible only by boat and as it was the low season, the boat prices were expensive for only 2 persons. So we went to visit las bahias de Santa Cruz, Chahue and Organo and playa La Entrega. The other bahias, Maguey, Tangolunda and Conejos were too far. We decided to rent bikes and had a nice ride to playa la Entrega but nobody told us that the road was hilly so half of the time we were off the bikes and to add to the pain it was very hot...in Campeche we had made the same mistake but we did not learn the lesson...

- The evening we arrived at the Crucecita, we walked up to Bahia de Santa Cruz and we saw the end of the sunset with nice colours,
-The next day, with our rented bikes and on our way to playa La Entrega, we had a panoramic view of Bahia Santa Cruz which is surrounded like some other bahias by posh hotels,
- I absolutely like this orange-flowers tree! They are superb bringing nice orange colour to a very dry vegetation. They were lots on our way to the playa...
-...playa that we reached after 1.5hr of hard efforts under a hot sun!!! Also superb turquoise colour of a very clean water,
- On our way back, we stopped at the lighthouse which was offering nice views. Time to put my hair up and we were heading off to Bahia Chahue...
-...where water was green-turquoise. At this bahia, it was recommended not to swim due to strong currents...
-...so we spent some time relaxing after our ride in the swimming pool which access was free with the hotel package. The swimming pool was just at the edge of the beach, turquoise everywhere for us!!!

Tehuantepec - photos

2009-06-12T06:37:00.001-07:00

Tehuantepec:

To shorten the journey to reach Huatulco Bay, we decided to stay one night in Tehuantepec which was at mid-way. Well not sure that was the best option because the town was not the prettiest but as soon as we left the hotel room around 6pm, it was pouring rain so we could not go to visit the town. But people here are some the friendliest we have met. While Lee was looking for a hotel, I stayed on the stairs of a church. Everybody who was passing by car, bike or walking was saying 'hello' with a big smile and some were looking at me like it that was the first time they were seeing a ''gringa''! Due to the rain, we could not go to visit the town so I do not have any picture of buildings. After a night here, early we left for Huatulco...

- Me with the bags waiting for Lee to come back from his hotel tour...I never had so much smiles and hand signs from the locals since we started traveling!
- We were on our way to leave the hotel when we saw these taxis and moto-taxis parading in the street. They were not on strike but only showing their support to a politic party as some elections were approaching,
- For food, we did not have too much choice because of the rain so pizza for us from a stand close to the hotel. Very popular from the locals too...

Chiapa de Corzo - photos

2009-06-10T18:49:00.001-07:00

Chiapa de Corzo:

When we arrived at Chiapa from San Cristobal, we saw this massive plaza, , with a big crown like monument. We liked it as the town looked peaceful so we decided to stay for a night after the boat trip to Canon Del Sumidero.

Chiapa de Corzo was founded in 1528 by Diego de Mazariego after a hard battle with the Soctona ethnic group who resisted several attacks from the Spaniards. Facing defeat, many of the Indians chose death instead of surrender jumping to their death in the Canon Del Sumidero {following the legend...}.

- The General Angel Corzo plaza, whose size was very impressive for the size of the town,
- The famous 'Fuente Colonial' with Mudejar style, built in 1562 by Fray De Leon who took inspiration from the Real Crown of Castilla. 30 meters height, 15 meters diameter. More than its artistic value, it saved people during epidemics and illness providing drinking water to the population,
- The tower of the Santo Domingo Temple, built in 1554. Inside this tower, a bell old of 433 years is kept closely, making this bell one of the oldest of the country. On the sky, we can see approaching very bad clouds announcing an imminent rain...
-...and the rain was pretty bad. In 5 min, all the streets were flooded. The people in charge of these two stalls were watching impassively the rain,
- Well for us, we were nicely and warm inside the hotel room and Lee was drinking his 1L-bottle of beer watching TV...what a tough life!!!

Canon del Sumidero - photos

2009-06-10T17:32:00.001-07:00

Canon Del Sumidero:

From Cristobal, we headed off to Chiapa de Corzo from where we could visit the Canon Del Sumidero. We thought after the boat trip we would be moving to Tuxtla Guttierez, the capital of Chiapas State, but Chiapa was a charming town and we decided to stay the night here. The next post will show some pictures from Chiapa.

We visited El Canon Del Sumidero through the now navigable Grijalva River. The boat trip took ~2hrs and the last point on the river is the Dam of Manuel Moreno Torres. On our way back, the rain started with very big drops but it was pretty localized so when we arrived at Chiapa, no sign of wet clothes.
- Superb vegetation surrounding the river, acting as ecological reserve...
- ...and home of crocodiles which are common here and it was better to avoid having the hands in the water...
- 'La Cascada Arbol de Navidad'. Can you distinguish the face of a witch? It was pretty amazing especially when we approached closer to the waterfall which was dry as the rain season was not at its maximum,
- The altitude of the canyon is ~900metres at its maximum point. From this point, the 'Chiapa' Indians threw themselves into the river rather than letting the Spaniards trap them,
- 'la Cueva del Christo' or the 'Christ Cave' where the body similar to Jesus Christ {right of the ladder} can be seen. Also on the to left of the ladder, there is a statue of the Virgin surrounding by lots of red Christmas tinsel,
- The Dam of Manuel Moreno Torres or also called 'Chicoasen', which is the largest hydro plant in Mexico. With its 261meters, it is the 5th tallest in the world.

San Cristobal de Las Casas - photos 2

2009-06-09T21:05:00.001-07:00

San Cristobal de Las Casas:

- We went to visit the San Cristobal Church, situated on a hill, which offered also nice views of the town. To reach the church, couple of stairs in front of us...
- Nice views of the town but very difficult to take a decent picture with all the trees in front
- 'El Arco Del Carmen' or ' Carmen's Arc',
- From San Cristobal, we took a collectivo to visit San Juan Chamula, the indigenous Tzotzil Maya people. The town enjoys unique autonomous status within Mexico. No outside police or military are allowed in the village as the village has its own police force,
- The church is a curiosity on its own. There were no benches in the church and the floor was covered by green pine boughs and Coca-Cola bottles containing candles. Also there was smoke from the coal resin incense burning. It was not possible to take picture inside the church and the locals take very unkindly to anyone doing so....a japanese tourist was knocked out by a local man a few years ago for ignoring the warning signs.....
- In front of the church, there was a long queue of women, some carrying babies on their back. We did not know why they were queuing but we are thinking that was to collect some food tickets from the government as we saw some posters but we could be wrong...

San Cristobal de Las Casas - photos 1

2009-06-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

San Cristobal de Las Casas:

From the Agua Azul waterfall, we were supposed to go directly to San Cristobal as the Tour Agency told us. The waterfall is located ~60Km from Palenque by the road that leads towards San Cristobal. But at our surprise, the van from the Tour Agency started heading off to Palenque. He drove for 30min then stopped and we waited 30 min the bus which was taking us to San Cristobal. So we lost 1.5hr waiting and on the road and we arrived very late at San Cristobal. We really don't like Tour Agency!

San Cristobal de Las Casas {2200m altitude}, whose name underwent several changes over 300 years until the definitive name given in 1848, was founded by the Spaniard De Mazariegos in 1528. It was the capital of Chiapas State from the colonial era but the power passed to Tuxtla Gutierrez at the beginning of the 20th Century creating an internal war between the 2 towns. It retains many of the colonial buildings and churches.

What a change of temperatures when we arrived at San Cristobal!!! It was absolutely freezing and we went from passing the night on the top of the bed to under 4 blankets!!! We spent several days here because 1/ we went shoe shopping for Lee who finally found his new sandals after a 2 days shopping marathon {and we found them in the last shop we visited} ! , 2/ the rainy season had started and from 2pm it was badly pouring rain so we could visit the city and the surroundings only during the mornings {and you need to know that we are not early risers}.

- The Cathedral with its superb yellow and orange colours,
- The main plaza with 2 shoe cleaners in front. The shoe cleaners are pretty popular with the locals but not with us because we have been asked dozens of times to have our shoes cleaned but we are wearing sandals!
- How sad looked these 2 dogs? it was 2pm and it was pouring rain. I suppose dogs don't like too much rain...it is not Ellie, Lee's mum's dog, who is going to say the opposite, she hates to be wet also!!!
- Nice sunset with heavy grey clouds leaving some sun rays passing through, the picture was takenfrom the front terrace of the hostel,
- No TV in the room, pouring rain outside, we were laying cards for couple of hours. You can see how cold it was even in the room...
- We went to take a cup of coffee in a restaurant in front of the main plaza and we saw this original frame. Somebody obviously updated the picture with a nice surgical mask to remember the reality of our time...

Misol-Ha and Agua Azul Waterfalls - photos

2009-06-04T20:00:00.001-07:00

Misol-Ha and Agua Azul waterfalls:

From the ruins, we headed off to Misol-Ha and Agua Azul waterfalls situated at ~30Km from Palenque.

Misol-Ha, meaning 'Streaming Water' in the "Chol" tribe area of Chiapas, is a 35m waterfall falling down into a deep pool of water {reported to be up to 10m of depth}. It is possible to swim but being very careful and the water is cold. So we did not have a swim!

The Agua Azul waterfall, as the name indicates, has beautiful turquoise waters. The river Xumul-Ha (meaning River of Blue Water, or in Spanish, Agua Azul) features a series of torrential cascades and fast flowing waters rolling down a limestone ridge to form pools where it is possible to swim but not to close to the rocks. The limestone bed gives the waters here a turquoise-blue effect. Lee had a swim in the superb pools but the water was too cold for me so I took pictures.

- Misol-Ha waterfall surrounded by a luxurious vegetation...
- ...and Lee was happy to have the best photos,
- View of the Agua Azul river from the highest mirador platform. The river drops over a series of waterfalls and runs off into the distance...
-...and close view of the waterfalls,
- Superb turquoise waters, a real pleasure for the eyes, absolutely amazing,
- Lee could not wait to have a swim in these little pools taking care of course to not approaching to closely the edge of the waterfall.

Palenque - photos 2

2009-06-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

Palenque:

Temples from the Crosses group:
- 'Templo de la Cruz' or 'Temple of the Cross', temple dedicated to the son of the main Mayan ruler. This temple was accessible to climb...
- ... and gave a nice view of the Palace {right} and the Temple of the Inscriptions {far left},
- 'Templo de la Cruz Foliada' or ' Temple of the Foliated Cross' surrounded by jungle forest,
- The ruins are situated in a nice area with lots of orange-flowers trees and grass.

Palenque - photos 1

2009-06-03T17:54:00.001-07:00

Palenque or where Lee broke definitively his sandals...

From Campeche, we took the bus direction Palenque. Here we decided to go to visit the Mayan ruins with a tour agency as we will go at the same time to visit the waterfalls of Misol-Ha and Agua Azul. The visit to these waterfalls will be described in a different post. From the waterfalls, we will go directly to San Cristobal de Las Casas, our next stop. The village of Palenque had nothing special but that was the first time since Costa Rica we had a rainstorm...obviously we were out when it started and we arrived at the hotel all wet...

Palenque ruins is a medium-sized site, much smaller than sites as Tikal or Copan but it contains some of the finest architecture and sculpture produced by the Maya. The site was a main Mayan city from the 1st century to the 8th Century then only an agricultural population continued to live here for a few generations. The site was abandoned and few people were living there when the Spanish arrived in the early 16th Century.

- Draw of the site of Palenque. Not as big as Tikal but still lots of pyramids and buildings,
- The Palace and the Tower which is supposed to have served as an observatory. The tower was recreated mid-ninetieth Century,
- Original fine-sculpted tablet discovered in the Palace,
- The Temple of Inscriptions which is Palenques highest building {25 m} and also the house of the main Mayan ruler tomb, Pakal. The roof is a reconstruction and the temple was not accessible to climb,
- Lee and his sandals...they were in a very bad state for a long time but Lee did not want to buy a new pair... well after Palenque, that became an obligation!!!

Campeche - photos 2

2009-06-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Campeche:

We rented bikes for a morning and went to visit the San Miguel bastion, some kilometers away from the historic centre. We did not go to visit the fort of San Jose as we have been told by a guard that it was in a dodgy area. It was damn hot and we could not go up to the slope with our bikes.

San Miguel fort with San Jose fort were protecting the town from nearby hills on each side. They were built before the walls of the city. San Miguel fort is now a museum for pre-Hispanic civilizations. The fort of San Jose houses a collection of boats and weapons of the period.

- Ready for the ride...Lee had a nice bike but because I am smaller, it is difficult for me to find good bikes so I usually ride the rubbish ones...
- The fort of San Miguel, just in front of the sea,
- This canon looks ready to send a bullet to this ship...but the ship is a touristic /restaurant boat and the canon is too old to work...
- View of Campeche and the sea front from the fort.

Campeche - photos 1

2009-06-01T17:53:00.001-07:00

Campeche:

Ahh what a surprise, Campeche...We decided to stop in this town to avoid a long 11hrs bus journey from Merida to palenque {to visit the Mayan ruins}. As we do not have the guide book for Mexico, we had a look on internet and the pictures of Campeche looked nice. Well it is a very nice colonial town on the Mexico Gulf with lots of forts and walls surrounding the historical centre. We spent finally here 3days walking in the typical colonial streets with colorful one storey houses, enjoying ice-cream on the charming plaza in front of the superb cathedral and biking to visit some forts.

Campeche was founded in 1540 by the Spaniard San Francisco de Campeche on the pre-existing Mayan city of Canpech {few traces remained today}. The city retains many of the old colonial Spanish city walls and fortifications {built from 1686} which protected the city (not always successfully} from pirates. Campeche owns the status of UNESCO world Heritage site since 1999.

- 'La puerta de la Tierra' or 'land gate' built in 1732. It is a tourist attraction with sound and light demonstrations. This picture was taken at the sunset,
- The San Carlos Bastion, one of the numerous bastions which can be seen around the historical centre. Some have been transformed into museums and one into the botanical gardens,
- Sea front,
- 'La puerta del Mar' or the 'sea gate' just one block from the main plaza. With the land gate, it was the main entrance to the main quarters,
- The San Juan church, view by night. The picture is taken from the main plaza,
- I was here at the desk of the bus terminal. We arrived 20min before the departure of the bus and not lucky the printer of the ticket crashed just for me. That was the first time that had ever happened...finally we obtained our tickets after 15min and the bus was late...good for us...

Uxmal - photos

2009-05-28T20:48:00.001-07:00

Uxmal:

From Merida, we took a local bus which left us at the entrance of the Mayan site. Uxmal, like all the others archeological sites in Mexico, was closed for 5 days when the federal government decided to close restaurants, cinemas, schools...to avoid the virus of the influenza AH1N1 spreading all across Mexico. The site was reopening for midday.

Uxmal, whose name means 'That which was built three times' or 'place of abundant harvest' was occupied around 500 BC but the majority of the work was done between 600-1100 AD. The pyramids and other buildings are beautifully decorated and the architecture in this region is distinct from others sites in Yucatan and is known as the 'puuc' style.

So we arrived around 1 pm and it was pretty damn hot...the site was well conserved but a little too much. The restoration gave pyramids too perfect like made for a decor in a movie. Everything was too smooth but still nice ruins and we crossed only 5 tourists.

- View of the 'pyramid of the Magician', 35m height which is still holding a large number of enigma. The last excavation showed that the pyramid was the ritual centre and residence of Chaac, the last governor of Uxmal. The architecture of this pyramid is quite unusual: the layers of the step pyramid are oval, rather than the usual rectangular or square shape.
- panoramic view of the site with on the right, the pyramid of the Magician and in the centre, the Quadrangle of the Nuns and the Quadrangle of the Birds. The picture was taken from the Temple of the Turtles situated close to the Governor's House,
- Close view of a corner of the Quadrangle of the Nuns. We can distinguish three faces with very weird noses...very typical of the architecture of Mayan people,
- The Governor's House is one of the most representative building of Uxmal site; it is considered by experts as a wonder of the ancient world for its precision and architectonic beauty with the longest facades in the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica,
- We were witnesses to a fight of iguanas just at the bottom of the pyramid of the Magician. Not sure if they were fighting for real or if it was just a game or if they were trying to mate...we will never know...except maybe in nine months time.....

Merida - photos

2009-05-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

Merida or where Lee found finally his new pair of sunglasses:

We arrived in Merida mid-afternoon and it was very hot. Due to a problem with my back, Lee was kindly carrying my backpack and we walked from the bus terminal to the main plaza for 15min but an eternity for him and he did not have sunglasses. Well he lost them in Tulum at the internet cafe. He bought a new pair in playa Del Carmen in the Wall Mart supermarket but they were not solid at all and he broke them in the bus to Merida...he was not very happy...

Merida, capital of the state of Yucatan, was founded in 1542 by Francisco de Montejo son and was built in the site of the Mayan city T'ho. Buildings and monuments were built using the stone of the Mayan houses and some are still visible in the town centre. Also the main monuments built during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are still standing in the historical centre.

So in Merida, sunglasses shopping. But we had also a look to this pretty colonial town where it was very hot...From here we went to visit the Mayan ruins of Uxmal. We did not go to visit the ruins of Chitchen Itza as they were further away and Uxmal and Chitchen Itza present similarity in the architecture.

- The 'palacio municipal' or the town hall by night, built in 1836. In front, the main plaza,
- View of the plaza grande with in the background the cathedral of San Ildefonso. Considered like the first cathedral de America, the monument was built from mid to end of the sixteenth century,
- On the right of the cathedral, a narrow street was the place of an exposition of abstract art from a Mexican artist. Well for being abstract, this art was absolutely out of our knowledge of art and we had lot of problem to understand the name of the statue and its representation,
- Again, a cat. After the shy cat we gave food in playa Del Carmen, this was the cat of the hostel and her name was Mirela and she was not shy at all. She followed us in our room and started to read the guide book. Well not sure she liked it because after 5secondes, she turned her head. She had her proper chair in the lounge of the hostel with her photo stuck on the table,
- Lee tried lots of sunglasses and spent a long time to decide the model he wanted. But he liked his pair of fake RayBan bought in Cartagena {Colombia} and wanted to find similar model but without success. There were some original RayBan but out of his budget. So at the end I started to take pictures with the different pairs of sunglasses so he could compare all the models. The employees of the shop were amazed and found us a little weird. Telling them that finding the right pair of sunglasses was very important was not so easy especially for a man.

Playa del Carmen - photos

2009-05-28T19:47:00.001-07:00

Playa Del Carmen:

Well, when we reached Tulum, it was the beginning of the influenza epidemic. We followed the news by internet and that was not looking too good. Our first intention was to head off to Merida after Tulum but by precaution, in case of the situation worsened, we decided to move to Playa Del Carmen, 45min from Cancun Airport but far enough from Cancun to avoid the crowd of tourists.

When we arrived to Playa Del Carmen, there were some tourists. When we left the town was quasi deserted. Lots of tourists had taken a plane earlier than planned and lots of them had canceled flights. For us, we stayed in a nice hostel close to the beach, following the news and reassuring our parents that everything was alright and that the epidemic was not as bad as people were thinking at the beginning. Also in the Yucatan peninsula, no case of flu was detected. So after a week of farniente {white sand beach, playing cards, siesta...}, we decided to carry on our trip and we headed off to Merida.

- Playa Del Carmen is a touristic destination but less crowded than Cancun. A part of the coast is covered by hotel resorts like this one in the picture,

- But we stayed in the town centre where the beach was quite empty and mostly used by locals,

- These pelicans were carefully looking at the sea for some food. Very impressive to see them diving at a good speed in the sea to catch fish!!

- While we were staying at the hostel, this cat was visiting us every night just for diner time!! It was very shy, a little wild too. It would not approach us except if we were at 1m from it,

- But tempted by some nice food, I could take this close picture. It didn´t look very happy!

Tulum (Mexico) - photos 2

2009-05-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Tulum - Mayan ruins

The Tulum ruins are the third most visited archaeological site in Mexico, especially due to its location close to Cancun (2hrs South). The name is coming from the walls surrounding the site (tulum = wall in Yucatec Mayan) which were protecting the Tulum fort against invasion. The architecture of the site is resembling the Chitzen Itza ruins but Tulum is much smaller.

The city was first mentioned at the beginning of the 16th Century but was first described by an American explorer mid-19th century. It has been determined that Tulum was occupied by the late post-classic period (around AD 1200). The site continued to be occupied until contact with the Spanish was made in the early 16th century with the site being abandoned completely by the end of the 16th century.

The pictures represent views of the ruins. The main temple is situated on the cliffs. None of the buildings could be visited inside or we could not walk around. The colour of the sea was amazing, this turquoise is superb. We spent here a couple of hours, enjoying the views and taking iguanas in pictures. There were dozens of them in the site and lot of them were sunbathing in front of the sea! Not a bad life for them!!!

Tulum (Mexico)- photos 1

2009-05-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Tulum (Mexico):

We arrived in Tulum after a bus journey from Belize City via Chetumal. Here we decided to stay in the town centre and not to move in a hotel close to the beach because there was no collectivo service between the centre and the beach (only taxi charging quite a lot of money) and because of the price will be more expensive.

First thing I did prior to visiting Tulum was to buy a new camera. Lee's camera takes nice pictures {and Lee too} but it is too complicated for me so I needed absolutely a new one if I wanted to continue to write this blog. Lucky, I found a Sony camera similar to my broken one. Now we were ready to see Tulum and its surroundings!

We rented bikes and went for a swim in the cenotes or underwater caves. Here we can swim, snorkle or dive. Then we went to visit the Mayan ruins, probably the closest ruins to the beach. Colours of the water were amazing as you will see on the pictures. Then before returning to town we stopped to the beach for a swim. It was 35C and we were all sweaty!!!

- Cenote Calavera. It is like a big hole...
- ...in which Lee was having a swim. He borrowed equipment for snorkling from a couple of Canadians and explored the cave which had a very clear water,
- The beach, superb turquoise water and white sand. Also not crowded, very nice,
-Very relaxing atmosphere on the beach,
- There were iguanas everywhere here. And they were easy to take in picture a little used too probably. This one gave me its better smile!

Belize City - photos

2009-05-21T16:42:00.001-07:00

Belize City:

From Placencia, we took a bus for Belize City which used to be the capital of Belize. After the hurricane which devastated the city in 1961, the governement (in 1970) decided to move all the institutions to Belmopan, close to the Guatemalan frontier. We passed by Belmopan in the bus and there was absolutly no charm and nothing here except concrete block buildings.

Well there was no charm either in Belize City. Obviously due to the hurricanes, the town is made now by concrete block buildings. Only few colonial buildings remained. It was also raining all the afternoons so after some walk during the morning, siesta, reading and cards for the afternoon! And what a pain to call my mum! The only telecommunications company which is also the only internet supplier has banned people to download and use Skype. The Belizian government has told the company to lift the ban but nothing has been done! So I needed to use normal phone but the office of the company was closed on a Saturday! Finally we found a shop selling cards to phone and I get only 6 min as the coast was 4 quid! Well after that, it was time to leave Belize for Mexico...the epidemic of influenza was beginning...

- The Belize river and the famous Swing bridge. Built in 1923 in Liverpool, the bridge is the only manually operated swing bridge in the world,
- View of the Fort George area which is the touristic place of Belize City,
- Drugstore close to the market place,
- The market place and its colourful benches. In the background the Highcourt building,
- How difficult was it to call my mum! That was a long time since Argentina that I had not used the public phone!

Placencia (Belize) - photos

2009-05-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Placencia (Belize):

From Rio Dulce, we took the boat to Livingston a small town on the edge of the lake Izabal. Here, we waited a couple of days for the ferry to leave for Belize. It was very humid and hot with lots of mosquitos! We spent our time reading and playing cards as nothing to do here. No picture either as nothing to see!

From Livingston, the journey on the ferry took 1hr and was not too bad. Obviously, I did not get any breakfast prior to leaving! But the sea was pretty calm.
We arrived at Punta Gorda, South of Belize and what a surprise to hear english!! Due to the fact that Belize is a former British colony, English is the official language. Even Lee had some issue switching back to his mother tongue! Well, it was not so easy to understand them because they are talking a mix between creole and english and also the Garifuna.

From Punta Gorda, we took the bus to Independence then a small boat for Placencia, a small village on the Carribean coast. In Belize, we will stop only in Placencia and Belize City because things are very expensive here. There are nice cayes and nice Mayan ruins on the West but we could not afford to stay too long.

In Placencia it was very cloudy and windy and we had some rain during the afternoon. Not the idyllic holidays! Lee spent most of his time fishing and caught 3 medium size yellow tail snappers. We had them for diner, very nice! And it was nice to have our own kitchen for 3 days because we could cook nice home dishes and without the trouble to have other persons messing around! Still no camera for me so all the pictures taken in Belize are from Lee.

- Sunrise on the Carribean Sea. Very cloudy already...
- Early afternoon, the sky was getting more cloudy and rain was very close,
- Lee was happy to catch some fish. This one was too small to be eaten but he caught 3 decent size yellow tail snappers...
- ...which I prepared in the French way...sliced onion, sliced lemon, sliced tomato, sliced mushrooms, a little of oil et voila! Bon appetit!

Rio Dulce - photos

2009-05-13T12:55:00.001-07:00

Rio Dulce or where I broke my camera (with Lee's help!):

From El Remate, we had two options: heading directly to Belize via Melchor de Mencas or heading east and crossing the frontier via Livingston. Even if the second option was more expensive, we choose to go to Rio Dulce then Livingston as that would be our last opportunity to take the boat.

From Santa Elena, we took a direct bus to Rio Dulce and found a nice hostel on the bank of the Izabal Lake.
Lee was happy as he caught lots of fishes just on bread. As we did not have access to the kitchen, we asked the chef if she could bake some fishes for us. She joined us on the wood pier and was amazed to see all these fishes. She said that was exceptional because normally locals catch few and small fishes. At the end of the afternoon, we had a big bag full of different fishes and in particular the locals' favorite, the "mojarra". The chef gave some to a neighbour family and kept the rest for the lunch next day. The next day, when with the owner of the hostel we came back from town for lunch, the fishes have gone!!! The cooker shared them between the gardeners, the cleaners and other people!!! Lee saved in-extremis a piece for me but the owner and himself did not get any!!! We were not happy at all because even if there were lot of fishes and enough for everybody, the courtesy was to first give some to the fisherman then to dispatch to the rest of people. Later, the owner recognised that has been very impolite from the chef as he wanted to taste some fish too. Lee tried to catch more fish this evening but the good fortune has gone and only 5 fishes were in the basket! Personally, without putting in doubt Lee's talent for fishing, I think that was exceptional to have all these fishes on the same place! Lee says it was his genius.....

The same day, I broke my camera. Well my camera was on the edge of my chair and when Lee tried to get through the way, he kicked the camera with his elbow. The camera fell on the floor and the lens did not work anymore. I had this camera for 2 years and all along our trip. Well I will have to find a new one!

From Rio Dulce, we took the boat to reach Livingston. The trip was supposed to last 2hrs but we reached Livingston in 1hr, stopping very quickly in some sites where we were supposed to stay longer...but the scenery was superb!

- The bank of the Izabal Lake close to our hostel. Lee was fishing from a similar wood pier...
-...and lucky, he caught lot of fishes like this long silver one (whose name I have forgotten!)...
- or like this "mojarra", a bony and spiky fish but with a very tasty meat. At the end of the afternoon, there were at least 20 fishes in the bag!
- How cute is she!! This female dog stayed with us during the fishing having one's eye on the pieces of bread that Lee was using for fishing. She was very affectionate,
- From here, my camera broken, I asked Lee to take some pictures for me. This photo was taken during the cruise to join Livingston. As I said previously, superb scenery, everything was green, from the water to the trees!,
- View of "el Castillo de San Felipe" or the "castle of San Felipe". This fortress was built in 1652 to keep pirates away from the villages. After being burned by some pirates and left in ruins, the castle was reconstructed in 1956,
- One of the point of interest during our cruise was the lily pad carpet but as this time of the year, there was not many!!!

Tikal - photos 2

2009-05-13T11:20:00.001-07:00

Tikal:

- View of the Temple II from the main plaza. You can distinguish on the left of the pyramid some stairs. Well, encouraged by Lee, I went up and the view from the platform (just in front of the door) was superb. From here, I took the 2 next pictures. That done, going down was more traumatic and took me long time...but I did it and I was happy!
- View of the main plaza and the Temple I or the Temple of the Great Jaguar. Climbing this Temple was permitted some time ago but due to some deaths of tourists (the stairs are very steep and the stones not very well straight) it is now not possible to climb,
- View of the North Acropolis,
- Lost World Pyramid, 30m high, a true pyramid with stairways in 3 sides,
- Main of the trails were crossing the tropical forest and Lee could not abstain to play with the vines like Tarzan!

Tikal - photos 1

2009-05-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

Tikal ruins:

From El Remate, we took a collectivo at 5.20am to be on site by 6am for the sunrise over the ruins. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and only a couple of sun rays were filtering through the clouds but it was also nice. Then we spent the day walking in the ruins which were surrounded by tropical forest and having a kip mid-morning as we were tired (we woke up at 4.45am!). Very very impressive!!!

Some history about Tikal:
Tikal is one of the largest archeological sites of the Maya civilization situated in the Peten region. In 1979, it was declared Unesco world heritage site. Tikal was one of the major mayan cultural and population centers, dominating in all domains the Maya region during 200 to 900AD (called the Classic Period). Due to many wars with other Maya states, the site declined and by the end of the 10th Century it was abandoned but the knowledge of the site was never completely lost...in the 19th Century, Stephens an American explorer reported the existence of a "lost city" and mid-19th Century, the site was visited the first time by explorers Mendez and Tut.

- View of the front summit of the Temple I and the back summit of the Temple II (left); view of the back summit of Temple V. This picture, and the next one, were taken from Temple IV, 70m high (or 230 feet). It was around 6.45am when we reached Temple IV which is the Northern of the Temple (see photo of the site). Grey sky with lots of clouds...
- Summit of the lost world Pyramid, 30m high,
- Map of Tikal site. Schematically, the trails have a form like a bird. On the top end, it is Temple IV, at the end of the left wing, Temple VI. The main plaza with Temple I and II is situated at the face of the bird,
- Temple V,
- A system of stairs allowed visitors to reach the summit of the Temple. Lee, who does not suffer from altitude sickness, went up. We can distinguish him in the middle of the stairs system (with a red top and a black bag). I was waiting at the bottom of the pyramid. No, it is not because I am not comfortable with the altitude, somebody needed to stay down to take the pictures!!!

El Remate - photos 2

2009-05-12T08:39:00.001-07:00

El Remate:

Pictures around the lake
- Nice little cabana on the lake whose colour during the afternoon was turquoise,
- A picture for my niece, Julie who adores horses. This one was having its diner by picking up the grass from the bottom of the lake. This grass was probably a better quality than the one on land!!
- This family was leaving the lake after washing some clothes. On its way, they crossed this pig which was quietly having a walk!!!
- Lee was very tired this evening especially after visiting the Tikal ruins as we waked up at 4.45am! But nice picture with the sun lighting his face,
- Sunset on the lake.

El Remate - photos 1

2009-05-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

El Remate:

We moved to El Remate after Flores as the views of the lake were supposed to be nice.

Arriving at El Remate, we found that this small village had only one road, the main road which connects Santa Elena to Tikal. Only a couple of hostels, restaurants and tiny shops were situated on the main road. More restaurants and hotels were available close to the lake but prices were out of our budget.

We went to vist the Biotopo Cerro Cahui, obviously during the middle of the day where there is the most heat!! Nice miradors and a couple of birds. To relax, with the sunset, we had a nice walk around the lake. We went also to visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal (see future post).

- But what was Lee doing? ...
- Hopefully for him, he managed to avoid the spikes of this tree. Obviously, this was all arranged! Lots of trees in this park had very sharp spikes...good sense of defense from these trees!
- A nice picture, a dragonfly and we know how difficult it is to take then in picture. But lots of patience is paying off!
- View of the Peten Lake (with some haze) from the mirador in the park.

Flores - photos

2009-05-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

Flores:

We stayed a couple of days in Coban prior to reaching Flores but Coban was a town without charm so I have not taken a picture. To reach Flores, we took a collectivo to Sayaxche. Then here we crossed the Rio De la Pasion in small boat and then took another collectivo to Santa Elena, the closest town to go to Flores. Flores is an island on the Peten Lake, connected to the land and Santa Elena by an artificial isthmus.

We stayed also a couple of days in Flores, mainly relaxing, doing some shopping at Santa Elena and trying to find a bank which will want to give some money to Lee! No worries, after trying half a dozen of ATM, he found the good one!

- Sayaxche. Waiting to cross the Rio De La Pasion...
- Cars, trucks and buses are crossing using the ferry. Depending on the way the boat is going, the person in charge of the motor moves to a different little place (where we can see the parasol). Very efficient!
- Flores. Evening. View from the balcony of our hotel,
- Sunset on the Lake Peten,
- Superb picture of this small boat. The contrast of the colours between the white, blue and green is nice,
- Lee was having a swim to cool down in the lake whose water was very clear. He looks like Godzilla getting out of the lake.......

From Uspantan to Coban...video

2009-05-08T14:03:00.001-07:00

Due to the bumps in the road it was hard to keep focused.....I tried my best!!! How impressive is this road.....

From Uspantan to Coban...photos

2009-05-08T14:02:00.001-07:00

From Uspantan to Coban...

From Chichi, our destination was to reach Flores and the Tikal ruins. But as the distance was too long we decided to have a break in Coban.

From Chichi, we took a "collectivo" (or van for around 15 persons) to the capital of the region Santa Cruz Del Quiche. Nothing to report. From here, we took another "collectivo" to Uspantan. Here also nothing to report. Arriving to Uspantan at about 11am, we learned that the collectivo for Coban has already left and the next one was at 4.30pm! Obviously we were not very happy and locals more than us! Finally a collectivo from an another company arrived and departure to Coban at 2.30pm. And the 2 hours we spent to reach Coban were the most amazing from all our trip (and we saw many countries!!!). After 30min on normal road, the road was only a dirt road, then approaching to the village of San Cristobal Verapaz, we passed a very delicate zona where a full side of the mountain was missing due to a landslide. Amazing!!! Just amazing but how dangerous!!!

What has happened? I found the story in the newspaper 1 month later. In January 2009, the side of the mountain collapsed taking the lives of 22 people. The government had placed signs to not use the road crossing the mountain due to the instability of the soil due to a seismic rift. But locals were still using the road ...when the accident occurred. Then in March, due to the lack of action from the government (which is thinking that the area is of too much danger), locals created the road we took and volunteers, situated to the control gate (open between 6am-6pm) filter the cars to prevent 2 cars passing at the same time as the road was not very stable and collect a toll to start the building of a proper road. There is an alternative road (not without dangers too) but as a deviation, instead of 10min, 2 hours are necessary to pass the mountain. So locals, like the collectivo we took, are using the temporary road.

- The beginning of the dirt road. Lee, me and a young boy were situated in the passenger seat (stuck like sardines!!!) and I was literally stuck to the door with the window fully open (very hot) and I was on a first place to see in detail the road and the surroundings. Nice position too to get some nice pictures!
- First sign: "Danger, zona of precipices, there is no way to go." Hum...what is that?
- Second sign: "You are going along your own risk. Municipality of San Cristobal Verapaz". Hum...where are we going?
- Then after passing a control gate, we approached to the danger zona and we saw this full side of the mountain missing,
- This is the road we took during 10min,
- A panoramic view of the road (bottom left) and the missing side of the mountain. The picture was taking from a higher point as after going down to pass the mountain we went slowly up again.

Chichicastenango - photos 2

2009-05-07T20:53:00.001-07:00

Chichi:

The Good Friday celebration.

- These men were wearing the traditional costume and were not too happy to see us taking pictures. One of them told Lee to stop or give some money in a not very nice way. Some indigenous people are very suspicious and don't like photos,
- A nice photo of local women wearing the traditional costume and carrying the platform. That was a difference with Antigua where women were wearing the black dress with the white mantillas (typical Spanish costume). They were very into it as we can see on their very serious faces,
- Very imposing platform of Jesus Christ. The haze was coming from the fumes of the incense that kids were swinging all over,
- Platform of the Virgen Mary, carried by the women. Looks very heavy and not very easy to handle especially in the narrow streets. The pictures were taken from the balcony of our hotel which was situated on the parade route,
- A difference too with Antigua was the presence of singers in the crowd. Two local women were singing catholic songs in Spanish and in Kiche with the musicians playing live. Everything was not perfect but these local group brought a particular charm to the procession. We can still remember the chorus of one song: "Estoy pensando en Dioooooooooooooooooos, estoy pensando en su amoooooooooooooooor!!!" (I am thinking about God, I am thinking about his love).
- The streets of Chichi were very crowed but only with locals. It was nice to be part of this procession.

Chichicastenango - photos 1

2009-05-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

Chichicastenango:

From Panajachel , the Thursday, we headed off to Chichicastenango or Chichi for the famous handcraft market. We will follow the Good Friday procession here.

Unfortunately, probably due to the Holy Week festivities, the handcraft market was 1/8th of its normal size. Roughly, the same souvenirs were sold here as in Panajachel but at a cheaper price. We had good deals on a lot of presents that we are still carrying with us now!

The Friday, the Procession was a mixture between catholic and indigenous beliefs. In Chichi, 95% of the population are indigenous and 93% of them have got the Kiche as first language. Most of the women were wearing the traditional costume and some local men too. Only few tourists were present but one American guy was particularly annoying even taking pictures of kids that Lee was photographing after giving them some lollipops. The American was playing the stupid guy with lots of stupid "Ho!" and "Ha". Very annoying.

- The market place is situated in between the 2 churches of the village. Thursday and Sunday are market days and the day before, the sellers are installing the framework to be ready early the next day. And at the end of the day, they uninstall the framework. And this, twice a week!
- What a discovery? Are these chicks not cute? Inside the market, 2 boys were selling these coloured chicks. Yes they were alive. We thought at the beginning there were toys! 1 Quetzal for a chick so 5 pence the chick. Not sure if they will grow keeping their bright colours!
- We met this little boy in the street, he was asking for a couple of Quetzals, very common thing here with tourists. In exchange, we could take a picture of him. How proud he looks! We gave him some money and he ran shouting "gracias". I think he was going to buy some sweets!
- As I mentioned in the "Antigua post", the tradition here too is to prepare rugs for the processions. While waiting for the afternoon procession (which started at 4.30pm and not 3pm!), we spent our time watching kids and men (no women around, just only for the finishing touches!) preparing as carefully as possible the rugs. Well, we know how men are doing on DIY jobs and other delicate work!!!
- This little boy was removing the branch of the big husk bizarre plant to use for the rugs. I have obviously forgotten the name of this plant which is used specifically for the Semana Santa, not sure if it is used only in Chichi or also around Guatemala. I was so impressed by this plant that the little kid offered me 2 little branches. I did not keep them because of the strong smell,
- Finally after long hours of work and laughing, the rug was complete and occupied the full street. We can see the white branches on each side of the rug.

Panajachel - video

2009-05-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

This is a monkey who was having a little of fun. Watch out for him swapping arms and using his tail...from the Atitlan Natural Reserve...

Panajachel - photos 2

2009-05-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

Panajachel - Santa Catarina Palopo:

During our last day in Panajachel, we went to visit the village of Santa Catarina de Palopo after an hour walk on the paved road which relies Panajachel, Santa Catarina and San Antonio Palopo. This road is the only road in the village. The vast majority of the inhabitants are indigenous, descending from the Cakchiquel Maya.

- Panoramic views of the village situated between the side of the hill and the lake. There is a big difference between the houses situated on the side of the hill (very basic) and the ones situated on the side of the lake, surely hotels with all this green trees. The contrast here between poor people and rich people was well visible,
- How cute were these little girls? While we were walking in the main street, we were taking pictures of kids because there were very cute. These little girls saw us taking pictures and approached us asking gently for a Quetzal (the local money which corresponds to 8pence). As I said previously, many people here were indigenous and we could see around us a certain poverty. We gave them a couple of Quetzals and some sweets with the agreement of their mum who came outside the house to see what was happening. Some parents were very suspicious and lots refused to have their kids taken in photo. But lots of kids accepted to be taken in picture for a couple of Quetzals whose use is to buy a lollipop!! That was did the little girls and we found them in the shop. We bought them finally more sweets and Lee bought roughly all the sweets of the shop...
- ...to give to a dozen of kids who were playing in the street. He was surrounded by a horde of noisy kids all asking gently for more lollipops and sweets!!! And their favorite sentence was "one more for my sister and brother who are not here, please"!!
Please note the traditional costume specific to Santa Catarina that the little girl on the left is wearing: the blue huipil or blouse. The women of the community are wearing this huipil since the 15th Century but the colour has been modernized following the western influences.

Panajachel - photos 1

2009-05-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

Panajachel:

We headed off to Panajachel the Monday after the Palm Sunday. Here also very touristic but Panajachel is a charming town situated on the shore of the lake Atitlan. Founded during the 16th Century by the Spanish and was used as a centre to convert the indigenous population to the catholic religion. Now it is a strategic point used by tourists to visit the Lake Atitlan, the deepest lake in Central America.

- The volcano San Pedro. During our stay in Panajachel, only one day was clear of haze and we could take nice pictures of the 3 volcanoes surrounding the lake,
- Volcanoes Toliman (in front) and Atitlan, still active even if the last eruption is dated from 1853,
- Sunset on the Lake,
- I like this picture of this dog. If you have a close look to the picture (or copy and zoom), you can see the dog smiling with his eyes not looking at me. I am sure he knew he was taken in picture and was playing the star. And what a hair-cut!!! It is like if he put tons of hair gel to have his hair standing up like that!!! Superb!
- At 20min walking from Panajachel, we went to visit the Atitlan Natural Reserve. This reserve is home to monkeys, a butterfly farm, trails, zip-lines, camping...The trails were easy to follow and it was necessary to cross a series of bridges like this one to reach the top of the hill which offered nice view of the lake,
- We saw 2 monkeys in the park. The guide book mentioned lots of monkeys!! Obviously, as soon as there are more than one monkey, there are lots!!! We stay watching them long enough to see one of them having a swing and fun on a branch. Please see the video for a good laugh!!

Antigua Guatemala - photos 4

2009-05-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

Antigua - Palm Sunday procession:

Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem in the days before his Passion and palm leaves are blessed. That was for the information.

We have been a little disappointed by this procession. I think the celebration of the Semana Santa (Holy Week) has been reported so fabulous that we probably expected to see more people in the procession (not tourists) and more "opulence". But it was still interesting to watch the procession because in our countries the celebrations are different (and less spectacular).

- During the Holy Week processions, inhabitants create what we can call "rugs" or "alfombras" on the streets in front of their houses. This tradition is very important and very strong in Guatemala. These rugs are made from wood shreds which have been colored before their use and flowers, seeds, fruits, leaves... This tradition is more than 500 years old and can be attributed to an heritage of the indigenous culture amplified with a Spanish influence. This kind of decoroation can be found in the Canary Islands or in the Catalan region. During the colonial era, the Franciscans encouraged to create these rugs maintenaining the religiousness of people. Today, by preparing these rugs, people and families show their attachment to the religion. Only the people carrying the portable platforms can march on these rugs,
By order of entrance during the procession:
- Roman soldiers,
- Penitents wearing purples tunics walking on each side of the road,
- Portable platform of the Christ,
- Small platforms of the Virgen and the Christ,
- Platform of the Virgin Mary,
-...and the cleaners with a superb new truck to collect all the remains of the "alfombras" and any rubbishes left by the crowd!! What an organisation!!

Antigua Guatemala - photos 3

2009-05-01T15:10:00.003-07:00

Antigua:

We went to climb the Pacaya Volcano. Nothing to difficult with well designed paths and a guide. The views at the top were absolutely amazing! No lava was present but still a superb volcano. From the Pacaya volcano, we had nice views of the 3 others volcanoes which are surrounding Antigua. After the sunset, we ran and slid down the slope, how fun was that!!! We had sand everywhere and all our faces was covered by a beige coat. The next day was less funny as our legs were very sore but a day of rest and gone!

- The Pacaya volcano with in front the horses which were available (with some money!) to bring you up to the top if you were tired. No I did not need one!
- A close view of the volcano. The darker areas represent cold lava which accumulate at the foot of the volcano. No lava could be seen on this side of the volcano,
- But some could be seen in the right side - the bright orange lines on the picture. Because of lots of groups of visitors, we did not approach too much the volcano,
- The 3 others volcanoes around Antigua with from left: Volcano de Fuego is famous for being almost constantly active at a low level. Smoke issues from its top daily, but larger eruptions are rare. Volcano Acatenango latest eruption was in 1972 and it is since inactive. Volcano de Agua is now inactive. View from the centre of Antigua,
- Lee in front of these volcanoes,
- 2 superb sunsets with the volcanoes as background. The cloud on the left volcano represent the fumes issued by the Volcano de Fuego.

Antigua Guatemala - photos 2

2009-05-01T15:10:00.001-07:00

Antigua:

We attended the procession "Viernes de Dolores" or "Friday of Pains", the Friday just before Palm Sunday. The procession commemorates the pains of the Virgen Mary and is a kids procession in Antigua. The little girls are wearing normally white dresses with lace mantillas. The boys are wearing purple tunics.

- This little girl was happy to be photographed. She was smiling when I told her she was very pretty,
- Little girls (around 5 years old) were carrying this portable platform of the Virgen, with the help of an adult of course! Looks heavy for these little girls!
- The boys were carrying a most imposing portable platform of the Christ. On each side of the road, the parents were giving sweets, ice-creams...to their children. The procession was more a holiday march and by the end little organization was remaining! I can't blame them!
- For the celebration of the Holy Week and especially of the Palm Sunday, groups of locals were selling bouquets in front of the church La Merced. No palm leaves here but bouquets made with dried flowers and artificial leaves,
- A local woman was preparing a bouquet of flowers. She is wearing the typical costume of this part of the country.

Antigua Guatemala - photos 1

2009-05-01T15:08:00.001-07:00

Antigua Guatemala or referred to just as Antigua:

From Copan in Honduras, we headed off to Antigua just before the beginning of the Holy Week. We skipped Guatemala City (as we did for the last capital cities) because of their similarities (except probably Panama City). San Jose and San Salvador were two examples.

Antigua, or as it was called in the past as "Santiago de los Cabelleros" was founded in 1543 by the Spaniards and became the capital of the Spanish Colony of Guatemala. In 1717 and 1773, the town was hit by earthquakes, making the Spanish to move the capital to a new town, Nueva Guatemala de la Asuncion or Guatemala City. The badly damaged city of Antigua was left quite abandoned with vestiges of the colonial architecture. It was slowly rebuilt retaining much of its colonial character.

We spent 5 days in Antigua, walking in the paved streets and visiting the colonial church ruins all over the town. We climbed the active Pacaya volcano. We saw some lava but far from us (some guys in the hostel told us there was lava everywhere when they went to climb the volcano!) but very nice sunset. We attended 2 processions, the "Viernes de Dolores" or "Friday of Pains" and the "Domingo de Ramos" or "Palm Sunday". Then we left Antigua for Panajachel close to the Atitlan Lake.

- Facing the main plaza, the Palacio de los Capitanes. From 1558 to 1773, this Palace was the governmental center of all Central America, from Chiapas (now in Mexico) to Costa Rica. The arcades were added in the 1760s. When we went to Antigua, the Palacio was under renovation,
- Also situated in one side of the main plaza, the cathedral de Santiago. This cathedral was founded in 1542, was badly damaged by earthquakes and thieves and was partially restored between 1780 and 1820. Lots of facade works were on-going when we arrived in Antigua, surely to show a more presentable face of the cathedral for the Holy Week celebrations!
- The famous Santa Catalina Arch. Part of the Monastery of Santa Catalina, it was built in the early 17th Century to allow the sisters to pass from one side of the Monastery to the other one. Earthquakes destroyed the Monastery and the Arch is the only remnant,
- Facade of the La Merced Church. The construction started in 1548 with more improvements after the earthquakes of 1717 and 1773. The church was restored end of the 19th Century and the baroque facade is coming from this period,
- Inside the ruins of the Monastery of La Merced, we were amazed by this superb fountain 27m of diameter, possibly the largest in Central America!
- One of the multiples ruins of churches which can be seen around Antigua. Can't remember the name of this one, sorry!
- Typical streets of Antigua with ground floor colored houses.

Copan (Honduras) - photos 3

2009-05-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Copan:

Two different pictures of Lee:

- Does that not remember you Jason Statham? The picture was taken while we were visiting the ruins and as you can see and again! (see LaPalma post), Lee was playing the star!! I can tell that the picture has been a little retouched via photoshop...

- And that is Lee the day before waiting for his food in the restaurant. This cat was turning around us and suddenly it jumped on Lee´s knee. Lee who normally is not a fan of cats smiled to the cat because it had a funny face as you can see on the picture!!! How cute it looks!!!

Copan (Honduras) - photos 2

2009-05-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

Copan:

These sculptures and steleas are all well conserved and you can notice how the Mayans had the sense of the details and they have even been copied!! Have you recognised Tony the Tiger from Frosties??? Everybody on the site was amazed by the resemblance of this sculpture with the tiger. As we know the Mayans did not eat Frosties for breakfast...

Copan (Honduras) - photos 1

2009-04-27T12:37:00.001-07:00

Copan (Honduras):

From La Palma, we took a bus to the frontier where we had to pay again the entrance fee for Honduras. I pointed out to the agent that we had already paid when we passed the frontier to reach El Salvador but he told me that we had to pay every time we cross the frontier! All is good to take some money!
A bus from Coatepeque brought us to La Entrada. From here, we took a "collectivo" or a taxi-van which can contain normally around 15 persons. We were 28 persons in this van!!! All stucked like sardines! And as a result, we had 2 flat tyres and hopefully the second one was when we just reached Copan because the van did not got 2 spare tyres on its roof!

In Copan, we went to visit the Mayan ruins, which are less known than the Tikal ruins in Guatemala but contain beautiful temples, altars and stelaes whose sculptured decorations of the buildings of Copán are some of the very finest surviving art of ancient Mesoamerica.

Copan was our only stop in Honduras. We decided not to go to visit the Bay Islands on the Caribbean Coast as that will extend considerably our trip (well from the 6 months planned at the beginning we are at 7 months already!). So from Copan we will go directly to Antigua in Guatemala.

- Drawing of the site. We did not buy a map of the site because that was to add to the expensive entrance fee. So I took a picture of the drawing and we could see where we were going easily!
- Panoramic view of the main plaza with the ballcourt building. The Mayans were playing a ball game but it is still not clear how they were playing it. Because we were here during the dry season, there was no grass as it is possible to see in some postcards,

- This large parrot or "guacamaya" was eating its breakfast with 3 others parrots. They were just at the entrance of the main plaza and we were lucky to see them so close because normally they are high in the trees,

- View of "la escalinata de los Jeroglificos" or "staircase of the hieroglyphs" which is protected by a canopy and which contains the most important hieroglyphs of all Mesoamerica,
- Inside the Acropolis.

La Palma - photos

2009-04-23T12:27:00.005-07:00

La Palma:

After Suchitoto, as we were heading north to Honduras and the Copan ruins, we decided to stop at La Palma, a village 30min close to the frontier. La Palma is known for its colorful streets and houses as Fernando Llort, a Salvadorian painter, moved here in 1972 founding the Naive Art. This Art, still representing El Salvador all around the world, is made by bright primitive images painted in all sorts of supports.

In the bus from Suchitoto to La Palma, I met a nice Salvadorian woman, Lilian, and we chatted for more than 30 min. We discussed about our different lifes and there were lots of difference. She was amazed about the European way of life, so far from hers. We exchanged addresses and I have already sent to her a post card of Guatemala. I hope I will keep contact with her because she was very nice.
In La Palma, we spent the afternoon walking in the small streets, nice to see so much colours everywhere. The next day, we wanted to see the Pital Mountain, the highest peak in El Salvador. We arrived at 9am in the close village of San Antonio to take the bus but unfortunately, the bus was not leaving at 9.30am but at 12pm. Why? No reason! The little boy helping in the bus told everybody we will be leaving at 10am but no sign of the driver. Finally, because it was too late to climb the mountain, we head back to La Palma then took the bus for Honduras. How disappointing was that!

- La Palma church whose facade was decorated by Fernando Llort. It is famous as here were signed some agreements for the end of the Civil War,
- The 3 next pictures show streets and facades of houses all painted with this Naive Art design,
- And how lucky was I!!! Look at this star in the street!!! I took quickly a picture, I could not miss this event! And I got an autograph too!

Suchitoto - photos 3

2009-04-23T12:27:00.003-07:00

Suchitoto:

We went to visit the village and the mountains of Cinquera just 45 min from Suchitoto. The small village is full of testimony of the Civil War all well is its mountain. A little of history...the economy of the village was based on the production of natural indigo for dying but at the end of the 19th Century the first artificial dyes appeared and the village moved on the salvage cultivation of other crops, ravaging the close forest. The extreme poverty of the inhabitants led in 1970 to an open protest against the rich land owners. From here and then in the 1980's started the Civil War (please see previous post for more details). Many people were killed in the neighborhood villages of Guadalupe and Copapayo and people left the village. Cinquera was deserted then at the end of the War they returned to the village and the crop fields were fully recovered by a luxury vegetation and they decided to protect this forest.

- The church of Cinquera was destroyed during the Civil War at 75%. Only the facade and the belfry exist from the original structure built between 1844 and 1846. We can distinguish the face of the Archbishop Romero on the left,
- Painted walls can be found all around the village as testimony of the past. The drawings represent scenes of the Civil War or like this one, show peace messages,
- An other testimony of the Civil War, this half destroyed plane and the guns is displayed in the main plaza in front of the church,
- In the Cinquera mountains, there are also testimonies of the past War as the forest provided refuge during the war. In the picture, we can see the remain of a Vietnamese stove (the 2 dark holes), a clever strategy to cook without smoke to remain undetected,
- In this area, this was a canteen. The 2 hrs we spent in this forest were quite emotional as we were surrounded by vestiges of the war. A very nice experience and walk in a beautiful nature.

Suchitoto - photos 2

2009-04-23T12:27:00.001-07:00

Suchitoto:

We had a walk around a small part of the Suchitlan Lake (the largest of El Salvador). It was midday and very hot. As there was no proper defined trail, except from the hostel to a side of the lake, we took some time to find our way back to the village with no water in our bags! We were absolutely dehydrated when we reached finally the village and the first bottle of water was drunk in one go. Next time we will start earlier during the day!!

- View of a small part of the lake which was easy to access...
- For that we walk around one hour in a very dry landscape...going down at the beginning...
- And cross this bridge (25m height). I hate this kind of bridge and I am all the time terrified when we have to cross one. It took me around 5 min to cross and only 30s for Lee!
- On the side of the lake, fishermen with some hidden in the water lilly plants were trying to catch some fish. We saw a couple of them putting up some net with few fishes inside,
- Ah! The famous "chicharra" or cicada. Yes the little lump in the centre of the picture! What a noise their were making! They were remembering me the South of France where similar but less noisy cicadas can be found. I got a couple of videos taken only to hear them singing. I will try to add one to the blog.

Suchitoto - photos 1

2009-04-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

Suchitoto:

After Santa Ana, we head off to Suchitoto, 47km north of San Salvador and situated on the Suchitlán lake. Suchitoto was founded in 1528 by the Spaniard (like the second "Villa of San Salvador") and is known around El Salvador for its church and for its cobblestone roads (one of the few places in El Salvador with cobblestone roads). Due to its closeness with San Salvador it is a very popular weekend destination for Salvadorans. It has broad cultural activities such as art galleries, cultural centers, and handcrafts.

When we reached Suchitoto and its main plaza, we were surrounded by peace. It was 4pm and it was very hot. Few peoples were around the plaza and the atmosphere was so peaceful. We found an hostel with lake views also very relaxing. The town was very charming with its colonial buildings and streets. We went to walk around the lake Suchitlan which is an artificial lake created in 1973 and formed in the Lempa River and the Cerron Grande dam and we visited the Los Tercios waterfalls. We went also to visit the village of Cinquera and its forest both charged of souvenir of the Civil War. We were in Suchitoto for the anniversary of the assassinate of Monsenor Oscar Romero and a celebration was given in his honor. We participated too to a tombola whose price was a bedside lamp!!! We were dissapointed not to win of course...but what to do in our backpack with a lamp!!!

- The main plaza in Suchitoto with in the background the church built in the 19th century so no during the colonial era as lots of people think. How quiet looks this place...
- The other plaza of the town was the Parque San Martin,
- The amazing waterfall Los Tercios. There was no water because it was the dry season but the natural piling-up of the granite stones was enough on its own for a visit. Due to some robbery problem, we needed to be accompanied by the local police. Walking in the streets with an escort of 3 policemen (2 in front, 1 in the back) was not very comfortable! Hopefully just before reaching the waterfall, we met a German Lady, Helen, who did the way back with us so we were feeling better. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with her in English but her French was very good and we hope her a nice trip.
- The balcony of our hostel with in the background the Suchitlan Lake. Relaxing in the hammock, playing cards looking at the lake were activities we liked to do here! If we could we will have stayed an eternity here...
- Part of the celebrations for the anniversary of the death of the Archbishop Oscar Romero. Traditional dances with typical costumes were organised as well as lots of testimonies from local people who knew Monsenor Romero.

Lago de Coatepeque - photos

2009-04-12T11:27:00.001-07:00

Coatepeque lake:

Just 1.5h from Santa Ana, we went to visit the lake of Coatepeque whose name is coming from the Nahuatl language and means "at the snake hill". The lake is a large crater lake and one the largest lakes in El Salvador. It is surrounded by 3 volcanoes: Santa Ana, Coatepeque and Cerro Verde. We had a nice day but a little disappointed that we could not walk too much around the lake because of houses built all around and that was no path (all were private properties). We managed to walk 30min on rocks.

- Panoramic view of the lake from the road going to Santa Ana,

- The lake with in the background the volcanoes,

- Nice little boat with on the background one of the big volcanoes,

- An example of houses built on the lake. This one was a holiday resort and a restaurant. Access only for customers.

Santa Ana - photos

2009-04-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

Santa Ana:

After the superb 5 days spent in El Tunco Beach, we head off north to Santa Ana. Santa Ana is the second largest city in El Salvador with around 275,000 inhabitants and that´s all! A couple of colonial buildings, a gothic church and that is it! But from here, it is easy to go to visit the surroundings volcanos and lake.

As that was the week-end of the last round of the 6 Nations Rugby, the boys came with us in the aim to find a bar showing the rugby. We had the satellite in the rooms but unfortunately, no channel was showing the rugby and no bar either. So they just followed the comments on BBC web site and were very happy to see Ireland winning the competition. We celebrated this victory with them. The next day, we said goodbye to the lads because they were returning to El Tunco beach. We spent a very good time in their company and we will miss playing "belote" with them. But we have already plan to meet in Dublin for more "belote" and beers... Hope all the best for them...we know now that they spent 3 more weeks to El Tunco where the surf was absolutly great! They have now split and Dave has joined Mexico for more surf and Neil has joined Honduras where he will meet his girlfriend.

- The Palacio Municipal,

- The Theater was built during the golden era of coffee in El Salvador during which Santa Ana was the most prosperous city in the country (latter part of the 19th Century),

- The Cathedral built also during the golden era of coffee. The interior was built between 1906 and 1913,

- This small plaza in front of this church (whose name I have forgotten!) was the nicest in Santa Ana,

- This church was in restoration probably to be completed before the beginning of the Semana Santa. Lots of work to do!

El Tunco Beach - photos 3

2009-04-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

El Tunco beach:

- We were in El Tunco for the 17th of March so for the St Patrick´s Day, a very important date for the Irish people. Obviously, Dave and Neil decided to celebrate this day in a good manner: drinking beers (only allowed after lunch!) and playing the French card game "belote" in the swimming pool. We spent all the afternoon sitting around the table installed in the pool!!! At the end, our feet were all wrinkled like a prune!!!
- The other guests, Chris (far left), his dad (with the tee-shirt) and Mike (in front) joined us in the swimming pool enjoying a beer with the guys (who had already drank quite a lot!),
- The weather was sunny and hot so why not having a nice swim before starting playing cards?
- How cute is this kitten? Sure that Stu will like this picture and the next one as he likes cats,
- We found this cat with her kittens on the side of the main street but no worries they were not abandoned. A nice "mamita" was taking care about them. They were adorable and we spent some time playing with them.

El Tunco beach - photos 2

2009-04-08T20:59:00.001-07:00

El Tunco beach:

Obviously, I could not write this post without showing pictures of the sunset.

- The first fourth pictures were taken on a different day. The top left one shows Lee with his big lens taking pictures of the surfers,
- For the last night, we went all together with Chris, a Belgian guy, and his dad and with Mike, an American, for a nice meal. Chris, his dad and Mike were staying in the same hostel than us and Dave was surfing with Mike and Chris. For this night and without any talk between them, they turned for the meal with a red tee-shirt...can you spot the lady in red? I was the only one in blue!!!

El Tunco beach - photos 1

2009-04-08T20:56:00.001-07:00

El Tunco beach (Pacific Coast):

From San Salvador, we took a bus for Puerto La Libertad, which is well known by the surfers for its surf break. But our final destination was El Tunco beach. Dave and Neil, our Irish friends, were already here for a couple of days. We met them in front of the ATM in Puerto La Libertad, what a coincidence!!! We spent here 5 days in a hostel with a view on the beach and with swimming pool, playing cards, drinking some beers and eating pizzas (the 3 things the boys liked to do!!!). The surf was not great but Lee (and a little me too!) managed to get some "fantastic" pictures.

- The fish quay in Puerto La Libertad,
- The Playa El Zunzal, close to the Playa el Tunco, is recognizable by its rock and its pebbles. Surfers were enjoying some waves left of this stone and on the far right,
- Some surf!!! but the waves were pretty small and nothing during a couple of days. Obviously Lee was disappointed but we had good time with the boys so his despair was less apparent,
- Even if it is not very easy to see, the surfer is a little girl of around 7 years old. She was surfing with her dad and she was showing already good technique. A future champion perhaps...

San Salvador - photos 2

2009-04-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

San Salvador:

- We went to visit the church where the Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated on the 24th of March 1980. The church, "La Divina Providencia" was far from the one shown in the movie "Salvador" and was very simple with no particular style. The Salvadoran civil war confronted the right-wing military government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of 5 left-wing guerilla groups. During the war, the military party received massive help from the Americans and 75000 people died. Archbishop Romero witnessed ongoing violations of human rights and started to speak out on behalf of the poor, first victims of the politic of the government. He was killed by the death squad, a private army from the government and from here started the Civil War.
- For the funeral of Monsenor Romero, more than 250000 people from over the world were present showing the huge popularity of the clergyman. Still now the anniversary of his death is celebrated everywhere in El Salvador. A process of canonization is also on-going,
- We were in San Salvador during the week-end of the presidential elections and the colours of the right-wing party, called ARENA, were blue, white and red like the French flag. That reminded me a little of France!
- Two of the countless posters seen in town for the elections. Finally the left-wing party, the FMLN, won making El Salvador on the left side after more than 20 years on the right side.

San Salvador - photos 1

2009-04-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

San Salvador (El Salvador):

From Leon, our next stop was San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. The boys were already in El Tunco at the beach (Pacific coast of El Salvador) so we wanted to meet them as soon as possible for some surf. Two options to reach San Salvador:1/ take a direct "gringo" bus from Leon for $25 and 10hrs but at 4.30am, 2/take local buses from Leon for a cheaper price and at a unknown travel period but later in the day. Well you know now that we don't like taking "gringo" buses and we find it more funny and more interesting to meet locals so we choose the second option.

Ha, Ha! How exhausting was that!!! We reached San Salvador after 11hrs spent in 6 buses, 3 taxis and 1 taxi-bike!!! But we saved $10 and we spent only 1 more hour than the direct bus! Summary of an epic journey: -first taxi from the hotel to the bus station,- first bus: Leon to Chinandega, - second bus: Chinandega to Guasaule (border with Honduras), - bike-taxi to cross the border, -third bus from Honduras border to El Salvador border, - fourth bus from the border to Santa Rosa, - fifth bus Santa Rosa to San Miguel, -second taxi from one bus terminal to an other bus terminal, sixth bus San Miguel to San Salvador (we caught the last bus for San Salvador 5 min only before it left!), -third taxi from the bus terminal to the hotel!!! Departure from Leon at 8.15am; Arrival at San Salvador 7.15pm!!! Nice time spent in Nicaragua, nice people and superb cities and landscapes!

El Salvador was a fascination for Lee since he saw the movie "Salvador" relating some stories from the civil war which occurred between 1980 and 1992 (I will give more details of the civil war commenting the pictures). So he was particularly excited to visit this country which is the smallest but the most populous country of Central America.

We stayed 2 nights in San Salvador, the second most populous city in Central America, with a full day visiting the city and the town centre was like a 1970's city. Nothing charming...So we head off the next day to El Tunco beach...

- Lee was happy to cross the El Salvador border. Since 4 countries, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala had decided to deliver only one entry stamp and one exit stamp, we could not get a entry stamp to El Salvador (as we got the entry stamp in Nicaragua). We were only controlled by 2 policemen who were chatting in the road and who, we thought, were only 2 guys like others!
- The cathedral of San Salvador whose tiled facade was done by the Salvadoran Master Fernanado Llort. The cathedral is home to the tomb of the Archbishop Oscar Romero who was killed on the 24th March 1980 during the civil war (see next post for details). The cathedral is facing the Parque Barrios which was the theater of gunfire from members of security guards (but that has never been proved) killing 44 people who were attending the funeral of the Archbishop Romero (31th March 1980),
- Have you ever seen a similar church? Neither have we! What a bizarre (and awful personal view) architecture!! El Rosario church,
- The National Palace is situated also on Parque Barrios. I did not take any picture of this park because it was not particularly nice,
- The Parque Libertad was nicer than the Parque Barrios. More green, nice lamps, a little more charm...

Update!!!

2009-04-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hola amigos!!!
I will update soon the blog with all the pictures from El Salvador where we spent a very good time. Currently we are in Guatemala in Antigua ready to watch the superb processions for the Holy week. Hasta luego!!

Leon - photos

2009-03-26T21:46:00.001-07:00

Leon:

Prior to reaching El Salvador we stopped in the nice city of Leon. Leon is the second largest city in Nicaragua and was founded in 1524 by el Senor De Los Caballeros de Leon. In 1610, due to an eruption of the Momotombo Volcano, the city was abandoned and the inhabitants decided to move to its current location next to the indigenous village of Subtavia. The ruins of the old city were called "Leon El Viejo" and were named Unesco World Heritage in 2000. Leon was the original capital of Nicaragua but the long conflict with Granada (see Granada post) lead the government to chose Managua as capital of Nicaragua.

We were pleased to visit Leon with its charmng colonial buildings and churches. And at the inverse of its competitor Granada, the city was full of life especially due to a high population of students (the university of Leon was built in 1813) but also locals. We stayed in a nice B&B quite expensive but after the night spent in Masachapa we needed to relax and why not some "comfort": water! and hot water, nice mattress and pillows, a quiet place and a delicious breakfast. We were supposed to stay only one night but it was so comfy that we stayed 2 nights in the end!

- The Cathedral of the Assumption, the largest in Central America. The building started in 1706 to end in 1779,
- View of the cathedral from the Parque Central and its fountain,
- While taking pictures of the Cathedral, we chatted with a local boy who at the end wanted some money. But as he was a nice lad, we gave him a couple of cordobas (the local money) and he accepted to be photographied with Lee,
- The Iglesia de la Recoleccion with its baroque facade was built during the 18th Century. We could not take any picture of the full church because of all the kids around. There was a girls school just in front of the church and the girls were happy to see 2 gringos and were "fighting" to be taken in picture!
- Iglesia El Calvario, also built during the 18th Century. Superb brick facade,
- How relaxing was it to have the breakfast on this patio! The hotel was a renovated Spanish colonial house and included this refreshing and quiet atmosphere.

Pochomil - photos

2009-03-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

Pochomil:

Our second destination in the Pacific coast of Nicaragua was Pochomil (surf oblige!). Pochomil is a beach close to Managua, the capital. It is not a town or village but a touristic place with some restaurants, bars and hotels.

At Pochomil, we were supposed to meet Dave and Neil who from San Juan Del Sur were supposed to come directly here. We arrived early afternoon and no sign of the boys. Well we were puzzled but seeing the place, we understood why the guys did not stay here: a couple of empty restaurants and bars and expensive hotels. Also no waves!! We were not certainly lucky for surf! Finally a woman from a restaurant remembered seeing them during the morning but they left the place straightaway. As searching for the boys took us long time, we decided to stay for the night in the small fishing village of Masachapa in a very basic place and the cheapest we have been so far ($5 each). Finding food and specially fish in this village was a nightmare, for a village dedicated to fishing what a surprise, isn't it? We spent a very bad night between the bad mattress (well Lee decided to spend the night on the floor), the mosquitos and the noise of the mangos falling in the metallic roof of our room due to the high wind. Who can imagine a small mango can make so much noise!!! I was jumping in the bed all night quite having a heart attack each time! And to top it off we had no water in the morning!
The next day, by mail, we had the story of the boys. On their way to Pochomil, the taxi driver told them that it was not a nice place so they stayed somewhere else overnight. Then the morning they caught a bus to Pochomil in order to meet us but they left before we arrived. Seeing the place, they decided to head off to Managua and take the bus the next morning for San Salvador. So we will meet them later in the playas there.

- Pochomil beach. Very well appreciated to play football, volley-ball...,
- Sunset on the beach. I like this picture with the dad and his son, hand in hand walking on the beach. For the people interested in surf, you can see how small were the waves!
- Moonrise. Bright and full, superb moon!
- This parrot was playing close to us while we had our breakfast (2 chocolate donuts, mmm...). It was like an acrobat with some nice figures with a foot on the rope, turning and watching us with pride. A true artist!
- The roof of our room and the mango tree full of green mangoes. Well half was on the roof and half on the floor. I like mangoes but at this moment I was regretting that! No worries I have passed my anger and I am still eating mangoes!!!

Granada - photos 2

2009-03-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

Granada:

Well lots of churches (I know that I am putting lots of pictures of churches in my blog but they are part of the history of the towns relating different architectural eras) in this post but they have their own charm specially coming from the colonial epoch.

- Iglesia (church) La Merced, probably the most beautiful church of Granada. It was built in 1539 but destroyed many times and finally restored in 1862,
- View of the town centre from the tower of the Iglesia La Merced. In the background, the Cathedral and far the lake Nicaragua (or Cocibolca),
-Iglesia de Guadalupe,
- Convento y Iglesia de San Francisco. Built end of the 16th Century, the structure was burned by the American Walker in 1856 and rebuilt in the late 1860's,
- Iglesia de Xalteva. The name is coming from the indigenous settlers of the area where it is located. The church was built during colonial times and was used as a military fortress during the national war. In 1890, the church was severely damaged by earthquakes and rebuilt at the end of the 19th Century.

Granada - photos 1

2009-03-26T20:35:00.001-07:00

Granada:

Before going back to the beach, we had a break in Granada, not in Spain but in Nicaragua obviously!

Granada was founded in 1524 by Hernandez de Cordoba and was named after the the Spanish city of Granada. The city has been witness and victim to many of the battles with and invasions from pirates trying to take control of Nicaragua. One American,Charles Henningsen, set the city on fire destroying much of the ancient city and leaving printed the words "Granada Was Here". For many years Granada was in conflict with an other city, Leon, for the hegemony as the major city of Nicaragua, conflict which became quite violent between the cities and political factions. In the mid 1800s it was agreed that Managua, situated in between both cities, will become the capital of Nicaragua.

We took the bus from San Juan Del Sur to Rivas then from one of the worst bus station we have seen (all surrounded by market stalls), we took the bus to Granada. We arrived early afternoon and spent the rest of the day exploring this colonial city with lots of pretty churches and typical spanish little streets.. I am not utilising "charming colonial city" because the buildings were great but it was missing life. Streets and plazas were empty except one street that I can call the "gringo's street" which was full of cafes and restaurants quite dedicated to tourists. Less nice! So we only spent one night here before heading off to the beach the next day.

- "Plaza de la Independencia" with the town hall painted in red. The building was superb but as you can see nobody can't be seen around and it was more like a used decor for a movie. This is mainly due to the foreigners who are buying the old houses at high prices and pulling locals out of the town centre. What a shame!
- The "Parque Central". Again nobody!
- The famous "calle" or street "La Calzada" or for me the tourists' street. In the background on the left the Cathedral,
- Close view of the newly painted Cathedral which was built in the early 20's upon the foundation of an earlier church,
- This lady is selling tins and how easy it looks for her to carry that on her head! We saw lots of women in Nicaragua using their heads to carry everything imaginable!

San Juan Del Sur - photos

2009-03-25T19:51:00.001-07:00

San Juan Del Sur:

From Omepete Island, we went to visit San Juan Del Sur on the Pacific Coast in the South-West of Nicaragua). The town, dedicated to fishing, is a popular tourist location because of its many nearby and spectacular beaches and is popular among surfers.

So obviously the boys were hoping good surf but again strong wind and no waves. Also the water was freezing (I did not try but Lee was shaking after a swim!) Anyway, they found nice ways to occupy their free time, playing cards, watching a baseball game and doing the monkeys on the beach!!

- San Juan Del Sur beach,
- Sunset on the beach,
- A new representation of the evolution of man seen by Dave, Neil and Lee. Who looks the most credible?
- A the baseball game. Very friendly ambiance and good dancing from the couple in the middle of the crowd. The standard of the baseball was pretty low but the beer drinking was of a high standard (thanks to the Irish boys!),
- Dave and Neil managed to climb this bus despite being in full view of 4 policemen with guns!!! They went down pretty quickly once they caught the policemen's eyes!

Ometepe Island (Nicaragua Lake) - photos 2

2009-03-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

Ometepe Island (Nicaragua Lake):

- Punta Maria beach. Not very great. Not to much sand and it was dirty.,
- So the boys tried to catch some fishes...
- ...and here is the lucky guy!!! Dave with his catfish. How proud he looks!!! That was the only catch of the afternoon,
- We finally after so many months saw some monkeys. Due to the bad light, we can only perceive the shape,
- We were still playing "Belote" with the boys and they did not like to much the rules because they were losing so lots of arguments!!! They were thinking I was inventing them so they can lose. I am French but I am not a cheater!!!
- Ha! What a good souvenir! Still due to the bad weather, all the boats and ferries were canceled just the day we wanted to leave. We managed to stay 2 hours on this ferry waiting for the agreement of the police to leave this island. But it came negative and we had to stay 1 more night on this island. Hopefully the next day the weather was far better and all the boats could sail.

Ometepe Island (Nicaragua Lake) - photos 1

2009-03-25T18:27:00.001-07:00

Ometepe Island on Nicaragua Lake (Nicaragua obviously!):

We carried on our trip with the boys and after crossing the border, we head off to Ometepe Island on the Nicaragua Lake. This island, whose shape is similar to a hourglass, is composed by two volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas and its name derives from the Nahuatl words ome (two) and tepetl (mountain) so two mountains. The lake is connected to the Caribbean Sea with the river San Juan and the island had been attacked many times until the 17th Century by pirates like Francis Drake. The volcano Concepcion is still considered in activity. In the inverse, Maderas volcano is dormant since the 13th century.

When we arrived at San Jorge to take the boat, we were lucky to find a boat leaving because of the big water. The 1 hr crossing was pretty bad but I managed not to be sick (yeah!!). Once on the island, the weather was not great either due to the high wind. We went to visit the beach at Punta Maria which was given as a great beach of the island by the travel guide. Well the beach was not very attractive and instead of having a swim, the boys tried fishing and Dave has been lucky to catch a small catfish (see pictures next post). We went also to visit the Charco Verde laguna and its wildlife. And how nice it was to see some monkeys!!!

- The boys were happy to cross the border hoping for better surf and cheaper prices than in Costa Rica,
- Drawing of the island. We found this painting on the wall of a restaurant we went for breakfast. On the menu, 10 different choices of breakfasts but in reality they had nothing! Lee had to change 3 times his order...to finish with 2 eggs and 2 toasts!
- View of the Maderas Volcano. As I said previously, the weather was rubbish with light rain and fog so it was difficult to have a decent picture of the volcano,
- View of the Concepcion Volcano. Still under the clouds but with some sunny patches,
- View of the laguna Charco Verde from the mirador close to the main road (don't think there is a proper name for this mirador). We had a nice walk around the laguna and saw some monkeys. We reach the mirador after a short walk but really really steep. I still can feel the pain in my calves!!!

Playa Tamarindo - photos

2009-03-25T18:05:00.001-07:00

Playa Tamarindo:

After San Jose, we went to Playa Tamarindo, on the Pacific coast, where surf is supposed to be good. Well again and again, when we arrived there was too much wind and no surf. We met here Dave and Neil who arrived the day before us. Dave had some surf but already not too much. The water was cold probably due to the high wind. We spent the day at the swimming pool of the hotel, away from the wind. The next day we were leaving for Nicaragua as the forecast for the surf was not good.

- Dave surfing. As you can see the waves were not great,
- Original design from a worm on the beach. Lots of them were in the sand and the beach was covered of arabesques similar to this one. I pick up also lots of shells that I will give to my niece when we will come back,
- View from the hotel. Nice little oasis...but they were building in front an horrible Hi-Tech Hotel which was overlooking to the garden. Shame for the hotel and also the little town!

San Jose - photos

2009-03-17T09:42:00.001-07:00

San Jose (Costa Rica):

From Puerto Viejo, we took a bus to San Jose where we stayed only a night. San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica and one of the youngest capital cities in Latin America. Founded in 1738, it was named capital of Costa Rica only in 1823 (before Cartago was the capital city).

Well we decided to stay only one night because San Jose was not a great town. a 70's something, dark and dirty town...Nothing special just full of fast food and red taxis! You can see a McDonald store every corner! Pathetic!!! We also did not try to push to much to see any colonial buildings as few remain. Lee has not taken any picture of San Jose. Just to tell you as much as he was not inspired! Due to the US influence in San Jose but also all around Costa Rica (which is one the best holiday destinations of the Americans), the prices were quite expensive and for that we decided to shorten our stay in Costa Rica and move on more "backpacker friendly" countries like Nicaragua for example.

- The main plaza: the Parque Central with the metropolitan Cathedral on the left. All around, the red typical taxis. This park is given as one of the best in San Jose!!! I can't imagine how the other parks look like!!!
- In front of the "superb" park, traditional restaurants can be seen: Burger king and Co! We have not seen a restaurant during our stay in the town centre...amazing...
- Typical pedestrian street. Not very attractive to do your shopping no?
- Again a street in town centre. This picture could come from a 70's movie,
- The only colonial building we have seen in the town centre. The Post Office building. Unfortunately, it was left a little in abandon and it could have been superb with some restoration work.

Puerto Viejo (Costa Rica) - photos

2009-03-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

Puerto Viejo (Costa Rica):

Our first stop in Costa Rica was in Puerto Viejo where surf is supposed to be good. From now some of our destinations will be based on where is the best surf specially on the Pacific coast. Lee wants to see nice waves like in the TV! So far he has not been very lucky but there are good spots all along Central America. Fingers crossed!

Well not enough because the water was damn flat and the weather was again rubbish!! So the guys, because we were traveling with Dave and Neil, played football on the beach. At the hostel, the Pagalu, we met 3 other irish guys with who the guys were playing also with local guys. As we were here during the week-end, Saturday was England-Ireland at rugby. Everybody was disappointed because no bar or hostel had the channel to see the game. So they just watched on the computer but the picture and sound were not great but enough to see Ireland winning. The Irish celebrated the victory like good Irish!!! Beers and beers...

- Puerto Viejo beach. Flat and very cloudy. No luck for us...
- Dave, on the left, Neil in the goals and Lee were playing football and here Neil just had a look to the ball which was just passing on his right. Easy goal for Dave!
- On the beach, still football with some local guys and our Irish friends,
- Lee and Steve (left) were celebrating a nice goal after lots of efforts made as the local guys had a good technique and were not easy to play...well done!!!
- Ha!!! I taught the boys how to play the French card game "belote". Since they saw the Frenchies playing at this game during the boat trip, they were curious to learn and to understand how we could have been so serious when we played with Harold, Olicvier and Julien. It was difficult for them at the beginning because there are lots of "bizarre" rules but they managed very well and we had lots of fun specially counting the points! Since, a month later, we are still playing the game and the guys are really enjoying it specially when they are cheating because they can win...

Bocas Del Toro - photos 2

2009-03-17T09:35:00.001-07:00

Bocas Del Toro:

- This beach was supposed to have nice waves for surfing. But not when we were here!
- Lee found this tree to take some pictures of a couple of guys who were surfing. Nothing fantastic as no big waves! Following Dave's comments, the day before we arrived the surf was great. Is that a malediction for Lee?
- This family was fishing in front of our hostel. They arrived 30min before the sunset (which with the clouds was not very good to take picture) and they were using only a hand-line. The woman in the middle caught a lot compared to the kid on the left and the husband. Does fishing need a feminine touch?
- Well judging by the small fish that Lee caught after 1hr of fishing, I should definitively think trying myself if we want to have some fish for tea one day! During this evening, Lee caught several fishes like the one on the picture with some being pink and green. Nothing to eat either!

Bocas Del Toro - photos 1

2009-03-16T17:48:00.001-07:00

Bocas Del Toro:

Our second stop in Panama was in the Archipelago of Bocas Del Toro, in the Caribbean sea, close to Costa Rica. It is composed of several islands whose major is Isla de Colon where is the capital Bocas Del Toro. Nice surf can be seen so Lee was excited to get some decent pictures.

From Panama City, after a night spent in the bus, we reached Almirante where we took a boat to join Bocas Del Toro, in Colon Island. Hopefully the sea was quiet (I hate boats you know that!). Here we met our 2 Irish friends from the San Blas boat trip, Dave, the surfer, and Neil who's got a "real" ginger beard! (Note for Stu) who where in Bocas for surfing. Unfortunately and now it is like an habit, the waves had gone down and no picture! The weather was not great either! (Is the English rain following Lee by any chance?) But we had nice walks around this island and the island of Carenero with tropical landscape.

- It is 5am and the bus from Panama just left us in front of the boat office in Almirante. Here we waited 1 hr for the first boat. During this time, Lee played with a dog with a golf ball sent by his mum for Christmas. But the dog started to be very possessive and did not like the game of throwing the ball. We said goodbye to Almirante, the dog and the golf ball!,
- One of the beach close to Bocas Del Toro. The picture shows a nice and paradise like beach but in reality, it was full of rubbishes and not very attractive,
- On the boat, sailing around the Island of Carenero, we saw these pelicans which were watching carefully the water for some food. One of them jumped in the water in front of us and came back with in its mouth a decent fish.....bigger than any Lee has caught so far!!
- We passed an area on the island where the roots of the trees were up and and that make the forest like in the Lord of the Ring book!
- Typical tropical landscape.

Panama City - photos 2

2009-03-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

Panama City:

- Superb sunset on the Canal with the "Puente de las Americas" in the background. It was built between 1959 and 1962 by USA,
- Typical buses in town. From now, this is the kind of buses we will be taking to do short journies,
- Monument to the workers and French engineers of the Panama Canal at the Bovedas in Casco Viejo. This monument, with the symbol of France, the cockerel, was built in commemoration for the 22,000 French who died during the construction of the Canal,
- Traditional costume of the indigeneous Panameans. We can't see well in the picture but the women were very small (around 1m50)
- Who needs to go to the dentist? We surely did not visit this one!!!!

Panama City - photos 1

2009-03-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

Panama City:

From San Blas Islands, we reached Panama City after a 3hrs journey in a jeep where the guys in the back where packed like sardines! At this point, everybody dispersed to different hostels. So we said goodbye to the lads with who we had good time on the boat. We arrived during the carnival period and it took us 50 min to go from the new town to the old town or "Casco Viejo" where we wanted to stay.

Panama City has 2 faces: the new town is very "Miami" type with its skyscrapers, posh hotels and boutiques de luxe; the old town is full of colonial buildings where some houses were abandoned for so long that just the walls are stayed up. A revitalisation process is on-going today. The city was founded in 1519 by De Avila but was destroyed in 1671 after an attack of the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan. Some ruins are still visible in Panama El Viejo. The city was rebuilt 5 miles away and this location is known as Casco Viejo. This part of Panama City was classified World Heritage Site in 2001. The construction of the Canal was first attempted by the French in 1880 but failed (21900 workers died) then the second attempt under US leadership was more successful and the Canal was open in 1914.

- View of Casco Viejo from Cerro Ancon, a small mount north of the district. In the background centre, we can see the towers of the Metropolitan Cathedral. On the right, it is the entrance to the Canal,
- View of the "New town" or "El Cangrero" from Cerro Ancon, the modern banking district. Does that not remember you Miami?
- View of the Canal from Cerro Ancon,
- The Metropolitan Cathedral built in 1674,
- One of the churches in ruins which was being renovated. Lots of buildings were in the same state and lots of renovation works were on-going in Casco Viejo.

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip - video

2009-03-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip:

I could not write this blog without adding the video of Micha's jump from the yardarm. He looked very confident on the yardarm but the jump was a little painful at the end. Anyway Superb!

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip - photos 3

2009-03-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip:

- The guys were lucky. A couple of pilot fish were hunting below our boat and Lee and Neil managed to catch one each (not sure if there were the same fish!) after lots of effort as the fish was pretty big! Good for Lee as he normally catches tiddlers and nice for Neil as that was the first time he was fishing. Well done boys!!!
- It was with great fun but also lots of worries that we were watching the boat crew helping Peadar (pronunced Padder) charging his bike to the small canoe. The operation took at least 20min!!
- Peadar was probably breathing better once he reached the land and the village of Chepo!!! Removing the bike from the canoe was not so easy and the road, well a kind of road, to reach the village of Chepo was very muddy. We had to cross a small river; with the 4x4 that was OK but we thought at one point that Peadar was on his way to sink! But finally all ended well and the lad is now in Mexico!!!
- "Photo de Famille": from left and top: Micha, Julien, Olivier, Marina, Harold, Neil, Sam, Dave, Pedro, Kerry and me. Just missing Peader who was supervising the operations to remove his bike and Lee of course who was taking the picture. We had a good time on the boat (for me once the boat had stopped!!!) and everybody was very friendly. I was happy to chat a little in French and played "belote" card game, even if I lost! Good entertainment from Dave and Harold and a special mention for Micha for his jump from the yardarm!
From San Blas, we reached Panama City where everybody returned to his own trip but sure we will see again some of the lads!

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip - photos 2

2009-03-11T21:35:00.001-07:00

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip:

- Barbecue on the island. Fried chicken, well more probably burnt chicken!, mash tatties and rice salad on the menu, with obviously lots of beers and rum (Caribbean islands oblige!),
- A very tight competition of "petanque" or boules as the English call this game. Olivier (left) and Harold (centre) were measuring with the most precision as possible the closest "coconut" from the jack (cochonet in French). The problem was that this game is normally played with round boules and not "coconut". Harold won this point as his coconut had a little growth. Olivier played fair and concluded "C'est la loi de la coconut" or "it is the coconut's rule"!!! Good laugh and Paddy (right) could do nothing in front of the 2 French "experts" but defended well the colours of Ireland!,
- Lee was fishing while the chicken was cooking. He was expected adding some fishes to the menu but except some algae, nothing! But he will be more lucky later...
- On board, again the French were showing their talent at cards, playing the famous "Belote" game, well only famous in France! We were very concentrated and the others guys were amazed of our professionalism. They were just jealous!! I was playing with Olivier and we lost all the games but getting better each time...
- The 4 "mousquetaires": from left Paddy, Lee, Dave and Neil. Lots of drinks in front of them but please note that half was from the Frenchies!!

San Blas Islands (Panama) - boat trip - photos 1

2009-03-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

San Blas Islands (Panama):

To reach Panama, we had three options: a) sailing from Cartagena to San Blas Islands in Panama then join Panama City, b) flying from Medellin or Bogota to Panama City, c) crossing the frontier by land. The last option was impossible as there is no road connecting the 2 countries (tropical forest full of dangers). We were thinking sailing from the beginning of our trip and even if the price was expensive ($385), that was the most exciting option. Well not really for me as I am usually sick on boats!! That was a 4 days trip with all meals included.

We arrived Tuesday morning first followed by Paddy, an Irish motorcyclist whose motorbike was already on board. Then, Julien, a Belgian guy with Olivier and Harold 2 French guys joined us. Good to see that I will be talking a little of French during the trip! Then Kerry and Sam, a couple from Southampton arrived followed by Micha, from Ukraine but living in the US, Marina and Pedro, a Brasilian couple in their honeymoon and finally with 20 min of delay our 2 hostal friends Dave and Neil!!! That was the group who was doing the trip with us. I was very nervous when we boarded because I knew I could expect 1 or 2 bad days on sea. The wind was strong and in February, lots of small boats connecting Colombia to Panama are on holidays because of the bad sea. But no chance to turn back now...

So we said Bye Bye to Colombia where we spent a very good time. We were expecting staying 2 weeks but finally we spent 6 weeks in this superb country, full of very friendly people and of nice places to see (with no issue at all with the safety). Celine, could you please tell Jack that his country is the best country we have visited in South America (except with Bolivia for the beautiful and varied landscapes). We really fell in love with Colombia and we will definitively come back to see more and I will recommend anyone to spend 2 or 3 weeks of their holidays to discover this amazing country!

- My last picture of Cartagena, the Bocagrande district with its high buildings. That was Tuesday 11am,
- My last picture on board before joining our cabin. It was 1pm and I was not feeling great at all especially after eating a big sandwich (the French guys told me that it is better on sea with a full stomach!). The big sandwich did not stay too long in my stomach anyway!!
- My first picture on board after the boat had stopped. It was Wednesday 10.30am!!! I had spent quite 24hrs sick in the cabin but with a lady like manner, no spillage anywhere with Lee holding my hair back! This island was the closest to where we stayed for a couple of days. The weather was not great with lots of clouds and wind,
- Our boat seen from the island. A sailing boat built in 1911!
- During our stay, the group was playing jumping from the boat. Harold (in the picture) won the competition with a fabulous swing face plant! But Micha won the best jump from the yardarm of the boat. Please check the video.

Cartagena - photos 2

2009-03-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Cartagena:

- The Getsemani district and its modern Convention Centre. Getsemani is one of the most representative districts of Cartagena where the slaves were living during the colonial era. From here started the independence movement in 1811. On the right, the touristic sea front.
- General view of the fort de San Felipe de Barajas. The greatest fortress in town!
- Inside the fort, a complex system of tunnels was elaborated to help to evacuate and supply the fort. Lee was walking carefully as the tunnels were quite low...as he is so tall!!!
- View of the old town from the fort. We can recognise on the back left the tower of the cathedral. A system of bridges connects the different parts of the city. The spots you can see on the left and the top are dust spots and can't be removed. So all my pictures got them and they are very intense on blue backgrounds like the sky and the sea! so lots of pictures!,
- Lee was concentrating taking I don't know what (he can find lots of subjects to photograph...). In the background, the Bocagrande district is the modern district of Cartagena where dozens of skyscrapers can be seen. And more are being built!! Posh hotels and residential buildings...

Cartagena - photos 1

2009-03-11T20:32:00.001-07:00

Cartagena:

Cartagena was our last stop in Colombia and in South America.

Cartagena (previously Cartagena de Indias) was founded in 1533 by De Heredia and it was named following the port of Cartagena in Spain. From its creation and during all the spanish colonial era, Cartagena was one of the most important ports in America. The city was assaulted several times by pirates and english troops (Drake, 1586) and so the king Felipe II requested the building of ramparts and forts to defend the city. The fortification is the most complete in South America. The 11 of November of 1811, Cartagena was declared independent from Spain (this day is a national feast in Colombia). Its historical centre, the "Ciudad Amurallada" or "walled city" was declared Colombian national heritage in 1959 and humanity heritage by Unesco in 1984.

From Cartagena, we were expecting to catch a boat to Panama. We arrived Friday afternoon and we found a boat for the Tuesday. We had 4 days to visit this beautiful city. Superb colonial architecture and well conserved ramparts and forts. We spent roughly 1 hour trying to find the post office as nobody knew what was the Post Office! Finally a nice and old lady helped us and I could post the presents for France. We stayed in the Hostal Casa Real which was pretty quiet except the loud TV from a room occupied by 2 guys who were drinking lots of beers!!! And that from late morning!!! We knew which program they were watching from the end of the corridor! We learnt Monday that they were from Ireland and Tuesday that they were part of our boat trip!

- The Cathedral of Cartagena,
- We went to visit the "Palacio de la Inquisicion" which displayed Inquisitor' instruments of torture and a nice architecture building. In one of the patios, a replica of the guillotine could be seen. I like this picture which shows the guillotine (in the dark, right) and the back of the cathedral. Just to remember what the "Church" has done for centuries...,
- The "Plaza de la Aduana", the oldest and largest square in the old town. Very nice but only buildings around. Missing some life here,
- The "Puerta del Reloj" or "Clock door" is the main gateway to the inner town. The clock was built at the top of the wall during the 19th century. The plaza from where I took the picture was the "Plaza de los Coches", a square used as a slave market,
- "Las Bovedas" are located between the forts of Santa Clara and Santa Catalina. It has 47 arches and 23 vaults and had a military use during the colony and during the independence it served as a jail. After its restoration, the Bovedas are now a touristic centre with lots of small shops.

Happy 60th Birthday Chris!!!

2009-03-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

To Chris, Lee's mum, a very happy birthday for your 60th. Have a great day and we'll see you soon with some nice presents!!!!

Parque Nacional Tayrona - photos 2

2009-03-08T12:33:00.001-07:00

Parque Nacional Tayrona:

- On the way to the village of Pueblito where some Indian ruins can be visited. The trail was well in the jungle (left picture) with big rocs to climb (right picture). Nice tropical forest around us ,
- The village was situated at 1h30min from the playa "El Cabo" and the recommendation was not to start the walk after 1pm. We started at 12.45pm! But after 45min walking, we arrived to this mirador point where we decided to stop for lunch. We could see the sea and all the forest. Superb!!! We also saw but I should say "vaguely saw" a monkey in one of the trees in the background. The area was so peacefull that we decided to stay for 1hr, relaxing and cancel the end of our walk to the village (we were running late!!),
- Return to the playa "La piscina" for a swim. Well only for Lee as the water was freezing for me!!!
We had a good time in this park and we will have stayed longer than 2 days if the weather was better! But the prices for the room amd the food were expensive and the 45min walk from Canaveral to Arrecifes is not too easy. Hopefully we left our big backpacks in the reception of the expensive hotel but they are not supposed normally to keep baggages from backpackers.