The wheels on the bus go round and round.

With about 2 more hours of this 23 hour long bus journey to go I thought I should probably update on our epic travel adventure.

1 boat ride, 4 flights, 2 taxi rides and coach trip later and we have nearly arrived at our desired destination, Cuzco, the home of the Inca Trail that we will be hiking over the coming weeks.

All this travelling has been pretty much good for two things; free overnight accomodation at Guatemala airport

and on this lovely bus (which is VIP might I add) and the number of stamps we now have in our passports!

We also arrived to find that our hostel room is names VIP - perfect.

Thank god for wi fi and my iPod othrwise I fear the boredom would have reached new heights, there's only so long that you can watch A Bugs Life in Spanish without it becoming a little depressing.

But in theory this should be the worst bulk of travelling done for the whole trip now. The next bad one is the flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney but that's looking like it will be a walk in the park now!

Showerless in Bacalar

We have finally reached civilization again having just been for our remote cultural Mexican experience in what The Lonely Planet describes as the 'sleepy town of Bacalar'. Sleeping is not the word, dead is the word, aged and dead. But hillar none the less. Even the ATM snoozes solitary in the middle of the town square.

It's a very strange little place. Most of the restaurants seem to only really open during the day, and then rotate with each other as to who will have to stay awake for the evening trade. There was about 10 restaurants in the place but only the choice of one or two each evening!

We definitely felt like we were getting back to basics, particularly when we realised that we had no water in the whole place we were staying. Yes that's right, no tap water, no loo flush and no shower water. Our saving grace was a quick kayak along the lagoon and a dunk to 'freshen up' in the lagooney water mmmmm yummy. As if the kayaking wasn't already making me reminisce about my D of E in Norway, the lack of showering definitely reinforced this nostalgia.

So after a swety journey and a couple of boat rides later we have arrive in Caye Caulker, a little island off the coast of Belize and it is beautiful.

Literally, we have discovered paradise island. All the buildings our beautifully colourful and the reggae beats are pumped continually through the streets as the lobster and shrimp grills on the bbq.

The island is so small you can walk from one end to the other in about 20 minutes and has a lovely community feel, all the more enhanced by our hostel, Bella's. Its the place everyone recommends if you say your off to Caye Caulker and its definitely worth a look in - but get there early cos it fills up fast! Last night it was a full moon so we all sat out and had a big bonfire and a horrible amount of rum - a trend that seems to dominate the island, most food places offering free rum drinks with your meal. I've gone from hating rum, to braving rum, to enjoying rum in about 2 days!

And maybe the highlight of the island has been the shower this morning. Yeah, it was freezing cold, but it was wet and there was shampoo and soap. Heavenly.

So for a few more days in paradise before we head to Peru and hit the hills. I have a feeling that this showerless trend may reach new heights...

Going South.

So having sadly said our goodbyes and leaving Cancun we headed down to Playa del Carmen, party captial of the east coast. We caught Playa del Carmen on the last day of a massive festival so things were still pretty lively despite seeming to shut down a little early for our liking (4am). We went to a chain club called Señor Frogs which can only be likened to Flares. On arrival (we were sucked in by the swing seats at the bar) we were forced into a conga and fed tequila before we´d even had one swing. Anyway, that pretty much set the tone of the night.

So after a pretty heavy one, we went for some ´down time´at a little island called Cosumel. Its supposed to be a bit of  a snorkelling hotspot, but as we´d already done a bit on the reef we decided it would be fun to take on the roads in true Mexican style.

Oh yes, the VW i always wanted. The hardest thing I have ever driven, cranking back between fourth and first whilst driving on the wrong side of the road with angry Mexicans behind you was a little stressful. But, we got there in the end and had a lovely cruze around a beautiful island. That topped off with beers for 12 peso, or about 70p made our stay at Cosumel definitely worth the ferry trip, even if we did experience and extereme journey on the way back!

We had our first glimpse of rain (booooo) and that water was CHOPPY.

Our beautiful view from the boat. I´ve never experience anything like it! it took about half an hour just to land the thing! But never fear, the freeeezing bus is here....

That air con was COLD, we froze our way to Tulum where we finally did a bit less beaching and a bit more culturing. And we know what that means... more ruins. We have decided that these were our second fave. So we rate it Ek Balam, Tulum, Chitchen Itza. WHich is suprising considering that Chitchen Itza is what everybody raves about. But the whole problem is that they´ve gone all health and safety (unusual for Mexico) and after a few people fell from the top decided to act like the British and cordon the whole thing off.

Tulum´s setting is beautiful, its right by the beach so the views are stunning, and the ruins themselves are only 500 years old and have a much more gardeny feel! If you fancy going stay at The Weary Backpacker hostel. Its brilliant fun, you can bbq your own food with cheap drinks all night, and an amazingly cheap taco place just outside! Book in advance as it seems pretty busy, but definitely worth a go, we bumped into all the people from our Cancun hostel there so it seems the place most are heading.

And that takes us up to today. We´re off to watch some Flamenco tonight and then are honeymooning it up in a beach hut for tomorrow night. A little bit of Laura, Hannah bonding time! And then we´re going to hunt down a more local town, avoid the tourists for a bit before we take on Chetumal.

Cancun in a Nutshell

So me and Hannah have reached the end of our time in Cancun and have managed to pack in quite a lot of cool stuff already.

First up I would definitely recommend the hostel that we stayed in to anyone that is coming to the area. Hostel Quetzal is a small hostel right in the centre of things and only a small bus journey away from the Hotel Zone which is the more commercial area on the beach front full of hotels and clubs. Its nice to be just outside that so that you get a bit more of a feel for the real Mexico. Its still pretty tourist friendly, but its here that you find the local bars with live salsa music that really give you a proper flavor of what Mexico is like.

The hostel is very very friendly, every night you sit outside and have dinner with everyone there which gives you a great opportunity to make friends and exchange stories. Hannah and I have been made to feel so welcome that our 1 day stop here has turned into 4 nights! We will be very sad to leave! The owner, Monica is amazing and knows everything there is to know about Mexico, and pretty much anywhere it seems! So she has been able to guide us around all the best places to go and see which has been fantsastic.

There have been several highlights while we have been in Cancun. On our first night we went to a club called Basic which floats on the lagoon and has a sprung floor like nothing I have experienced before! The whole clubs bounces and shakes to the beat, Hannah and I LOVED it!

We did a day trip out to some of the ruins. Obviously Chitchen Itza is the most famous of these...

Which was amazing to see, but I have to say not the most interactive of trips. It was worth going to but Hannah and I had much more fun at the ruins which are about an hours drive from Chitchen Itza, Ek Balam. Here you can climb on the ruins themselves and explore them freely. We climbed right to the top, which was a bit scary, but the views were spectacular.

So I would definitely recommed going to both really. During that trip we also went and explored a Senote, which is a massive cave filled with water that you can dive into. We will definitely be trying to hunt down some more of these later in our trip as it was beautiful.

After dinner, a new experience for all with Cactus being served, which tastes suprisingly nice, kind of like pepper and quite soft in texture, we sampled some traditional Mexican music at a small little bar round the corner from the hostel (and our first Pina Colada after a handy hint from the G Ma - which I do agree it was the best I've ever had) before packing ourselves off to bed ready for another full day at Isle Mujeres.

This beautiful little island is about a 20 minute ferry ride from Cancun and is definitely worth stopping at.

You can hire golf carts to drive around in, a bicycle or if your feeling a bit braver a moped. This was our original plan, but on arrival decided that we actually wanted to go snorkelling.

It was pretty cheap for a brilliant four hour trip where we got to see statues underwater statues, the reef which is the second biggest n the world obviously next to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia that we are hoping to explore when we get to Cairns. We got to see loads of exotic fish and even a ship wreck. A little extra to the day was that we held a catfish which was orginally bigged up as a 'shark' obviously on arrival we were a bit disappointed when we saw this massive fish trapped in a very small cage looking sorry for itself. But we had a quick photo anyway, we'll have to source out some sharks another time!

So as last night was our final evening in Cancun we went on a hunt for a local ravey night out! We stumbled across this salsa bar that originally looked like it may be a bit of a flop, but at about 12:30 things suddenly started to liven up, there was a full on salsa band and I have to say that all the Zumba did pay off as the music was exsactly the same! It was amazing to watch the locals take the floor, and after a few bevvys, Hannah and I also tried our hand at a bit of salsa. It is our mission by the end of the trip to have mastered Salsa, Samba and Tango... Strictly here we come!

We're off to Playa Del Carmen this afternoon to soak up some rays and take in the night life before heading off to a smaller island called Cosumel before Tulum in a week or so....

Photo Time... Our Cancun Exploits

Heres the link to some photos from our time in Cancun as we're now off for a night on the town in Playa del Carmen! Excuse the grossness of our faces... travelling = skanky for 6 months! Oh the joys of suncream grease and dirt mmmmmmmmmmm.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58066532@N06/sets/72157625784087886/with/5337347169/

Flickr seems to be a pretty good way of letting you guys see what we're up to and of backing up our photos, so I would dfeinitely recommend getting an account for those of you that are off on your travels soon....

Flying the flag for the Brits

So we've arrived in cancun Mexico and are loving it already! We rocked up at our hostel, Quetzal, to a slap up meal with great company! There are about 12 of us staying in this friendly little place just a little way from the beach and bars. The meal started with the famous tequila shots and ended in a messy night out by the beach. The clubs we're pumping out the hip hop so Han and I were in our element flying the flag for Brits amongst the kiwis that seem to dominate!

So now we're off to try and get rid of the pasty pale skin and crack on the tannage so that we can start looking like we fit in a bit!

Tomozza.

So finally the day is nearly here! Bags packed, malaria tablets swallowed and passport checked, double checked, triple checked and we're ready to go.

We've had a couple of lovely send off and now we're ready to go... we even got a cake!

We're off to Gatwick for a lovely 11 hour flight in all it's BA style, I'm actually quite looking forward to catching up on some films (gunning for a bit of Harry Potter!) and taking full advantage of my new discovery... free drinks on long haul flights! amaze!

anyway... will be in touch as much as possible, and will keep blogging! hopefully with some exciting tales to tell!!

xxxx

Packing. Packing. Packing.

Anyone that has had the pleasure of being near me when packing/unpacking or general tidiness is involved will know that it is not one of my favourite pastimes.

On many occasion the lovely ladies at uni have had to pin me down and endure the ritual, ceremoniously inspecting the items of my wardrobe that they've 'never seen me wear' as they very kindly help me ram them all into a dinky, half collapsed wardrobe.

So, this morning, the ritual began again, but this time with the aim of squeezing it all into an even dinkier rucksack ready for tomorrows journey.

Whilst the general kit has been strewn across my bedroom floor (in a very organised fashion I can assure you) I have now finally managed to migrate this heap....

Into this bag....

So after a few discussions with other people about what they should take with them, here's the run down of what I've got, hopefully it covers pretty much everything!

shorts
tshirts
knickers
socks
1 pair of trousers
hat
sunglasses
quick dry towel
sleeping bag liner
mosquito net
mosquito repellent
malaria tablets
first aid kit
sterilised needles/dressings etc
universal plug adapter
universal sink plug
water purifying tablets
all purpose soap
'pack safe' bag lock
padlock
suncream
duct tape
string
pegs
tooth brushes
TOILET ROLL
waterproofs
money belt
inflatable pillow
alcohol gel

The list probably continues but that's the useful stuff (just for you Katie...)