Guatemala and a little bit of Belize

My time in Mexico was coming to an end, as my visa was about to expire. I couldn't believe I was already in Mexico for almost 180 days! But the good thing about that is, time to explore some more of central America! I was already in Palenque, so it was easiest for me to cross the border there. There are two options to cross the border. You can either take the one at El Ceibo, or the Frontera Corozal. The last one is via a boattrip on the river.

Border crossing Mexico - Guatemala

After a lot of research, I decided to go for the Corozal border crossing. I wanted to cross a boarder by boat instead of by land. You can cross by land so many time, so why not via the river! It costs a bit more than the one over land ofcourse, but worth it.

You can get there via colectivo from Palenque, or you just take a tour that goes straight to Flores in Guatemala. I choose the latter as I didn't feel like all the hastle with busses that are known for not showing up.

At 6am in the morning, I was picked up in Palenque and the drive towards the border started.

If you are not in a hurry, I recommend taking another tour that brings you to Yaxchilan and Bonampak as well. Two Maya archeological sites that are definately worth a visit! Yaxchilan is a relatively unknown Maya site and you can only get there by a 30 minute boattrip on the same river where the bordercrossing is.

The road to the border crossing was beautiful, mountains, rainforest and cute little towns and waterfalls. We had a nice driver who was happy and singing along with the music on the radio.

After 3 hours we arrived at the immigration office to stamp ourself out of Mexico. Please note: they will try to have you pay a fee, do not pay for it if you entered the country by air! You automatically pay for the fee when you enter Mexico by plane. If you entered Mexico by land, then you have to pay the exit fee which is around 300 pesos.

Once you're stamped, the bus takes you to the boats. The boats are very very small and they put as many people on them as possible. Once full, they cross the river and let you out on the Guatamalan side. The trip itself is just 5 minutes, but really beautiful. It's like being in the Amazon!

Crossing the river

Guatmalan side of the border

When you arrive on the other side of the river, a nice little town greets you. The town is called La Technica and there is not much to do. But it's great to walk around while waiting for the bus to pick you up. You can also exchange your pesos to Quetzal here. We found a guy that had a better exchange rate than the official set rate. So we were lucky!

La Technica

Finally after 2 hours of waiting, our bus arrived and we set out to Flores. We had to make a quick stop at the immigration service, which was in the town next to La Technica. Easy process, no fees and after the stamp we set out once more towards Flores. We finally arrived there after a few hours driving along a bumpy road.

From there I had to find my way to El Remate, where my hosts lives. All the people in Flores try to rip you off by telling there are no busses going there and you need to take a expensive special taxi. Don't fall for this! Everyone is working together with eachother, to make money of foreigners. I felt they were trying to rip me off, so I went to the bus station. And ofcourse, as expected, there was a bus to El Remate for just 20 Quetzel. The busride took just half an hour and when I arrived my host was already waiting for me.

El Remate

This was seriously one of the highlights of my trip in central America. It's so sad I was only there for 4 days. 4 days with no internet connection, no technology, just nature, rainforest and a beautiful lake and great company. Watching the beautiful sunset every single night, while my host played the guitar. Deep conversations under the stars and with the sounds of the jungle coming to live in the night. 

This place is so tranquil, so serene and beautiful. If you plan to go to Flores/Santa Elena, don't forget to go to El Remate. It's a lot cheaper than Flores and it's very close to Tikal. (Just half an hour by bus. El Remate is halfway between Flores and Tikal.) 

It's just a small town, but incredibly beautiful. I left a massive piece of my heart there and I can't wait to be back there.

If you love calm, relaxing moments, El Remate is the place. Back to basic, away from society.

Unfortunately, 4 days pass so quickly when you're having such a great time. It was time to go back to Mexico, via Belize.

I've only seen Belize through the bus trip we did, it took 5 hours across the country to get back to Mexico. The landscape was stunning, but for some reason I didn't really feel like going back to Belize some other time. It just didn't appeal to me so much. But what doesn't appeal to me, might appeal to you ofcourse!

Well that was it again! My next adventures will be in Euroasia and the middle East.

Have a great day!

Agua Azul and Misol Ha roadtrip!

It's quite a few weeks ago already since I did this roadtrip, but I never posted about it.

So it's time to start doing that now! I'm keeping it short, but it will give you an impression!

I met up with a friend who lives in Villahermosa and we decided to check out the area around Palenque. I knew they had some incredible natural sites around and my friend knew just where to take me.

He picked me up in the morning in Palenque and we set out on our trip to Agua Azul and Misol Ha.

Agua Azul is a natural park with a lot of waterfalls and the water has a special color. That's where the name Agua Azul comes from. There is a certain mineral in the water that gives the water an exclusive blueish, turqiouse color. 

Make sure you go here in the dry season, in the rain season you won't see the color. But the waterfalls are worth going for, even if you can't see the beautiful color of the water.

Agua Azul

Agua Azul is about a 1,5 to 2 hour drive from Palenque along small winding roads through the mountains and lush rainforest. Every now and then you get stopped by a "roadblock" set up by kids who demand some pesos from you in order to continue your journey. Ilegal ofcourse, but we gave the kids some pesos and they were happy. Mind the speedbumps along the road everywhere, your head will hit the ceiling a few times if you go over them too fast.

Once you arrive at Agua Azul, you will be run over by locals forcefully trying to sell you their goods and be prepared to turn down the same people over and over again until it gets tiresome.

When you finally fight your way through, you start to follow the path that leads to all the waterfalls.

Not many people go all the way to the end, but it is definately worth doing it! Don't forget to pay a small visit to the small village next to the waterfalls.

If you are there in the dry season while the waterfalls are not too wild, you are allowed to swim there.

In rain season it's forbidden to swim, but if you walk further down the road, almost at the end, there is a place where you can swim without waterfalls.

Along the path you will find several places to buy souvenirs and food/drinks, mostly sold by the locals.

Misol Ha

After you've seen the Agua Azul waterfalls and you're heading back towards Palenque, don't forget a quick stop at Misol Ha. It's just 1 big waterfall, but worth a visit. It is the same waterfall where Arnold Schwarzenegger (or stuntdouble) jumped off in the movie Predator. 

You can walk under the waterfall all the way to the end where you will find a small cave. Inside the cave is another little waterfall, great for taking a dip in the cold water.

So, if you happen to be in Palenque and want to see some stunning nature, you know where to go to! There are more waterfalls in the area, but unfortunately I didn't visit those.

How to get there

There are multiple ways to get to the waterfalls, the easiest one is taking a tour. You can book the tours in any hotel/hostel or just on the streets of Palenque.

They have all inclusive packages and will take you to all the highlights.

The other way is to simply take colectivos to get there. There are colectivos running all day long to and from the sites. You can catch them in downtown Palenque. Cheap and easy!

Well that was it again! Enjoy your day!

Palenque and the Maya ruins

Hola mi amigos!

It’s time for another weekly update, because I haven’t been sitting still.
In my former blogpost you could read about the Yucatan area, so I’m not going into that again in this post.
The past week was one of amazement again, beautiful places and great people, I thought it was impossible to love Mexico even more, but every single time I fall in love over and over again.

Palenque

After being in Merida for 4 days, I decided it was time to go to Palenque. I found a workaway host in the jungle there and it was time to check it out. I took the ADO bus from Merida to Palenque and after 9 hours I arrived in this very small town in the middle of the jungle. My first impression of Palenque was that it’s not the most beautiful town in Mexico, but because of it’s location I loved it straight away.
As in every city or town in Mexico, taxi drivers are lined up outside the bus station, yelling and screaming to give you a ride (or basically just to rip you off).
But because the hotel I was going to work for was a little hard to find, I decided to take a taxi after all to avoid getting lost in a 40 degrees celcius temperature.

When I arrived, it seriously looked like paradise. Small huts in the middle of the jungle, a beautiful pool, a beautiful view of the mountains and wildlife all around you. And one other good thing, that was actually the reason I wanted to volunteer here, is because the old Maya city is next to it.

My workaway hosts Karen and Oscar are two amazing human beings and I really enjoy my stay here. They don’t really want me to work, just chat a little bit with the costumers, make them feel at home. I’m trying to find some other ways in which I can help them, because I feel bad for not doing anything while they let me stay here for free. They even let me use the motorbike to get around here.

Maya archeological site of Palenque

On my second day here I took the motorbike to the maya ruins next door. It was just a 10 minute ride through lush jungle and up the mountain.
As soon as you arrive, a lot of locals walk up to you, trying to sell you their goods and it can be a bit tricky to free yourself of it. My voice almost went sore from all the “no gracias” I’ve been saying while trying to get to the ticket office. I finally made my way there, bought the ticket and had to fight my way through locals again to get to the entrance.
The archeological site itself is absolutely stunning. So many ruins and temples, it’s amazing! I really like it much better than Chichen Itza. The city is a lot bigger and the view is amazing because it’s on the mountain. Most of the city is in an open space, but you can walk inside the jungle and see more ruins hidden between the trees, it’s really magical. I’m still amazed to this day how they were able to build all these temples back in the days.
If you plan on visiting Chiapas in Mexico, make sure to come to Palenque and visit the maya ruins. It will cost you 30 pesos to get into the national park and an additional 64 pesos for the archeological site. There are colectivo’s going from downtown Palenque to the Maya ruins, just hop onto the bus that says ruinas and enjoy the ride!

Right now I’m mostly at the hotel, but I plan on visiting some other beautiful areas around Palenque. I will try to keep you guys updated, the only problem in the internet. The internet is really bad here, so I’m not always able to update you guys frequently. That’s part of living in the middle of the jungle!

See you guys next time!

The beautiful region of Ruta Puuc in Yucatán

I didn’t want to save this for the weekly updates, because I had a fantastic day in this region yesterday, so it deserves to have it’s own post.

At this moment I’m staying with an amazing friend in Merida and yesterday he was great to share some of his time with me to take me to see some amazing places in Yucatán.
Since we are both massive lovers of nature, cenotes, caves and that kind of stuff, we decided to go to Grutas de Loltún. We left Merida a little late in the day, so we were a little worried that we might not make it in time before the cave closes. But it turned out they had a final tour at 4pm and we arrived just in time for that tour.

Grutas de Loltún

The Loltún caves are one of the most extensive in all of Mexico and it has been used by a lot of civilazations including the Mayans. It has been occupied for more than 10.000 years. The mayans used it as a shelter and to make their weapons. You will see a lot of paintings on the walls as well, animals, hands and much more. It is great to see all these paintings on the wall, made by old ancient civilazations.

The cave itself is a limestone cave and because of the water dripping down it has formed a lot of pillars in the cave. There are a lot of different chambers in the caves, some of them look like cathedrals another looked like the grand canyon and there was an amazing chamber where daylight filled the cave and vegetation was able to grow. It was like a little sanctuary of nature inside a cave. Unfortunately we were not able to explore a lot of the cave because you can only book a tour, that’s one of the reasons I hate tours. I prefer to explore the cave by myself and take my time to see the paintings, the formations and the little sanctuaries. But even though it was a tour, it is most definately worth a visit! If you happen to be in this area, please visit this cave, you won’t be dissapointed.

Here is a movie I made inside the cave, enjoy!

A bar in the middle of nowhere

After we visited the cave, we drove around for a while, enjoying the scenery.

After driving and getting lost, we found a cute small bar on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere.
Unfortunately I don’t know the name of this bar, neither it’s precize location. I tried searching for it on google maps, but without results.
The bar is close to the caves, on a lemon farm next to a small road. It’s close to one of the villages.
You will meet this bar on the side of the road, surrounded by jungle and farm land. A small blue terrace meets you and a little mexican guy comes to greet you with a big smile on his face. The only thing he serves is beer, but considering the high temperatures and just being inside a humid cave, we were craving for a cold drink. We ordered the beer, with a lot of lemon and started to enjoy the silence. After a while the owner of the bar joined us and started telling us about his life.
The land he lives on is from his father, but the bar is his own. Years ago he decided to make the dangerous crossing over the river to America in search for a better life. After days of walking he came to San Francisco and worked there for years before returning to Mexico to open this bar.

After having some shares and beers we saw an amazing sunset in the distance and we just enjoyed that moment for a while in silence.

After the sun was down, we saw the most beautiful nightsky you could imagine. Millions of stars, the milky way while the nightlife of the jungle comes to live.
We just sat there on the ground, watching the stars while the night sounds of the jungle filled the air with music. What a perfect ending for an incredible day.

Quintana Roo and Yucatan!

I have to apologize yet again for not updating a lot lately. I’ve been sick for a very long time and it ended up in the hospital with a lung infection. The good new is that the medication did a good job and I’m up and running again so it’s time to let you all know what happened the past weeks.

This blogpost will be about week 3 until week 9. I can’t believe how fast time goes, I’m already in Mexico for 2 months now and still loving every minute of it.
I’ve met so many amazing people in the past weeks and made so many new friends. A lot of great people here helped me when I was sick, complete strangers helped me out and brought me food to help me get better. I still can’t believe how amazing the people are here.
I also finished the Padi Open Water dive course on Isla Mujeres yesterday, so I’m really happy. Chichen Itza was also on the list of places to visit, so let’s start!

Chichen Itza

As a lot of you know, I’m a massive fan of ancient civilazations, so it was great when my friend offered me to go to Chichen Itza with me. Even though it’s a very touristy place, I’m glad I went there. It’s absolutely great to see all those Mayan ruins and it’s unbelievable that people lived there back in the days.
I remember that I saw a documentary about Chichen Itza a couple of years ago and it was unreal walking there myself now. Seeing the temples, the observatory and the play field. It’s amazing how they were able to build all that in the past, it’s absolutely incredible!

The big temple is great when it’s summer solstice, the sun will project a shadow so that you will see a snake on the temple. Unfortunately it was not summer solstice, so we were not able to see the shadow, but it was great non the less.

Padi Open Water dive course

As I wrote in another blogpost a while ago, I started with the padi on Isla Mujeres. I started with the 2 confined space dives 4 weeks ago and the first 2 open water dives as well. Unfortunately I started to get sick the day after, so I was unable to finish the padi until yesterday. We started with the last 2 open water dives for the final skills to perform. We dived in musa again (the underwater museum) and the second dive was in the reef Atlantis again. The last dive was just a fun dive.
After the open water dives we went back to the dive center because I still had to finish the last 7 questions of the final exam. I was a bit nervous because I thought I made too many mistakes, but in the end it turned out I only made 1 mistake with the exam. So I finally have my certificate now and I’m really happy with it! I can’t wait to start diving in other places.

Diving really is a great experience and a new world opens for you, even more to explore while there is already so much to explore on earth.
I hope to add pictures to this section soon, I’m still waiting for the pictures to arrive. I just hope they will send it to me, because it’s great to have some pictures of myself diving.

Unfortunately I didn’t do much more these past weeks as I was sick most of the time. I really hope the next weekly diaries will have more to tell you guys, but I think it will.
I’m leaving to Merida on sunday to stay there for a week. After Merida I will travel to Palenque in Chiapas to do some volunteer work and to visit the old Maya city as well.
I look forward to it and I will keep you guys updated!

Much love and see you next time!

Exploring Quintana Roo

In the last weekly travel diaries I mostly talked about Cancun, but this week has a lot more! I’ve been travelling around the state Quintana Roo for a while and it’s so beautiful here. Quite the Caribbean life and I love it! If you don’t mind touristic area’s (which I usually avoid) and white beaches and huge shopping malls, this is the area to go to.

I’m not going to tell about Cancun anymore, but I will cover the other places I’ve been to in this weekly edition. 

Isla Mujeres

This is a small island off the coast of Cancun and even though it is only 7km wide, it’s definatelt worth a visit. There are beaches, resort, lovely shops in the downtown and a rough coastline on the other side of the island. The island doesn’t have many beaches, the main beach is the beach at the downtown and North Beach. The water is crystal clear and the beach is clean, very clean. It’s a good place for snorkling and I decided to do the PADI open water dive course here as well. Today I had my first lesson and I’m absolutely in love with diving! A post about the diving course will be up when I finish the course later this week.

Isla Mujeres is easily reached by one of the many ferries from Cancun. You can either take the ferry in the Hotel Zone, but it’s more expensive than the one in Puerto Juarez. In the Hotel Zone you pay around 13 euro’s one way, while you will only pay 4,5 euro’s one way when you depart from Puerto Juarez. There is a collectivo (a small bus) going to Puerto Juarez, so you don’t have to take a taxi.
If you want to see a lot of the island, you can rent a golf cart and drive yourself around. Or you can just take a taxi, but it will cost more in the end and you don’t have the freedom you have when you drive a golf cart. You can also hitchhike around the island, it’s a true hitchhikers paradise. My advice is to go to the other side of the island, it’s less touristic and absolutely beautiful!

Cozumel

Another island in the Quintana Roo state, a much bigger one than Isla Mujeres, but also a lot more touristic. This is the island where all the cruise ships come and the downtown is quite expensive because of that. But the island is definately worth a visit. You need a car to get around though, or take one of the many taxi’s. The downtown is not that great in my opinion, but when you can drive around you can find some beautiful places. The island has some maya ruins and cenotes, they are both great to visit. Don’t forget to bring your bug spray when you visit the cenotes, because the mosquitoes will kill you.

After visiting the cenote we went to a cute little maya village in the middle of the island called El Cedral and it’s worth a visit. There is a small mayan ruin there as well. The town itself is not very big, but it’s were the mayans live on the island. The houses are all very colorful and cute and it’s great to drive through.

Along the other side of the island you will find a couple of great places to eat and drink. Lay in a hammock while watching the waves in the ocean and listening to Bob Marley. Live doesn’t rush here and I’m already starting to get used to the Caribbean lifestyle, just take it easy and be happy!

Don’t forget to eat and drink at the local restaurants and bars along the road, they have amazing food! And another good thing about Cozumel is that you can get free drinks really easily when you’re a girl. Just take your shirt off, show your boobs and there you go, a free drink or tequila shot! I haven’t done that though, but maybe if you’re into that kind of stuff you now know that you can get free drinks this way here. Overal Cozumel is a nice place to visit, but quite expensive and you need transport to get around.

You can get to Cozumel from Playa del Carmen with a ferry and it will cost about 9 euro for a one way ticket.

Playa del Carmen

I’ve only been in Playa for one night, but it looks like a nice place to see while your in the area anyway. Again, very touristic and expensive, but the beaches are beautiful and you can go to Tulum and places in between for very cheap with a collectivo. (About 30 peso, that’s around 2 euro.)
The main street has a lot of shops and restaurants and bars, so if you like shopping and drinking, you’ll love Playa del Carmen.
I’ll be going back to Playa del Carmen soon, so then I will be able to give some more information about the place.

Xcacel

A very small place close to Tulum where you will find an amazing secluded beach and a cenote where you can swim. We went to the cenote first and the fishes in there feast on you feet, so now you know where to go when you want a special spa. They like nibbling your feet. The water is a lot colder than the ocean, but it’s definately refreshing! Watch out for the crocodiles though. Naa, I’m kidding.
The place is a protected marine area because of all the turtles nestling there, even though I haven’t seen any turtles, we could see where they laid their eggs.

After the dip and spa treatment you can walk to the beach and enjoy the quiet. The beach is not very well know among tourists, so you will mosly find locals there. It’s not busy at all, so you will have the beach almost all to yourself.
You can get here with a collectivo for 35 peso’s from Playa and just tell the driver to drop you off at Xcacel.

Now I’m back in Isla Mujeres for the PADI open water diving course and when I finish I’m going back to Cancun for a few days and then head off to Merida I think.
As you can see, I’m still enjoying myself to the max here and I’m falling in love with Mexico, the mexican people and the food more and more!

Isla Mujeres, hitchhikers paradise.

I’m currently exploring the beautiful island Isla Mujeres, just 15 minutes by ferry from Cancun.
Ofcourse I can’t explore a country or island without trying to hitchhike as well. Even though a lot of people warned me for hitchhiking in Mexico, I believe the area I am in now, is as safe as any other place I hitchhiked in. Especially Isla Mujeres, it’s a very touristy and safe place.
Although the taxi is really cheap on this island, I still prefer to hitchhike, because you meet amazing people and you get to see a lot of places.
Since the island is really small, you don’t really have to worry about getting lost and in case you really can’t find a ride anymore, you can just walk or take a taxi.
It turns out that Isla Mujeres is a true hitchhiking paradise and the first car will stop for you straight away. I haven’t had any cars passing me by without picking me up. One even asked if I needed a ride before I even put my tumb out.

Hitchhiking a golf cart

There are a lot of golf carts on Isla Mujeres and with that I mean A LOT!! You will most likely be picked up by tourists in golf carts and it’s a great way of getting around the area. Before I started hitchhiking I was walking along the coast of the non touristy side of Isla Mujeres and got into a conversation with a guy from Venezuela, Alfredo I believe his name was. We got along pretty well and decided to explore the island together. I asked him if he was up for hitchhiking and he was even though he never tried it before. We started walking to the road and saw a golf cart coming, so I put my thumb out and they stopped immidiately. They were a couple from California, checking the island out for a day. They didn’t have to go very far, so a couple of hundred meters later they were already at their destination. From there we stuck our thumb out again and a guy with a pick up truck picked us up. For me it was the first time hitchhiking in the back of a pick up truck. In the picture my newly made friend!

Not long after we got picked up by another couple from San Diego and they drove us a bit around the other side of the island.
At some point we saw a beautiful coastline, so we told the couple they could drop us off there and they did.

After taking a lot of pictures here we decided to hitchhike further and another lovely couple from America picked us up. We ended up riding along for quite a while with them and we had tons and tons of fun. They were really funny people and this ride was definately the best we could have had. We took different turns to see where we would end up and  a lot of times it turned out to be a dead end, but who cares when you’re having a blast? The funniest moment was when we had to go over one of the many speed bumps and we did it a bit too slowly. It was a nasty one and we got stuck. The front wheels were on one side and the rear wheels on the other and the motor from the golf cart didn’t have enough power to get the rear ones over the bump as well. In the end we managed to do it by trying it in reverse and then floor the gas panel.
I almost had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard, it was definately hilarious. Unfortunately as we all know, good things must come to an end and so did this ride.
We said our goodbyes and I asked if I could take a picture.

So as you can see, Isla Mujeres is a hitchhikers paradise, so if you plan to go here, think about hitching a golf cart!