Waterfalls

So our hangovers slowed us down a little bit this morning and we decided to scrap the observatory (think is was all a bit geeky for Fi anyway) and head straight to the waterfalls. Ofcourse on the way there the clouds rolls in and it pissed with rain, so our hopes were somewhat dashed but it all worked out for the best.

After navigating some windy roads and hand drawn maps from our landlord, we start our way thought the jungle to find the “small” waterfall. Fi insisted on making loud noises at regular intervals to scare away the boa constrictors, something she has read online, so I was lucky to have her and her expertise along for the adventure!

Anyway, its the first time I’ve very been to a waterfall (other than to one in freezing cold Wales in March) and it was pretty stunning as you emerge from the dense trees:

Anyway we hung around for a couple of hours swimming, jumping off the rocks and exploring the pools downstream. It would’ve be nice if we’d had it all to ourselves but we had a group of teenagers join us to practice their rope swings dives Thankfully as we were all getting ready to leave people started to arrive in droves so our earlier start paid off.

Thankfully the sun came out in the afternoon and we headed off to check out Rincon and the surf before heading home for a fresh fish bbq – a fish called Dorardo, which Fi searched for online and for a short while had a pained look on her face cos it looked like we had eaten dolphin! But just turned out to be from the same family and a fish not a mammal!

long island ice tea & pina colada drunk

Just got back in from a bit of a drunken night in Puerto Rico so apologies if the post is a bit random…  a nice barman gave us the strongest Long Island Ice Tea I have ever had as we said we were skintbut wanted to get drunk – it worked!

We arrived in San Juan a few days ago, stayed on the floor of a kite surfer buddy rob knew from his last visit and then drove out West to the California of PR – the west coast.  The guys we stayed with are a super nice couple, pro kiter Julie and her husband Antoine instructor / shop owner/ super talented watersports all rounder, definitely check them out if you are ever in PR.  We are staying in an apartment of Antoine mates in a place called Aguadilla, its proper surf ville here, with Rincon down the coast one way and shacks up the way from here too.   A big swell in today so we haven’t been surfing yet but over the next few days its a must – without the kites too, that will be interesting!  PR is a cool place, very surfy and lots of cool young kids – we of course feel very at home here……ha ha!   Its as you would imagine, like America but with more latino attitude and Carribbean lifestyle, its certinaly a unique combination they carry off.   We hope to head south in a few days time to get some good wind in the flat water lagoons of La Paguera, we haven’t been kiting for quite a few days now and getting withdrawal symptoms ;-(

well i have just eaten a great quesadilla courtesy of roberto, downing water to counteract my ridiculously strong long island ice teas before the cockerels wake me up in 4 hours time…bastards.   Not to worry though, only plans for tomorrow are seeing the observatory (apparently in James Bond Golden Eye) and a local waterfall and thats about it.    ahhhhh, Caribbean life is way too easy.  Missing you all, wish you could be here having a party with us tonight ;-(   xxx

I hope we may have found a cure for “The Bullet”

Cozumel island and Casa Viento

Cozumel is really a beautiful little Mexican island, we have had a few days of uber relaxation which was nice after our hectic week of traveling around last week.  The island is big enough to have some variety; on the west side the more touristic beaches and town centre full of good places to eat/sit, built up more now for the cruise ships that dock here most days but they sail away in the evening which suits us fine   Then on the east side is a rugged un-spoilt coastline backed by mangroves and jungle with no basic amenities and therefore no big hotels.  The East coast takes most of the beating every year by the Hurricanes and changes shape continuously as a result. The rest of the Island sheds its outer skin like an Iguana and in 1 month (the island gets shut down completely to arrivals and departures) cleans up everything to its former glory with a swift efficiency and community spirit. Everything therefore looks bizarrely fresh and new and the island then enters each season a little more solidified by mothers nature onslaught – kind of nice silver lining don’t you think?

Nowhere have we seen this community spirit though more than with our hosts, Raul and Nicole, here at Casa Viento. I have never stayed anywhere where i feel so welcome, i honestly feel like i am staying with mates, its awesome. Raul is a really experienced kitesurf instructor (with an olympic background in Windsurfing too) and as a Islander himself knows all the best spots / conditions to watch out for which is great when there are so many options typical of an island this size.

I can not recommend them and their place highly enough, super nice and even if you don’t kitesurf this should be your no.1 call if you’re looking for somewhere to stay in Cozumel.  Ok, post and advert over.

Yacatun catch up

Well its been a while since the last blog post and we have done a super fast tour of Yacatun in that time!  After a few lovely days chilling on the Lagoon at Isla Blanca we drove a long 4 hours over to Merida.   We negotiated the one way system and found our first hostel to stay in although i don’t think it was that typical of most budget hostels.  A dusty old colonial house with an internal tropical garden and beautiful rooms with 20 foot ceilings.  The only down side was loads of Mosquito’s but i think we have to get use to that here – a small price to suffer!

We LOVED Merida, a city dominated by locals instead of tourists; we just hung out in the square, markets and local taco shops soaking it all up.  We stumbled across an underground market which was huge, a maze of tunnels selling everything from herbs and dried fish bones, to shoes and pet food. We continued our amazement of how small people were in this part of Mexico when we saw the size of the games machines lining the walls of the market and the tiny aisles between stalls – a 6 foot 5 man really does stand out here!  Rob had his first real shave here (including a grade 1 on the head, sorry Kate!) and i shopped for a panama hat to blend into the tourists and a future wedding dress – they have such beautiful designs here.

We headed out to Progresso the following day which is a gorgeous little seaside resort for Merida residents, again minimal tourists and Rob even got out for a sunset kite as the lonesome rider which he thoroughly enjoyed

We then drove back to the ‘otherside’, this time a bit further down to Tulum.  To me Tulum was quite like Goa in places, lots of hippies, more europeans than Americans (strange for Mexico) and all the accommodation lining the amazing palm/jungle lined beaches.   Unlike Goa however were the prices, most places were asking for $100 upwards a night which is way out of our budget so we finally found a beach hut with no bathroom for $35 which we took.   Other than the beautiful scenary at tulum – including the Mayan Ruins – we didn’t really think that much of it.   Completely touristic and over priced and yet again we got eaten alive by Mosquito’s, Rob found 7 alone on his bum, they must have found it quite tasty

So we left the next afternoon and headed to Playa Del Carmen.  After dumping our car, buying a Vanilla De-Caf Soya Latte from Starbucks (the small luxuries eh?) and seeing the sights of ‘Senor Frogs’ (apparently a well known Mexican bar brand – they grab your boobs, make you do shots and generally entertain drunken spring breakers, needless to say we watched from afar) we then hopped on a ferry to the quieter Island of Cozumel.

That is where we are now.  Wind has been generally light this side of Mexico and Cozumel seems to be the same.  Fine for me but not so great for Rob – fingers crossed it kicks in a bit for the 4 days we are here, especially for his Birthday which is today!

More Cozumel reports to follow, i have babbled on long enough.  I hope everyone is well and we still miss you all.  Hasta luego amigos.

the humid side of mexico

Arriving on the other side of mexico is like arriving in a completely different country. Baja was typically what i imagined Mexico to be like; dry, deserts, fields of thousands of Cactus, and taco shacks ran by cowboy hat wearing tanned mexicans. Although we haven’t seen much of this side yet our first impressions were of a humid, tropical, lush beach destination. Obviously we got out of Cancun faster than you can say Spring Break – yes, we managed to pick the one week where most American college students head for Mexico! We hired our teeny tiny budget car at about 8pm last night and drove about 20 miles up the coast to a place called Isla Blanca. Its pretty dis-orienating arriving somewhere at night (and driving at night – we headed the wrong way down a one way street into oncoming traffic – oppps) but it looked promising; about 5 little rooms and a few tents camped around one main hut where we get / cook food which is all together about 20 metres from the sea edge. When we woke to that lovely howling sound coming through our room we peaked out to see people already pumping up kites at 7am! After a sticky and mosquito ridden night i needed a coffee b4 we got on the water so we ate some breakkie with our new buddies for the next few days and got the lowdown. Then followed a few hours on the flat lagoon water (kiting off shorr though i couldn’t quite get my head around), a lazy afternoon and some authentic fajitas from a roadside cafe in the suburbs of Cancun. All in all a good day. I think we are going to head inland to Merida tomorrow before we get the ferry to Cozumel, see what the ‘white city’ is all about. We are also gonna try move our flight to Puerto Rico so we can drive down into Belize too, there seems to be a lot more to see and do here so hopefully some more interesting blogs to come!

La Ventana, final days

So we’re on our last day in La Ventana and all fingers and toes are crossed for wind. Unfortunately our lucky streak run out a couple of days ago and the wind disappeared but thankfully we got the internet at our house so we’ve busy planning out the next stop of the Big Trip, as we head off to Cancun (and get out of there as quickly as possible) for some mainland Mexico action.

We did manage to finally find something happening in the evening 20 Minute drive and there is an oasis of Millionaire maisions, a private airstrip and an 18 hole golf course, all surrounded by desert and cactus! Thankfully there a really nice open air bar/restaurant, right on the beach and Friday night is Sushi night. So we headed down there with most of the gringo’s from La Ventana feasting on a mixture of Sushi, Quesadilla, margaritas and local beer.

All started pretty relaxed but once those Margarita’s kick in we were dropping palms all over the place, leading to some harsh deals the next day. (Yep, I’ve got no idea what that really means too but Aaron seems to witter on like this all the time, kids hey!)

One last thing to mention, the Mexican locals have a strange manner of enjoying music. They all drive pimped up trucks, but we’re assuming that there car sound systems far exceed there home stereo cos they park up outside their house, open all the car doors and turn the car stereo up full volume, so they can hear it nice and clear whislt sitting in their houses. We too get to enjoy the local mexican music at 6am each morning – great to have your whole body vibrating with bass after 5 hours sleep and a cracking hangover