June 2013

The day after Steph and CJ left, we left for our 4 week holiday! Traveling again and living out of our backpacks…Yay! This time we went to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Florida. We had such a great time! Even though we had been to all these countries before, we went to all new places so it was very exciting. In Mexico, we flew into Mexico City where we met Chris Cornell from Soundgarden! The whole band was on our flight!! We were exhausted and felt gross from our long flight, but we still managed to say hi. :)

Mexico
Mexico City
We spent a day in Mexico City seeing some of the major sites. We went to the Zocalo (main square), Temple Mayor - a site with ruins of old temples, and up the tower at Torre Latinoamericana - great views of the city. Later in the afternoon we went to Zona Rosa where there are lots of restaurants and shops and had dinner.
Beaches
From Mexico City, we flew down to Puerto Escondido. We stayed at Los Olas hotel just across the street from Playa Zocatella. The day we arrived we did absolutely nothing buy lay on the beach all day…it was perfect! The next day, we walked to Playa Manzanilla, another little beach about 30 minutes away. We attempted to stay fit and went for a jog at about 6pm, but it was still so humid and hot that it didn't last for very long. Kai is in heaven here with his favourite drink - a Michelada. We found a place selling 1.5 liters of it for 35 pesos! We had breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday at the local restaurants on the beach…it was so delicious and cheap.
We took a local bus to Mazunte, another beach about 1.5 hours away. We found a hotel directly on the beach - the water was only 5 feet away. We stayed here for another couple of days, being lazy, laying on the beach, and walking around the little towns. One day we rented boogie boards and rode the waves. The waves were really big, and there were some surfers out there, but it was too dangerous for us to attempt it.
San Cristobal
We took the 12 hour night bus to San Cristobal - as you would expect, it was very uncomfortable, and we couldn't sleep much.
We stayed at a nice hotel in the Zocalo - Casa Modero. It was a bit chilly here, compared to the beaches we just came from. We went on a tour of the indiginous pueblas. We visited churches with candles and pine needles all over the floor. It smelled great. We went to another little house that sold traditional clothes. The whole group dressed up like a traditional wedding party, and we ate homemade tortillas, beans and salsa.
San Cristobal is a cute little town and has lots of churches. It reminded me a little of Antigua (Guatemala) or Granada in Nicaragua. We also found a local market, and ate lots of street food. Luckily we didn't get sick this time!
We went on an all day tour to see the 7 lakes at Los Lagos de Montebello. All the lakes were different colours of greens and blues. They were really beautiful. Then we went to see El Chiflòn waterfall. It was a quick 45 min walk up to viewpoint. The waterfall was huge and very impressive. We changed into our bathing suits and went up to the top. We got soaked…It was lots of fun!

Guatemala
Xela
Another long bus ride to Xela (Quetzaltenango), Guatemala. 10 hours total. We opted for the expensive tourist shuttle instead of public transport, and it was worth it for the speed and comfort. It would've take us twice as long otherwise. We stayed at Doña Mercedes. It was a nice place and had a clean kitchen, which meant we could make our own dinner, which is always good for a change when we're traveling. We had to get up at 4.30 am the next morning to walk up the Santa Maria volcano to a look out point. It was a 1.5 hours walk, and we had a nice view of Santiaguito Volcano and some other nearby volcanos. It was a little chilly that early in the morning, but it warmed up quickly when the sun came out. We stayed and watched 2 eruptions. Santiaguito erupts about once every hour and is one of the 10 most active and dangerous volcanos in the world. We got back to the hotel before lunch so we took a little nap then went to the natural hot springs at Fuentes Georginas. It started raining a little, but it didn't matter much since we were in the water. There are 3 springs, and each of them have 3 different temperatures - one really hot, one warm and one almost cold. We kept running back and forth between them.
Lake Atitlan
Took another local bus to Lake Atitlan. We arrived at Panajachel and walked through town to the ferries. Pana town is very busy and touristy. We took a boat to Santa Cruz La Laguna, a small little village on the lake. We wanted to stay at La Iguana Perdida hostel, but it was sold out so we stayed next door at Orca de Noe for one night.
We stayed at the lake for a few days and kept very busy. We took a boat back to Pana to rent bicycles, and we rode to Santa Catalina Paolopò and San Antonio Palopò. It was a beautiful ride. Two hours round trip and very hilly. We were able to move into La Iguana, and we had a pizza dinner at the hostel with everyone that night.
Another day, nine of us from the hostel went for a hike to San Marcos, about 2.5 hours away. It was very hot. We walked through the villages Jaibalito and Tzununa. The trail is up and down along the coast and has some great views of the lake. From San Marcos, we took a boat to San Pedro, just to check it out. It was just another party town, and we were happy with our decision to stay in Santa Cruz.
We rented kayaks early one morning before breakfast. We paddled for an hour or so along the coast towards Jaibalito. It was so beautiful and calm that early in the morning. Lake Atitlan is such a beautiful place!
We had to take a boat back to Pana to catch our bus to Antigua in the afternoon. We only stayed in Antigua overnight and left at 4am the next morning for our long bus ride to Copan Ruinas, Honduras.

Honduras
Copan Ruinas
We arrived in the morning and found our hotel, the Iguana Azual. We met my Aussie friend, Skitch, there! We went to the ruins together. They were amazing…so big! It was very hot and humid, though, so we only stayed for a few hours. We had dinner that night with Skitch…It was so great to catch up! I have a new favourite food for the trip - baleadas - large tortillas that are folded in half with fillings inside. I usually just get beans, but you can get other stuff in them too. The next morning, we all had breakfast together at the hostel and then walked around town a bit. It's actually a cute little town - cobblestone streets, small and clean. Not at all what I was expecting since it's so close to the border. We left around noon for another all day bus ride to La Cieba. We decided to go first class with Hedman Alas. They have bigger seats, pillows, blankets and snacks. It's not as good as Chilean or Argentinian buses, but it's still nice. In La Cieba, we stayed at El Estadio hostel. It was very creepy. The owner walked around with a gun which didn't make me feel safe at all. We went to dinner with 2 other Aussie guys that were staying there. We decided to go to the closest place - Pizza Hut. It was already dark when we left, and we past by some interesting characters on the way. The Aussie guys left to go out after dinner, and we took a taxi back to the hotel. There was no way I was walking back just the two of us. Thankfully we left early the next morning to get the ferry to Utila. So happy to be leaving La Cieba.

Utila
We had been to Utila before in 2009 and went diving with a guy named Bodgan with Captain Morgans. Well, Bogdan started his own business with his wife, Katherine, so we decided to stay with them this time.
Katherine picked us up from the ferry, and we took a small boat to Hotel Kayla on Jewel Cay. The hotel is nothing special, but it's on a tiny island and away from Utila town, which we really liked. It's so quiet there. We spent lots of time in the hammock, reading, playing the guitar, snorkelling, diving and even did some yoga. We spent 5 days on the island, and it was so relaxing. Kai got his advanced open water diving certificate. We saw stingrays, nurse sharks, turtles, and lots of little fish. We went to a local restaurant, Cay View, very often for lunch or dinner. We tried a night snorkel one time, but didn't see much. A few fish, a huge lobster and a stingray. It was actually a pretty scary at night. When we left Utila, we had to take 2 ferries to get to Roatan island to catch our flight to Orlando.

Florida It was only a quick stop in Florida this time. We had 1.5 days to visit family and friends, so we didn't get to see everyone. We went to Tampa to see Jenn and her new baby girl, then we had dinner with my mom, brother & sisters at Christina's, and we got to meet my new nephew - Liam. He's adorable, of course! We stopped by my grandparents for breakfast the next morning before driving down to Miami with Deanna and Dave. We stayed in Miami for the weekend, just hanging out at the beach all day. We went shopping on our last afternoon and filled up a whole new suitcase full of stuff!
And before we knew it, it was time to go back home. Holidays are always too short!