Going Home

It's hard to believe it but our nine months come to an end tomorrow. Today is our very last day in Central America after an unforgettable adventure. We survived a very long journey down from Tapachula, Mexico, back to where it all began- San Jose, Costa Rica. Very kindly, my mum and dad have paid for us to have our final night back in the lovely Pura Vida Hotel (in whose gardens this photo was taken), so we're having a very relaxing last day and looking forward to a delicious meal tonight!

Obviously we've been doing a lot of reflecting on the trip recently; talking about all the amazing highlights like the El Mirador trek, Isla de Ometepe, diving in Honduras and Belize, learning Spanish in Panama and so many more! For me, the best thing has been how endlessly stimulating travel can be. Every day we've seen and experienced surprising and beautiful things and even today we have more questions about Central America than when we first began! We've also met some brilliant people and made some long-lasting friendships, I'm sure. I hope we'll bump into some of you again in some far flung corner of the world one day!!

Having said that, there are so many things we're looking forward to at home, especially our wonderful friends and families. We've missed you all so much and have both vowed to make a lot more time for for visits in the future (please feel free to hold us to this!). Of course, I will really miss my parents being at home to welcome me back (they're living in New Zealand for two years for those who don't know!), but we're looking forward to seeing them soonish. We're planning a trip to down under in September so keep an eye out for the next installment of our world travels!

We'll be back at home early on Thursday 11th and will be staying with Rob's parents in Ashby for a while. Thanks Liz and Greg for putting us up! Can't wait to see you all really soon.

Lots of love from Rachel xx

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What's there to add? Some of my highlights have been the lava on Volcán Pacaya, watching nesting turtles in Tortuguero, the beautiful colonial cities of Granada and San Cristóbal de las Casas and the natural beauty of Semuc Champey. One of the (hopefully lasting) things we'll take away is our Spanish; we'll have to find some way to keep practising!

So that our family and friends don't have to be bored by the thousands of photos we've taken on our trip, we've put together a couple of albums: one tells the story of our trip and the other is a collection of the very best photos from the entire 9 months. Enjoy!

Rob

Tzotzil Villages

Tzotzil Maya people still retain a lot of their old traditions so a day spent visiting two villages in the highlands of Chiapas was completely fascinating. First stop was San Juan Chamula. This cemetery was a very sobering sight; the black crosses mark the graves of elderly people, green adults and, sadly, white shows children and babies.



The church is beautifully decorated inside and out. Cameras are forbidden inside, which was a shame as we witnessed a healer performing a ritual and villagers worshipping on a pine-needle covered floor. Bizarrely, Coca-Cola is often used in everyday rituals because it induces burping, which is said to expel evil spirits.



We came with a guide as many local people are very wary of outsiders and it is essential to be sensitive when visiting the area. Manuel took us to a home where they have the honour of caring for a figure of a saint for the year. This arch marks the location. Inside we were encouraged to try some pox (pronounced posh), a very strong spirit that is used in a lot of ceremonies. For example, a herbal doctor will spit a mouthful of it over someone who is ill to cleanse them. Oh and it's also an essential part of all fiestas, of course!




In Zinacantán, Manuel showed us the traditional clothes worn by men. Although almost all women still wear the traditional dress, it is much less common to see men using it. Interestingly, the women's heavily embroidered shawls have changed over time; when the village started growing flowers such as lilies and roses to sell across Mexico, the women included these images in their designs.



Here a Tzotzil woman is weaving cotton using the back strap technique.



We visited a house where we saw the importance of maize, or corn, in Mayan life in the past and today. For many centuries the different colours of maize (who knew there were more than one!) have held different significances. White is linked with east and the god of rain, black with the west and god of death, yellow with the north and the god of corn and red represents the god of wind, who is believed to live in the south.




Maize is still the major staple in all Mexican, and especially Mayan diets. This woman made us some delicious tortillas straight from the fire. They had a much stronger taste than the ones used in places like taco stalls.



The children are incredibly beautiful and this shot has to be one of my favourite pictures from the whole trip.

Rachel x

UPDATE: There are many more really nice pictures from the Tzotzil villages; click here to view the whole album.

Mérida and Chichén Itzá

We've spent much longer in Mérida than we expected. It's an attractive, if busy, city with a lovely Plaza Grande and a lot of life.




We met up with our friend from uni, Tom, who is living here in Mexico in a city called Villa Hermosa. We had a great time doing some day trips with him and hanging out in the lovely Nomadas hostel. The best thing about it is the fantastic swimming pool, which is essential after a scorching day with temperatures in the 40s!




Look at these incredible hammocks hanging over the water!



We went to the nearby Chichén Itzá Mayan ruins, which were very impressive.



At the hostel we've met lots of friendly people and a couple of them joined us for the trip. OB, from Denmark, and Matt, from Canada, kept us entertained throughout! Here they are with Tom and Rob at the Plaza de mil columnas or Thousand column square.



I loved the faces used to decorate the buildings.




The heat got to us in the end, though, and, after a few hours exploring the ruins, it was straight back to the pool!



Rachel x

Tobacco Caye

As soon as we saw Tobacco Caye from the boat, we knew we'd arrived somewhere really special. Just the size of a football pitch, the island is a tiny slice of paradise surrounded by turquoise water and a wonderful coral reef. This photo shows how small it is; Rob managed to get the whole island in from the end of a jetty. You just need to tilt your head a bit!



We stayed at a wonderful place called Lana's on the Reef, run by the delightful Lana (actually Lorna but the spelling allows for the strong Caribbean accent!). She looked after us so well, cooking us delicious food and even washing our clothes for us.



This may look like a shed for holding fishing equipment but it's actually a dive shop! Because the reef is so close to the island we were able to dive right off the shore and we had the luxury of a dive master to ourselves; no more large groups or dive boats like in Roatan. Mario was great, going at our pace and he knew exactly where to find the wildlife. We swam with some enormous Tarpin fish that were about as big as us and very inquisitive and some beautiful Eagle Rays, which looked like they were flying through the water. Certainly our most relaxed, and probably our best dive ever.



As we sipped our sunset beers on the beach, we saw this Eagle Ray coasting around in the shallows! We only stayed two nights but Tobacco Caye has gone right in with some of our very favourite places in Central America. It's so great that, though we're into our last few weeks, we can still be surprised and impressed.



By the way, while we were waiting for our boat in Dangriga, we were treated to an impromptu performance of the local Garifuna drumming. It's normal for people to get up and dance but I don't think anyone expected a visit from this drunk guy from the dock. I love the fact that Rob looks totally oblivious throughout!



Rachel x

Roatán, Bay Islands

We've spent a lovely week in the Bay Islands just off the coast of Honduras. Roatán is the largest island and, to me, looks exactly as a Caribbean island should; long white sand beaches, clear turquoise ocean and blue skies.



Here we are watching the sunset from the end of our hotel's jetty.




We've enjoyed spending time on the lovely beaches but it was the marine park that really attracted us. The reef is only just off-shore so provides fantastic snorkeling and diving conditions. It's also the cheapest place in the world to dive so how could we say no!? Unfortunately Rob had a cold for a couple of days (not swine flu, don't panic!) so was unable to dive for a while. I made the most of this time by snorkeling and swimming in the delightfully warm sea as much as possible.



One day I took out my trusty water-proof camera to capture some of the reef's life. It's so alive down there with wonderful creatures and corals of all sorts of colours. Watch the video of the shoal of fish if you can!




Snorkeling's great but I always feel so much more absorbed in the underwater world and see so much more when I'm diving so it was great news when Rob was fully recovered and back in the water.




Getting all the gear ready for the dive...



and relaxing in the sunshine afterwards. Sadly there are no photos from the deep (you need special training and equipment) but we saw some great stuff on our three dives, including several wonderful Hawksbill turtles gliding silently past us. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to dive again when we get up to Belize.

Rachel x

PS We dived with West End Divers and can really recommend them if you're heading to Roatán. Ask for Shona if you're doing any courses, she's great!

Lago de Yojoa

The plan was to get as far into Honduras as possible in one day and we didn't do too badly. A 6am start from northern Nicaragua meant that, after 12 hours and 5 different buses (ranging from quite fancy mini-buses to good old chicken buses) we arrived in Comayagua.



It represented nothing more to us than a convenient place to get some rest before pressing on the next day, but Comayagua was actually a pleasant surprise. Most of the town is nothing too remarkable but the Parque Central was very pretty and a lovely spot to eat breakfast before getting on yet another bus to Lago de Yojoa.



The lake was so beautiful. We've visited some lovely lakes on this trip but what really made Yojoa stand out was its tranquility. There are no motor boats, just small canoes the locals use for fishing, and almost all of the shore line is forest or marsh land so it has very few settlements.



We went on a great tour of the lake with British bird-watching expert Malcolm, a Honduran called Rolando, who rowed the boat for us, and David, a really nice guy from Switzerland. We set off very early, while there was still mist over the water, and we saw loads of different birds.



Above is a Red-winged Blackbird.




Great Egret and one of the many types of Fly-catchers that live around the water.




Malcolm was a really good guide and it's always lovely to see wildlife but, for me, the best thing was just admiring the stunning landscape and taking in the peace and quiet out on the water. A truly beautiful place.



Rachel x

UPDATE: This beautiful Mot-mot was spotted in the garden where we were staying.

Adventures of the spade #10

Like us, the spade really enjoyed a taste of luxury during Liz and Greg's stay. Here he is enjoying the delicious breakfast at Pura Vida Hotel. Unfortunately we've come back down to earth with a bump and our current hostel room has an incredibly bumpy bed and the paper-thin walls only go half way up to the ceiling! Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

Rachel x

Volcán Arenal

Rob's parents, Liz and Greg, have been with us for a week now and we're having a great time exploring some of Costa Rica's sights. Our first stop (after a couple of days relaxing at the lovely Pura Vida hotel- by far the nicest place we've stayed since we left the UK!) was La Fortuna, in the shadow of Volcán Arenal. This was the amazing view from our hotel balcony!



It's notoriously misty around the volcano and roughly 50% of visitors leave La Fortuna without seeing it so we were delighted when we had such clear weather. Here are Liz and Greg on the old lava flows. The sign in the right-hand corner reads "Danger; area of high volcanic activity. No trespassing."



While we were having our picnic on the volcano, a very cheeky coatimundi (related to a racoon) came along to beg for some of our sandwiches.



Here he's doing his best "I'm so cute" pose.



Despite my best efforts, he actually managed to grab the bag with the last sandwiches in straight out of my hand (his claws looked a bit too long for me to argue with!). Thinking that a plastic bag might not be good for a coatimundi, Greg left in pursuit...



He cleverly managed to distract him with a spare bit of crust and whisk the bag away. It certainly made our peanut butter sandwiches a lot more eventful!

We were also lucky enough to see the volcano in action at night, with a red glow around the two craters and a trickle of lava down the side.



Of course, I'm always keen to spend a day lounging in volcanic hot springs and Baldi Termae must be the poshest I've ever been to with over 30 hot and cold pools. It has lots of pretty waterfalls and features such as a mock Mayan temple (a bit weird!) all set in lovely tropical gardens. Delightful!

Rachel x