Kyla and Jay's Central America Travel blog

Dos touristas Canadiences, no hablo Espanol muy bien!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Unbelizeable!

hey all!

Just one more quick note, before we return to the northland in a week.. (aah!!)

After we last wrote, we ventured with a couple of new friends to Caye Caulker, Belize. After a smooth ride over from Belize city on a fairly quick boat, we were greeted at the landing by the town ´helper´, Gilbert. He put our bags in his push cart, and showed us a few of the cheaper accomodation options available. We ended up settling on a house, Casa Giselle, which was a few bucks more than we´d planned on spending, but was really nice, in the middle of town and had a huge kitchen with all the amenities of home.
We located the grocery store and distillery and began 5 days of relaxing. The streets of Caye Caulker are made of white sand and there are no cars- only golf carts. The air is salty and relaxing. We found it was basically impossible to be unhappy there.
We had a wonderful time with our friends Dana (a fellow Canadian) and Sanne (a Jolly German= Dutch ;) ) hanging out, walking around, checking out the clubs, running into and being serenaded by a very drunk Gilbert and swimming at the split- a spot where the island was ripped in two by a hurricane in the mid 80s and now serves as a cement dock for lounging, diving, gawking and sunning.

It was sad to leave, but with only a week and a half left in our trip- we bid our pals adieu and we headed to Tulum, Mexico. We´ve been here about 5 days.. And its been a great wind down from all our recent adventures. Defintely the most beautiful beach I´ve ever seen- the carribean turquoise water, white sand, dramatic plam trees and cheap cerveza.. We´ve been staying at a hostel in town, and have done a couple of snorkeling trips, and a day trip to Playa del Carmen, but spending most of our time at the beach.

Yesterday, after the beach we decided to check out the first night of Tulum´s town exposition.. We went over and it looked like a Mexican version of the Ex. Except smaller, with louder music and with more frightening gangs of hoodlums. We started to watch the Tulum beauty pagent at the grandstand, when I remembered I had somewhere to be.......... in a ringside seat, at my first cockfight!

It involved a lot of weighing in, taunting, catcalling and waiting. But when the action was underway, it was quick and brutal. I was berated by one of the trainers for photographing with a flash, mid-fight. When his cock won, the victory was decisive... beak to jugular. I made sure to beat it before the loser blamed me for blinding his (now dead) bird.

Anyway... it was an experience. I made it over to the Pageant to see the winner crowned and many a large firework be set off directly over us in celebration..

Today, we went to a water park called Xel-Ha. Kind of a neat idea- a natural water park.. with snorkeling- down a river, into cenotes/sinkholes, cliffs to jump off, caves to explore, bikes to ride, trials to hike and unlimited food and drink.. we had a nice time.. But we mostly realized how happy we are thay weve chosen to stay away from large scale resorts.

So, I guess thats it for now- from here we go back to Playa Carmen for a couple days, Isla Mujeres for a night and then two nights in Cancun to wrap ´er up.. Its been such a great journey and we really feel fortunate for our time here, and more importantly, rejuvenated by the whole experience. Thanks for keeping tabs...

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon! If we don´t see you, happy holidays!!

J and K