Stormsail » Central America

Going Home

andy — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:59:59 +0000

Arrived home safely 6.15am. Said our sad farewells and departed to our homes. It took me a while to get home from the airport (about 2hours) and then had to warm up the house by putting the central heating on full wack…. Mum and Dad arrived in afternoon with a slightly funny Henry who’d spent the last 3 weeks at their house. Still, I hope it doesn’t take him too long to acclimatise back to being back at home…..

Anyway, the complete gallery from our holiday is available here.

Playa Del Carmen -> New York -> London

andy — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Up and out basically, grabbed our belongings and made our way to the airport via pre-arranged transport. Only took 40 minutes and we then checked in our luggage with no queues – hooray! On the way through security however, we realized we had honey, Tabasco sauce and tequila in our hand luggage forgetting the rules entirely. So having been so smug about the lack of queues we made our way back to check in with a third bag leaving all my valuables in a plastic carrier bag. We finally got through security and had breakfast at Bubba Gump (yes very American) before boarding. Sadly at NY we collected our bags and Phoebe’s liquor bottle had smashed so everything was sticky and smelt awful. Nevertheless we re-packed and got my rucksack back. Boarded the final flight home but had to sit on the tarmac an hour before take off due to the queues. Ho hum, the rest of the journey was without incident.

Playa Del Carmen

andy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Our last day! Out for breakfast as usual and did more wandering for pressies. Went for a good long swim and had a very silly fun time. The weather (thankfully) was a bit cloudy today so not so hot, the water was still lovely. We then went back to shower and change before lunch. After this we shopped some more and went for a beer on the beach with our books. Sadly we had to pack for our trip home tomorrow but went out again later to find somewhere for our last evening out. Went back to the Argentinean as it was so good. I had fillet steak and Pheebs had lamb. My steak was excellent and certainly worth the 300 pesos (£15). Headed home, sorted our stuff out and drifted off to sleep. And that was our last day in Mexico……..

Playa Del Carmen

andy — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Up late (for us) and walked around to find somewhere for breakfast – pancakes again, why don’t I learn? After we went to the hotel terrace to chill in quietness and sunbath a little (although you could see a lot of building work going on around the area). I don’t think it was the best idea to sit out in the hottest part of the day however as I felt very wobberly. We went down to the beach for a swim and to cool off. We had an afternoon nap and then went out for ice cream and a wander around looking for some little pressie ideas. We both felt the heat was getting to us finally and felt rather swimmy so we grabbed Pringles and beers and headed back to watch TV for a while in air conditioning! Eventually we dragged ourselves out to a little Italian restaurant in a tiny artisan courtyard which was perfect. Again we wandered around and bought some pressies.

Tulum -> Playa Del Carmen

andy — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Up early and prepared for our underground cenote tour of Dos Ojos and our snorkelling adventure. We were picked up and taken to the main dive centre where we got our wetsuit and kit. We then headed along a very bumpy road with our English guides to the destination. We walked to the mouth of the cenote, geared up and jumped in (well I did). The water was crystal clear and you could see fantastic rock formations including stalactites and stalagmites. The water temp was ok but glad I had a wetsuit on. We swam, duck dived, and enjoyed following our tour guide into little caverns and crevices with sunlight piercing through in parts (Phoebe was nervous but absolutely loved it once she was in the water). It was fantastic and I took some underwater pics. We spent about an hour swimming around before we got cold, got out and headed home. From here we had a quick drink and caught a collectivo to Playa del Carmen and managed to get a room at the Kinbe hotel which was right next to the beach. We popped out for a quick drink before sitting on the beach/swimming for a while – we even sore fish so close to the shore. We went home to shower and ended up watching a movie on our little sky TV which was kinda cool. We eventually found an Argentinean restaurant for dinner which was lovely although our stomachs have definitely shrunken. This time we managed to stay out quite late too!

Tulum

andy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Up around 9am to have breakfast and chill for a while. Pheebs tummy wasn’t too hot this morning and mine a little rumbly too. By noon it was time to head to the Cesiak office next door for our sunset tour of the biosphere nature reserve. We got taken in a van to the reserve and picked up some other passengers on the way before stopping for a dip, via a stepping stone path, in an open cenote which was very cool. The water temp was very nice and the water crystal clear. Once finished we moved further into the reserve to the Cesiak base where we sorted ourselves out. We were given a quick chat on the Mayan trading routes and then had a brief nature talk. We were then led through the jungle to reach our boat on which we boarded for 3 hours. We saw an impressive number of really cool birds including pelicans, herons, ospreys and ibis’, and mangrove vegetation. The tour guide was excellent and we sped back just before darkness having seen a beautiful sunset. Once back at the base we had amazing fish, rice and veg for dinner. We then drove home avoiding all of the crabs trying to get to the sea to lay their eggs, sadly led by the moon across all of the manmade roads, resorts etc. Hundreds get killed, their big too! We finished the evening off with a couple of civilised drinks.

Tulum

andy — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Woke early, out for breakfast at hotel bar. Then chilled for a little while before heading out to the ruins of Tulum. Not as impressive as Tikal in terms of buildings but very picturesque with the Caribbean ocean as the backdrop. Stunning views. Saw lots of large iguanas wandering around enjoying the lunchtime sun. We headed to the small beach and had a little sea and sun – turquoise warm waters! The beach was a little busy though sadly. Mooched about the ruins a little more before heading back to our room to change etc. Then out for late lunch which was lovely apart from the pesky bugs trying to share our food. We booked a cenote tour and a biosphere tour next for the following days. Again we crashed out, pretty sure the trekking about was getting to us and missed our chance of dinner ho hum.

Caye Caulker -> Tulum (Mexico)

andy — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Ouch is really all I can say. Not the best morning to wake up especially when we had a lot of travel ahead to get to Tulum. Crawled out of bed and had a shower before going to get breakfast which was a little difficult to eat. Once that was finished we had to go and check out and go and catch the water taxi back to Belize mainland which wasn’t too bad. Once there we had to wait for the Linea Dorado bus to pick us up. I didn’t feel my best at this time with the revenge of the rum from last night. The bus arrived and we travelled to Chetumul through the border. From here we picked up our next ticket to Tulum just in the nick of time as luckily enough we managed to get an early ticket at 5pm rather than wait until 10pm which would have meant a 2am arrival in Tulum (badly organised by Bamba, not impressed). The bus however, was 2nd class and ram packed with locals – we were squashed right into the corner and it was dark but all was ok in the end. Phoebe and I held hands in support the whole way (bless) as Phoebe was a little nervous and I needed the loo the whole way there! We arrived at Tulum and got a cab straight to our hopeful hotel el Crucero and fixed the last room (with Mexican themed walls), located in the tourism car park it seems! Anyway, had some dinner in the restaurant accompanied by some American drunks and went to bed. Not the best day for a handover. No more booze for me!

Caye Caulker

andy — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Up early and headed out for breakfast. Phoned our mums and got the gossip on Henry. Prepared ourselves for a hard day sailing and snorkelling with Ragamuffins tours on a 45ft ketch. We got on the boat via a small motor launch and once every one was aboard we motored away. It took about an hour or so to reach the first snorkelling location. We jumped off the boat and swam around for 45 mins looking at the shallow reef. We only saw a few schools of fish and coral. We then all got back onboard and headed off to Shark/Ray Island and area where we saw shark and large stingrays, they were very beautiful graceful creatures. We then moved on to Hol Chan Marine Reserve with dolphins off the port side. We saw lots of fish here, turtles, moray eel which was very cool. We also had lunch on board although we swam around a bit too soon after as it repeated on me in the water (and Pheebs). Once the snorkelling was done they put the sails up and got out the rum punch which was a good idea at the time but not the next day. Once on dry land we headed to a bar with our fellow sailors and drank a little more. We then ate the most excellent fish I have ever tasted – BBQ’s snapper (Phoebe also tried some lobster). Then off to a disco/karaoke/bar for the evening. I must have been rather far gone coz I ended up singing ‘sweet home Alabama’ with a fellow shipmate Jay from Canada. Luckily we didn’t leave too late. Ouch.

Caye Caulker

andy — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000

Getting up early is turning into a habit. Up at 7.30 (a little more civilized). We dragged ourselves on to the already steamingly hot streets to wander and find somewhere nice for breakfast. Man, that breakfast was good and I needed a couple of cokes to quench my thirst and dehydrated body into shape. We then got some dosh out and found a little pier aside turquoise waters for a dip and some sun bathing. Once that arduous task was over with (yes, life is hard) we went for lunch and then had a dip off the Split. It was quite good fun but I had sinus pain after duck diving to 3 meters (and the current was quite strong) so we moved back to the pier for one last dip. We then headed back to our hotel for a shower and chill before getting ready to go out. Got some more dosh as were are off sailing tomorrow. Went to Habaneros for dinner and drinks – amazing plate design and food presentation, wonderful food. We had the full works with cocktails, main course and desert and though we were going to pop. It was a really great meal and once that was over we went back to the hotel and passed out.