ültima parada, Cancún

11.05-13.05

Claudia, a friend of Kumi and Lencho, welcomed us at Cancún, where she lives. She, Erik and her mother live in this Mexican stile marvelous house, where they grow organic fruits, veggies and herbs.

La casazaaaa

We visited the town of Cancún with Claudia and Erik, ate some awesome Mexican food and went to a reggae concert.

Next day they prepared an awesome breakfast with food from their garden and other marvelous products, then we went to swim in another cenote, this one was closed, like a lake in a cave, so wonderful! After we ate see food, yummy! And saw the sunset at punta brava, another beach which not too many people know. Dimitris and I cooked for them at night: a Spanish dish called pisto and Dimtiri’s wonderful Greek apple cake. 

Looking down the hole to jump into the cenote

Our plane departured next day, we still didn't realize that this trip was coming to an end!!! The following jet-lag for over a week reminded us so though :p

Well, nothing to complaint about :) we still life wonderfully, in beautiful places, surrounded by precious people and, as always, good food!!!

Tulum, Mexico

07.05 – 11.05

After the arduous process of crossing the border of Mexico, we managed to arrive to Tulum, formerly a hippy settlement and a bagpacker friendly place. Well, times have changed, the beautiful white sand and crystal clear water have attracted more wealthy tourists, and the new eco-chick lodge hotels are so expensive that a bagpacker cannot do anything else than dying of hunger!

We arrived late at night, and after asking couple of prices we decided to sleep in the beach under the stars and try to get a decent place where to pinch our tent the next morning. And so we did, finally we accepted the price of the cheapest camping (18 euros to sleep in your tent! Amazing…), as it was the cheapest place in the whole coast of Yucatan! At least there was a very friendly atmosphere in the camping, and it was just on the beach, so it was a good deal. There we meet very nice people, did yoga in the morning, meditated, do slack line and watched the beautiful sunset.

Arrival at camping Chavez

The perfectly located camping

The kitchen

We also met a lot nice people that gave us a ride from the beach until the village, around 7 km far away.

We visited Xcacel, a little natural park, where we swam in a cenote, a fresh water little lake inside the mangrove forest, and then we went to the play in the perfect beach!

Swimming in the cenote

The beach...

Building a Mayan Temple

These are people that gave us a ride back to Tulum in that amazing Volkswagen from the 70´s, which broke down on the way... but gave the opportunity to drink some fresh beers and and a nice chat with them! Really nice people!!

Belize

02.05 – 07.05

Belize is otra onda completely, it’s a mixture between Mayas, Caribs, African rooted people, Chinese, creoles, and tourists!

The first impression was like arriving to Jamaica, Rasta people and reggae music everywhere, talking in a uncomprehending Belizean English.

We went straight away to an island called Caye Caulker (we also wanted to visit the inland jungles and villages, but we were running out of time…). The island is very touristic but well mixed with locals. As soon as we left the boat a rastaman took us to a cheap hostel called Tropical Oasis, where we stayed in a Cabaña (small wooden house). The first thing we did was to dive into the crystal clear water of the Caribbean with a Belikin, the wonderful Belizean beer.

Our funky hostel, Tropical Oasis

La rica Papaya!

We spent 6 days in this island, swimming with manatees, nurse sharks, sting rays, colorful fishes and corals! We rented an underwater camera!! Look!

Manatee!!

They are so slow that there are mosses growing on their backs!

Oh yes, those are sharks! Now let's jump from the boat... :s

Following a sting-ray

Sharaaark!! (ok, inoffensive nurse shark :p)

These are couple of videos we took... our guide hugs an eel, while you can see a shark on the background, impressive! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTEkhWEka8c&feature=youtu.be

This one is about a beautiful turtle :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkaoR0UUaGs&feature=youtu.be

Our Argentinean friend, Lisandro, learnt us how to fish, and thanks to him, we sustained ourselves out of our skills =) Well, if it was for Dimitris we would have died of hunger :p It feels really good to make the whole process of getting your aliments, better than buying in the supermarket!

My catch!!

Cooking the fish in the BBQ, mmmm!

Bye Bye Belize!!!