Bustrip through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize

We were sad to leave USA but very exciting to see the South-America. We knew it would be very different compared to the other places we have been so far. We were a little bit scared about going to Mexico because of the drug war and everyone we met said “be careful”.

We arrived in Mexico city very early in the morning and took a taxi straight to our hostel. Hostel Amigo was very centrally located in downtown. We had a walking distance to everything. The first thing we did was to call Bamba, the company responsible for our trip through Mexico. They were supposed to arrange a trip for us, but they didn’t do it so the first day we just walked around and took a look at all the museums that was close by. It was scary how many machine-guns we saw on the street, but at least it was police and military that was carrying it. It’s a totally different world.

Relaxing in Mexico city

We went to the National Museum of Archeology with two of our friends from the hostel, and on the way there we got to see this funny trash-can. It was really something. Good to see that they try to take care of the environment.  

Mexican recycling

The museum was a museum about the old tradition to the new ages and the stories about Maya ruins.  

At Museum of Archeology: What our flip-flops look like after this trip:P

The next day we took the bus to Oaxaca. We learned that the cars in Mexico city has one day each week that they can’t drive their cars depending on their license plate.  We arrived there in the afternoon so we took a walk to the walking street. We were so lucky that we caught the end of a parade. It was a lot of colour and dancing.  

Fiestas de Mayo in Oaxaca

We had booked a trip to see a Mezkal factory. It was very interesting to see how they made it. Mezkal is the national drink in Mexico. We originally thought it was tequila, but that’s not it.  

The plant that makes Mezkal and Tequila

We got to taste the Mezkal and it tasted like moonshine. Not good at all. They also had some cream Mezkal and they were a lot better 🙂  

Mezkal with the traditional worm in the bottle

After the Mezkal factory we went to see the Mitla ruins. There were a lot of rooms that we could go in to, but the grave chamber was the most amazing one. We had to crawl like a goose to get in. The Mexicans weren’t that tall in the old days…hehe!  

We were too tall for the Maya-ruins entrance

The Mitla ruins is very different compared to other Maya ruins. They didn’t have the “pyramide-look”, but that is also because it’s one of the newest ruins.  

The more newer and detailed ruins of the Mayas

We also went to see the Hierve el Agua. It was so beautiful. It was two streams that were “boiling” and went down into two artificial pools. The “boiling” streams weren’t hot, they were actually pretty cold. The water had a lot of minerals in it, so it was very nice seeing how it had shaped the streams.  

"Boiling water"

When we got back to Oaxaca it was just to grab our backpack and go to the bus terminal. We were taking the night bus to San Cristobal. It had been a very long day and it just got longer. First, we got totally freaked out when a lady came into the bus and filmed everyone on the bus. It was not a pleasant trip. The busdrivers were driving like a crazy person, and just almost made the turns. We were thrown from side to side so we didn’t get much sleep. It was a horrible night. The drivers have a weird way of driving past another car, they just drive past and expect the meeting car to move to the side. In the end, there can be 4 cars on a row in a road that is adapted to 2 cars.  

We were very efficient on this 3-week bustrip. We arrived in San Cristobal very early in the morning, took a taxi straight to the hostel, got maybe an hour sleep before we were picked up for some sightseeing. We were off to see the Sumidero Canyon. It was so amazing, kind of reminded us of the fjords in west Norway, except a lot more exotic.  On this trip we got to see monkeys, pelicans, crocodiles and a lot of vultures.  

Boatride in the canyon

As said we were very efficient, so the next day we got picked up very early to go to Palenque to see two waterfalls and ruins. The first stop was Agua Azul, it was so nice. The water was turquoise and it was a lot of small waterfalls that was hidden up in the forest behind it.  

Beautiful waterfall

The second waterfall was called Misolha waterfall and there it was one big waterfall. Totally different compared to the first. At this waterfall there was also a cave we could climb into, but we didn’t do that.  

 

The last stop was the Palenque ruins. These ruins were totally different compared to the Mitla ruins. We both thought that these ruins were more extravagant. It was a lot of pyramids, you could have  a whole day there just walking around.   

Impressive and beautiful pyramid-ruins

The next day we were off to Panajachel, Guatemala.  When we were on the road the busdriver suddenly stopped at a gas-station and said that we were going to wait there for 45 minutes. We didn’t understand why, but after a little bit we were informed that we had to wait because the bus from Guatemala was blocked by a road-blockage. When we finally got to the border the busdriver let us off in the middle of a market and just pointed to a hill. He didn’t speak English and we didn`t understand Spanish. Luckily, there was an English boy that understood Spanish and he said that we had to walk 1 km to the border. It was not in our plan walking with 30 kg on our backs for 1 km…It was heavy and hot! 

Finally, at the border the system was down, and they were in no hurry fixing it. We had to wait for about 1 hour before the system was working. But that didn`t matter, because the bus that was going to pick us up at the border from Guatemala was still stuck. At the end we had to wait at the border for about 6 hours. 

At the Guatemalan border

We were supposed to have a home visit in Panajachel with a Mayan family, but since we were so delayed we called Bamba and said that we were stuck at the border and that we would not be in Panajachel before 12 am. Bamba didn’t even know who we were, where we were and what we were doing, but recommended us to find a hostel in Panajachel. When we finally got on the road again and was near Panajachel the Mayan family picked us up after all. 

Panajachel

We had to walk to the house, and when we go there the father ,Daniel, greeted us and asked if we wanted dinner, something we didn`t need at 12 am. We just wanted to sleep so he showed us the room and we went straight to bed. 

Daniel is the representative of Bamba  in Guatemala. He spoke his main language kaqchikel, spanish, english and a little bit norwegian. We were so impressed with him. His wife only spoke the mayan language and a little bit spanish, so we couldn’t communicate much with her. Daniel and his family lived in a village called San Pedro and it was about 3000 people living there.  Daniel took us to a good viewpoint so that we could see the lake Panajachel and his village San Pedro.   

The traditional costumes of maya-family

The ride to Antigua was one of the shortest one,  and the van actually took us to our hostel 🙂 We liked Antigua a lot, there was a lot of small cafées and restaurants and it was very cozy. We met a South-African girl in our dorm who was going on the same tour as us; hiking on Pacaya, an active volcano. Antigua is actually surrounded by three volcanoes. 

On our way up the 4 kilometer hike

It was a 4 km hiking tour, and it was steep some places. There were people with horses following us the whole way up asking us if we needed a “taxi”, something we didn`t 🙂 When we got to the top we saw that there were actually floating lava there and it had just become active the last month. It was so hot there, the lava had a degree of 2000 celcius. 

Veeeery hot lava

On the way down we got to see a very nice sunset. 

Sunset by the volcano

The next day we went and looked at the market in Antigua and just relaxed at the hostel before we were picked up and driven to Guatemala City bus-station. The driver said that it was a bad neighbourhood so we shouldn’t leave the station, scary! We took the night bus to Flores and this was the most luxurious bus so far on the trip. We even got food and beverage and a blanket for the night. We both slept like babies. 

We arrived in Flores early in the morning, so we just walked to the hostel since it was a small island and no taxis that early, but we ended up walking for about one hour before we found the hostel. We couldn’t check-in when we arrived so we just relaxed in the living room.  This day we just spent walking around in Flores, but it was a dead city, everything was closed. 

The next day we were picked-up at 4 am for the Sunrise tour to the Tikal ruins. We didn`t see the sunrise, but we were the only people in the park. There were about 50 pyramids in the park, but not all have been restored. They were only allowed to restore 50% of each pyramid. Later we found out that Tikal actually has been used as a set for Star Wars. 

One of the five biggest pyramids in Tikal

There were 3 pyramids that we could climb and one of them had 105 steps. It was really a work-out…hehe!

Getting a work-out while climbing the pyramids

A nice walk with the sunset in Flores. 

Walking in the streets of Flores

We were picked-up early in the morning headed for Belize and  another interesting border. The village on the border between Guatemala- Belize was striking. They didn`t let any cars pass and there was smoke coming from tires they had lit up and they were threatening to cut the electrical cables, something they didn`t do. Finally the driver went to the village people and asked if we could pass if we walked across the border. It was a bit scary passing the border with tires on fire, angry people and branches in the road.  

Riot at the border

When we finally got to Belize we took a boat out to an island called Caye Caulker. Everybody we had met that had been in Belize recommended this island.  It was really nice there and the ocean was the perfect colour of blue. There wasn`t much of a beach there so we just relaxed in the hammocks by the dock. 

Relaxing by the caribbean sea

We were supposed to go diving in the Blue Hole that Belize is famous for, but Silje (brunette) didn’t feel well and we were told that the Blue Hole wasn`t that amazing after all. 

The hostel we stayed at wasn`t the nicest and cleanest one. There were cockroaches and bed-bugs there, and Silje (blond) got badly bitten by the bed-bugs. She got bitten all over and the bites itched like hell. 

Bites everywhere

We stayed 3 nights at Caye Caulker before going back to Mexico. When crossing the border the bus just left us there, we were so pissed off!! How could he just leave people at the border! We had to take a public bus to the bus station, but it wasn`t the right bus-station so we had to take a taxi. The worst part was that Bamba booked us on a late bus because there was always a line at the border, but this time we arrived early in Chetumal. Again we called and complained to Bamba. They said they would check why the bus driver just left us, but we couldn’t take an earlier bus. We had to wait at the station for 5 hours. That really sucked.  

We arrived in Bacalar lagoon late, so we just got a taxi to a hostel we had read about. The hostel seemed nice at first sight, but it was horrible. There was no toiletpaper and the toiletseat was on the floor. When I asked for paper the lady just answered that there was no, whats that?!?! Thank god for always being prepared and bringing some with us. The hostel was really dirty and in the beds there were ants, what kind of hostel was this?! No internet (of course), no towel, no lock on the hostel door, anyone could come in..We were just happy that there were two others staying at this hostel and that we only had booked one night.Silje (brunette) woke up that night finding a 5 cm cockroach on her pillow, she was horrified!!  The only nice thing with Bacalar lagoon was the lagoon. It was so nice. It had actually different shades of colors, really, really pretty. 

Relaxing at Bacalaar Lagoon

We couldn’t be more excited to head for Tulum, a more touristy place. We hadn`t seen that many backpackers so far on the trip. At the hostel in Tulum we got a bike each, so we biked to the beach. 

Trying to get the hang of it

The beach was really nice, it was a white beach so the sand didn`t get hot at all. We spent those two days at the beach relaxing. 

The beach in Tulum

On 17th of May, our National day, we traveled to Playa del Carmen. We treated ourselves with a  “norwegian” breakfast, a massage, good lunch and dinner before finishing off with a great party. Everyone knew it was our National Day at the hostel and wanted us to sing the national anthem and have fun with us. We even got a “National day”-shot of tequila. 

A little taste of Norway on 17th of May: Smoked salmon

We had wanted to dive since Thailand, but hadn’t seen anything that was interesting or worth the price. When we heard about a cave-dive, we thought that this was something different. It was a freshwater dive also, which we had never tried before, so we were a little bit worried about finding the right buoyancy. 

Getting ready for cave-diving

The dive was very different. We went through narrow passages and it was completely dark some places, especially when Silje(brunette)’s flashlight ran out of battery. Our instructor said that it was an extreme-dive. We were supposed to follow lines inside the cave to not get lost, but he didn’t follow them at all. Also, the rules said we had to go through passages wide enough to fit 2 persons. We went through very small tunnels that only fit 1 person in height and width. We were not allowed to touch the ground, walls or “roof”, but we both bumped into it sometimes, even our instructor did it…oooooopsi! 

The Cenote caves

The beach in Playa del Carmen was the same as in Tulum, very nice. The only thing  was that when we finally had arrived at the carribbean coast it was cloudy and raining 😦 

Playa del Carmen beach

This was the first city since we started this 3 week bustrip that we went to party. There was a lot of nice people at the hostel and everyone was in the partymood. We meet two american basketplayers, but they were playing for Mexico. They were so tall!! 

Looking pretty tiny with these american basketball-stars

We had some good times in the bar with our hostel friends.  We met Hari from India, he was so funny. He had heard that hair could be sunbleached, but didn’t believe it since his hair is always black and was so impressed when we showed him Silje’s (brunette) sunbleached streaks. 

Relaxing with Hari at the hostel

All in all we do NOT recommend Bamba to any of you. There is much more than what we wrote in this blog, but we don’t want it to be all negative. We have written a complaint to them.  

Siljex2