Left Belize on the 23rd December, thanks to John for letting me squat in his house! I was only in Belize for a few days but the impression I had was it was a lot more westernised that the rest of Central America, speaking English there made travel easy and they seem more like America than their neighbours. Oh and they need to update the picture of the queen on their money, she looks way too young!After leaving Belize I headed back to Mexico to Tulum on the coast further north from Belize. This small town had a lot of ruins (pics to follow) and the most beautiful sea I have ever swam in, and the water was so warm! The hostel I stayed was amazing and they had a huge meal for us on the 24th December and we had pinatas and all sorts of fun and then went out to the local hostelry for a few sherbets!The next few days i spent sitting on the beach and having a very relaxing time after my mad dash through Central America!At the hostel I met a lot of people who had come down from Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeras and Cancun (look at a map!!) They all told me that it was total Gringo town up there due to the cruise ships landing there and they had used no spanish for days and it was expensive so I decided not to bother going there!!! I headed instead for Merida which was 4 hours away to break up the inevitable long bus journey to Mexico.Merida was pretty and I spent New Year there with some nice people from Nashville, Alaska and a Mexican guy. I also met a French girl called Amandine and we shared the 20 hour bus journey back to Mexico City. She lived in Mexico city working in the Alliance Francaise and offered to let me squat at her house! Returning to Mexico city was extremly odd and for one reason only. I LOVED it! I think perhaps it was because it is the first place I have acutally returned to for any length of time. It felt like home. I think I also felt like that as it was the place I really really struggled in when I first got there as I had really bad culture shock, combined with living at altitude for the first time so I wasnt eating, sleeping and felt pretty ill!I also think it was partly the weather, people make a big deal of the smog in Mexico city and yes sometimes it was bad. When i was there for the first time it was bad but when I returned it was blue skies every day, combined with a warm light wind. It felt permanantly like early morning about 7am in Scotland when you know its going to be a lovely warm day. Or in the evening when you're sitting in a pub outside in Glasgow in the evening, i think thats why it felt like home so much!I left Mexico on the 9th January and headed for Sydney and lost 17 hours (i think)..... I have a few 'first impressions' of Sydney but I will save them till i leave!Went to get my Visa for India today, off there in 6 days!
Just a few last points on my thoughts on the last 2 months........
There is so much that has become common place for me in the last 2 months, I will try and remeber some stuff that surprised me when i first got here. They tether their animals at the roadside quite often and its common to see horses, pics and cows tethered at the side of the road eating grass. Not seen a lot of sheep at all in Central America. To continue the animal theme i lost count of the stray mangy and horrible dogs that were everywhere, most of them were very thin and disease ridden and seeing dead dogs was common. There was very few cats and when you saw a cat it was well fed and definitly belonged to someone.Every day I would see a fruit or a vegtable I had never seen in my life before and trying them all was very much part of the travelling experience. Despite what Jon might say I wasnt trying to poision him i just wanted him to try the fruits that I had tried! There was more fruit and vegtables in Central America than I have seen anywhere and the stalls reflected that, oh that was another difference. People shopped in markets, supermarkets and shops either didnt exist or were small and had very little except things like flour and canned goods. The range of fresh fruit and veg in a supermarket was very poor indeed.The architecture (when there was any, rather than mud houses with banana leaf roofs) was amazing and tiles adorned walls, floors, ceilings and they were all intricate and in amazing colours. The colours for tiles and clothes they got from plants and some of them were so bright I'm amazed that exists in nature. In Central America there was a very big divide between rich and poor and you never really saw rich people except in Mexico city. The shops sold food and clothes, very little in the way of technology, very few mobile phones or computers. Washing your clothes by hand was common place, taking them to a laundrette was what the rich did (like us) as for 1.50 you got a huge load done!
The money they used in Mexico was plastic (like in Auz) and makes sense cos it stays cleaner and doesnt rip. In Guatemala and Honduras the money was so dirty and horrid and you needed so much if it, for example the smallest note they used in Honduras was a one lempira note that was worth 3p and then they had coins as well!Not only that but the bank machines (if you could find any) issued notes like 500peso note in Mexico and you could find very few places that would accept even a 100 peso note unless you were buying something for nearly that amount so it was hard!
When i went from country to country within a few days as well, it was hard to remember which currency to use and what the exchange was! Not only that but carrying 4 currencys at any one time was hard as I always carry US dollars as they are taken everywhere. Good for emergencies!
The best advice on travelling you get from other travellers as Im sure those of you who have travelled will agree! I have something called a 'travel bra' which I was told about from a girl I travelled with in Guatemala. She told me when people get robbed, they KNOW that you have a money belt and a camera and a passport so they will look for it. In her bra however she carried a photocopy of her passport, the memory card from her camera, her credit card and 50 american dollars. With that you can get to the nearest place to get help and hopefully a new passport!
Just on a final point I think that culture shock is a necessary part of travelling and yes when I got to Mexico I hated it! But part of travelling is getting used to other cultures and its the culture that is the best and worst part about travelling. The hardest part sometimes about travelling in a place like Central America is that there is no respite from it, and even if you simply wanted to go to the supermarket and make a meal you recognise, you cant. Everything is so much harder for example 'making a call to your sister' - easy right you pick up the phone and call? No.First you have to find a phone to work out if they take cards or coins. So you need to find a phone. So you need to ask someone (in a foreign language) where it is and they will probably speak so fast you will need to ask them 2-3 times to slow down and to point you in the right direction. Ok so then you have found the phone and it appears to take cards and yes there is a dial tone. So now you need to ask someone where they sell phone cards. Same procedure for asking again in a foreign language. You get to the shop and ask for a phone card and she gestures to the cards that she has for sale. However they are all for calling numbers in Mexico or whatever country you are in so you have to ask her if she has any for calling the UK and she goes to look. OK so now you have the phone card and have scratched off the number on the back and gone through the instructions with your phrase book to find out how to make a call and gone back to the phone. I dont need to go any further you get the picture. Its my impression that people who havent travelled that much, or have travelled but stuck to English speaking and westernised countries, think that travelling is like having a long holiday and yes to be honest sometimes it is but most of the time it is dam hard work!!
Pictures to follow when I can get them uploaded!
Oh and as for postcards and letters I apologise at the lack of them but post in Central America is unreliable as no-one really uses it, they use Fed Ex and often post and Fed Ex mail is stolen so I will be sending postcards and letters from down under!!
