What with over five years on the road, 46 countries, 180,000km ‘n all that… we think we’ve seen a fair chunk of the world. But rarely have we come across an area so jam-packed with things to see and do as middle Mexico. Around almost every corner is a new chance to marvel, sense, taste, smell, gawp, laugh or smile. I hesitate to offer one of those ‘we went here, then we did this…’ list-type blogs…. but here’s a teeny little insight into our whirlwind of activity…
Route planning can be carried out in meticulous detail, or extremely vaguely, or anything in between. Generally, we favour the ‘extremely vaguely’ option, but travelling Chiapas State in south Mexico is an exception to this randomness – a bit of route-planning caution is required. With Mayan ruins planning on the other hand, we’ve developed a reckless tendency to live life on the edge, running a real risk of ‘overload’ and becoming ‘Mayan’d Out’.
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Just over five weeks ago we cruised into Mexico from Belize and started our quest to replace Cuthbert’s cracked windscreen. We hunted across the Yucatan peninsula… Chetumal, Cancún, Mérida, wherever… and whilst waiting for replies, we had plenty of time for exploring Yucatan. The Yucatan peninsula is dismissed by many as “too touristy” and “full of cruise-ship visitors”. Well… it’s true, we cannot tell a lie… it does have its ‘mega-hotspots’ to which many thousands of tourists fly or cruise in every week. But that’s not to say there aren’t great places to explore away from the mass tourism. And we have a rather freaky sequel to our Day of the Dead experience too!!!
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It’s amazing what an easy border crossing, a great first camp-site and a fabulous restaurant meal can do for your first impressions of a country. All of this, plus the fact that everything here is in English so (I don’t have to translate everything for Marcus 😊) puts our initial view of Belize, high-up on the official list of ‘Tucks’ Truck’s Nice Places’. It rained on our first afternoon here, it’s hot, stiflingly humid and we fail in our several attempts to extract spondoolies from the ATMs. Nevertheless, first impressions are favourable. Here’s our cruise through Belize Cayo …
It’s difficult to put Guatemala into a pigeon hole unless, of course, you have a hole for an unfeasibly large pigeon… then it might fit. It’s a small country, but its variety of cultures, regions, climates and experiences is way too big for your average pigeon hole. There’s no shortage of things to see and do. Descending from the cool highlands to the heat of Guatemala lowlands we find great kayaking in the Tarzan jungle, a hot water fall, a cacophony of vuvuzelas, some stacks of ancient Mayan stones… and a scary man with a gun!
Sometimes, we get it wrong with initial impressions of a country. Sometimes, it takes a while to get a feel for a place. Sometimes, we change our minds after a couple of weeks. Bolivia was like that. We absolutely loved it… eventually. But Honduras? Well… our last blog concluded that Honduras is nice. Not amazing, just nice. We rather wanted to like it more and hoped that by doing a bit more Honduras travel, it might grow on us. So did it? Eventually?…
Hope we’re not tempting fate…. but after three weeks, cool Colombia ’s already looking hot-favourite for Cuthbert’s ‘Top Spot – South America’ Award. In the last blog we joked about Colombia’s notoriety for drugs barons and banditos. In truth, the threat to tourists from such characters is now very much history. Beautiful, clean, lots to see and do, outstanding value for money, exceptionally friendly and with a kind of chilled-out vibe that’s difficult to quite put your finger on. We’re continuing north now for some ancient tombs, a photo-dilemma and (yet another) visit to Iveco. The bar has been set high for Colombia so far… let’s see if we can find any points to knock it back along the way!
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Drugs barons and banditos are what Colombia is famous for, but we don’t spot any obviously suspicious candidates in the immediate vicinity of the border. Maybe they’re all further up-country? We’ll keep our eyes open for them as we head north. On our way, our Colombia travel blog takes-in the odd mysterious monument, cactus desert, crater lake, death-road and a jaw-droppingly beautiful religious sanctuary.
North coast Peru travel doesn’t showcase the best of north Peru for the tourist; much more excitement on the Andean route. Loads to see there. But we got that tick last year and boy, is it a sloooow way to go! So this time, after arriving in south Peru from Brazil, crossing all the way over the central highlands from the Amazon to Lima, we’re winding-up Peru with a long run up the coast to Ecuador. We’ve done this leg before, but this time we see some history, watch some whales, hit the far-west and have a ‘ponder on Peru’ as we leave it for the last time.
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Every now and then, overlanding travel throws up not just a gem, but a surprising gem. A kind of “Well! Who knew???” moment. In south Guyana we have such a moment. After the minor disaster that was our short-lived attempt to reach Kaieteur, in the Guyana Rupununi we’re surprised to find compensation in spades: the beauty of the savannahs and the little visited Amerindian petroglyphs.
“Heading to the Dakar Rally?” we asked the friendly Brit biker at the Peruvian border, “Yeah… I’m competing” came the reply. Blimey. Impressed.com. We’re not quite, or even anywhere near, as brave as Lyndon, but we are keen to go and see what antics the competitors get up to on their way around the route. Our new claim to fame: we now know one of the Dakar riders who we can go to cheer on!
Peru by the back door
We’re now in Peru for the second time. This time we’re far inland from the coastal route that we took north-bound. Now we’re taking a small rough back-road through the mountains to a relatively little used border post at La Balsa. On this whole trip we have met very few Brits Continue reading
Back at sea-level! Yehhy! We do love the mountains, but life at over 12,000 ft can provide a few wobbles in your physiology. It’s a welcome change to now have the soothing sound of rolling waves and the smell of the salty sea air. The drive from Cusco down to the coast is a long and painfully winding road, but finally we’re down at the Pacific coast, back on the Pan-American super-highway, looking forward to following it north all the way to Ecuador.
Peru is a new country for us. We cross the border from Bolivia on the shore of Lake Titicaca near Copacabana and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Peru-bit of Lake Titicaca looks remarkably similar to the Bolivia-bit of Lake Titicaca! We’re heading first to Puno on the north-west side of the Lake then on to… well… errrm… we do have a plan, honest we do! We’ll let you know when it’s safe to do so (or to be more frank, when we have made up our minds and have a clue) 🙂 So much to see and do in Peru.
Chiquitania is a land far from Bolivia’s stereotypical image of Andean high peaks, llamas and chunky chaps in brimmed hats and colourful ponchos. Here is Bolivia’s eastern flat, humid wetland punctuated by some scenic red-rock monoliths and some interesting sights. We’re back from Brazil and heading west through Chiquitania to the highlands, but on the way we have the small matter of recovering our deposited food store.
We never learn our lesson! Crossing a border during the sacred ‘eating of the lunch’ ritual – don’t do it folks! These people take their lunch-break seriously! You only end up with a lot of waiting and not necessarily in an orderly line. But in our excitement at arriving in a new country, we have forgotten this simple principle again! We approach the Bolivian border at around 13:00 hrs and realise ‘the wait’ is on!
Intro to Bolivia! Great view at the border
Moai… everywhere, everywhere! You know those big stone-head things for which the island is famous? They’re called ‘Moai’, and there’s almost 900 of them. Many of them are either nose-planted, face-down in the dirt or buried out of sight, but a famous few are standing proud and are widely photographed. We left Cuthbert behind in Santiago for a few days and headed to Easter Island to investigate with this Easter Island blog.
Oh no! Not another view of snow-capped peaks, venting volcanos, aqua-marine mountain lakes set against a back-drop of clear blue skies (yawn 🙂 )! We hadn’t thought it possible to tire of southern Chile’s spectacular landscapes, but after weeks of relentless picturesque mountain views appearing around every bend, we were itching for a change of scene. We have now scientifically proven that you can indeed have too much of a good thing (provided of course that the relevant ‘good thing’ isn’t chocolate – you can obviously never have too much chocolate).
Life on the road in Cuthbert is a joy, but not without its frustrations! Everyday housekeeping hum-drum and the inevitable technical issues that arise with all motor vehicles are not escaped on the road; in fact they are sometimes magnified in significance. So just to prove to Cuthbert blog-readers at home that overlanders suffer at the hands of the mundane too, we’ll start this Chiloe travel blog with a bit of practical stuff, then sit back and wait for the messages of sympathy to come flooding in 😉 Continue reading
