The minibus taking us to the coast grew increasingly sweaty as we approached Puerto Angel. Peeling off our dampened clothes we ran straight to the sea to cool off. Not much happened on our one night in Puerto Angel, although we did have an amazing fish dinner prepared single-handedly by a small Mexican lady in a tiny kitchen, (the meal was so good we ignored the presence of a rogue skunk loitering near the kitchen.)
One Sunday we headed to Chichicastenango, where they hold the biggest market in Latin America. Some beautiful jewellery was purchased on all behalfs and we were very upset that we couldn´t take home one of the adorable chicks, kittens and puppies on sale.
Apparently all bus rides in Guatemala were going to be hellish. Trying to save a bit of cash, we opted for a third class bus with cries of 'we got buses across the whole of South East Asia without air con or toilets, it'll be a god damn breeze'. Very soon into the journey we began to regret our decision as the bus driver stopped every ten minutes to see to his errands, drop off packages and enjoy personal cigarette breaks. We gained another insight into police corruption in Central America as the police pulled the bus over and forced all immigrants from neighbouring countries off the bus. Although legally allowed to be in Guatemala and having correct paper work, the workers were charged 40 quetzales each and informed us afterwards that it was already the fourth time it had happened on their journey. After a seven hour journey becoming fourteen, we arrived at Flores delirious from hunger, dehydration and flat-bottom syndrome.
1) Day time activities included riding around on golf carts (the only mode of transport on the island) frolicking in the sea and consuming large quantities of freshly baked banana bread.
3) Each night involved single sex wrestling matches, in which the girls thought they had held their own but the video footage reveals otherwise. This was made less embarrassing as the European boys were equally crap, Chad single handedly wrapped Aly and Rasmus in their bed sheet, "like a burrito." (Rasmus 02/07)
4) Accessories for evenings out included a wooden beaded curtain as worn by Aly and multiple pieces of sand-castle-making-equipment.
5) We invented the best drinking game in the world ever, ingeniously entitled "awight geez". Await with baited breath for its arrival in Great Britain on 1500 hours, March 20th 2007.
Overall we rate Belize 11 out of 10 and give it one big smug adventurers thumbs up!
From Belize we headed to the beautiful white sandy beaches and aquamarine waters of Tulum. Here we had a few days R & R to recover from the excesses of Caye Caulker before hopping on a bus up the coast to Playa del Carmen, where it was clear that Mexico's east coast was not actually Mexico at all, but more like America. The beautiful rooftop view from our hostel was a majestic vision of supermarket wonderment, in the towering form of a giant Walmart. As the weather was disappointing, the bakery section became our haven where we abused the free taster system and sampled delights such as pineapple upside-down cake, ham and cheese roll and banana slice. We were so dedicated to the cause that we partook in thrice daily visits and employed strategic costume changes to avoid being recognised. Despite the Americana feel to Playa del Carmen, we managed to experience a taste of Mexican culture when Chris from our hostel introduced a game of pinata for his birthday celebrations. Its amazing how fun being blindfolded, spun around and ridiculed by onlookers can be when you're brandishing a large stick and sweeties are the prize.
We were dreading the prospect of spring break in Cancun due to lack of money, no drinking mojo and excesses of over enthusiatic American college kids. Arriving at our hostel didn't provide any comfort when it appeared to be in the middle of a golf course, had no doors or curtains on the showers or toilets, had strange padded rooms full of old sofas and our room was not unlike a boarding school dormitory from the 16th century. However our plans to leave the next morning were shamelessly abandoned upon the arrival of seven ridiculously hot Australian boys who weren't shy about walking around semi-clad. This is where our spring break really began and the planned two days quickly escalated into a week of carnage. Our main pleasure derived form shouting cheesy Americanisms such as:
"Woo hoo spring break!!""Let's get some shooters!" "Who wants a body shot?!""Hey dude how much d'you bench? Oh I max out about 130, but it pays the bills.""Let's go chug a beer!" "U.S.A.....U.S.A.....U.S.A"
The major drama of the week came on the last night when Petey, Lee and Ryan were a little worse for wear in our favourite club Daddy-O's and were consequently asked to leave. Somehow the situation spiralled out of control and they were soon encircled by policeman, handcuffed and being beaten with batons. They were bundled into the policevan and taken to the station. Having witnessed this shocking police brutality, it was Erin and Murph to the rescue as they began an elaborate adventure across Cancun brandishing their credit cards shouting about how they were going to "bail their boyfriends out of prison!" from the back of a golf cart.
The next day was extremely sombre however, as it transpired that each of the fugitives would have to pay $1000 US bail to avoid being moved to the main prison in town. Sixteen long hours later the jail birds returned, their wallets considerably lighter and their bodies black and blue, but extremely glad to be free. The moral of the story is anyone visiting Central America should try and stay on the right side of the law.
So on the evening of March 19th 2007 we arrived in LAX to board the flight to our final destination- London Heathrow. We had seriously mixed emotions- excitement about seeing our parents and families, devastation at knowing our year was over and overwhelming satisfaction that we could not have possibly had a better time.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has read our blog and followed our journey. To all the very special people we've met along the way who helped to make our trip what it was, and last but not least, to our parents for putting up with a year of worry and always being there to support us.
We have had the year of our lives and can confirm that the Smug Adventures were truly very smug indeed.
Until next time, Murph, Tay, Colly and Erin x x x x
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