Then got on my shuttle to head to Puerto. This is 7 hours on a windy road in a no air conditioned bus. I was the only tourist as we picked up and dropped off locals along the way. It started raining and the wind screen wipers stopped working but it was all ok.

Stopped at local place for some dinner before arriving to Emma and Josie at Bonobo Surf House in Oaxaca. Was great to see them!

Had some delicious Amaretto Sours cocktails at the hostel before heading off to another hostel for salsa lessons. We made some mates, learnt to salsa, and some drinks before heading to Congo, the bar in town. Partied there for a bit - plenty of locals and Spanish songs!

Pepe is know for the best tacos in Puerto - he doesn’t have much of a kitchen or restaurant - no running water and shit everywhere. We turn up for cooking and he just chats away telling us what to do. We make the marinade (rosemary lime oregano) the batter (beer lime coriander) the guac and salsa and whip up some delicious coconut fish tacos for us and some locals that had stopped by. Tacos were delicious but the place was a shambles.

The afternoon was spent chilling before heading to La Punta (where the big waves were) to watch the surfers and sunset. Good to hang with the hostel mates and dog.

Headed to Zicatela beach for lunch and chill - went to a delicious cafe called Elephant.

We then headed up to Playa Bacocho beach for a swim. The beach was unswimable - there are quite a few like that around. So luckily we stumbled across a resort to chill at for the afternoon.

Then headed up to release baby turtles that had just hatched into the ocean. We let them go onto the beach, they find their way to the water, live their life and return 8 years later to breed.

Had a chill evening at the hostel before heading for some Italian for dinner.

So much deliciousness!

Puerto - an epic small town, lots of different beaches and surf beaches. People really nice and able to get cheap taxis everywhere around! All in all a great experience!

Arrived in Mexico City (the plane was literally empty), found our way to Hostel Suites DF to our private room.

Flying into Mexico City was crazy - it is so big!

We headed to La Chichica for dinner. So far Mexico City isn’t too hectic!

Then went on a 2.5 walking tour of the old Mexico City area. This was great to learn about to history, the buildings and some of the Mexican traditions.(refer notes for some fun facts)

Above is enthusiastic tour guide ft. Post boxes where people go to write and receive letters

Below is the theatre

We then went to the most amazing bakery for lunch - Mexican love sweet breads and this is where they all do their shopping.

Headed to the Frid Khalo museum - such an iconic Mexican women for her art talents, overcoming her crash, her feminism and being married to Diego - a famous Mexican artist.

Found some markets close by also

Next up was the Lucha Libre match - the Mexican wrestling. This was hilarious as the fighters and the crowd all got very into it. The fighters wear masks (so did we) and perform almost set moves (you can tell it is fake) but still fun.

We then met up with Alice Kay for a delicious dinner at Paramo (more tacos)

It was then admin day to fix Hannah’s phone which was done... let’s see how the job goes

We then found an education centre which has Diego’s murals (a famous artist who we learnt about in the Frida movie)

Then ate Mexico’s best churros and explored some markets to find some street food! The Mexicans loooooove their sweet food and bakeries - they are everywhere!

Next I realised I lost my new Puerto drink bottle so we trudged around and used google translator to try and find it... no luck.

Headed to Galbradi Square to listen to the Marichi bands. This was interesting - they sounded pretty cool but it was all quite intense as they tried to ask us for money.

Also tried the local kombucha alvoholic drink! Emma and I went to a vegan place for dinner before heading back to hostel!

Flew to Cancun, got straight onto a bus to Playa del Carmen - verrrry American and touristy it was unbelievable.

Ferried to Isla Cozumel which is a 35 min ferry - it was sooo rough almost scary! And arriving to Cozumel in thunderstorms was not ideal! Found our private room at Hostelito - yes another private room - we are princesses.

Look how much leg room we ended up with on the plane!

Check out the private room!

This was me in Playa Del Carmen (another very American town) before getting the ferry to Cozumel.

Finally arrived in Cozumel.

Dinner at a local place for $6 so good!

At the end of the three days we learnt that Barefoot Dive was an Israeli dive centre... makes sense why so many Israelis there and the test were in Hebrew. Interesting people. He instructors loved us tho

Was good to see Cozumel in the light today! As in no rain! It’s great chill place but still pretty touristy with all thgood American shops ie Starbucks Rolex etc

First dive spot was Palancar Gardens. This was he first time jumping of the boat and going straight down. Headed down to 18m for an hour - saw some turtles, a lobster and lots of cool fish and coral. We also practised a 3 minute safety stop at the top.

Stopped for lunch - tuna and gauc Dannie’s (lol) before heading to Yulab for the second dive spot. This was a fun dive. The waters is beautiful, sooo clear. It was also pretty great being able to see the rest of the Cozumel from the boat.

Headed back to the Barefoot Dive Office (along with all the other Isralis at the dive school....) for course completion! Whoop!

Then it was party night. Started off at our local (The Thirsty Cougar) for an Amaretto Sour before going to El Mexicano for dinner and meeting Luis the dive instructor (lol we said we would get him beers). Had some buffalo wings and drinks before going on the ‘tour’

Went to a couple of bars (one where girls drink for free) before parking up at Karaoke for the night. Em and I did Ignition by R Kelly (that was not ideal) but then made up for it when we did Dua Lipa and Wonderwall. We assumed the rest of the bar like the English songs in between the Mexican ones. \240ChaCha at the bar was providing the shots! He even put the All Blacks on (it was 2.35am)!

Cozumel was great - epic diving spots, however it was pretty Americanised.

Then got a ferry over to the small Island of Holbox. Here there are no cars, all the roads are made of sand and there are just cute shacks and shops along the beach and roads.

We chilled at the beach, got some empanadas (delicious) and found our tribu hostel.

Headed to the beach for sunset - this place definitely puts on a good sunset.

Barba Negra for dinner - battered cauliflower tacos - delicious.

We grabbed a drink at a rooftop bar and a crepe to watch the Mexican Independence Day celebrations at the square. We only saw some dancing, but later heard it just turned in a big dance street party at the square. (Unfortunately we were too hungover to really get amongst the celebrations)

Post swimming we headed to a snorkelling. Spot where we saw plenty of fish, stingrays and eels.

Lunch was at a remote area of the beach - fresh ceviche looked delicious however I wasn’t so sure about the shrimp so I had guac (I was Emma the vegetarian)

On the way back to holbox we went to the point where you see pink flamingos - quite far away but interesting animals.

Relaxed on the beach for the arvo before heading to sunset yoga at the hostel - very relaxing.

Went to the best pizza in town ‘Roots’ for dinner.

Pretty lush but also extreeeemly hot.

Had to retreat back to the hostel for some shelter.

Hired bikes and biked to Punta Coco for sunset - beautiful, the only downside being that mozzies love it here.

We went out with the hostel mates for burrito night which was fun! Then headed to Hor Corner, the only party bar on the island for a drink! You could just buy drinks from the supermarket and take them to dinner as well as the bar!

Made some interesting hostel mates - almost lucky we were leaving the next day!

View from window above - but air b n b was epic with 5 bedrooms! And ensuites.

Headed down to the local for cocktail and dinner - Lo Monk. Luckily we found this place as the others had said the food was shiiiit.

Went to the cigar shop and purchased a couple of actual Cuban cigars - apparently there are only two places in Havana that sell the actual ones.

We attempted a walking tour before we realised it was too hot and about to piss down with rain so we headed to a fancy hotel rooftop bar for refuel - definitely worth the view.

After losing Polly and Josie we were very lucky to run into them on way back to hostel (purchasing some art on the way) and then getting ready for drink.

First stop was a cute bar doing mojitos and dacquiris before heading to O’reillys for dinner (highly recommend)

We then headed for a bar El dandy to continue on. Had an interesting experience here trying to light and smoke the cigar - thanks to Ariel the bar tender for his assistance.

As we were walking along we were handed a card and told about a ‘secret’ bar so of course we headed down. As we got there we got to be quiet (classic) and headed up some steps through some random doors to a small salsa club. Pretty cool. Partied there for a bit before finding our way home through the slightly deserted streets.

Cuban buildings are cool - provide so much history and design. The people are interesting - some friendly some not so and some who have rarely soon tourists. You can see the slight communism coming through when taking to the owners of the art gallery and seeing the ration stalls. The supermarket was also a no go - there is limited variety and limited purchases.

The cars are everywhere and are a key tourist attraction - but you do also see families using them in their everyday life.

Walked through the city before getting in the shuttle to Viñales.

Arrived in Viñales at our small Casa home where we were all staying. Went for a walk into town, had some Mojitos and dinner.

I was on Mojito making with the old mate from the hostel so great

Went to a taboco farm where we talked trough the year long process of growing drying and making cigars. Interesting that these farms have to give 90% of their cigars made to the government to sell - they don’t get any profits.

As we continued to a lagoon I managed to get a bee sting next to my eye.... not ideal and pretty painful but we carried on. Found a lagoon, definitely not the fresh water Anisto told us about but I went for a swim anyway.. probably not the best idea going by the colour of it.

Then stopped by the coffee and rum and he told us about the local Cuban Rum and coffee. Was quite nice when mixed with honey!

Emma played dominos with the host while we played cards

Headed to dinner and then to the square for a talent show and some salsa!

Here we stored our bags and had breakfast (the plan was to lie here by the pool all day however too pricey).

Also, the eye was not so good today.

So we decided to go on a hop on hop off bus tour of Havana.

This was great until what we thought what was 40 min round trip was 2.5 hours in the ridiculous heat. Fair to say we were over it but we did get a great tour of the city.

We got an old car as our airport transfer - so good. Pretty much the same price as a normal taxi!

Havana airport was a nightmare - so many ques, gross toilets, no food and delayed plane. Glad to get out of there.

Cuba/Havana in summary - an interesting place, amazing buildings, the people in Havana not so happy but understand that being communist. Food was pretty average as well. Also interesting as there were a lot of run down buildings and the water front had so much potential for development but no work is done. Lots of salsa and cute bars.

Arrived in Cancun and ended up with a little rental car to drive down to Tulum. Arrived at Mama’s home in the thunderstorm after a loooong day and headed for tacos at a suggested place La Milgarita.

Here’s a pic of the car and Mamas home hostel.

So headed to the doctor (after the epic free breakfast of French toast). Summary of convo with doctor was

So got some antibiotics. Note to self - wear sunglasses as much as possible.

Headed off to the first cenote - crystal just south of Tulum, the cenotes are beautiful fresh wash swimming holes caused by collapsed caves and there are hundreds around Tulum.

Headed down to the Tulum Beach. There is a road that runs next to the beach just full of amazing resorts, restaurants and shops - you can’t actually access the beach without going through a place. We had some peanut butter sammies in the car, stopped off for a smoothie and then headed back to the hostel.

Oh we actually popped into an amazing shop/resort Azuik to explore where we did not fit in at all.

For dinner we splashed out on delicious tacos at a restaurant Gitango which was well needed after the couple of days we had.

Stopped off for some some shopping and gelato en route home 😏 amazing boutiques shops on this road - all a bit pricey tho.

Headed down the road for a smoothie and some travel today planning. Unfortunately due to rainy season the beach in Tulum is pretty shit and full of seaweed however they are trying to clean it up. We were lucky just to make the most of th beach clubs and cenotes.

Drove to the Grand Cenote - had some luch. A guana tried to join us - bit scary - had to get a local to scare him off.

Beaut swimming hole here and baby turtles!

Headed to another Cenote which had some cool jumps! Interesting - the cenotes are pretty pricey and not exactly sure who runs and owns them - some are more developed than others.

Did some shopping for the arvo (bought two sets of new togs) and then went to another beach club for cocktail - been meaning to try mezcal againl (the Mexicans favourite liquor after tequila) after being scarred from night 1 when I had it poured down my throat.

Headed into main Tulum town for some local burritos followed by ice cream 👌🏼 banana flavoured (they also had pumpkin pie which sounded pretty legit)

We made a friend Valerie from Germany who also came with us, and then came on down to Lake Bacalar with us. It literally pissed down so much on the drive - pretty hectic given the roads aren’t thaaaat good. However it is a pretty boring drive as it’s not right on the coast.

Arrived at lunch and headed to a lake front spot - La Playita

Was a mission trying to find accommodation - they were either full, had bad reviews or empty as no one around (this is quiet season).

Finally found this cute place Casa Bakal on the water front. The water is amazing - so clear!

Banana dacquris at the bar before biking to the plaza for some cheap a tacos for dinner.

You know the food will be good when there is only two things on the menu!

A quick thunderstorm passed through - before we hired some kayaks to kayak to the pirates entrance. We planned on heading don the canal but we were pretty ambitious on the distance from the hostel! This was acually a bit of a work out!

Em and I drove down to Chetumal, returned the car and then got the San Pedro water taxi to San Pedro. This was a pretty rough ride - 2 hours, going pretty fast in a boat, pretty rough and could not see out. However did manage to nap slightly!

Got off here, went through immigration getting us into Belize. Had to pay a lot of Mexican leaving Mexico unfortunately and this water taxi was pretty pricey too!

Then it was half an hour to Caye Caulker - got there, found our hostel and headed for dinner. Stayed at Bellas hostel - this was family run and plenty of reno’s were being done given the low season. Actually the whole island was very quiet given they low season.

At first the Belize people seemed a bit creepy and all high, however after we adjusted, we just realised they were all pretty friendly, and most likely high given marajuana is legal here.

Headed to a local place for dinner - flavours of Belize where we chose our lion fish and they cooked it on the barbecue for dinner.

Went for a drink at the sports bar... the only bar on the island - but made some local mates which was prett interesting! Going to go diving with them tomorrow!

Had lunch at San Pedro (the main town by the dive spot) \240in between our dives the other two girls.

Did two great dives - went to 32metres! We had only been to 18m before! And saw nurse sharks and reef sharks and lots of fish and swam through the canyons in the coral.

The nurse sharks were literally so friendly they would come over for pats!

Then we decided it was tattoo and island exploring time.... jokes just a henna. But check it out.

Met up with our dive mates and went to this great French restaurant - Blue Beard for dinner. They were Tessas friends from when she was here which was cool - they were crazy and gave us shots for Tessa.

Then continued on the Sports Bar where it was karaoke night... found a table made some more local mates, some Aussie friends and had a few more drinks. Special mention to my fave cocktail - dirty banana: rum, kahlua, banana, espresso, coconut cream, chocolate sauce.

Headed on to the next bar - the reggae bar with some of the hostel mates. These are the only two party bars on the island so it is where everyone goes! Ended up wondering the island at 2am on our way home!

Had a breakfast at Namaste cafe before heading to the Lazy Lizard beach club to hang. It was pretty quiet here in low season!

Disgusted in the amount we paid for these fries at the beach club.

Pic of the sports bar from our night last night

All in all great chill island once we adjust to the ‘go slow’ vibes - this was what everyone says. Another common quote was ‘seeing is belizing.’ But quite sad to leave as the hostel vibes were great and very family like - people stay there for ages.

To get to Guatemala it was wate taxi to Belize City (1.5 hour), bus to Guatemala border (2 hour) go through immigration then bus to Flores (2 hours). Luckily we were one company the whole way and immigration was easy - have heard some stories. Also we practically had the bus to ourself! Only scary thing was immigration as usual but seemed to go well.

Arrived at the island of Flores and to the los Amigos hostel - this an epic garden hostel with a restaurant and bar etc inside.

Saw lots of animals and monkeys along the way.

This is Luis the tour guide who was verrrrry passionate about this place.

And then the Mayan ruins. So many different ones and ones towering above the jungle were pretty cool.

Lots of them are designed for the four seasons and to add to 365 days of the year.

A number of the ruins still haven’t been uncovered - they probably won’t actually uncover them! .

Came back and explored the town of Flores before getting some street food for dinner.

We did some shopping (bought and t shirt and I got my eye brows done... risky in Guatemala but allgood!)

Gin and tonics on sky bar followed by some card playing and tacos (we learning some two person card games)

The bus was a classic yellow school bus with no air con... was pretty interesting especially after 6 hours and we still hadn’t had a toilet stop!! I even had to ask the bus driver for bano but that was a no deal.

Barge that we crossed a body of water on

Peanut butter sammies and cinnamon scroll for lunch 👍🏼

The roads were pretty rough, went through some local towns which was interesting - really just sheds on the side of the road. Then we got into the high country as we made our way down to Lanquin. From Lanquin we got smaller utes to the hostel. Our bus kept pulling over to adjust the gear stick and we could some major clutch problems - was pretty stoked we made it.

Arrived at Zephyr Lodge - the most amazing hostel nestled amongst the trees. Had a swim and spa and some dinner before making some mates. Found some Aussie guys who were allgood and next minute we were getting amongst flip cup. This turned competitive and unfortunately we lost the semi final which meant time for bed.

Trying to practise my flip cup

Next stop was the rope swing. To be fair this was pretty scary.

Lunch stop by the river where we had lunch hung with some of the locals

Hiked up a huge hill to get a view of the Semac Champey pools - they are pretty cool!

Then we came and chilled in the Semac pools. Underneath these pools is where all of the flowing water to the water fall goes while the pools are on the top.

Made it back to the hostel in time for happy hour at 4pm! The roads are very sketchy and steep, luckily we had a good driver and we could all fit on the back of the four wheel - passed some tourists who were battling and our guide had to help them and drive their car.

We chilled for happy hour by the pool for a while with the some of the friends from our group which was nice - even had a bit of a thunderstorm.

Made it inside and we had a night of espresso martinis and beer bong - actually had a quite a competitive game but didn’t come away with the win.

Had some friends on the bus who we had been with in the last few places which was nice. Had a couple of stops but it was a pretty long trip. Luckily we had the serial podcast to listen to, to get us through!

Went through Guatemala City which was interesting - traffic was very hectic, lots of chicken buses (old crammed buses) and pretty rough looking houses and shops.

Finally made it to the main Lake town Panajachel \240at 7.30

Got a ferry taxi to our hostel - Free Cervesa (Free Beer). We had a family dinner there and then slept in tents! Very random but quite lush!

We made our way to San Marcos a pretty hippy town where we just stayed in bed alllll day. We were both pretty sick - not actually sure what from!

Luckily the hostel we stayed at (called circles) we had a private room with bathroom lounge and kitchen for very cheap so we could just hang out all day.

Finally ventured out for dinner to a restaurant owned by a guy from London. Managed to eat a piece of pizza.

Not to be rude but this town i would describe as white wannabe hippies. Met a girl from America on a self discovery anthropology journey whatever the heck that is (you learn about people culture yoga music food and you are vegan and you probably smoke weed or do mushrooms)

Unfortunately we missed out on tickets but it was nice to see a slightly bigger town! Ferries just stop by the wharfs pretty regularly and you just go to each town for a couple of $$

We were pretty shattered so we just headed back to the hostel to watch some Netflix for the arvo

The clothes that the Guatemalans wear are so nice!

Guatemalan lady washing her clothes at the square.

Pic of the well know arch in Antigua. Antigua used to be the capital of Guatemala City. It is a nice town with well kept coloured buildings, cobbled streets and lots of boutiques restuarants, cafes and hotels. Definitely one of the nicer cities in Guatemala. People come here to do crafty things such as Spanish lessons and coffee making as well hiking and outdoor adventures.

Literally crushing the nuts to make the peanut butter

Lilian who showed us talked about her family business of doing this - we had a translator to translate. This was all done in the small basic kitchen of her house!

Headed to an empanada place for a drink with some others before going for dinner to sort some admin, eat some vegetables and feel sorry for ourselves.

Chilled for the afternoon before committing to climbing the volcano on Monday. We had been wanting to do this, but the weather wasn’t looking good and we weren’t feeling 100% however we thought why not. So we booked this in and hooned around the city trying to get some hat and gloves which proved difficult. Ended up buying what he told us was beer wool gloves and hat and scarf from a local and renting some old school pants and jackets from he hostel.

It was pretty steep in most parts of the climb - but it was key to just make it from hut to hut.

Lunch spot

Some epic views from 3/4 the way up....

after 3 hours and 50 minutes we made it to base camp. (2pm) pretty stoked with our efforts given it normally takes 5 - 6 hours but you just had to keep going to get through the pain.

We climbed from 2,450m to 3,736m!

The company we went with had some tents set up at base camp and a fire where we chilled for the afternoon trying to get a glimpse of the volcano! We could hear it rumbling all afternoon and night.

This was the squad with some local tea mixed with local alcohol...

Views...

Getting toasty by the fire!

This was the best we got - you can see the volcano erupting if you look very closely!

Dog that stayed with us up the volcano

Soo happy we had marshmallows!

We were meant to see the the sunrise over the other volcano and watch it eupting something similar to this....

But no we saw absolutely nothing.

Made it down to the bottom, waited for a while in the freezing cold until the van came - luckily some of the locals living at the bottom of the mountain gave us tea and a snack of tacos - so nice of them.

Made it back to Antigua and went to the Choco museum and some final sight seeing before heading to Guatemala City.

We ended up ubering from Antigua to Guatemala City - it was only an hour and cheaper than a shuttle - very ideal.

However the cheapest mode of transport in Guatemala is chicken buses - these buses are packed to the brim with locals and they are crazily driven on all roads

Thought we should try one but decided for our safety it was best not too.

In Guatemala City we stayed in the metropolitan area at Central 10 hostel which was actually quite a nice area!

We went to the mall around the corner, had food court for dinner and went to the movie Crazy Rich Asians which was pretty funny.

Not much to do in San Jose so naturally we just found some delicious cafes.

The second one was a famous landmark maybe the national museum?! Anyway headed back to the hostel for a nap. Turns out we got the dress code wrong and it’s not legit to wear shorts and singlet in the city - we got stared down!

Decided to play cards with some hostel mates and order Uber eats for the evening!

Border crossing was literally walking across a bridge and pretty random, but hey we made it!

Bocos del Toro is a region of some islands - we stayed on the main island for 2 nights at Selina Hostel.

Met Bridget Dick and Briar for curry - great catch ups and delicious food!

Island life in Bocos.

Filthy Fridays is where you boat around the Bocos province to three different island bars where you drink, party and swim before ending the party at our hostel. Such a great day out, lots of new mates!

Caught our ferry taxi over the Red Frog Island where we were staying for the next nights - at Palma Lodge. Good to get off the party island. Palma Lodge is an amazing beach front eco lodge, but still so cheap!

Had a quiet afternoon and night here!

Post dinner there was an absolute down pour and thunderstorm, we couldn’t leave for hours so we just played cards. It got to 9pm and we realised we needed to be home, so had to try and find a water taxi, in the thunderstorm - not ideal, convince him to take us in the dark to our beach, run through the jungle (past the alligators) to our lodge in the dark. All a bit stressful but after paying someone some $$ we made it home.

Bus was chilly but comfy with plenty of locals. Stopped at a local place for lunch - looked average but was actually delicious - reminded us to always follow the locals!

Taxied to the hostel - Luna castle which was in the Casco area of town. Quite a few cool eateries around.

Fair to say we splashed out on the final night!

Cocktails bar 1

Pizza and Panama Beer bar two

Literal rolled cream for dessert - amazing.

We then went back to hostel underground bar for 50 cent (US) drinks between 9 and 10 - how ideal! Pretty dingy place though!

Some sights from Panama.

Flew from Panama City to Mexico City. A solid four hours in Mex City consisted of this

Before the flight to London ahhhh!

What a super awesome holiday! Very sad to ending the backpacker life however new beginnings are awaiting!