Holllaaa!!!

Que tal?

Hello everyoneeeee. Finally writing to you of all our encounters.... Right, from the beginning....

Flights etc, exhausting! Slept on a marble floor in JFK airport for 5 hours, or should I say attempted, as it was freezinggggg! Pac safed our bags to a railing though which was a god send courtesy of you dad, so thanks!!! Every American we met was a right miserable sod and the only thing that got us through their pessimistic attitudes was our own private joke that they were all put in america as cons!!! hahaha. Yes private joke... on a positive note though, the american staff were extremely friendly and helpful.

On arrival to mexico (Cancun), we found our our feet very quickly. Their obviously very proud of their tourism in mexico as they had about 20 information people at the airport to about 1 new passenger. HILARIOUS!!!

We got a bus straight away, for about a 20 min journey for about 1 pound 50. Found our hostel straight away with the best selection of directions we ever had haha.

Our hostel was very cosy, it was more like a guest house as it was run by a mexican family who lived there to, who were are actuallyyyy lovely. Unbelievably helpful, with 2 gorgeous baby twins, already getting a sense for how important family is here!!! Our hostel worked out at 397 mexican dollars, for both of us, for 2 nights, which was about 10 pounds with our original conversion rate. Quite amazing we think.

Our first meal, was a thing called a taco, which cost us 50p, and fed us for dinner. Although we will still be careful, our worries about mexico being expensive went down the pan, considering we were in a very touristy area.

We got a very early night on the first night as we were shattered, but woke up to a lovely breakfast of pancakes, pineapple and melon!!! We needed a chill out day today so we got a bus for about 10 p to a local beach and monged out. All you would expect from the carribean sea, is what you get!!!! mum(bridies), we didnt play with any sea lions hahha. white sand and turqouise sea, in a word, beautiful!!!

The people of mexico (again not getting carried away or too friendly), are absolutely lovely, everyone wants to help you,genuinely not just for money. which brings me to the roads.....however much traffic there is, or people crossing the road, at unofficial stops, everyone stops for you. its amazing!!!!no matter how fast they were going. The buses, stop where and when you want, are extremely cheap and exactly how you imagine them, cramped, s***ty but amazing!!!

Our first week was incredibly busy. After our mong out day, which actually entailed us ending up on private land and hitching in a security van to get ot of it (long story), we had a day at a local island called Isla Mujeres. This name means the island of women and is a famous island in the world of the mayas, an anchient mexican civilisation. It was a beaufitul island, very traditional, multi coloured houses, beautiful beach, lovely people, and a variation in cusine, that is seen amongst tourists and travellers as a hue favourite. This was the island that entailed us embarking on our next unexpected adventure..... hitting cuba. We both really wanted to go but Isla Mujeres saw us there with flights and priceless information from a man that had lived there for years for only 170 pounds.

Cuba.... we could only afford to stay here for three days as it was very expensive, but we are glad at least that we experinced it for those three days. The flight there was a whole new experience. We flew with an airline called cubana, which is cubas airline, which as you can imagine meant a very old plane, and at the begining, as you can see from our pictures, we thought the plane was on fire.... it was infact actually just a very old air condition service that meant ice was at the bottom of the plane and when the plane heated up, it gave a smoke affect.. freaky s*** and saw us laughing for hours...

Arrival in cuba was also a whole new experience, you have to go through private doors and wate until they have inspected you and your passport, almost felt like prison!!! Once though customs we met 2 guys we had met on the aeroplane, one from israel and one from colorado, his name was Yogi and he was an absolute legend. We shared a taxi to the main city on habana, known to you lot as havana. Crazy city, and almost everything and nothing you expect. All the house and general buildings are so old and dirty, the cars are from the 50s and you cant actually go into shops, you have to order everything from the outside. Its a country that sees police and military all over the shot, which is a quite daunting but safe feeling.

They dont have hostels here, its hotels or a legal thing called a Casa De Praticular, which basically means guesthouse. Our guesthouse was brilliant, we stayed with 2 men, a gay couple, one with very good english and impecable knowledge, able to tell you everything you wanted to know about the government, country, everything!!! We learnt everything from these guys, definately the best way to learn about the country. Our room was amazing, 50s style with a double bed and private bathroom, very homeley, you could tell they were gay starigh away.

Our first full day was a difficult one. We had little time to do anything but wnated to see loads. We by accidently bumped into the older guys from the plane and decided to do the day with them as them were embarking on a simlar journey. Luckily there wa sa very cheap tourist bus, almost our lifesaver, it saw us to the most local and amazing beach (although it stromed) and all around habana, exactly what we needed for the short period we were there. Pictures of Che and fidel were everywhere, as were words of revolution!!! We spent the whole day looking all over the place and we really got a sense of it. You feel so sorry for the people here, they long for change. They have nothing new only what the government allows and with food, its very basic, all comes from the same ship, and they use whatever the can produce themselves.

The main evening we had there, we went to a nice 50s restaurant, had a boogie, enjoyed cuban music and company, and enjoyed some rum and mojitoes!!! There is so much I could right about cube but its so hard to put into words...... so on that note im going to finish there.

Back into mainland mexico, we spent one more night in cancun before making our way to the ruins of Chitchen Itza. As usual, we got a good old mexican bus to the town, found a shabby old room that was damp, to set up sleep for the night and made our way to the ruins. On the way we got stopped by an old mexican man who had brilliant english who was extremely quirky and lovely, and genuinely excited about us being from england coming to see mexico etc etc. Cute picture of him in the pictures section. He worked at chitchen itza and told us lots about the mayans.

Chitchen Itza is the most famous, but we thought most boring of the ruins we have seen so far. Itrs reasonably small compared to what we have been looking at, but not all bad. It was still interesting and all mayan, and its also where we met 3 lovely mexican guys from mexico city who spoke amazing english and who we spent the rest of that day and evening with. They were there on a work diversion 1 was a pilot and 2 cabin crew for a mexican airline and they had the day off and decided to see a bit of chitchen itza. They eneded up showing us some traditional mexican cuisine and paying for it which we cant put into words how lovely it was, and they alsooooo ended up being our personal translators for the chitchen itza sound and light show that was in total spainish, which we are still quite crap in. They ended up giving us a lift home and that was an end of a long but lovely day.

Following chitchen itza we ended up at the popular city of Merida. A very busy up and coming mexican town, full of art, museums, history, amazing archetecture, etc etc. It also saw us into our favourite hostel as of yet. Owned buy a mexican, run by a lovely young german couple who spoke countless lanugages fluently and ended upm being really good friends. The hostel, Zocalo, was gorgeous and massive!!! Full of loads of travellers which was really nice. It was like a castle, huge doors and walls. The breakfast in the morning aswell was gorgeoussss. We stayed in a nice all girl dorm part which was very cosy and we made it home very quickly.

Merida, the first day we went round the city with some lovely and a right laugh australian threesome of guys. We saw the museums, the general town, art etc etc. Nice day. That night we entailed our first club night in mexico. The german couple Floren and Linda, that own the hostel, drove us out to a club and joined us with their friends and the aussies for a night of pissups. Really good night, which saw us with the first encounter we had of mexican police.... On the way home, as we look like tourists, they stopped our car for no reason. Nothing happened and we were fine, but Floren explained, you get stopped for anything,its so currupt, if you look like a tourist they will stop you, usually so they make you feel so uncomfortable and you end up giving them your money!! Luckily for us, Floren and Linda speak fluent spainsih and scared them off.

The following day, Floren and Linda had a day off and drove us and some other people to a beach near by. Absolutely gorgeous, Cocobeach, drizzled with palm trees, along the Gulf sea, saw us through a beautiful day, that ended up with us also enjoying some fresh fish (see our pictures), definately the best meal yet, yumm..

Our last day at Merida, was an amazing experience. We got a few buses out of town to a place called Vallanoid, which we then got in a 2 person carraige, run buy a motorbike, (lots of fun), further to an mecican style train. This was in fact... not a train at all. In was on a tiny track, with a 4 person carriage, run by a horse..... yes we were confused to, but you should look at our pictures, they dont even sum up the experience. The purpose for Vallanoid, was to see the cenotes. In translation this means, waterhole. Its literally a giant, dark clear water, waterhole. Again the pictures dont some it up, but hae a look, they were amazing. We saw three in total, one of which had a tree root growing into it. Amazing sight!!!

Finally we left our humble home of Merida :(. We embarked on a long, eventful day. We got a 3 hour bus Journey to a place called Uxmal. You Sstop in the middle of an empty highway, walk a little bit and end up on these amazing amazing ruins. Again mayan, and huge. Unlike Chitchen Itza these ones you could climb and go into some parts. It was really nice. We then got on another long bus jouney to Campeche, and yet another night bus to Palenque, in the jungle which is where we are now but about to leave. This jounrney was not so enjoyable. It was a night bus, that saw us with our first encountar of the mexican military. Again on this huge bus they only attacked me and Bridie. We had to empty our bags for no reaosn wat so ever, and that were a bit pervy. Dont want to scare you parents as I think this was particular bad luck but they were very touchy feely touching our legs and dare i say it attempting to touch our boobs..... Not a very nice experince at all, in general I think the military here look after their touists, but as in all militarys, these two were enjoying abusing their position. We quietly shrugged them off, and off they went, But they left us both feeling quite uncomfortable and neither of us could sleep that night. And we were also quite annoyed know one awake on the bus said anything....

Anyway we are now in a place called Palenque, which is where I will leave you now. Palenque is a quite boring town but we are staying in the jungle which is extremely scaryyyyyy as we have seen tarrantulas, but very beatiful by day. At night we can hear whaleing monkeys, which make a horrible sound but its so full of jugle its amazing. First night we got scared and ended up staying in a cabana, but tonight we are braving the hammocks we bought from Merida and sleeping in the jungle-wish us luck. Bridie was unwell yesterday and we were in a hospital for 7 hours,(3 were wating) she had a problem with her stomach and chest which saw her though a drip and painkillers etc etc. Which means she is now on lots of tablets, but unlike yesterday she feels much better bless her little cottons!!!! So in the space of a week we have experienced all the emergency services accept the firebrigade. We reckon that one will be tonight when we set up a fire haha.

Sorry if some of this doesnt make sense, its taken ages and I cant be bothered to read it through, that goes for spelling to. I will update you on our jungle experince and further travels soon, love and miss you all

Holly & Bridie.