Xmas and New Year Hols

Sorry dudes, we have been like totally rubbish recently regards updating the blog. So gonna try a major update now.




Had a totally amazing holiday over Xmas. Drove the car up to Mexico through Guatemala and Belize and spent a couple of weeks enjoying the beach and just kicking back and relaxing. For the first couple of weeks we were joined by a couple of friends from school Jo and John and then Jo flew back to El Salvador the day before NYE and John, Simmie and I stayed for another week.



After a visit to Flores in Guatemala on the way up and another night in Corozal in Belize we spent the first part of our time in Mexico in a place called Tulum. The first place we stayed was a little bit basic and after an accident involving John falling drunkenly from the poorly lit path, which resulted in 3 stitches in his knee the following morning, we moved on. We spent the rest of our time there at a place called Hemingway’s and it was awesome. Right on the beach and run by this Italian woman and her family and boy could they cook. It was here that we spent Xmas day. We also visited the Mayan ruins while we were there and although perhaps not the most spectacular in Mexico they were still pretty cool.



We then moved on to a small island called Cozumel where we did a little bit of scuba, quite a bit of drinking, the tequila was very good and lots of eating. It is also cruise ship central and on one day there was no less than nine cruise ships docked. That's a lot of American tourists with a lot of loud voices. Nevertheless, we still had a huge amount of fun and we had a very good New Years Eve here. Started by the hotel we were staying at who put on free food and bubbly to get the evening started.



We then moved on to the small island of Islas Mujeres just off the coast from Cancun, and although it was very nice the weather had taken a turn for the worse and I was suffering from a pretty bad ear infection which meant no diving and no laying on the beach. We still managed to entertain ourselves and even found a little fish and chip shop where we were all able to purchase chips and gravy to warm us up by the seaside.



Our last stop was a small fishing village called Puerto Morales, which is located 30 mins drive south of Cancun. I'm sure it won't be quiet for much longer and chatting to a guy who'd lived there for the past 7 years it would seem that Americans are starting to buy up property in the area. The next Cancun no doubt. Hotel was a bit of a dump, but there were plenty of nice places to eat and drink and the beach was pretty much deserted, there was even a second hand bookstore which was a real treat and we did well to leave without blowing all our money on books.



The drive home was incident free, apart from the news about Eva, and I was quite surprised that our 20 year old car made the trip without any problems at all. Due to the length of time it takes to download photos to this site I'm adding a link that will direct you to all the photos on Flickr.com. Hopefully it'll work, if not I'll put some photos up tomorrow.

Warning people viewing this entire collection of photos in one go may suffer sever boredom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjudge/sets/72157623157824327/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjudge/sets/72157623281356688/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjudge/sets/72157623281379876/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjudge/sets/72157623285041360/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjudge/sets/72157623157809459/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjudge/sets/72157623282441666/



More news tomorrow,