One thing we realized after visiting Playa del Carmen and Cozumel and a little Tulum is that this tourist area is one big money sucking hole! We spent a little more than our budget allowed, but we figured we could make up for it later (at least that's what most travelers say about Guatemala and Nicaragua, cheap).
Tulum represented the laid back atmosphere of Cancun and Playa. Yes, a lot of tourists and yes the same beach, white sand bright clear turquoise blue water glistened by sun every day. Though, the “hey man you want a tattoo? Or some crack”? Every five seconds from venders was not there to speak of. So if the east side of the Yucatan becomes a destination to travel in the future, hit up Tulum( if you’re not looking to party). Many friends we’re met in Tulum, some notable Bart Van Beek a crazy long haired singing Dutchmen. He has three weeks left in his Journey so he has decided to tag along with us to Belize and then Guatemala. To add, oddly enough we continually meet Dutch, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Israeli and Canadian travelers… Literally in that order, we haven’t made too many American contacts strangely enough, but we’ll see in that what the next four months brings…

After two days of diving in Cozumel we were ready for Cenote diving just south of Playa del Carmen. This was an awesome experience of diving through caverns with crystal clear water that would allow you to see for up to 100 feet easily. The water was so clear you could see the forest through the water with all its details. All we can say in ubelievable and definitely worth a look for any certified diver. Simply awesome, not much words can describe. We have a detailed video of this experience. Waiting to post it. Just though we would tease you a little. Will post as soon as possible.

Our contact in Cozumel to go diving turned out to be busy and the weather sucked for a couple days. We waited out the storm and then set out looking for dive shops. We found a cool small diving group called Eco Divers. We set up a great two day diving plan for $150 USD total and had a blast! The first day we saw ginormous sea tortuses and plenty of exotic fish with some cool corral formations. The second day we went further into the coral reef diving through corral reef arcs and seeing some more even bigger tortuses and nurse sharks which we were close enough to touch. We were able to touch the sea Tortus respectfully as he chomped down on some serious food at the bottom of the ocean. Like I said, we have some video, we need time to post it.

Hello avid readers! Yes, Derek and Michael are still alive and kicking and we continue on with our trip southward! From where we left of last...the original plan was to travel to Cancun from Merida. On the way we stopped in at one of the 7 wonders of the world!!!! Chichen Itza. From our unbiased travel wise opinion, this is one big tourist trap and not worthy of the name 7th wonder of the world. While the site is still very impressive and marvelous, there is a large entry fee and too many people to make the experience completely enjoyable, not to mention a salesman coming up every couple minutes trying to get you to buy something. No thank you, we don not need a jaguar call flute or vudu masks supposedly made by real mayans. We also were not able to climb or touch any of the ruins and this is obviously due to the popularity of the area. There are impressive strucutres but not as many as we had hoped. Our reccomendation is that you go to Palenque in the jungle of the Yucatan in Mexico and experience those ruins. There are more of them in a beautiful jungle setting and there are also more interesting strucutres, not to mention you can touch and climb on them!

After Chichen Itza we decided to head to Cancun and arrived in the dark. One of our contacts was supposed to take us diving out at cozumel in the next day or so, so...we decided to skip the party scene in Cancun and head through to Playa del Carmen where we could take a ferry to Cozumel in the morning. Luck was not on our side however, and the weather ended up being terrible. Nevetheless we braved the ferry to Cozumel. We knew it would be pretty bad when they started handing out puke bags right away and there were white caps forming in the water near the shore. Then, we were off! 12 foot swells crashed into the ferry and people started puking in their bags and one lady passed out holding a baby in her arms. A crying baby alerted many to help her and her child, thank goodness both of them were alright! At the end of the 45 minute fairy we both had motion sickness. We checked into a Hostel on the island that was very pleasant called Hostelito. Would reccommend staying there for cheap accomodation and easy acces to the water. Over the next couple days we would dive with turtles, sharks and exotic fish. Stay tuned for a future post with video...whoo hoo!

Our story last left off in the wonderful city of San Cristobal. Since then, Derek and Michael have travelled through Palenque, Campeche and now reside in Merida.

Michael and Derek arrived late in the afternoon to Palenque and were hoping to find a cheap room for 40 pesos at this jungle hostel with howling monkeys and what not. When we got there, the monkeys were howling! Not what you would think they sound like! Video to come soon! We ended up waiting for the recption person for like an hour and getting frustrated started wandering around. In that time, he ended up giving the last room to some Frenchies who arrived behind us! Then the place was sold out. We then checked a couple other places in the area...all sold out! We ended up sleeping in the car this night in the warm muggy jungle. I guess we had better get used to it if we want to save some cash on the trip later. With some reorganization, the car will feel just like home!

Palenque was a spectacular treat as we were able to see the ruins there and they are pretty phenominal. We think the best part about them is you get to touch the stone and climb the pyramids giving you a more personal experience. I don't think they would allow this in the U.S. if we had pyramids, so we are greatful for the oppotunity to experience a part of the past. These ruins are over 2000 years old and seem like they will last another 2000 years.

After seeing the ruins, Derek and Michael decided they needed to make some headway on getting through Mexico, as we have already spent an awesome 1 month here and only have 5 months left to get to Argentina. So, we drove on to Campeche, supposedly a spot we had to see. Although we were a little disappointed as there was not much to do and the city seemed void of people despite how large it was. We toured the one nice looking old church and the mall near by. For future reference, we don't believe this city is worth a return visit (except for baby tarpon fishing).

After staying one night in quiet Campeche, we headed of to Merida. The first thing we noticed is everyone here tries to sell you Hammocks! The is the Hammock Capital of the world apparently and were told that 90% of people sleep in them. We were confronted by a total salesman in the town center and against our good judgement went into the store he recommended. After sitting in a few Hammocks and bartering with the salesman, we both bought Hammocks for 1200 pesos. This is roughly 120 USD. We then proceeded to look for a Hostal to stay at and one of them we looked in had a sign right away saying... "Talk to an experienced person about Hammocks before you buy one...do not pay more than 350 pesos." Derek and Michael were pretty disappointed in ourselves for going against our instincts and buying so soon. What suckers we were. Pretty good at staying out of the tourist trap gig thus far, we were snared in Merida! However, after some research at the rest of the stores in the area and talking to some locals, we got an average deal because the Hammock is supposedly made out of sesal(not sure about spelling) that is a cactus. It is strong, comfortable and repels insects. Others say that they stopped making hammocks out of this long ago but we don't know. What we do know is that we probably could have bartered the Hammocks down to 1000 pesos each and saved another 20 USD. Oh well, we are continually learning to think on our toes and keep ourselves out of these kinds of situations. Walk away...Just walk away...

In Zipolite we decided to do some boogie boarding without fins and surfing. Derek, Michael, and swedish friend Martin all headed out to hit the waves man! In the first five minutes Martin got hit in the head by another boogie boarder and lost hearing in his right ear. He was done for the day.

About an hour later Michael got smashed by a double killer wave while trying to get up and ended in catastrophe! The board wipped around while under the water and the fin blade smashed the inside of his tricep. The pictures tell the rest.



Derek while not getting injured had no better luck than Michael or Martin. I guess we just weren't in the Zone on this day!

Derek and Michael went on a tour of a finca today (a coffee farm). We traveled on some more windy roads with a few great companions, Jeff from the Bronx in New York, Bernardo from Austria, and the owner of the Finca, Esteban.

The tour was very informative and interesting, there were so many things we did not know about coffee! Yes, it tastes excellent as we were provided with many cups of delicous organically grown coffee.

The tour started with us meeting our comrades at the city center and then we were off! Esteban took us through the winding hills and countryside where we stopped at a burial ground and he explained about Dia de Muerta and the difference between Mayan burial and other burials here in Mexico.

Next, it was time for refreshments! We took a tour of El Presidente´s distillery for an alcohol here called Posh(liquor) and no, it wasn´t a posh drink by any means. It is pretty much moonshine or everclear, very strong and high in alcohol content. His distillery did not look very sanitized but we drank some anyway. For anyone who has brewed beer or created liquor of any kind, these picture will make you go WOW!! Apparently this is only made here in the state of Chiapas by the indiginous people (all references to indigenous people means people of Mayan descent). The man also happens to be President of his community, we imagine something like the mayor of a town, as his town is not very large.

The further we drove, the further we got into indigenous land where they hardly speak any spanish at all(5% total pop. speaks Spanish). They all speak their respective Mayan languages, and there are several different versions. The versions are Tseltal, Tsotsil and Topañol all of which Esteban can speak fluently.

We were quite the spectacle to them as they were to us. Everyone was dressed in traditional garb and their market was packed with people. We attempted to take video footage discreetly but we´ll see how it turns out. They do not like pictures taken of them is what we were told unless we have direct permission, otherwise it is disrespectful. We slowly drove our way through hundreds of Mayans and were finally on our way to the Finca.

We parked the car at a hut on the top of a mountain ridge and then began our descent to the Finca which was a couple of miles into a lush tropical looking forest. Here, Esteban gave us the rundown on all the coffee plants he grows. In all of Mexico(primarily the state of Chiapas) there are 12 different varieties of coffee; five of which he grows: Arabica, Morago, Montenuevo, Borbon and Catura (the tastiest being Morago and most expensive, Arabica).

We then got to play with his kids who were acting like monkeys in some trees near their home. Lunch was served by his wife who made us traditional hand mande corn tortillas on a fire pit inside a cooking hut, served with black beans and cheese quesadillas. On the side we were served coffee of course, and also polze (water mixed with ground up corn). Esteban explained to us that the Mayans diet is based on beans, corn and squash because that is all the body needs to survive. You could say its similar to most American diets,because 90% of our corn comes in the form of starch, high fructose syrup or corn beef. This by the way was much more authentic! They have the perfect habitat for all of these foods which provides them the sustainablity for life within the countryside of San Cristobal.

For all of you commenting, thank you. We like to hear from people following the site.

Airman Lewie! It has been a long time! If you have an email or facebook for the guy in Chile, we would love to contact him in advance so we can get to know him before we get to Chile! Thanks! Hope all is going well!

Jeremy, Derek got the message. Thanks.

Paul and Connie, I dont think we are in danger of getting napped, but if we get stopped 4 more times for searches like we did on our way from Zipolite to San Cristobal, we may be short of a few precious items. Thanks for the well wishes.

The air if fresh! There are trees and forest! And the temperatures are cooler. San Cristobal has a cool cobblestone street vibe and the people are pretty friendly. Had a really good day meeting new people downtown at a spanish learning center where people live for a period of time in the best spot in town, high above everything with spectacular views. We reandomly bumped into a pleasant woman Lulu who would not speak any english to us, although I am positive she knows it. Reminded Michael of his high school spanish teacher. We had lunch with her and a group of other internationals which was a great experience because we got to talk spanish for over an hour straight and get our grammar corrected for free.

Lulu was very friendly and we learned alot about San Cristobal such as Zipolistas, an indigenous group that not too long ago was rebelling against the Mexican government so they can remain autonomous as a culture. They have not made much progress since 1994 and their story is a sad one.

Tomorrow we are driving people on coffee farm tour so we can learn about mexican coffee. We got a dicount by offering our car to drive. More than 50% off. I will take it. Should take all day and by the end we will be coffee experts if we can understand all the spanish words flying at us!

Hola and Bienvenido a San Cristobal de Las Casas. We left Zipolite around 7am yesterday and found ourselves under the welcome sign to San Cristobal around 7 last night. A twisted, windy sinusoidal road that had Derek keeled over in the back seat for the better part of the trip; so Michael found himself in control of the helm for the entirety of the trip. The night before we left Derek had a batch of ‘bad nachos’ which was confirmed to be bad through one of our Swedish friends. His sickness is improving and he’ll just have to hydrate some more. Our trip was also delayed with one Federale check point stop along with three military checkpoints. One military check we had a full search of the vehicle and had one of the soldiers ask Derek if he could have his GPS as a present. He answered with a firm NO and said next Christmas he’ll send one in the mail. So overall counting our losses we made good time for the trip.

We will loading pics and video here shortly based on internet connection! stay tuned

So Derek and Michael Arrived in Zipolite MX yesterday. We drove about 7 hours south from Oaxaca and now we are at a pretty stellar beach with surfing, boogie boarding and some good swedish friends. Today, one of the swedes, Martin, lost his hearing cause someone on a boogie board hit him in the head. Michael gashed his arm while surfing because the wave turned the board dorsal fins agains him and gashed his tricep. Derek came out unscathed, but he his sill mending from a skim boarding incident weeks ago.

So far this beach is pretty hippie with alot of what Derek and Michael like to call "free spirits". A big change from traditional Mexican Oaxaca. We haven't been taking nearly enough pictures but will be today.

Last night we stayed in a hammoc on the beach for 25 pesos with bathroom and shower. This is equivalent to about 2 U.S. dollars. Pretty good! Now we are just resting up for our next long drive to San Cristobal way north of here...a pit stop on our way to Merida and Cancun and eventually Belize.

Stay tuned folks it is going to be an exciting ride!