beetlemania and last orders from mexico ...

Once we'd completed our recovery from New Year we continued the journey back to Mexico City with a 12 hour overnight bus journey to the city of Oaxaca.

One thing I noticed straightaway in Mexico is the number of "old" VW Beetles still on the road - in fact production of the original shape continued here well into the 1990's, long after they ceased to be available in Europe.

The overall impression is one of streets full of restored classic cars driving around with excellent paintwork.

Just walking down the street in Oaxaca I almost managed to fill the viewfinder (above) at a road junction near our hotel with just VW beetles - including a solitary example of the new-shape. I didn't see too many of those, so it would seem they aren't a big hit here either.

Perhaps it's a worrying trend, but every one of my recent blog posts seems to contain some element beer related information. But why change a winning formula now?

It was here in Oaxaca that I tried my first Mexican beer cocktail - the Michelada.

Here's how you make one.

1. dip the rim of a tumbler in lime juice

2. dip in chilli powder - margherita-style

3. add a cocktail of lime, salt, chilli and worcester sauce to bottom of glass

4. add ice cubes

5. pour a fresh bottle of cerveza into your glass

6. Enjoy. Or at least try to.


This is probably where I should add the disclaimer not to try this at home - my experiment was conducted under the close supervision of a trained professional. Bartender.

In fairness I must say it wasn't quite as bad as you're probably imagining, but after I'd finished the glass it continued delivering a warming sensation which I had to extinguish with a further ice-cold beer. This time unadulterated.

We took yet another bus ride to finally arrive back in Mexico City where we spent the night before flying onward to our next destination. It provided just enough time for us to enjoy a few last Modelo Especial's before flagging down one of the capital's iconic VW Beetle taxi's for the ride home (see below).

In most countries the lack of rear doors in a taxi would be a problem. Here they just remove the passenger seat and attach a piece of string to the door so the driver can pull it shut by remote control. For once the legroom was brilliant.

Vorsprung durch Technic eh?

seeing in new year with the zapatista's ...

On New Years Eve we left the sweltering heat of Palenque for the 5 hours bus ride to San Cristobal de la Casas in the highlands of Chiapas.

Famous for being the city captured by Zapatista rebels in Mexico's failed 1994 revolution, San Cristobal is a perfectly preserved example of colonial architecture and boasts a vibrant bar and restaurant scene. A fine location for seeing in 2008.

Back in Guadalajara we had learnt a useful lesson - if you start drinking early enough then most bars in Mexico will provide you with complimentary tapas style snacks, thus removing the need to go out for dinner.

So it was that at 4pm we found ourselves settling in at the wine bar which would be our home for the next few hours, and as the evening progressed we found ourselves in the company of two recent graduates from Leeds University and a French girl who had recently been studying in Coleraine in Northern Ireland.

It was almost like a taste of home.

At midnight we enjoyed fireworks in the cities main plaza before I escorted a rather excitable Melanie (above) back to our guest house where following a ten minute struggle lining our key up with the lock on the front door we were eventually rewarded with sleep.

And a two-day hangover.

Happy New Year.

I did it Maya way ...

My Christmas break from the blog seems to have coincided with our busiest week so far, so let me whip through it for you in a rather longer post than usual;

The day after Boxing Day we set out on the five day overland route back into Mexico that would take us through the jungle of Northern Guatemala, providing opportunities visit some of the best Mayan ruins in the region.

After an impossibly overcrowded water-taxi ride to Belize City I was treated to a display of taxi-touting of unbridled enthusiasm. Whilst waiting outside the water taxi terminal for Mel to return from the post office our conversations went a little like this;

Taxi driver :"Need a taxi brother?"
Me: "No thanks, I'm just waiting for someone"
Taxi driver: "He's not coming"
Me: "Eh?"
Taxi driver: "He's gone on a trip"
Me: "Who do you think I'm waiting for?"
Taxi driver: "Erm ..."

You've got to admire them for trying.

Eventually we did take a cab to the bus station where we hopped on a similarly overcrowded bright yellow ex-US School Bus for the three hour ride to the border town of San Ignacio. Our fellow passengers included an elderly quaker couple in traditional plain dress and a retired Scottish chap who set out on a six-month trip and is still travelling. Five years later.

San Ignacio was really just a place to break the trip before heading over the border into Guatemala, but it did provide the opportunity to the watch the local sport of swimming in the river with your horse, and for a visit the Mayan ruins at Cahel Pech (above) on the Belizean side of the border.

Early the following morning and we followed our "travel agent" (I use the term loosely as his premises consisted of nothing more than a wooden hut with a pedestal fan and some plastic patio furniture) to meet the minibus that would take us over the border. Guatemalan immigration formalities aren't exactly the worlds strictest - we waited outside in the van while our driver went to get our passports stamped for us.

Guatemala's failing justice system has in recent years sent the country sprialling into chaos with gang violence, lynch mobs and armed holdups commonplace. It all made for a fairly nervous drive in from the border, our only reassurance coming from increasingly frequent encounters with pickups full of soldiers armed with assualt rifles as we neared town.

Flores sits on a small island in the middle of a lake and can only be reached by a causeway from the nearby town of Santa Elena. It's a pictureseque town of cobbled streets where the restaurants compete for business with decks on the lakeside where you can enjoy a cold beer as you watch the sun go down.

We devoted the following day to visiting the ruins of Tikal (below) deep in the rainforest. Impressive for both it's architecture and abundance of wildlife, we spotted Toucans and a monkey during our visit. Howler Monkeys were often heard in the forest canopy, although I was left wondering just how many were genuine after we discovered a group of local children producing suprisingly effective impersonations on one of the jungle trails.

For all it's reputation we didn't have a spot of bother during our stay in Guatemala, but we got regular reminders of the potential for trouble by the security guards armed with pump action shotguns pacing up and down in strategic locations throughout town. Let's hope things improve sometime soon.

We fully expected the crossing back into Mexico to be the most remote of our trip so far and it didn't dissapoint. The unpaved road to the border stretched for three very bumpy hours along a narrow strip of cultivation deep in the jungle. After a visit to the immigration office to get stamped out of Guatemala we were taken to the river in a nearby village and loaded onto narrow motor launches for a 20 minute ride through no-mans land up the river through deep jungle to reach the small town on the Mexican side.

A further two hour minibus ride and we reached impressive Mayan ruins at Palenque (top) where we explored the complex in sweltering tropical heat - probably losing a few litres of fluid in the process as we scampered up and down the staircases. Then when the sun went down, we set to work replacing what we'd lost with an equal quantity of Modelo Especial.

As the exhuastion of our 4am start began kicking in, we began to contemplate the prospect of yet another bus ride at 9.30am the next morning ...


Guatemala may not be great at administering a democracy, but they do know a thing or two about brewing beer.

All three beers I sampled during our short visit we're better than average, with the most popular Gallo being a cut above. Its the country's number one beer and they seem to sponsor absoutely everything - you can see all my photos from Guatemala by clicking on the flickr badge - including Flores' Gallo sponsored Christmas tree.

our totally tropical christmas ...

As soon as we arrived at the Mexico-Belize border we could tell we'd reached the Carribean.

Rather than the usual stony give-nothing-away expression perfected by immigration officials the world over, we were greeted by a huge grin and a Creole accented "Alright guy´s, ow long you stayin' in Belize then?" and with little more than an absent glance at our passports we were stamped in.

It was like an instant dose of relaxation after a fairly tense morning involving a myriad of transport connections, of which the failure of any one would almost certainly have resulted in the minor disaster of us missing the last boat of the day to our Christmas getaway of San Pedro on Ambergris Caye - famed for being the "La Isla Bonita" of the Madonna song.

No sooner had we stepped of the boat than Mel cried out "Look - it´s SC!" and pointed to the Toyota waiting at the jetty - it was the spitting image of our much loved van from New Zealand. We felt instantly at home. In fact we would soon discover that 95% of the vehicles on Ambergris fall into one of two categories - the Toyota Liteace vans that form the islands taxi fleet, or the electric golf carts that are available to rent everywhere.



Of course we couldn't resist the temptation to take one for a spin round town on Boxing Day (above) - but in the main on the rare occasions when we felt inclined to leave our sun loungers beside the pool we generally favoured the leisurely stroll into town.

It would be hard to say whether our transport decision was born out of our desire to avoid looking like lazy American tourists, save ourselves the (seemingly excessive) $65 daily rental fee or simply out of dedication to researching new candidates for the beer league.

One thing is for certain though - when you throw in a ride in a classic Toyota Liteace van at the end of the evening it all makes for a pretty compelling package ...



In fact during our time on Ambergris I was only able to add a couple of new entrants to the league - Belikin and Lighthouse Lager. Both perfectly drinkable albeit nothing special.

I've posted a few photos from San Pedro - just click through on the flickr badge on the right hand side. I´ve also added a new Youtube badge for anyone who wants to see the videos that haven't made the blog - including my attempt at simulated skydiving in New Zealand if anyone fancies a laugh at my expense.

wheelchairs, religion and the gospel according to eagle creek ...

The wheelchair access policy (above) at Morelia Cathedral more than hinted at a strong local belief in the healing powers of worship.

At this time of year many people turn their thoughts to matters of religious contemplation, but about the closest I get to evangelism is singing the praises of my Eagle Creek Pack Cubes to anyone who'll listen - over the past eight months they have proved themselves the single most useful item of my travel kit.

Anyone who's lived out of a rucksack will be familiar with the hassle of unpacking every time fresh clothes are needed, keeping laundry separate in plastic bags and of course the potential chaos of a bag search at the airport. Using the cubes with their clever floating panel which separates clean clothes and laundry, your clothes stay flat and folded at all times. It all makes for the easiest and quickest packing and unpacking imaginable

After carrying my rather large 65 litre pack around all year one of my objectives in LA was to reduce the size of my luggage - by swapping a couple of items for more packable alternatives I'd hoped to take my pack size down by 10 litres or so. So, you can only imagine than my delight at discovering the Eagle Creek ORV Gear Bag - a work of unparalleled genius, specifically designed around the Pack Cube system.

Not only have I been able to reduce my pack size by almost a third to a mere 47 litres, but my new bag is so well designed that I also added a super-warm down jacket in anticipation of some cold Andean nights over the coming months. Here it is all packed up alongside with a bottle of Sam Adams (purely for scale of course).



After testing it out on the road for the past three weeks, my enthusiasm for the Eagle Creek pack system has galvanised into a near religious fervour. As we head into the New Year and the final months of our journey I have ambitious plans spread the gospel far and wide ...

And no, I'm not on commission.

At least not yet anyway.


Our last few days in Mexico uncovered another strong contender for the Beer League - Noche Buena.

Only available at Christmas it is the final batch of the year before the brewery closes down for it's annual cleaning of the tanks. At 5.9% the translation of it's name into English couldn't be more appropriate - simply, Good Night

Finally I've decided the New Year deserves a new colour scheme - do let me know what you think ...