his dive story

17 July 2012

June is nesting season for sea turtles. We didn’t know this when we arrived in Tulum and the hotel staff kindly informed us that we should venture out at night to see the giant turtles nesting. I knew Joana loooooves turtles as she always wanted to see my dive videos and pics of turtles. It was our last night in Tulum and we decided to go for a walk looking for them. I had my bright dive torch with me. At first, we were thinking yeah, no way man that we will be so lucky to see turtles….

It was about 15 min. into our walk in the pitch dark when I spotted a large dark hump on the sand with my torch (I didn’t want to flash the bright torch too much as it will scare away the turtles who are planning to beach). I knew immediately that it was a turtle and we followed her as she struggled to move her large body forward on the sand searching for the right spot to lay her eggs.

Then we saw another one as she was leaving for the beach. These turtles always come back to the same locations to lay their eggs and with all the resort developments up and down the coast, some will not have the chance to lay their eggs and will be force to lay them in the sea where they will be eaten by fishes. Sad but a reality…

Conservation groups are helping identify locations and are trying to protect or at least safeguard the eggs until they hatch. It was a really magical night and one that I will always remember. The next day, we went out to retrace our steps to see where the eggs were laid. You can see loads of turtle tracks everywhere on the beach. Enjoy!

Want more diving posts? go here

– James

mexico | merida

12 July 2012

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merida was our second stop in our trip to mexico. we stayed in a small hacienda – hacienda vip – with only four rooms and very centrally located, near the plaza mayor – cute, don’t you think?

after checking-in and walking to the main square, we had dinner at chaya maya, a restaurant close by, specialized in yucatecan cuisine, and recommended by our hacienda. on the second night we went for street food and dinner was even more successful!

on our first day in merida we decided to drive to uxmal – it is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of mayan culture, together with chicken itza and tikal (which we missed). besides the pyramids, i specially liked the ballcourt for playing the mesoamerican ballgame.

it was not crowded at all so we spent almost a whole day relaxing at the ruins!

back in merida we wondered through the streets, with some tourists and many locals, we visited the san ildefonso cathedral and the cathedral of merida.

we ate delicious quesadillas at the plaza mayor, and had ice pops at janitzo on the other side of the square – the mango one was da best! we then walked though 60th street, closed it for pedestrians at night, where i bought mexican bracelets and colorful embroidered shirts.

on our last day before leaving we decided to have breakfast at the market, where we had the best mexican food of our trip.

we started with fresh fruit, followed by pork tacos – having pork for breakfast is so not me, but i TRULY enjoyed it and would have these again in a heartbeat.

we spent our morning taking pictures, talking to vendors and wishing we had a market half the size of this one in turks and caicos. i don’t know about you, but spending time in markets really fulfills me – specially the food ones – the colors, the smells, the flavors, the variety, and the culture that it represents!

before leaving the market, and to finalize our breakfast, we had cheese empanadas and polcanes. polcanes are typical from yucatan and were a true discovery for us. made from deep fried corn dough topped with shredded pork, beans, tomato sauce and cabbage – i’m salivating here!

it was time to leave merida and drive to tulum for the last leg of our trip, so we decided to make a stop in izamal – just a small detour, and totally worth it.

izamal, just an hour away. it is sometimes called the yellow city, as most buildings are painted in yellow. what really took us there was the monastery of saint anthony of padua – also in yellow, it’s stunning!

can you tell it was pouring and so hard to take pictures?! here’s 2 minutes with no rain…

read the first part of our mexico trip right here.

mexico | valladolid

4 July 2012

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after our little get away to havana we went on for a few more days in the yucatan. our main objective was to absorve as much history and culture, visit the mayan ruins, have great mexican food and some rest and relax too.

our first stop in mexico was valladolid, just over 150km from cancun airport. since we got there at night it didn’t allow us much to do. we checked in at the breathtaking coqui coqui and headed out for dinner. we were recommended by the hotel to try conato 1910, a cozy restaurant close to the main square. we walked to the restaurant, it was quiet and decorated with huge paintings of frida kahlo. the food was delicious and perfect for our first night taco fix.

the next day we wanted to explore the town a little bit, so we got the bicycles that the hotel have assigned for guest and started by visiting the beautiful convent of san bernardino de siena and the cathedral of san gervasio on the main square.

we then headed to the cenote zaci, there are loads around the yucatan and this one is almost in the centre of town. as we were not properly equipped we didn’t give it a go, but james was ready to jump in!

wherever we go, we always like visiting the local market, i think it tells us a lot about the local culture, how people eat and what fresh products they have available. since we don’t have a local market in turks and caicos, we were kind of craving one, the smells and the atmosphere of it.

the market wasn’t very big, but busy and a lot of action going on around it. we ended up having lunch there – nibbling some freshly cut mango, buying corn tortillas cooked on the spot and eating delicious grilled chicken.

valladolid was the perfect place to start our trip, the town is small, we easily parked our car and walked (and cycled – hence the lack of pictures…) everywhere. we definitely want to go back and only wished we could’ve stayed longer.

we then headed to chichen itza and finally visit the mayan ruins – chichen itza was a large pre-columbian city built by the mayan civilization and it’s about a 40 minute drive from valladolid in the direction of merida.

getting there is pretty easy, the parking was easy and there are plenty of guides available at the entrance. there were loads of souvenir shops and and food stalls, but we sensed some rain coming, so we ran to the site and made the most of it.

everybody recommended going early in the morning to prevent the crowds, but since june is low seasons, it wasn’t too busy and nice to visit.

the site is amazing, we spent a whole afternoon walking around and taking pictures – no wonder it is a unesco world heritage site. it’s been on my bucket list to visit at least since in 2007 it won the title of one of the seven wonders of the world in a ceremony in lisbon!

after a long day with lots of sightseeing we headed to merida, our next stop, about an 1h30 away – check back for more on this trip soon!

his dive story

3 July 2012

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In planning for our trips to Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula, Joana asked me if I wanted to do some diving??? Hello??? Well, you know the answer… I tried to book in La Habana but we didn’t have enough time and it was far from the city as you had to travel down to an island in the south where they have reputed government run dive shops. So my best chance of diving was in Tulum at the end of our Yucatan trip.

I knew I wanted to try cenote diving (cave) and made sure to bring my FAMI umbilical torch and dive computer. Our hotel recommended Kay-Op Dive Club which was right in town because they were safe and more importantly, a wholly owned Mexican operator.

I met Carlos who was going to take me to a well known cenote called Dos Ojos which comprises of two different cave dives lasting roughly 45-50 minutes. He was very experienced and talked a lot about safety and technical diving. I told him that I was also a technical diver, IANTD Trimix Diver, to be precise and it was enough said… the dives were amazing and clear as ever as it was fresh water. Nothing prepared me for this experience. Sure I have done caves in Malta and in Sagres, Portugal but this was very different. The viz was as far as your torch can reach.

The videos are two, which I liked most. The one in the tunnel was just out of this world! Not for the faint of heart for sure. Your buoyancy has to be spot on and I was glad I did not have other divers with me as for sure the silt would have been kicked up. It was just Carlos and me! How lucky I was…The second one is just to show you how absolutely beautiful it was with all the stalactites and crevices… you can explore so much if you know what you are doing and trained for it. Technical divers can dive from one cenote to another. Great times I had! – James

(see more dive posts over here)

havana

28 June 2012

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as you know, last week, we came back from a little trip to cuba. since we live by the beach, we didn’t really want to do the caribbean beach plan around the island, just wanted to get to know the local culture, so we decided to stay in havana for the whole stay.

i read these articles (this on and this one) and found them very useful in planning our trip, we also bought a cuba lonely planet guide – this helped out mapping out a list of things we wanted to do in the city.

we had been trying to go for a while, cuba is so close to us – less than 350km, which is about 217miles – and after looking at several options, we decided on flying to cancun (through miami) and fly to havana from there. this way, we would take a few more days off and explore the yucatan peninsula too.

when i was planning the trip, everybody recommended staying at a casa particular. not long ago the cuban government started allowing cubans to rent out rooms in their houses or apartments to tourists, providing cuban families with new sources of income, these are locally called casas particulares.

we liked the idea, but we didn’t like the idea of staying at someone’s house without being recommended by someone we knew, and since we didn’t find one we decided to book an hotel for the first two nights and look for a casa particular once we arrived.

the hotels are beautiful, normally in old buildings with a lot of charm, but not so cheap. they also lack in maintenance – it is normal for the elevator to be out of order, the air conditioning to make a loud noise and for there to be lack of service. we thought the staff were very helpful and nice, but very slow and lazy. luckily we found a casa particular and were able to move. the casa belonged to a very nice and welcoming cuban couple, very clean and centrally located. and it gave us a chance to get to know a little better how is life for cubans. also it is a much, much cheaper option – a double room per night was about $30, dinner was about $6 each and breakfast was about $3 each.

the prices for tourists are in CUC, a different currency than the one used by locals – the CUP – and a lot more expensive than the actual cost of things for cubans.

we walked and walked and walked, everywhere, and what we most enjoyed was people watching and hearing the music in the houses around and trying to get a glimpse of local life style.

the first moment we waked out the door of our hotel i was surprised to see the main streets and squares in old havana with portuguese tiles – sorry, no pic – but it made me smile!

our favorite things to do were visiting the cathedral, the rum museum, the cigar factory, walking in the city centre, walking on the malecon (the broad esplanade that streches along the coast of the city), and definitely the fine arts museum.

i think what made james most happy – other than going on taxi drives in antique cars – was finding a place where they made sugar cane juice – he is a big fan, has had it since he was a kid in laos! apparently this is a very local drink, we went everyday to the one spot we found and it was always packed with locals – so good and dirt cheap!

the food is nothing special, they do have scarce access to a lot of products, and most restaurants we found are clearly a product made for tourists! another option would be eating at paladares, a similar idea to the casas particulares, where families open their houses to welcome guests for meals. we had a couple of bad experiences, but we did manage to find a restaurant with delicious food and with a lot more options than elsewhere – el template – we went twice!

we loved our stay, the city is as beautiful as they say, the old cars make it extra charming and the people are happy and welcoming.

if you wish to go we totally recommend the casa particular where we stayed, they will also give you recommendations that you can trust – contact rafael on magda@gmch.co.uk