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Sean PlamondonSean Plamondon
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traveled in 74 countries Read more Ottawa, Canada
  • Sean PlamondonYucatan
    Day 4

    Valladolid

    December 21, 2023 in Mexico ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Started the day with a 90 minute drive to famous chichen itza. The crowds and lineups to get in were awful. The main pyramid is gorgeous but compared to other ancient mayan sites i have been to, the supporting structures were a tad underwhelming. Thoroughly enjoyed walking around but also happy to eventually escape the crowds.

    From there drove a whopping 5 minutes to Ik Kil cenote. This cenote was something else. They are all amazing in their own way but this was a really deep sinkhole and huge vines cascading all the way down to the water. So beautiful.

    Drove another hour to just outside of valladolid to two more cenotes, both were caves with holes in the top to let some natural light in. After splashing around there for an hour, found the hotel in the city and headed out for food.

    Found an amazing outdoor place for food and specialty beer. Ordered a bunch of tapas and some grilled mushrooms

    Wandered to an Irish pub which was disppointing and eventually found a lively spot in the northern part of the city with a live rock/mex band. Great finish to another awesome day.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonYucatan
    Day 3

    Homun

    December 20, 2023 in Mexico ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Extremely ambitious travel plans today. Got up after 6, so that i could be out the door at 7 and on the road early because i knew the travel distances were substantial and the stops along were going to be great and not quick at all.

    Started off with an hour long drive to the ancient mayan site called Edzna. Fair sized site with lots of beautiful old structures. Spent about 30 minutes walking through the entire spot.

    Then had a 2 hour drive to Uxmal, another mayan site. But en route i realized i had a bit of a problem. Half way to Edzna i noticed my gas was getting a bit low. And i was now halfway to Uxmal with an hour to go and my gas tank warning was showing. There just weren't any gas stations or even towns bigger than a tiny village. Asked some locals in a village about gas and directed me to a person's house down a side road. Sure enough, a woman there was selling gas. I asked for 200 persos worth of gas and she brought out a bunch of Gatorade bottles filled with gas and poured it all into my car. Another new experience :)

    An hour later arrived at Uxmal. Very impressive ancient site. Huge temples, and structures plus amazing detailed carvings everywhere. Stayed about 45 minutes and then hit the road again.

    Drove another hour to X'batun cenote which was an incredible blue looking lagoon carved out of stone and a semi crater below trees and long dangling vines to the water. Relaxed there for a while and then went another 3 minutes further down the same road to Dzonbakal cenote which was more of a cave cenote also with striking blue water. Definitely not as impressive as the first but very nice to hang out in there and i could hear lots of bats chirping away.

    Drove another 45 minutes to Kankirixche cenote. Another cave like cenote but this one had a partial opening letting the light in. Maybd my favourite so far.

    And a very difficult to reach finale, at noh-mozunl cenote. Drove down really crazy uneven dirt roads through tight bush for ages and eventually reached a rock wall barricade to prevent any cars from continuing. After a local told me to continue i went on by foot and found maybe the best cenote yet in a cave like hole but full circle opening high above. Had to descend down a crazy ricketty staircase. Took a few pics and hurried back to the car. Wasn't anticipating i would have to backtrack, so getting to the hotel in homun took a lot longer but eventually made it just after the sun went down.

    Super fun day exploring mayan sites and cenotes.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonYucatan
    Day 2

    Campeche

    December 19, 2023 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Slept in a little bit and then drove an hour to san ignacio cenote. Most of that hour was just trying to get out of merida - what a chaotic city.

    San ignacio cenote was more of a resort. Really nice restaurant, hotel, pool, lounging areas, artificial river. And a cave underneath it all with a natural pool of water. Swam around in the underground cenote and relaxed there for a bit and then had a yucatan styled lunch. It was cheese stuffed with pork; and no, i didn't say that backwards accidentally haha. Very tasty.

    Drove another hour south to Ich ha lol xaan cenote. This cenote had very shallow waters but with incredible colors. One of them had crazy blue water and the other had crazy blue colored rocks, almost like someone painted them.

    And another 30 minute drive to the seaside town of campeche. Its a walled city with lots of beautifully restored and colorful streets and buildings. Campeche is famous for its pirate atracks back in the day, which is the reason it was eventually a walled city.

    Did a quick walkabout and then got myself to a waterfront restaurant to watch the sunset while enjoying some ceviche and a beer.

    Finished the evening closer to my hotel on a very vibrant pedestrian street full of restaurants and shops. Have to be up at 6am the next morning and still not caught up on sleep, so didn't stay out very late.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonYucatan
    Day 1

    Merida

    December 18, 2023 in Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Arrived at 1pm in cancun. By the time i got through customs and got my rental car, it was 2pm and then drove 4 hours straight to the lovely town of Merida in the center of Yucatan state.

    Stayed downtown so everything is walkable. Strolled past the cathedral and some other nice churches and found a nice courtyard spot for supper. Then wandered off to a few craft beer locations nearby before calling it a night.

    I had to be up at 3:30am for my flight to cancun, and getting more sleep was very much needed    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 11

    Bogota - Day 4

    November 18, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Last day in Colombia. Kris flew home in the morning, a day before my return.

    I had a number of ideas to get outside the city to caves or visit a pretty town nearby but the weather wasnt so great.

    So i decided to just have a mostly relaxing day. Walked around bolivar plaza and enjoyed all the nice old buildings. Grabbed some lunch at bogota brewing company and then took some ubers to some craft breweries a bit away from the old town.

    The first one wasn't all that great. Tried two styles and both were very odd flavors. Not for me. Too malty i think. The second one was fantastic. Really good beer, great music, friendly bartender. I bought a tshirt and a beer glass there too and stayed a while.

    From there, i went back to the old town for supper at a nice place with live music. And after that popped into another place with live music as i was walking by. Really nice finish to the trip with something a bit different to close out on.

    Got back to the hotel around 130am and i had to get up at 6am... which isn't much time for sleep but i would rather utilize all my time i have in colombia and catch up on rest in canada 😁    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 10

    Bogota - Day 3

    November 17, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    After Kris found some much needed sunburn cream for himself, we ventured off to hike to the summit of monserrate. The walk is a traditional el camino for residents of bogota to the church atop the mountain

    Its a fairly steep climb and exhausting under normal circumstances. But with Bogotá's already lofty elevation, adding 500 more meters contributed significantly to my lack of climitization. For most of the walk, i was struggling to get enough oxygen and the last 100m, i was a bit dizzy and disoriented. But we did it! And with fabulous views above the massive sprawling city.

    There are two very nice restaurants at the summit. We chose to eat at the traditional colombian restaurant over the french one. Prices were significantly greater than any other place we had been but wow was the food good. We feasted like kings and also enjoyed a few beers on the terrace. When we left the restaurant, we had to ascend 20+ stairs and we nearly keeled over. I guess the altitude plus beers were a strange combination.

    Later, went to one of the many bogota beer company locations. While enjoying some yummy craft beers, a bunch of locals invited me to join their table and share their massive beer tower with them. And after that, they took Kris and i to some dance clubs which ended up being a really fun night.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 9

    Puerto Nariño - Day 3 / Bogota

    November 16, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Started the morning walking 20 minutes to a large property to see the wild monkeys. Unfortunately the monkeys were somewhere else that day. But we did have fun feeding the macaws there and enjoying the beautiful estate overlooking the amazon river. For some reason the macaws didn't like Kris much cuz one bit him pretty good haha.

    After that went to the local museum which had great examples of all the wildlife in the area

    Our boat back to leticia was at 3, so we all had lunch and then sat at a bar near the river and had a few laughs until our boat came around. Pretty sure i will be visiting Mike and Charlie in belgium within the next year. Awesome guys.. we all got along famously right away. Jack was awesome too but australia is a fair wee bit further to reach. Hugs all around on departure.

    Had to wait 3 hours in leticia for our flight to bogota, so kris and i found a spot downtown for food and beer to kill a few hours

    We still had no hotel bookes yet for bogota and unfortunately we couldn't get our internet to work so we scrambled to book something at 10:30pm as we left the bogota airport. The place we booked with didn't allow checkins after 10pm, so we had a really difficult conversation on arrival at the hotel but eventually figured out an arrangement and we were no longer homeless yay

    Bounced around some nearby bars until we found 2 good ones that had great latin music that had everyone up and dancing (except us). And eventually headed home for the night. We were pretty tired.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 8

    Puerto Nariño (Amazon) - Day 2

    November 15, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Edit: re uploading vids and pics.. something went wrong on the first try

    Three more people joined our tour in the morning. Charlie and Mike from Belgium and Jack from Australia.

    Started the day looking for dolphins. Strangely enough, the amazon river has 2 types of dolphins, grey and pink. We got really lucky and saw so many grey dolphins jumping out of the water. And a bunch of pink ones breaching the surface of the water

    After that, boated over to a sandbar, and swam in the amazon for 30 minutes or so. Just enough to scorch everyone's shoulders but the water was so warm and refreshing that it was hard to think of anything else - like sunscreen apparently!

    Spent the early afternoon having lunch and getting to know the guys over some beers. Then started our colombia side jungle hike. First half of the hike was around dusk, in a much denser jungle than the peru side. The second half of the hike was completely in the dark with our headlamps and flashlights.

    Our guide was amazing at finding all sorts of massive insects, including tarantulas. Plus some poison dart frogs and of course jack the Australian found a snake haha. So cliché. Most of the insects were the size of my hand.

    Once we got back, had a quick supper at the hotel and then off to a place for some beers together.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 7

    Puerto Nariño (Amazon) Day 1

    November 14, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Had a 630am pickup to catch our 7am public transportation river boat from leticia to puerto nariña. 2 hour boat ride down the amazon and then greeted by Brehiner who will be our dedicated tour guide the next few days.

    This part of the amazon is interesting because the borders of cokombia, peru and brazil are all a few kilometers from each other. In puerto nariño, colombia is on one side of the amazon river. and peru is on the orher side of the river.

    Shortly after arriving, we got onto a smaller boat with our guide and a couple from germany/austria and headed to the peru side of the river where we would spend the next 5 hours in the peruvian jungle.

    Right away our guides found sloths in the trees. Most were really high up and hard to see but they found some much closer. Plus a number of vultures, exotic frogs, toucan, and some really strange looking bugs and plants. Plus crazy jungle trees. I can't describe how hot and humid that walk was. We were completely drenched just walking around.

    Had lunch in a remote tiny village and then back to our boat and back to colombia where Ramona and Tobias departed back to leticia. We had 90 minutes to lie down and try to cool off. I have never enjoyed a cold shower so much in my life! I actually took one cold shower, lay down for a bit and then took a second cold shower before our next excursion.

    Around 4pm, we were back in the boat, outfitted with rain gear and heading down the amazon to find a good spot for piranha fishing!

    We used sausage as bait and the piranha were incredibly adept at taking the bait off the hook without being able to feel. After a while i got a good system of slowly moving my hook so i could feel a bit of resistance and then pull hard if so. 7 different times i pulled a piranha out of the water but they fell off my hook each time. No one actually caught one but it was a really fun experience.

    Back in town, met up with our guide for some beers and eventually a very sound sleep to the sound of very loud frogs and bugs chirping away.    Read more

  • Colombia v2.0
    Day 6

    Leticia

    November 13, 2023 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    A mostly unexciting travel day. However, what lay ahead left us with soaring anticipation.

    Had to fly back to Bogota with a 3 hour layover and then catch a plane to Leticia, which is the gateway to the Amazon where we will start a 3 day tour with our guide i pre-hired.

    Didn't arrive in Leticia until 8pm. Sergio and his father greeted us at the airport and drove us to their office in town where they outfitted us with some rubber boots, and gave us a rundown about the start of our tour the next morning. It was nice to meet Sergio finally because i had been talking to him for quite a while arranging this tour. After that, sergio's father drove us to our nearby hotel.

    Wandered out to find some food at an arepa place and another spot for a few cold beers before getting to bed. Wow was it humid and thats at 10pm. I cant imagine how it will be midday in the jungle the next few days.

    Then off to bed because 530am was going to come quickly the next morning!    Read more

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