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La Vida Colorida
  • Craig and Limbster

La Vida Colorida

From fire spewing volcanoes, festivals & tacos in Central America to the wilderness, wine and adventure of Patagonia.
504 days, 12,096 hours & 725,760 minutes together. Læs mere
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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Adios Granada, Hasta La proxima vez

    4. september 2019, Spanien ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Day 307.

    Hola Todas, Que Tal, Bien Bien, Y tu (one insence por favor)

    Describing our 3 months in Granada whilst giving it the full credit it deserves would truly be a mammoth task and likely require a second book all to itself which quite frankly we just can't afford now we’re back on that backpacker budget.

    A summary of the highlights therefore will have to do, for now at least. One thing that cannot be omitted is Tapas, Tapas hunting was our number one activity, by a long way in fact. Learning Spanish, making friends, or just about anything else was rapidly pushed aside to make way for Tapas time. In order to recall only the greats I’ve challenged Ellie to come up with her ’Tapas last meal’, if only 5 Tapas from Granada could be your last meal before you die, what would it be… and this was her answer:

    Tapas

    Casa Julio - Cod Fish

    Chanterella - Pork

    Avilla - Roasted Ham

    La Esquinta - Mussels

    Central Mercado - Jamon & Queso

    One day we hope to return and revisit all of these on this list, just maybe not in July next time.

    When not eating, sipping on cerveza or vino  or just enjoying a siesta we would try our best to learn Spanish, as we had promised ourself many times over that this was something we would achieve! This formed a key part of our daily routine, starting with light speed Spanish videos over breakfast in bed each and every morning. As a result we will always recall Spanish with Cynthia & Gordon with very happy memories! It was also the few hours of the day that it was cool, and therefore one of the only times we could study without sweating through our clothes, which was nice.

    Meeting the locals to practise Spanish was also memorable, I use memorable rather than useful because honestly it wasn’t really. Spending 20 minutes jumbling up your Spanish without being corrected followed by typically 3 times as long teaching English was never going to be that beneficial, but hey we did meet some great people, and some odd ones (cough, cough) Moses…

    When not out on the cobbled streets of Granada babbling spanglish and enjoying coffee with the locals we would most likely be on the terrace. We will never forget the evenings (and nights) spent on that terrace, especially during the magical time of golden hour. Learning to paint the mightly Alhambra, countless games of crib, sharing smores with friends and even learning Salsa. The views of Granada and times spent here together will not be forgotten in any hurry!

    Last but certainly not least was doing what we enjoy most, hosting. Times here with friends and family were amazing, albeit exhausting, as playing tour guide typically is. It also tended to be when our eating and drinking habits increased most drastically, whether it was the litres of beers sunk at Nikki & James’s rooftop pool or the 2kg Tortilla we worked our way through with Diane and Paul..

    Spending our final night watching the sun come down over the albazin from the Church was the perfect way to end a great three months here. We still haven’t learnt Spanish, certainly didn’t lose any weight & might now be verging on semi alcoholics but I think we can most definitely say that we haven’t regretted a second.

    Adios Granada.

    Spanish Language Top Tips:

    If you’re ever stuck for a response, por ejemplo in a shop try the phrase ‘practicar’ it’s sure to get you by, certainly did for Ellie.

    Not sure on the price of a teapot - ‘Que es eso’ is always worth a short, get it over the net Craig, just get it over (special shout out to Michelle, RIP).    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Antigua

    12. september 2019, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 22 °C

    Day 315

    Door to door, that being Holbury to the door of the hostel in Antigua via Colombia was a coooool 32 hours travelling. The journey was smooth right up until touching down in Guatemala city where it seemed (from the view of the bus window at least) that tragedy had struck in every direction. In one 45 minute bus ride we saw 1 dead body in the street, one overturned car plus a 3 car pile up - all seperate incidents mind, promising start..

    On a brighter note its worth mentioning that Ellie avoided any incidents on route, arriving uninjured in Guatemala, a massive triumph vs her previous record sheet.

    Putting aside the the fatal traffic collisions the city was abuzz, children running through the streets flame torches in hand, cars and parks lined with flags and music coming from speakers tied to the back of each and every ford pick up truck in town. It turns out we had arrived just in time for the biggest festival of the year, a 3 day independence celebration! This meant lots of horns, parades, partying and local festival food - we couldn't have planned it better if we tried. Something tells us we're going to like it here.

    If I had free reign from Ellie to design my own town, Antigua would be darn close to it. A multi coloured colonial town, plastered with flags, surronded by picturesque (but very much active volcanoes) all serviced by brightly painted chicken buses. This would be enough in itself let alone the seemingly unlimted supply of fresh ceviche, tacos, limes and avacados.

    Parades were the real highlight here and the Guatemalans went all out, we'd never seen anything like it, kicking off with the big drums at 6.30am for some reason was not frowned upon by locals which meant bright and early starts for us.

    Not only early starts in fact, no booze and 2 days of 20km walks - early signs that we might be able to kick those bad habits we picked up in Espana after all.

    Tomorrow we ride our first chicken buses (aka rollercoasters of doom) across country, travelling the 5 hours to Xela. Apparently travellers are torn with these due to the number of robberies & kidnappings on board as well as the inherent danger of racing giant buses over volcanoes and so typically opt for private shuttles. But at a tenth of the price we certainly know how we'll be getting there, thats 7 extra tacos saved!

    Ellie also looks pretty tough in her new decathlon fleece so I think we'll be safe.

    Chicken Bus Trivia...

    https://greenglobaltravel.com/chicken-bus-guate…

    P.s its worth noting that Guatemalans are the nicest people we've met so far!    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Xela Week 1

    20. september 2019, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Day 323.

    Although there had been some initial doubt we made it to Xela via Chicken bus alive and in one piece! We had just one rule, try to keep our bags on the bus, it became quickly apparent as we watched our very unwaterproof luggage launched onto the roof that we in fact did not make the rules here, good start. The ride itself was great fun, as long as you weren’t Ellie who was holding onto the bars in front of her for dear life as we flew around the mountainous countryside, overtaking literally everything in our way. But if the lady juggling one hand full of fried chicken and another with change can do so whilst walking up and down the bus then we can’t complain...

    It’s lucky we slimmed our bags down as upon arriving in Xela our bus handily decided to terminate early due to the independence celebrations, which left us with a tasty 5km walk in the midday heat, it was one way to see the city at least. We didn’t hold back in diving into our first street market, tucking into some Pusperias and sipping on tequila (of course).

    Xela is a million miles away from Antigua. This is a working city and one with a lot of charm. It didn’t take long to sign ourselves up with the Miguel Cervantes school of Spanish, now the real work would begin with 4 hours of private lessons per day...! We were quickly introduced to Connie and Danny, the Guatemalan family we would be living with across town for the next month, in their super cosy house. Granted there was a slight language barrier at first, me incorrectly assuming we would be hosted by a 3 year old dog just one of many misunderstandings to come I fear..

    It's now 3 meals a day in Spanish with our family and although tough we are certainly improving (with Danny at least). Home comforts are more than we expected here and Connie makes incredible fresh food, we’re continually amazed by the number of uses found for frijoles, avocados and most importantly tortillas, 7 days and counting - Top it, fry it, stuff it, chop it, blend it, wrap it.
    Being Rainy season we’ve also seen our share of storms this week, the particular highlight being dinner by candlelight when the storm knocked out power for half the town, every cloud. (It's a veggie meal as long as there’s just a little chicken in it right.. ) 

    Determined not to let Spanish take over our lives, and out of concern that we still won’t have anything to show for it in one months time we have dived into local activities available. The highlight this week being Salsa with Sassy rosa. Teaming up and swirling limbster around on the dance floor it turns out is incredibly fun, and I don’t think we’re all that bad either even if a little sweaty (me), the fact locals can watch in from the street just adds to the fun.

    I’ll try to avoid touching on how the Spanish lessons have gone for limbster, I think breakdown, sob story and a replacement teacher says it all. Aim for next week is for the update to be in Spanish, so some serious progress is required.

    Adios.    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Xela - Week 2

    28. september 2019, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Day 331.

    Hola Amigos,

    Después de mucha consideración, he decidido continuar con esta publicación en inglés, en parte debido al tiempo que me llevaría completar en español. Asi que, aqui vamos…

    It was time to enjoy our first weekend in Xela after a fairly gruelling WK1 of Spanish lessons. Although making sure we completed all the required homework we managed to dodge the rain and get out an explore. Checking out the famously colourful cemetery and munching on some incredible deep fried Platano being just a few of the highlights. Note to Ellie, always try the local snacks, especially when there’s a queue of locals too.

    Spanish school has significantly improved for limbster with Unknown teacher 2.0. Breakdowns stand at nil this week and can safely say Spanish is improving. Another week of school means another week of Salsa lessons. Quickly questioned why it took us a whole week to return once we got moving on the Dance floor, although rusty at first it’s safe to say inspired by Rosa we will now be regulars!

    Another week in Guatemala obviously meant another festival.. This week it was a religious one but regardless the parades and fireworks were out in full force for 4 full days of events. When I say fireworks I don’t mean the colourful kind that go off at night, these resemble more a small bomb going off just a few feet behind you at all hours of the day, wherever you are, even mid Spanish lesson - the amount of times I’ve seen Miriam leap out of that chair. Deciding to check of the big days festivities ourselves we set out on a mini teacher student excursion, observing full force the firework bon fires (pile them up and watch them fly) and the brightly coloured parades! It was worth the cough I had the remainder of the day from the sheer amount of smoke travelling through my lungs.

    Inspired by that 3 man Platano frying trio Ellie stepped up to learn the skills herself with Connie midweek with the intention of feeding 15 come Fridays pot luck lunch. The lesson went well, less can be said for the conversation.. in one ear out the other is the best way to describe it I think.

    Attended our first quiz night in Espanol this week with new friends, granted it was repeated in English but every little bit helps. Regardless of the English we placed fairly poorly, avoiding all chances to win free booze. If we thought the performance during quiz night was bad it soon got worse during our first attempt at Basta (Ride the bus Guat style) with our Guatemalan family, playing a game which wholly depends on your knowledge of Spanish vocabulary is a challenge to say the least, all those animals we know beginning with X and all…

    Ended the week with a chicken bus ride out of town to check out Sarjaca, a small market town with (rumoured) to have Central Americas oldest church, not only that but a fresh load of home produced fruit wine out of the local lawyers office - it goes without saying we obliged, as did the teachers come Friday lunch..    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Xela - Week 3

    6. oktober 2019, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Day 339.

    And just like that the third week of Spanish school has flown by. And although we’re not skipping between places at the moment the sights continue to deliver on a daily basis. Whether its the locals getting their cowboy boots polished on our way to school or the never ending festivals, yes there’s another 3 days celebration this week - it really doesn’t end, not quite sure when anybody works here..

    In an attempt to break our English habits Spanish immersion began on Monday, which meant on top of our 5 hours of lessons and 3 meals a day in Spanish we have decided to only now speak to one another in Spanish too. This went fantastically well on Monday might I add whether it was jibberish or not we will never know, and it’s only down to our sheer laziness that this well and truly did not last the full week. There’s always next week right…

    This week Ellie faced her first real hurdle come dinner time, Tomale’s aren’t her favourite at the best of times, but I have to admit this blended plate of rice corn well and truly tasted, and looked pretty god dam awful. Luckily the tienda at the end of the road is always stocked full when you need a late night Wotsit run!

    Our joint knowledge of Latin America is clearly significantly improving given that our weekly quiz team only went and came joint first, next week the cash (and tequila will be ours I’m sure). As always Friday flew around and the Pot luck lunch certainly delivered - the food was incredible, with us whipping up some pretty darn good Quesidillas based on the compliments we received from the locals! 

    This week everyone most definitely had that Friday feeling after a gruelling week of school. Several rounds of Perudo, a lot of time on the jukebox and three or four too many bottles of Quetzalteca and before you know it it’s 1am and you’re up showing of your salsa moves (or not) with the locals. Really dived into the local delicacies tonight too (not that I can recall it) but Ellie said the hot dogs were great.

    We took the plunge and opted for private salsa lessons this week, still slightly confused by the pay disparity given we’re paying our salsa teacher 5x the rate of our Spanish language teachers, given Rosa (the salsa queen) is never less than half intoxicated during the lesson this seems slightly unbalanced, but hey.

    Determined not to let Saturday sink away with a headache from the night before we were up and straight into a trek to one of the best view points in Xela, turns out when you haven't done exercise in God knows how many months and definitely over eaten, even this trek required a break or two on route! Something we will remedy once back in the road!

    Getting a taste for the walking again saturdaywe set out the challenge our fitness come Sunday with a volcano trek to check out Santiguito, the local active volcano, given it erupts 3-5 times a day we were in with a good shot of seeing some action. We jumped in an Uber first thing and headed to the hills, after a fairly gruelling 2 hour climb, one or two slips in some less than pleasant horse leftovers we arrived at the Mirarador on the other side of the Santa Maria Volcano, sadly we weren’t the only ones and those pesky clouds appeared right on top of us like magic. There would be no views for us today given we couldn’t see further than 30 feet, let alone the Volcano 3km in the distance..

    Regardless the trek was worth it and great practise for next week, 30000 steps later and it was a well deserved relaxing Sunday night.    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Xela - Week 4

    12. oktober 2019, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Day 345.

    So that's a wrap for Xela, four weeks of intense Spanish classes have come to an end. You would be forgiven for thinking that means we are now fluent in Spanish, as naively that is exactly what we assumed ourselves. Sadly it's anything but, however we have enjoyed some great memories and made some great freinds here.

    The final week was a busy one, cramming in just about everything we could, a final farewell to salsa rosa, accompanied by a few in action arguments courtesy of Qi's photography skills, it seems we just can't dance while the camera is rolling...

    It's been a busy social week, paying a few too many visits to the local cantina than maybe we should have, which certainly didn't help Ellie get down those omelettes the morning after, so much so in fact she adopted the approach of just packing them up and putting them in the bin, wait sorry did I say bin, I meant in our room, next to the bed for days at a time.

    Ellie has surprisingly become the Dr dolittle of the school, Ellie of all people has befriended the new kitten, becoming buddies throughout her entire 5 hours spanish lesson. I couldn't beleive it myself given she normally nothing less than shuns every animal she dares come into contact with.

    Great final week with our teachers, culminating in a near heroic victory at spanish Scrabble vs my teacher. She might have been taking it easy but I reckon I had her on the ropes near the end.

    Finally got around to purchasing some Choco bananas here, as always countries such as Guatemala are super resourceful with the 5 core ingredients they grow, here corn and bananas are in literally everything, so obviously frozen chocolate covered bananas are the local desert delicasy. For £0.15 per hit they're certainly not bad either.

    Ended the week with the final Pot luck lunch, whipping up our now regular guacomole and avoidings Qis freshly prepared Pig feet!    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Xela - Lago Atitilan Trek.

    14. oktober 2019, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    Day 347.

    Having done only one afternoon trek in Guatemala so far we certainly hadnt prepared for this 3 day, 50km hike across mountainous terrain to reach Lago Atitilan. This distance itself wouldn't be the challenge, the number of climbs plus the fact we'd be carrying our own water, food and sleeping gear however might be.

    Being a volunteer organisation it also meant all our money on this trek was going to a good cause. It was time to get packed and kitted out, we divided up the food to pack amongst the group which landed us with Tacos (enough to feed a small village), along with accompanying salsa of course.

    After a hearty breakfast with our fellow trekkers we headed out at dawn to catch a chicken bus out of town. Never to be disappointed by a local bus yet, this driver pulled off a solid 15 minute reverse up a 40 degree hillside, not an actual road in sight - I think he enjoyed the challenge. Worth highlighting to tough lives of these guys, our bus driver works 15 hours a day 7 days a week and is currently saving $12k to pay a cartel to smuggle him into the US. Madness.

    After waving fairwell we headed straight up, and up, and up, for hours in fact. Until we broke through the first clouds. The weather was on our side, miraculously for Guatemala it was blue sky all around, with mountains and Volcanoes in every direction! We trekked 9 hours on day one, until we arrived at a remote Mayan village, Spanish here is rarely spoken, a form of Mayan only - those Spanish lessons are paying for themselves already...

    This town virtually live in the clouds, they would be giving us their town hall to rest our heads for the night, roll matts down and pasta on the go we headed out to the local saunas that had been pre prepared for us, but these weren't just any saunas. These were small cement shed like buildings, just tall enough to sit in, inside it was pure darkness with a burning open fire smouldering in one corner. The process goes roughly as follows, enter carefully (avoid standing on the burning coals) take a seat, locate the steaming bucket of water, again in the dark, and carefully begin to mix with cool water, once complete simply wash one another. All whilst trying to avoid inhaling too much smoke, surprisingly it felt amazing after a day trekking and boy did we feel clean after.

    The luxury was shortlived and come 6am we were up again and off the hall floor, stringing those boots back up once more. This trail itself isn't your typical hike, in fact we wouldn't see another tourist on this trail once, it was purely the route to link local Mayan towns and transport wood via donkey, therefore it was all mud, lots of corn and plenty of trips and falls! But that's all part of the fun apparently, especially when Ellie catches you fall for the 3rd time in a row.
    I was so close to saving myself on the 3rd...

    Full up with plenty of rice and beans for breakfast we were ready for Day 2, a solid 10 hours of trekking, with plenty of river crossings and more climbs than I care to recall. But everyone made it, no evacuations this week thankfully (which apparently are rather common). If we had ever wondered where all the corn comes from in Guatemala, well now we know, its literally everywhere!

    On night 2 we arrived at a Don Pedro's house, a local man who has been housing trekkers on this hike for 15 years. We dumped our sleeping bags in his dining hall and tucked into the fresh dinner he had waiting for us. Unlike the previous night alcohol was not banned in this village and therefore everyone indulged around the campfire. Limbster showing off her skills at lying and manipulation in a game of town with the rest of the group, even had me fooled. After a few smores around the fire, (yes smores!) we hit the hay ready for the 3am wakeup.

    Thankfully the rain was still nowhere to be seen and so we were up and out at 3am to reach our sunrise view of the Lago - our final destination. The second we arrived everyone was back into those sleeping bags, hot chocolate in one hand, banana bread the other waiting for that sun rise to peak through. Just as it seemed too peaceful the
    Techno music started coming from the trees behind, local drunks - maybe, kids still out - unlikely, in fact it was neither and actually appeared the two armed police who had been organised for our protection. I guess we could live with the techno if they were happy to guard over us, not only that they accompanied us for the following 3 hours of trekking, something about us being easy targets - I personally think they just enjoyed the free hot chocolate..

    It was time to descend, finally - we had made it, Next up we plated how many gringos can you fit in the back of a very old pick up truck, turns out 13 plus luggage if you really squeeze. And by squeeze it meant me and two others clinging on for dear life as we raced through the local towns to our final destination.

    We would end at a local restuant right on the lake, one that conveniently had a nice 15ft jump jumping platform attached which certainly helped with the celebrations. Well the unlimited supply of Rum from our Colombian amigo had a small part to play too.

    It wasn't all success stories and fun however, it's still a sore subject but Ellie has left behind a part of herself as she would say, or you and I just one of her trusty walking sandals, unfortunately she just can't remember where. My bet is right on top of the mountain, but hey. Luckily she's taken it in her stride and hasnt mentioned it much to me or the rest of the group...    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Lago Atitilan / Birthday

    17. oktober 2019, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Day 350.

    It turns out we made it to the lake just before a two day storm set in, right in time for my birthday. Limbster being Limbster however had prepared for such contingency and booked us a very non guatemalan Airbnb, nicely settled amongst the trees on the base of a Volcano, with a perfect sunset view over the lake. A waterfall hot shower, clean towels and a hammock never felt like such luxury post trekking!

    Our one room cabin had it all and could not be cosier when the rain hit, and oh were we prepared, stocked up with Birthday pancakes, the local Don Peron rum and plenty of free fruit collected from the grounds. All you could eat avocado's, passion fruits and oranges - its not understatement to say I alone ate at least 35 passion fruits in 3 days. Quite the achievement. Sweet potatoes were an option too but we try to forget that expierence.

    So happy in our relative luxury we extended an extra night, deciding to venture out into town solely to experience the volcanic thermal pools at the lake. For a mere £5 a sweet Guatemalan lady will fill a volcanic rock bath full of piping hot water overlooking the lake, let you bring in your own beer and then leave you in peace for 3 hours. Being the only ones there it also happened to be a private bath - lucky us it seems and perfect with the rain rattling the forest all around.

    Under the overarching excuse of it still being my birthday treat we might have also indulged in a bottle or two of Chilean red whilst whipping up some gigantic homemade burritos. We didn't quite manage to nail the passionfruit puree recipe however and ended up instead with a rather sour concoction made of the fruits.

    If it wasn't already obvious that food and wine had had a negative effect on us then it certainly was when the lovely and rather sturdy looking hammock snapped in two under our combined weight... Maybe a few less frijoles manana.

    Come day 3 we opened the curtains to sunrise over the lake, deciding against spending a sunny day on a 6 hour chicken bus we jumped on a boat and headed over to the hippie town of San Marcos. A secluded lakeside village with crystal clear swimming spots and all the vegan organic food you could ever desire. Wasting no time after checking in we headed straight for a swim, although it seemed the quickest way in was a rather large jump into the unknown. I had to hold Ellie back at one point, and concerned for her safety I insisted I went first. It was rather high but given all eyes around were on me I managed to withhold the loud scream I would typically want to let out.

    The weather kept on giving, maybe even too much with Limbster taking on some early sunburn to the ankles. After eventually entering the water we managed to have a picturesque swim together with all 3 volcanoes as our backdrop, rarely will we get to swim somewhere so unique again! In San Marcos we were also reunited with Mark and enjoyed the best Puspusas at a local cooperative along with a belated birthday beer around the hostel bonfire that evening.

    Waking up early on our final day and the weather was perfect once again, after a morning swim in the lake (that we seemed to have all to ourself) I opted to partake in a Paraglide in nearby Panajachel. After some quick organisation from Limbster we were on a boat and one hour later I was jumping off the top of a nearby mountain. I was incredibly lucky with the weather, my crazy acrobatic pilot but most of all for having such an amazing girfreind to organize it all.

    Note maybe not super lucky with the pilot, his love for sharp turns and cloud sucks certainly didn't sit that well with my stomach...

    Once my hands had stopped tingling from the adrenaline we located the local chicken bus to Antigua, it would seem we were in for quite a wait. Little did we expect the 3 hours journey to in fact take 7, but hey we were back in Antigua!!    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Volcan Trek - Acatenago

    20. oktober 2019, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Day 353.

    Our return to Antigua was fairly revolved around trekking Acatenago, an active volcano just outside of the city. With skies forecast to be clear we booked straight onto the tour, hoping that we would be the lucky ones to avoid the clouds and the rain.

    We arrived early for breakfast to find that we would in fact be trekking with a group of 24 others, this was a small concern that quickly increased when we learnt 10 of the group were Chinese Huewai employees here on business. When they arrived in jeans, without any gear and asking where they could buy oxygen for the climb we all began to worry if we would now even make it to the top.

    It turned out after a promising start the Chinese weren't avid trekkers, their additional 3kg per person of snacks and coca cola certainly wasn't helping either. Once they had enlisted the help of a few horses (at a serious expense to themselves) it was decided to split the group in two, exlcusivley Chinese and non Chinese. And we were on our way up at last.

    It was limbsters ideal conditions, 6 hours of up hill walking, the steeper the better. For me this meant my rather heavy panting returned but being in top condition from our previous trek it meant we rarely found ourselves not at the front, leading the climb (a rare sight indeed). Break times were tough, not because of the walking but because it was when everyone else on the trek cracked open their luxury snacks, snickers bars, powerade to blocks of premium chocolate, but hey we had a banana and budget granola bar each - for the entire two days....

    The climb was unforgiving but breaking through the clouds was more rewarding than we had expected. We had scaled up one huge volcano in a matter of hours, and with coming through the clouds could now see the surrounding mountains and volcanoes in every direction. We were looking for one very specific one however - the most active in the region. Traversing around the black volcanic Ash we finally made sight of camp and in turn Fuego, the volcano we were there to see.

    After some celebrations amongst the group, and a few surprised faces once half of the Chinese arrived at camp the guides were quick to get the fire going. It was more emphatic than we had anticipated the thundourous roars of the volcano echoed around the valley quickly followed by an explosion of lava that would last for about 15 seconds a time. Fortunately this eruption took place about 10 times an hour, which meant plenty of viewing for us.

    The volcanic eruptions were only made better with the adjacent lightning storm which provided for a spectacular light show. It was hard at some points to comprehend the full scale of nature around us, with the sun setting on one side, the volcano erupting and the sky alight with lightning bolts - incredible indeed!!

    As the sun set however the temperature rapidly changed, which in turn meant a scramble for the heat of the fire. After a few minutes of warming up limbsters hands we tucked into quesidillas and marshmallows whipped up by our guides. The temperature was down to 0 but it felt colder with the cold breeze coming in. By 8.30 15 of us had bundled into one small hut, wrapped in every layer possible and tucked into our sleeping bags.

    What would normally be a horrible exercise - a 30 meter dash at 2am in the freezing cold to use the wooden festival like toilet was in fact a pretty awesome one. With the sky alit with stars and the volcano still erupting freely it was certainly hard to force myself back to bed.

    Come 4.30am we were up (no thanks to the guides 4am wake up call). It was time to climb to the top, we had been warned this would be tough, and seriously windy. Fortunately we had slept in everything we wore the day before so there was no time for changing needed, at this point nobody cared. We summitted the top just in time for sun rise - the views were incredible, volcanoes all around! The wind however was also rather incredible, I had seriously underestimated the cold and the lack of gloves meant for fairly numb hands - my frozen banana as a final snack didn't much improve the situation.

    It was incredible to be at the top with the clouds passing right through us, we were now higher than Fuego, the erupting adjacent volcano so could look right down on it. After a good few snaps, which meant even colder hands (I would like to note limbsters never came out of her pockets, nice and warm in those gloves so I'll be taking photo credit..) we all began to race down.

    Finally some down hill, and a lot of it. After stocking up on some banana bread and coffee it was time to power down, and boy did we. After opting for a jog down approach we descended the entire volcano in just over 2 hours, quite a feat.

    In desperate need of a shower, and a sleep we headed back to Antigua - we won't be forgetting this one in a hurry.    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Mexico - San Cristobal

    21. oktober 2019, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Day 354.

    Somehow it was already time to cross the border into Mexico, somewhere that at the beginning of this trip felt a million miles away. Now we know in 10 days time when we hit the big 365 we'll be celebrating it in Mexico, hopefully with a few glasses of the countries finest Mezcal by our side.

    But first we had to get there, our transport would be a surprisingly luxurious empty shuttle. Which was fine by us given the crazy mountain roads we would be taking. It was a tough toss up between watching the shuttle driver overtake on single carriageway roads at 110mph, each time fearing for your life when a like minded driver is attempting the same in the other direction or trying to sleep only to be woken startled when he decided to slam on those breaks. Credit where credit is due however, we made good time.

    Walking across the border couldn't be smoother, a quick stamp and we were on route to San Cristobal las casas. We certainly arrived at a good time too, as sunset was illuminating this city of colour. The charm of this place won us over instantly, and we hadn't even tried the food yet.

    Without going into too much detail the food and drink is incredible. Some key learnings of the trip so far.
    - Don't add chilli spice to you nice buttery cheesey street corn, it doesn't work
    - Pastor Tacos for only 7 pesos is the current record, making it a grand total of only £0.25 for the ultimate treat.
    - Discovered Tortitos, suspicion is it won't be the last time either.
    - Stick to Mezcal vs the local home brewed corn alcohol, It seens I just can't handle it..
    - Small worry we might omelette avacados, at only £0.10 each I suspect we will be eating a truck load of Guac.
    - Buying fried crickets off the street is never good, con chilli salsa or not.

    The big history here is the Zapatista indigenous uprising some 20 years ago, that is still felt throughout the region today. We've done our best to immerserse ourself in the history, attended local story telling, checked out all the galleries, visited the local indigenous towns and most importantly purchased a balaclava clad laptop memorabilia sticker, doing our bit and all.

    The visit to San Juan Chamula, an autonomous region only 30 minutes away was a real highlight. Here the men and women wear large black or white sheep's wool coats (accompanied with cowboy hats of course), and boy do they look suave. Police don't venture here and the town rules themselves - brutally burning the previous mayor of the town alive outside the church 4 years ago being a good example of how they get justice done...

    Nonetheless they are a welcoming people, and kind enough to welcome us inside their church to witness the daily rituals. This isn't any ordinary church, and photos are forbidden (you can try but you'll risk having the same fate as the mayor, its serious stuff). Inside families kneel on the pine needle covered floor, thousands of candles are alight all around. Rituals are murmured first, containing wishes or requests to God, swiftly followed by the sacrifice of a chicken or two. The chickens are briefly waved across the open candles and then sacrificed by each family, and along with its life go the wishes of the family across to the spiritual word. We saw a good 6 chickens meeting their fate that day and we only stayed 20 minutes. If that wasn't enough once the rituals are completed everyone will begin drinking Pox, the local 40% home brewed alcohol, and generously so indeed. The final ingredient is coca cola, with each person entering with a bottle of their own, the concept being that upon burping due to the fizz the soul is cleansed. Thus it makes sense that residents of Chiapas state consume more coke than anywhere else in the word!

    Back in San cristobal the local markets steal the show, the twisting undercover labrynth of stalls is mesmerising to look at and also fairly easy to get lost inside. But fortunately whenever you get lost you typically arrive at a Taco stand so it's not all bad. The vendors here take great pride is stacking their fruit in pyramids, not only that they insist you buy the whole pyramid rather than one piece of any given fruit or veg. Although rather impractical at first it actually makes for simple and super cheap shopping.

    Chiapas is also the home to Amber, and man there is a lot of Amber here. Thousands of stalls set up shop daily bringing to market to Amber mined from their backyards - Mexico seems to have it all.

    After a relaxing stay in San Cristóbal we were leaving the mountains and hopefully on route to that sunny Mexican weather, not sure my shoes can face being caught in another unexpected torrential downpour!    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Oaxaca - Dia de los Muertos

    28. oktober 2019, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Day 365.

    There had been quite the build up to day of the dead, rumblings in the hostels, posters, street art and most of all the vibrant decorations had started, and this was before we even arrived in Oaxaca...

    First we had the delight of taking a 12 hour night bus to get there, unfortunately we're not in India anymore and so the luxury of a double bed is a million miles away, seats with a slight recline only - it would be a long night.

    Oaxaca was like a playground for adults, in our opinion anyway! Great food on every corner, markets bustling with life and color, and never being more than 50 meters from the next Mezcalería (Tequilla bars), it being the home of Mezcal meant everybody wanted to show off their product even more.

    But the real reason we were here was for Day of the Dead. With the entire cities accomodation selling out 6 weeks in advance the place was booming. Fortunately we found a local couch surfer to host us, making us one of the lucky ones!

    As the days approached until the 31st of October the city got more and more decorated, giant skeletons on every building, brightly coloured altars sitting in every entrance hall - the excitement was starting. Not only that but the street artists are out in force painting and selling their DOD skulls - a particularly exciting thing to watch in my opinion, not for Ellie however, who has to be forcibly dragged over to inspect my potential purchases..

    To get in the spirit of the festival, and further our understanding of the history a Coco movie night was in order. Once we had our inspiration it was out the next day to purchase face paints. It seemed the entire city was enlisting one of the hundreds of street make up artists to get there face done - our idea, do it ourselves of course... Given we only count in tacos now I'd say we saved ourselves at least 40 x pastor, 1-0 us.

    To describe the markets here would be a post in itself, but the craziness is real and we couldn't keep ourselves out, each and every day we would be back there. Come the day of the 31st it was to buy Mezcal for the festival, not any Mezcal mind, ours came in a petrol tin - but for the price we couldn't complain. Petrol tin of tequilla & newly purchased bamboo shot glasses in hand we headed out. Take 1 at face paint was certianly eventful - 5 Mezcals, 1 Mexican friend, 1 interview with German TV and one angry Limbster. The latter apparently on account of me ''ruining her face'' - well I tried.

    It was slightly surreal, wandering the streets with everyone from elderly women to toddlers proudly wearing their best attempts of skeleton face paint, from dancing in the streets to elaborate and sometimes rather scary parades (thousand of people deep) making it all the more magical. Nothing however could beat the best part of the tradition - visiting the local cemeteries come 9/10pm each evening.

    Unlike your typical cemeteries at home these one would come alive (quite literally too in the mind of Mexicans) and made for a sight like nothing we've quite seen before. Families would gather around loved ones, decorate gravestones and light more candles than you could ever imagine. Celebrations would vary from a quiet meal with a Mezcal or two around a lost grandad to a real celebration - Mariachi band and all to sing the night away with old amigos. Even we didn't quite have the stamina, calling it a night at 2am seemed late for us - but the night was just beginning for the families who would celebrate until sunrise with their awakened loved ones.

    Its worth noting on Day 3 our face painting attempt had significantly improved, turns out limbster was better off alone, leaving me instead to fudge my own face this time (Me and my high expectations apparently). Sometimes the small moments are the best and sharing a beer and painting each other on a picturesque terrace balcony, overlooking this amazing city was certainly one of them.

    Although basic our couch surfers will be memorable and was a real throw back to the days of sharing a single bed in ellies teenage room, just less hot and stuffy, yes Mexico is in fact cooler than Diane and Paul's house on a winters night.

    Limbster found a new fave Mexican speciality Street snack, I'll do my best to explain how it goes, open a bag of crisps sideways, fill it with hot fresh sweetcorn, a wedge of mayonnaise, 1 or 2 limes over the top and finished off with a handful of queso and chilli - so bad but so good.

    Notes.

    In my experience when in doubt best to offer Cien, Limbster disagrees.

    If unsure you'll will like it, always buy two, particularly when buying art.    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Hierve De Agua

    5. november 2019, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Day 369.

    As the celebrations were beginning to wind down we decided it was time to escape the city and head up into the surrounding mountains for some piece and quiet as well as a little adventure.

    We had heard about Hirve De agua before arriving in Mexico, thanks to limbsters exhausting research there wasn't much we didn't know. But this one we thought was at least a tad of the beaten path. This dream was crushed fairly quickly once we started to notice to day trip fliers littered all over Oaxaca. Not to be defeated however we decided we would avoid those pesky tourists somehow.

    The answer it turned out was to stay the night, so that was the plan. An hour by plus plus a further hour hanging rather precariously off the back of a pick up truck and we were there! It could have been slightly slower but every couple for themself is our new motto, so we showed no mercy clambereing into those last few spaces.

    The setting was incredible, nothing in sight but rolling green hills, two large natural waterpools lay atop a petrified waterfall form a picturesque infinity pool over the mountains. Before heading in for a swim we had work to do to find somewhere to sleep, it was a fairly baron village so it would be a door to door process!

    This started at the entrance itself, where 4 rather uncharming and definitely drunk hombres tried to take us for a ride. Not having any of it we swiftly moved on. The spanish is starting to come in more and more useful, not a word of English is understood here and therefore asking for help and taking directions is all the more necessary.

    After a short walk we were in luck, a lovely lady who it seemed operated an open street kitchen, a Tienda and a small garden farm also happened to have two spare guest rooms available! Success. This meant we could be up bright and early the next day, long before the tour groups from the city arrived - we couldn't have been happier that our determination had paid off.

    Not wanting to miss out on today's sun we headed to the pools for a celebratory swim, more smug now than ever as we walked back past the still intoxicated men. The pools and scenery was more beautiful than the photos and it was exactly the escape we needed from the city. For a first Limbster was straight in, I barely counted 20 seconds of hesitation, a real improvement. Lying together on the edge of the pools looking straight down on the mountains together below was amazing if not slightly unsafe..

    Come sunrise the next day we scrambled down to the pools at 6.30am, it turns out we werent quite the only ones there but we could like with 3 or 4 other like minded backpackers and made a new freind in the process.

    This was somewhere we could have stayed a lot longer but it was time to head back and get prepared for some trekking..    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Sierra Norte, Pueblos Mancomunidados

    10. november 2019, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Day 374.

    After venturing out of Oaxaca City for a few days it seemed we had the taste for the countryside all of a sudden. Limbster decided we would head up to the Sierra Norte for a 5 day trek after reading about warm cabin fires and amazing views, I don't think having yet considering the trekking part too thoroughly.

    The plan looked to be halted early on, after catching a bus out to a fairly remote roadside we needed someone to take us up the mountain, the problem was nobody was going. It was the first time we've taken to hitchhiking on this trip but it was our only choice it seemed, limbster was nominated for this job on account of her more friendly face. Fortunately we were picked up by a lovely couple in no time (on a one hour vacation) and taken to the closest town.

    Once there however things were just as tricky, it was an hour dirt track up into the hills and apparently nothing was running that day, the police offered us a ride but for an extortionate amount of cash (nice of them!)

    After a long wait a lovely old lady arrived at our same street corner, and she was going up to the mountains! We were in luck, if a local is waiting there had to be a way up today, and as if by magic a collectivo jeep pulled up a mere 30 minutes later - we were off.

    Turns out the mountains were cold, quickly rising to 2800 metres meant we were right up in the clouds, and therefore the weather could turn from baking hot to freezing in no time at all. We were quick to hunt down a local Tienda ran by a lovely lady and her mum, not only making us the best bowls of hot chocolate to keep us warm but incredible quesidillas to keep us fed, the rooftop mountain views were simply a bonus.

    We were to be bunked up in our first cabin with Hans, a lovely 70 year old Danish gent. Generously we let him take the double bed and opted for the bunks ourselves, besides we would be closer to the fire that night. Enjoyed some Mezcal over the campfire with our new American freinds, this couple alone managing to entirely change our opinion on travelling Americans and we didn't stop laughing all evening.

    It was an early night, us and Hans all tucked up by 8.30 on account of the cold, the huge fireplace in the cabin couldn't have been cosier and drifting asleep with the fire crackling away was a real treat. Turns out however Hans snores, need to bare in mind when obtaining next cabin.

    We woke the second day to find ourselves well and truly in a cloud, not only could we not see the mountains we could barely see our hands in front of us. Never less we began the first leg of our trek, still wondering if opting out of taking a guide (after being strongly recommended one) was a bad move. It turns out however our navigation skills were on point that day and we arrived safe and sound.

    After last night with Hans we decided to splash out on a private cabin nestled on the hill top. Having our own cabin was a real luxury, come nightfall we were quick to relocate the double bed right in front of the open fire, (arguably too close for the sake of the sheets). Once it got started it was perfect, we also got to use the bamboo chopsticks I've lugged around everyday for the first time - as perfect marshmallow skewers. It was a night to remember.

    Day 3 was a slightly longer trail, thus there was an increased chance of us making a navigation error. Fortunately thanks to the Mexican peso we made our way through to Latuvi safe and sound. Come the pm the clouds swooped in once again, blanketing our cabins, luckily limbster had planned this trip because there were lots of exciting activities to be had here, aka in bed at 2pm with Hans once again..

    The final day of trekking had come around quickly, today we wisely held back and waited for the clouds to clear, and it paid off - 15km of hiking through picturesque valleys wouldn't have quite been the same with clouds. This day was tough, and certainly 500ml of water between the 2 of us wasn't our smartest move, we tried to not entertain the thought of what would happen if we actually got lost. Even though there were a couple of snappy turtles / enojado elfos we successfully made it to our final clifftop destination, and proceeded to spend some of that money saved on guides on two well earned cervezas!

    As it was our final night it was only right we indulged in a private cabin once again. Couldn't resist that double bed and open fire combo. However this night was slightly different and saw us putting out our own fire for fear of our own safety, that being said we will certainly miss this cabin lifestyle when we're back in a 16 bed dorm tomorrow...

    This trip saw some cracking outfits from Limbster, they won't be shared here but will forever be in my mind.    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Mazunteeeee

    14. november 2019, Mexico ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Day 378.

    After a month of exploring the cities and countryside of Mexico it was finally about time we headed to the Pacific Coast for some sun, sea and civiche!

    After a fairly unforgiving 9 hour mountain pass through the night we arrived in Pochutla, beaches are connected here by caminitas - effectively a pick up truck consisting of a few benches in the back and some tarpalling to protect from the rain. Amazingly they manage to fit 30 plus people in the back, although that includes 5 people hanging off the edge. That being said we jumped on in to a fully packed caminita and headed down to Mazunte - the tiny tranquil beach spot nestled amongst the palm trees that we had been waiting for.

    Through a combination of sheer luck and a translation error we found ourselves landing arguably the best accomodation in all of Mazunte (in our opinion), just 50m back from the beach and surronded by jungle was our two storey tree house with outside shower and fully kitted kitchen - which came in particularly handy for hosting freinds and preparing a few home made margeritas! By the end of our stay the hosts liked us so much they even threw in a free bottle of red wine - too generous some people.

    Our time here was everything we wanted it to be and a routine quickly formed; from waking to the noises of the jungle in the morning, enjoying our favourite 'smoothie bowls' in bed, watching sunrise and sunset, a big cold cerveza at lunch and swimming all day in the crystal clear waters - it was decided quickly we would be staying here longer than planned...

    Our relationship with the sea here however wasn't all fun and games. In fact the super large waves, although great for surfing meant you had to stay fairly alert not to be sent tumbling around. Sadly this is easier said than done and we were quick to say goodbye to both pairs of our sunglasses, that'll teach me not to play a joke on Limbster again. There was also the time Limbster got barrel rolled by two waves one after the other and qoute ''nearly drowned'' personally I think the panic in her waving arms was what caused the lightning quick jetski rescue...

    Mazunte was peaceful enough but venturing over a cliff or two meant you could find a beach all to your own, and we did exactly that for our first sunset here, enjoying the sun go down on the horizon on our own personal bit of paradise. Except for in the desert of India have we seen such starry nights as here in Mazunte, with little to no lights at night the views of the sky were magical and perfect for watching shooting stars.

    Mazunte however was soon to change, as the annual 3 day Jazz festival was about to descend on this beach town, and boy do the Mexicans love to party. Overnight every housefront was converted into a pop up cocktail bar, stages erected on the sandy beach and before we knew it we were sipping on our gigantic Mojitos, practising our salsa moves in the sea & listening to live pop up jazz bands playing straight from the beach.

    It seems though we're not quite the party animals we used to be, ending our Mezcal filled night with Lars and Julie (german amigos) come 2am seemed early by Mexican standards, who on the last day of the festival were still clinging onto their litre bottles of cerveza in the sea come 7.30am. This feeling was only exemplified given this was coincidently also the time we set off on our morning dolphin boat tour...

    Tha being said, we know where we'd rather be and watching a pod of dolphins splash about all morning is certainly our cup of tea. Due to some top analysis by limbster that morning too it turned out it only cost us £0.12p per dolphin, bargain.

    In a surprising turn of events, and certainly against the norm I only went and injured myself, after the initial disbelief that it was indeed me and not Ellie I began to notice the blood. In fact I had properly messed up the exact same toe limbster had with a mere trip on some dodgy concrete, nightmare. Although inconvenient I felt some genuine happiness to be using some of this giant first aid kit we've been lugging around, a few bandages and a Mezcal or two later and all was well.

    I couldn't finish this post without mentioning the nearby seafood on Zipolite beach, so good in fact we returned twice and absolutely blew our typical food budget out of the water. Huge fresh fish tacos, civiche (nearly as good as our own), and some awesome garlic soaked fish fillets - we certainly had our seafood kick we had been looking for, that being said none of these incredible dishes actually exceeded £5 - Mexico is incredible.

    After settling into this life for 8 days it felt really hard to leave, in fact we could stay here for a very long time. But reluctantly we said goodbye to the beach as it was time to see what Mexico City has in store for us...    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Mexico City Part I

    20. november 2019, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Day 384.

    After my initial protesting I was quick to take back my words regarding the night bus after enjoying a great night's sleep. However arriving into the city at 5am meant we needed to find coffee - Vips Diner would be our savour and we spent the next 3 hours milking our refillable coffee and watching this city come alive out of the window.

    For our first stint in this city we would be staying with a couch surfer called Mauricio. After deciding 8am was a respectable time to go knocking on someone's door we headed across town to his address. Thankfully the metro here is exactly like London, just much much cheaper (20p to go anywhere in the city in fact), it quickly became our new best freind!

    After a quick hello to our fellow Colombian couch surfers we headed out for breakfast - determined to find the local delicacy of Chiliqiules. Not to blow our own horn but if I do say so myself we smashed it, landing what had to be the best breakfast in all of coyoacan.

    Mexico City is huge, like really huge so it's a more pick an area for the day and explore kind of place. Our first day would be Coyoacan, the trendy part of town. Still buzzing off the 5 coffees this morning we headed straight for our first walking tour, which we slightly regretted as the guide took the history lesson to the next level.

    After a mere 30k steps on day 1 we decided to head back home for dinner and spent the evening chatting spanish (and a little inglés) with the very energetic Colombians and our Mexican host. Safe to say we now have some new friends to visit in Bogota!

    Best taco surprise tonight, on route for a naughty little cesears we struck gold with the best pastor tacos to date and indulged accordingly. Safe to say our excitement led to us consuming a little too much spice, the price of which I had to suffer later, note for Ellie green isn't always Guacamole..

    Markets here are nothing short of incredible, and we have dedicated hours to them already, and rightly so. I could barely contain my excitement as we explored the artisan market, only exemplified by limbster willingness to let me spend $ - it was an exhilirating 4 hours. The peacefulness of the craft Market however was quickly replaced with the local Sunday flea market nearby, never have we seen such a jungle of chaos in one place before. It seems obligatory for men and women young and old to explore said market with a beer in hand, regardless of the fact its only 11am. Not just any beer either, a 1.2 litre bottle (each!), doused in chilli and finished off with a helping of tomato juice, what more could you want!

    But it's not just the markets, the rest of the city is equally entertaining, from the daily and rather mesmerising Aztec rituals that take place every morning in the zocalo, to the wild and slightly drunken Mariachi band performances come night time, we have not had a dull moment so far. Plan to learn a few Mariachi songs and next time we can participate a little more, that plus a few more Mezcals...

    After walking tour number two we headed off to hunt out the popular dish named Pozole, which is known for historically being served with human meat, at least a good while ago back in Aztec times, fortunately its now just chicken and we had a great time. Limbster especially so, it's always easy for me to tell depending much she decides to splash around the table.

    Not wanting to miss out on the history side of this great city, come Sunday we began to visit the tranch of museums on our to do list. We went Sunday of course because entry is free, a fact limbster knew long before our arrival, doesn't miss a trick. The highlight was the famous Diego Riverias Mural museum, certainly my kind of art, if only they sold printed copies it would be on its way to England with the rest of our goodies.

    And like that 4 nights had flown by at our current couch surfers in coyoacan. Spending the last night with Mauricio playing all his favourite Latin america hits for us over a cup of enlgish tea was definitely a great way to end a very hectic four days!

    Note, I'm not one to usually humour the street acts but when it's a Zapata duo - who could say no!    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Mexico City Part II

    28. november 2019, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Day 392.

    The sheer size of Mexico City and the fact that we'll be spending a few weeks here has left us with no choice but to break these posts up, if not just for my sanity alone, so here goes part II.

    After 5 days in CDMX we said goodbye to Mauricio and headed out of town to meet Laura, our new host who was a complete contrast in terms of person and location. A rather scatty, if not slightly crazy single mum who housed us in a separate apartment attached to her rather grand house on the outskirts of town - a real treat. Weren't big freinds of the rather scary and bite happy dog at first but learnt to love her.

    Our first chance to explore this tranquil part of town was going for lunch. After a stern discussion recently limbster decided to go big, ordering an array of local dishes she had not tried before, only gathering a vague idea as to what they were in spanish from the very kind owner. Amazingly this paid off and by sheer luck we were presented with a huge platter of local delights, that quite frankly we didn't know we had ordered at all. Spending a few hours here over a horchata and discussing future plans was certainly not the worst decision we've made.

    After the previous days unsuccessful attempt at shipping our goods to the UK we headed back into town to try again. I was dealt a fairly harsh blow early on and was informed Bri's Xmas gift wouldn't make it through customs, having to hand it over to the police after lugging it around for 5 weeks straight was a fairly sad start. Limbster didn't go unscathed either quickly realising milk based products once carried around for a month in the Mexican heat will not last. However things did improve, the Harry Potter style Palace post office was certainly a great setting to be packing our things home. Three hours later and 5k lighter we felt good - Now just to pray those skulls make it!

    After a long breakfast with Laura, and another pint of oxxo coffee for me we headed out to Xochimilco. With Laura's vague and exhausting public transport options in hand we slid ourselves into the much more economical backseat of an Uber (once out of sight of course) and were on our way.

    It's hard to describe a place like Xochimilco, known as the little venice of Mexico City - miles of pre Hispanic waterways, thousands of colorful Trajineras (colorful punting boats) and all the Mariachi and Cerveza you could ask for. Deciding there was only one way to find out what happens here we hired our own and set off. The following hour turned out to be one of the funniest we have had, cruising the backwaters with Mariachi Bands sailing past (boarding your boat on request) canoe sellers offering everything from more beer (of course we indulged) to the classic Mexican snacks. Watching boats full to the brim with family's dancing away at midday was certainly the highlight.

    After this surreal experience we headed to the more upmarket neighbourhoods of Roma and Condesa to explore, although this sounds casual this was actually a train ride, 2 metros, 2 buses and a 15 minute walk! But for sampling the oldest churros in town and for the first time getting that Xmasy feeling it was certainly worth the trip.

    After some serious persuasion I had convinced Limbster to head out to see the Teotihucan ruins with me. Although not a history buff she accepted and we were on our way, opting to crack out the ever stylish travel hat today becuase it was crazy hot and that forehead needs protecting. As well as being amazingly preserved it also has the world's 3rd largest pyramid, which we were quick to scale to admire the views!

    Sensing after pyramid number 3 I was loosing limbster we jumped back on the bus and headed back to town just in time to see the much spoken off sunset flag ceremony at the Zócalo. Watching the soilders chase down that flag as if their life depended on it (actually may well have done) was certainly entertaining, but not as much so as watching limbster eat an Elote. Never have I seen someone shamelessly make as much mess with a single piece of corn in one sitting.

    After hitting 25km walking for the 3rd day in a row we were exhausted, opting to end our evening with a night at the museums therefore seemed rougue, but was well worth the visit. Exploring the most grand art museum (accompanied with some live jazz) by night felt like something right out of a movie.

    Come Day 4 it was farewell to Laura and time to move more central. Left on a high after a visit to our favourite breakfast spot and collecting my newly repaired favourite shirt - it had certainly been a great stay!    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Mexico City Part III

    1. december 2019, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Day 395.

    A short and sweet post for our final leg in this city, predominantly due to our combined exhaustion from the previous few weeks exploring this mammoth place!

    After saying goodbye to Laura we moved to our 3rd and final hosts in this city (and by far the best yet). Two young architects, keen travellers, great cooks and living in an apartment decorated exactly like we'd have our own!

    Spent the first evening sharing dinner with our host Tania and discussing tips from their recent trip to Patagonia! Great food although this really highlighted our recent trend of eating big (and fast) I blame L'il cesears.

    Our last big event on the to do list was a night at the famous Lucha Libre wrestling, so when Friday rolled around we were certainly ready. Putting money to the side for one evening we returned to La Coyoacana, the Mariachi Tequilla bar - and for once didn't hold back.. . Our waiter free pouring our choice of Tequilla with Mariachi live in the background was Mexico all over for us! Also now we are regulars we only had to wait a mere 40 minutes to negotiate our way inside time - not bad.

    We might have started the evening like this but it wasn't long before we were buying bottem shelf tequilla from the local gas station or sipping on unlabelled bottles of Mezcal in the local cantinas, the High life could only last so long after all..

    Mask on and giant beer in hand we found our seats amongst the lively crowd, ready for a night of wrestling entertainment, to my surprise even limbster was loving it, couldn't hold her back from jeering at the wrestlers on queue!

    Hadn't banked on the 25 minutes of surprise midget wrestling, we weren't quite sure how to take this but decided to immersive ourself and go with the crowd on this one. I had honestly expected another James Bond Premier moment from Limbster on this one but she more than turned up and we left only wanting more.

    It's been a while since we have experienced a true hangover but Saturday was certainly one. I blame the gas station tequilla at 40p a bottle it can't have been great stuff. But in our cosy apartment we were more than happy to embrace it, only venturing out to the local art market of San Angel. I can't speak for Limbster but I certainly enjoyed myself!

    Enjoyed a calm Saturday night out with Diego and Tania, totally tequilla free (strictly fancy Condesa coffee) which was exactly what we needed!

    Forgot to mention, after much effort and discussion Limbster has finally acquired some new walking sandals, gracias adios. It may have only added to her heavy bag struggles but but that's a problem for another day.    Læs mere

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    Tepoztlan

    3. december 2019, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Day 397.

    Deciding to escape Mexico City before visiting Mexico 2nd largest city was certainly a wise choice. Therefore we headed two hours out of town to a place called Tepoztlan, a small but picturesque mountain town.

    The plan here was to do as little as possible, and the hostels garden was made for doing exactly that, lots of green, hammocks and facing right onto the mountains for sunset. After a break from Couch Surfing we finally had space, bed covers and even some pillows - it might sound simple but it was certainly a treat.

    Day 2 I decided to trek to the top of the nearby rock, where there were still ruins of an ancient pyramid, plus great views of the city. Limbster decided to give this one a miss, hearing a little about the steep climb was enough for her to decide to stay put and set up camp on the outdoor sofa. It was indeed tough in the midday heat but the views alone where worth the sweat. Perching on top of the pyramid soaking up the views, at least until it was time to get back home and feed limbster.

    I arrived back to find a relatively angsty Ellie, turns out 24 hours of pure relaxing (even in this setting) is enough to drive her crazy. But was nothing a little walk and enjoying a sunset at the end of the garden couldn't fix.

    Short but sweet stay, one to come back to for sure.    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Guadalajara

    6. december 2019, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Day 400.

    For our final stop in Mexico we headed to Guadalajara. Roughly 7 hours north west of Mexico City so opted for yet another night bus, this one was certainly up there with our worst nights sleep - not helped in the slightest by the loud and continuous showing of spanish movies. The angry birds screening that kicked off at 1am it has to be said was my least favourite and certainly stoked some unusual dreams.

    Your luck has to run out at sometime, and it would appear that our run of couch surfing success was soon to come to an end. We arrived at Jonathan's House first thing, looking forward to a relaxing atmosphere and a nice private room (as advertised on his profile). In fact it became quickly apparent we would be having the lounge sofa also shared with the dog. After Jon left for work and we were left to our own devices things quickly fell apart and within the space of 3 hours the rather aggressive dog in our care had attacked an innocent pedastrian and we had gone and locked both ourselves and Jonathon well and truly out of his own house. A few bandages, a locksmith and a pretty poor night sleep amongst the dog hairs later we decided to head to '' The beach'' aka a nice hostal in town. It was goodbye to Jonathon for now and time for us to relax - you win some you loose some.

    Much to our surprise, we loved Guadalajara. The historic centre made up of plaza after plaza set this historical centre amongst some of the nicest cities we had visited (if you can put the cotton scarfs to one side that is). Watching the families gather at dusk around the zócalo was the best way to see in our second night here, the whole area bustling with children and families, sweet 15 photoshoots and plenty of Christmas decorations!

    When it comes to markets around the world we thought we'd seen it all. Then we came across San Juan mercado in Central Guadalajara, which it turns out is only a mere 40,000 square meters and the largest in Latin America. Its hard to describe in words quite how big that feels, and the choice at least for people like us who suffer with extreme fomo when it comes to food makes it extremely difficult to choose anything! With genuinely 1000s of indoor resturants, fresh fish, Japanese sushi, & Mexican favourites all at incredible prices it was near impossible - we could only eat so much after all. And it wasn't until I had just tucked into my Chilli Renno that I saw the plate of exquisite Japanese food, layered with langostines being passed over my head that I realised I had made my first mistake here, and likely not my last.

    But it wasn't just food, need a new watch? There's a thousand stalls happy to help and for bargain prices. As it happens I had just got my watch repaired, new straps and all for a grand total of £1 so I didn't need a new one - but who was I to refuse a little treat once in a while. 3 pairs of sunglasses, a new watch and plenty of food later we said goodbye to this crazy indoor world.

    We couldn't come all this way and not travel the extra 2 hours north by bus to the magical town of Tequilla. Home to 900 brands of tequilla, our first stop was to Tres Mujeres Distillery - home to many of them. Our private tour was a delight, setting us back a grand total of £1 (seems to be the theme in this country) we had an hour tour of the distillery, agave fields and plenty of tequilla tasting - in fact so much we were asking for half shots at the end. Using salt and lime is frowned upon here - so it's strictly just tequilla, deep breath through the nose and out through the throat. This seemed to get harder (for one of us) as the Tequilla grew more and more aged, cheaper tastes and all.

    A little tipsy we continued to the town of Tequilla, where there happened to be also an annual tequilla festival, if there wasn't enough already the zócalo and surrounding area was full of tequilla stalls and Mariachi music - all day long. Samples are strongly recommended and we quickly lost count of quite how many we had tried. Listening to a rendition of Andrea Bocelli's 'Con Te Partiro in the main square with tequilla in hand was certainly a fine way to end the day.

    It was also a sad day however, as today saw the end of the mighty green shirt, with me since day 1 and easily my most worn item of clothing. So much so it has worn so thin its nothing more than tissue paper. Luckily we were in the right place to drown my sorrows - it will never be forgotten.

    Back in Guadalajara and nursing a slight hangover from yesterday's adventures we were on the hunt for some good food. Limbster, (credit again) certainly nailed the research and landed us at the best pastor resturant in all of Mexico (in our opinion anyway), so popular that it is literally a two man job to be continously slicing off that fresh pastor to meet the demand from hungry locals - it was quite a sight. This alone was impressive enough until we hunted down the much hyped fish taco resturant which literally topped everything. For a mere £1; that magic number again, you got a big double wrapped taco, 4 large coated prawns or a slab of fresh fish finished with unlimited toppings, add to that live music and sitting amongst hundreds of locals looking as happy as you and this place can't be beaten!

    One thing we have learnt, that no matter what you read local Mariachi squares on a Saturday night is not magical, fun or entertaining. It's much better described as a hang out for the dodgiest characters in every town and a near certain place to go to get yourself separated from your possessions. We quickly did a turn and tried to remember this for the 3rd time we try to visit...

    Our final day we felt more than content with our time here, and decided to spend our Sunday in a more Mexican way - at the local rodeo. Certainly an interesting affair, and a way to see a different side of Mexican culture. Men and boys clad in traditional cowboy attire with the women and grandparents drinking and cheering as they lasso the next unfortunate cow the be let loose into the ring. Surprisingly Limbster got fairly into this activity - I even think I heard a small cheer at one point.

    It was goodbye to Guadalajara and back to mexico city via the dreaded night bus, here's hoping they opt for a showing of blue planet this time around.    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    El Salvador - El Tunco

    12. december 2019, El salvador ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Day 406.

    After 2 incredible months in Mexico it was time to head South and see a little more of what central America has to offer. First stop being the much overlooked El Salvador. But first we had a night in the airport ahead of us, suffering a long and cold night attempting to sleep on the airport floor. This might not sound worth the combined £8 we saved on 2 hostel beds but it felt oh so good when we proceeded to spend said saving in its entirety on two huge cinnabons come 5am. Food > sleep, always.

    Still only half awake, but fully satisfied from our airport breaky we clambered onto the plane and met Ben - a bit of a nomad on the go for 28 years. He was kind to quickly offer us a place in his already paid for shuttle. This was a great start to El Salvador and although limbster had to put up with some unbelievable PDA in the backseat between him and his new lover it was worth it for the speedy ride to the beach in the sweltering midday heat.

    From our driver to the coconut street sellers and our first host of El Salvador - everybody here could not have be freindlier so far and our impression is nothing like the reputation El Salvador has gained around the world. I think it helps they live on the doorstep of kilometers of palm tree lined beach, and after checking in that's straight where we headed too.

    Note to self always check a door limbster says is ''locked'' it'll save some sweat and tears.

    El Tunco wasn't your normal beach either, a surfers paradise and full of only black volcanic sand it certainly was a first for us. It wasn't long before tragedy struck however, within minutes of jumping in limbster was struck by a big wave and out of part clumbsyneess and part trauma from the last wave that got her she managed to loose her brand new sunglasses. It was deja vu, and not the best start..

    But it was nothing a few Puspusas (the local delicacy) and a couple of cervazas couldn't fix and we where quick to put this horrible nightmare behind us. Deciding to try a little harder with the budget than we bothered to do in Mexico we hit the local grocery store and decided to cook in our first night, thanks to a generous helping of premium olive oil (gracious spanish girl) we whipped up the first of limbsters new recipes. Our new herb and spice collection coming in particularly useful. Note now we're on the bandwagon of carrying all our own herbs and spices we stooped as low as stealing the pepper from the shaker of a local resturant today, you would think times are hard but finding good Pepper is no easy feat.

    Up and out the next day first thing, much to limbsters dismay. First surf lesson for me with Wayo, a salvadorian tank of a man. Putting me to shame on all fronts, hair, body, surfing ability - but you have to start somewhere I guess. El Tunco is a surf hot-spot and the waves are perfect, after admiring some actual surfers in the big waves I set out to find some much more manageable ones with Wayo. After some valaube teaching we hit the water, as expected I came crashing down hard early on. But it didn't take long to catch a few waves and it was an awesome morning (although if you ask limbster she can't confirm this was the case).

    Post surfing we went to get the beers in, feeling the country was imminently about to make a horrific decision we decided we would need them to drown our sorrows, or on the remote chance of a labour victory we could get the nights celebrations going early. Fortunately the Internet here is limited and we were spared the misery of watching first hand the election results roll in. Truly devsasted, and confused as to how so much of the country could be fooled into voting against their own interests we sunk our beers and headed out to watch the sunset - pondering the idea of staying here for 5 more years until it just all blows over...

    But we were quick to forget, and rolling around in the sea as the sun came down on the horizon was a perfect way to end our time here. Limbster had clearly forgotten about the election and found some energy and I could hardly stop her bouncing around in the waves and sending a little too much black sand in my direction. It was a short stay in this paradise and after only 3 days it was time to head back into Volcano territory in search of treks and gastronomic delights...    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Rutas de flores

    14. december 2019, El salvador ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Day 408.

    Back in Central America meant the return of brightly coloured chicken buses, and boy were we pleased to see them. Contrary to Mexican buses these are super organised, all cost less than a dollar, and are much more fun albeit a little tight on the legroom..

    This also meant the return of the onboard sellers, hopping on the bus while it's still moving and all hoping to make a quick buck. From bible bashers to medicine sellers, mini fruit and veg stalls to all your local carb favourites plus chille - you can get anything on a bus ride here. Our ride to Juayua was therefore no different, this time we grabbed ourselves a $1 bag of lychees, and wasted no time munching through all 30 of them.

    Its rare we're caught without cash but El Salvadorian atms are certainly not plentiful, nor often functioning. As a result we were travelling half the country with a mere 3 dollars in hand (less the $1 impulsive lychee buy). On the plus side we were bad targets for a robbery, on the downside we might not have been able to afford the next bus. Fortune was on our side however and we rolled into the picturesque mountain village of Juayua in tact and with a grand total of 50 cent to our name.

    Juayua is one of the villages known as Rutas de flores, a series of mountainous villages surronded by volcanoes on all sides and covered in blossoming colorful flowers. Few tourists make it here and therefore it was a great chance to see and experience local life. Upon our arrival the town was building up to the coming weekend - the weekly gastronomical festival that brings local villagers and salvadorian tourists together to feast, drink, feast a little more and dance! It has to be said this was also a significant part of the reason we were here - and we couldn't wait.

    After a cosy night in, getting to know the hostel owner as well as a lively Canadian couple we headed out of town to explore the nearby village of Ataco. Here we couldn't resit a local coffee plantation tour (this was our first private tour in spanish and we understood it all - pat on the back for us). It wasn't the only thing we couldn't resist however, one thing led to another and my backpack is now one large coffee sack heavier...

    The coffee was great, and the factory ships out to lots of big names, Starbucks, illy etc - and seeing the process although interesting really makes you start to doubt if that £3.95 is really worth it! Back in town the gastronomy festival was in full gear - we dined on langostines, fresh bbq steak and chicken with all the trimmings. Its a real wonder where all this food disappears to in the week when it's strictly only Pupusas and chips available!

    The atmosphere didn't die down when the food stopped either, the Xmas songs in the square went on until late and the children didn't stop dancing around the tree. Not offput by the sheer quantity of food we ate for dinner we made sure we headed to the best Pupuseria in town that night, enjoyed the local ensalada bebida and downed a couple of tubs of tomato salsa, at least limbster did anyway - couldn't believe my eyes.

    It's easy to see after a few days here why everyone is so chubby, significantly more than anywhere we've been to date. Carbs feature highly on the menu, as does anything that can be fried - which is most things. That plus washing everything down with $0.35 cent coca cola and you quickly get the picture. That diet post mexico hasn't started strongly and I worry soon we'll be jumping over the bus turnstiles like the others who can't quite fit through..

    Come our final day here we decided to stay put in town, a quick stroll to the local waterfall was certainly rewarding, we also happened to be the only swimmers - it seems El Salvadorians don't take to water it so we had quite the audience as well. Later that afternoon we decided to get involved with another national passion - football, grabbing tickets to the local teams semi final, which was certainly an eventful choice for limbsters first ever game of football. Not a bad view from the stand either - just 4 volcanoes as a backdrop! The only white people in a 1000 strong crowd also meant we stood out like a sore thumb, but even at a rowdy football game we were walmy welcomed by everyone we met.

    Exhausted, and feeling slightly glutenous we retired to our hammocks for the afternoon, reflecting on what a surprise these villages had been, let alone the country itself. After a rather exciting visit to a normal supermarket (I don't exaggerate, something as simple as this truly is exciting when you haven't seen anything resembling a tesco in 13 months, and Limbster could barely contain her excitement) we stocked up on meals and got ready to head to the lake.

    Our stay wasn't quite complete however without limbster chasing the local lychee pick up truck down the street for a block or two. This might sound unusual but a pick up truck, with a few megaphones attached driving around town with a boot full of something to is fairly commonplace this side of the world - and this time it happened to be Lychees and we weren't missing out. Run Limbster run!    Læs mere

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  • Craig and LimbsterLa Vida ColoridaRejsende

    Lake Coatepeque

    17. december 2019, El salvador ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Day 411.

    Two hours down the road by chicken bus was Lake coatapeque, the home of the rich and famous of El salvador plus one, and only one budget backpacker hostel - so we were off!

    The lake was indeed a paradise, a crystal clear lake, towering volcanoes and plenty of jumping platforms - we quickly decided to extend our stay here. Plenty of swimming, jumping (or not jumping in some cases) and sunrise kayaking.

    There were indeed a couple of screams, from me slightly overstepping my jump to the sheer fear of limbster thinking she is about to be forcebly rolled off the 5ft platform..

    Well away from the closest supermarkets we made sure we were well stocked on arrival, two sacks of lychees, instant mix horchata and a cerveza or two - all we would need for 3 days in paradise. That being said we were never far away from the local Pupuseria and didn't hold back from indulging.

    For the first time in a while there were some real characters at this hostel, safe to say we're not fond of bikers - and can add this category of person to the long and quickly growing list of people we are quickly running out of patience with. It was a also a pleasent surprise that the turkish backpacker would be the one to deliver us the most laughs we've had for a long while.

    A trip to anywhere recently wouldn't be complete without a climb up a Volcano, and this would be no different. The nearby santa ana volcano, famous for its crater sulphur lake was an easy climb but certainly a first for us. The smell at the top was strong and the edges were steep - just ask limbster, I think she got close enough to just about taste the fumes.

    Life at the lake was bliss and it was hard to tear ourself away, but Nicaragua was calling and it was time to make our way south. A nice few goodbyes and a great sloppy wet handshake from an American later and we were packed back onto another bumpy chicken bus ride.    Læs mere

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