Mexico to Brazil

An 8 month journey travelling from Mexico City through Central America and South America to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil Read more

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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Overnight bus - Adios Mexico
Jan 29–30, 2024 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
So after our culinary and diving adventures yesterday we drove to Cancun to return the car and then waited til midnight to get the overnight bus to Chetumal near Belize. This morning we got an Uber out to a quiet part of town where we hope to meet our shuttle to Belize city. Everything is quiet and not come alive yet at 6.30am. This is the unglamorous part of travelling, sitting on buses and waiting around, a lot.

We found a quiet play park and listened to the birds most familiar Great Tailed Grackle, Brown Jay, White-Winged Dove but a new one Baltimore Oriole! Nice final bird for Mexico.

A short video is attached only 40 seconds summarising our month in Mexico. Enjoy that.

My highlights (Michael) were Hot-air Balloon over pyramids, Bull shark diving yesterday and the Rio Lagartos Boat trip and bird watching. I am most impressed by roadworks, thy always have 50 people working hard and they can resurface a road overnight. Least impressed by young street kids (as young as 2) out selling things in restaurant.

Helen’s top three also includes the hot-air balloon over the pyramids. Also diving, but the reef dives in Isla Mujeres where we had great views of a turtle. Her favourite place was Bacalar - the lagoon was beautiful with its varied colours and the town was really chilled.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Belize Border
January 30, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
We have now left Mexico and entered Belize. We don’t have a Belize SIM card so will go dark until we get one in Belize city.
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Caye Caulker
Jan 30–Feb 6, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
So after another night and day of travelling we have arrived in Caye (pronounced Key) Caulker. This is an island about an hour ferry ride from Belize City. The vibe is very relaxed and Caribbean and the moto is go slow.

After quite a lot of moving about it feels very luxurious to have a place to stay for 7 nights, our longest in one place so far.

Some initial impressions that we love are that the coast has been protected and not built on so we can access it all which creates a lovely island atmosphere. The people are very relaxed and chilled. The marine life is literally all around with pelicans and frigate birds in the air and rays and huge tarpon fish visible from the pontoons.

We are here to dive and have booked 3 days of diving but we will do snorkelling and some other water based activities the other days.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Awesome Snorkelling
January 31, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
We did a half day snorkelling today and it was absolutely amazing.

We started by feeding Tarpon (8 ft long fish) and frigate birds by hand. Quite an experience.

Then we went to a reef where we saw a Manatee and snorkelled with it for about 15 minutes - very lucky as it is out of season.

Then we went to the legendary Shark Ray Alley and saw (surprisingly) loads of harmless nurse sharks and mostly harmless stingrays. The rays were all around us and at one point swam between my legs! Gulp.

Amazing marine life in Caye Caulker and we haven’t dived yet, that starts tomorrow.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Blue Hole and Half Moon Caye
February 4, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
For our final diving day we splashed out for a more remote dive to go to the Blue Hole, this meant a 5.30am departure as we were going about 1/3 of the way to Hondouras on a two hour boat ride.

The Blue Hole was a cenote before sea levels changed. Check it out on the map north of this footprint, a perfect 1000 ft circle of blue in the ocean. Our dive took us to just over 30m our deepest ever.

The other dives on this outer reef provided amazing marine life, lots of Caribbean Reef Sharks, Turtles and loads of fish. At the end of our last dive thousands of inquisitive fish had sheltered under the boat and checked us out during our safety stop. It really was like swimming in an aquarium but we were 50 miles from the mainland.

We also visited a bird sanctuary called Half Moon Caye for lunch. Where we found Red Footed Boobie nests along with Magnificent Fridate birds. A bonus was finding the Belize Island Gecko (a subspecies found nowhere else apart from three islands).

One funny connection to the Scottish Highlands was hearing nesting Osprey from our lunchtime walk. Before leaving I found the nest and counted 2 chicks along with the adults.

A great day. Tomorrow we head inland to Crooked TreeRead more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Crooked Tree
Feb 6–10, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
From Caye Caulker we got the ferry then public bus (£2 pound for two hours) to Crooked Tree. Getting to the bus was a challenge as the place the internet said was wrong we were then sent somewhere else and then a third location before we found the bus, wandering around Belize City with our rucksacks in the heat not too much fun. At least we had allowed an hour so didn’t miss the twice a day bus.

This is a birding destination and we are having a few relaxing days. We are out first thing in the morning (6-9 ish) and out again at dusk (4-6.30) but not much in between.

Crooked Tree is a lagoon in Belize which is great for birds and wildlife. We have added about 25 new birds here. It was founded by Scots who came here to cut down all the hardwood for timber. Now it is a protected nature sanctuary.

Our lodge is very basic (and cheap) and we have some wildlife in our rooms (Geckos who eat the mosquitos) but the location is great - right on the lagoon.

We have one more day here before moving to San Ignacio and then Guatemala.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Belize City - more Street Art
February 10, 2024 in Belize ⋅ 🌬 27 °C
We have four hours in Belize City between buses. We quickly left the (do not linger) south side where the bus station is located and headed over the swing bridge to the north side visiting the lighthouse and seeing loads of amazing street artRead more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Museum of Belize
February 10, 2024 in Belize ⋅ 🌬 27 °C
We took 90 minutes at the Belize Museum formerly a prison. An exhibition on the history of slavery in Belize was sobering. An exhibition of renowned Belizean artist Pen Cayetano was uplifting
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
San Ignacio
Feb 10–15, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Including tonight we have spent 5 nights in San Ignacio. This is a town very close to the border with Guatemala in the Cayo district of Belize.

The town itself is fairly basic but it has been a great base to explore the region. It was Valentine’s Day today and they certainly go to town on that with roses and teddies everywhere. It is also the local elections and they take the approach of fairly negative campaigning. There are political flags everywhere along with banners slagging off the other party.

We leave for Guatemala tomorrow.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Chocolate
February 12, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Today we learned about chocolate!

The roots of the company we visited are Maya, for whom chocolate was an important part of rituals and celebrations and very different from the palm oil/sugar rich product we are used to from home. We learned about the process of fermentation and roasting before making traditional Maya hot chocolate drink from the roast beans. These are ground to a paste, mixed with hot water and a little honey and chilli and cinnamon. They have been making chocolate this way since 1000 BC!

The farming cooperative exports beans to Europe. For me, part of travelling is learning about other cultures and traditions and the impact of our actions at home on others. We asked what we, as western consumers, could do to have the most positive impact on the cacao farmers. The answer was to eat chocolate with a high cocoa chocolate, 70% or more.

Did you know, the name of the company ‘Green and Black’s’ was inspired by Maya chocolate - in Maya tradition they knew where to plant a cacao tree if they found Black soil they planted a cacao bean and if in one week they had a Green shoot appear then it was the spot.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Mountain Pine Ridge
February 12, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
We had an amazing day birding to Mountain Pine Ridge. This was a full day (6am to 6pm) that we could only access by 4x4 with a guide.

In the morning we added 9 raptor lifers (most in a 15 minute magical spell of raptor watching) and in the afternoon 6 hummingbird lifers.

We visited the highest waterfall in Central America at 1600 feet and a beautiful swimming location too.

If birding is your thing check my blog for more info

https://wildscot.blog/2024/02/13/birding-mounta…Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave
February 13, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Today we did something a bit different, we went caving in the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave. (None of the photos are mine, as cameras are banned following accidents with the archeological site, but they are representative).

It was a 45 min hike (we saw a small Coral Snake) with three river crossings (up to shoulder depth) then we swam into the cave for about 500m before caving a further 1.5km in. At times it was wide open cathedral size caverns at others it was a very tight squeeze to get through.

As well as the stunning cave formations we saw fascinating archeological remains. Between 750 and 900 AD the Maya would visit the cave to leave offerings (pots of food initially) to the gods of the underworld. As the climate grew harsher and more crops failed this led to multiple human sacrifices being left (at least 18 in the cave) These have now been covered in calcium deposits as the water levels have changed over time.

Altogether we were in the cave for about 3 hours.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Xunantunich Ruins
February 14, 2024 in Belize ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
We took the public bus for 30
Minutes and then a small hand cranked ferry across the Mopan river and then walked a mile up hill to the Xunantunich ruins.

Unusually you could climb to the top here at 40m the second highest building in Belize and enjoy the view into Guatemala where we head tomorrow.

We saw a few birds and Spider Monkeys too in the forest around which was nice.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Goodbye Belize…
February 15, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
So we are about to leave Belize. Very brief (23 seconds) highlights video attached.

My (Michael) highlights were diving the blue hole and outer reefs, birding from the boat at crooked tree and raptor watch at mountain pine ridge and caving ATM. All amazing experiences.

Helen’s highlights - slightly cheating by saying Caye Caulker, where we were for a week - nice chilled vibe and great time snorkelling and diving. Then, like Michael, the boat trip at Crooked Tree and the ATM caves.

It has been a nice break to be in an English speaking country and to move on less often. We head to Guatemala in a couple of hours and will be in Spanish speaking countries for the rest of our trip. With that in mind we have booked a Spanish school and home stay for a week.

We have heard that this border (Belize-Guatemala) can be challenging due to territorial dispute between the two countries so here is hoping we get through quickly.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Tikal
February 16, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
We had an early start (4am) today our first in Guatemala in order to get the bus up to Tikal.

So far we have seen a lot of ruins but Tikal has gone straight to number 1 for the trip. A city of over 2.400 buildings enhabited from 800 BC to 800 AD and then abandoned. As the city grew they cut down more forest until the rains stopped and the crops failed. The people had to leave. The jungle then came back and now it is ruins surrounded by jungle full of wildlife.

It would be a fantastic place to bird but we were looking around the ruins in a big group. But walking through the jungle between ruins seeing Howler and Spider Monkeys (and hearing them) along with parrots and even a Potoo (first for trip). There were loads of Coati too which were fun to see.

Only phone pics today.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Petén, Flores
February 17, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
So we are staying in Flores and more specifically on the island of Petén as our first stop in Guatemala. This is a quiet cobbled town with the main transport being small Tuktuks and water taxi boats.

Our main reason for being here is that it provides access to Tikal but we are also doing all the new country things (getting cash, working out exchange rate, working out cost of things, getting local SIM for phone) etc. it seems here it is cheaper to eat out (£2-4 for a meal) than to cook yourself.

We are actually going back to Tikal tomorrow for some birdwatching so another 4am start.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
San Pedro, Lake Atitlan
Feb 19–24, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
So it took 17 hours of TukTuk, Luxury Bus, Minivan, Another Minivan, Boat, Walk and final TukTuk to get here but we are in Lake Atitlan. And it was soooo worth it!

Over the next few weeks we are staying in a few places longer and having some longer journeys and this was one. But all our connections worked smoothly and we were able to get some sleep on the big bus and save a night in a hotel.

We are now in the Guatemalan Highland’s packed full of active volcanoes and in this case a stunning lake. The hotel said a lake view and they weren’t lying!

We are doing a 3.30am start tomorrow to climb a viewpoint and watch the sunrise.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Climbing the Mayan Nose for Sunrise
February 21, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ 🌙 11 °C
An early start again (3.40am) to climb the Mayan Nose for sunrise. This is a feature on the ridge line visible from our room across the lake.

The sunrise, views of the lake and 6 active volcanoes from the top was stunning. One is very active and erupted several times whilst we watched the sunrise.

If you want to see the whole 45 minute sunrise in 37 seconds watch the Timelapse.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Coffee
February 21, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Continuing our culinary exploration, today was coffee. The local cooperative we visited consists of about 150 farms, all in the highland region around Lake Atitlan.

The individual farmers harvest their crop (during October - March) and sell it to the cooperative who process their beans.

The beans are graded - first class ones exported to America, second class for the local market and third class for…
… Nestle instant coffee.

It was interesting to see the whole process, from field to cup, and sample the product (of course)! See the photos for the various steps.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
More cooking.
February 22, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
We had a fantastic morning taking a cooking class.

We started with a visit to the market to buy our produce. Our host, Anita, told us about the variety of produce available. For example, there are many varieties of banana, mango, avocado etc whereas at home we only have one. And they all have quite different tastes and textures.

It was interesting listening to Anita talk about her culture. She describes herself as a rebel. Her culture is clearly very important to her but she has broken the mould of what is normal - it is unusual for a women to work in tourism. It has taken time for her to gain the respect of her community but she has clearly done so. It was quite inspiring/challenging hear her explain that, whilst bartering at the market was normal, she never did so as she was blessed earning a good income from her cooking classes and wanted to share this with her community.

Anyway, back to the food. Armed with an amazing array of fresh produce - all harvested locally (or slaughtered, in the case of the chicken) that morning - we stared to prepare our meal.

Today our menu was:
Snacks - guacamole, radish salad, tortilla chips.

Joćon de pollo - a thick, spicy green stew with lots of herbs, veg and chicken. Traditionally families make this dish once a year, when they harvest the corn. They then share it with their neighbours (to share their blessing).
This was served with Guatemalan rice, Tomalito de Chipilin These are a smaller version of tamales, made with a corn dough. In this case the dough is mixed with a plant called chipilin which is a bit like spinach, wrapped in a leaf and steamed.

Rellenitos de Plátano - mashed plantains, filled with a chocolate mix then fried.

A real feast and interesting insight into the local Mayan culture.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Mirador Rey Tepepul
February 24, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
We had a couple of early mornings birding in the forest and cloud forest near Lake Atitlan. The habitat was wonderful - sights, sounds (watch video) and smells too. Lots of great birds including owls (3 species) nighthawk, hummingbirds (13 species). Great fun.

The best bird was the Resplendent Quetzal, with 1m long tail feathers - google it as I didn’t get a photo.

Sadly we kept hearing chainsaws and illegal logging activity so who knows how long this forest will survive. Our guide told us that there is only one poorly paid ranger and if he did much about the logging he would probably be killed!

More info on wildscot.blog if interested. We travel to Antigua tomorrow for a week of Spanish study and staying with a local family.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Antigua - Parade
February 25, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
So we got the bus to Antigua the former capital of Guatemala today. Because we were driving through areas impacted by out of control forest fires all the windows were closed and the bus quite hot but at least it was only four hours.

We have checked in with our home stay - a mother and grandmother we are living with for the next week. She is very good at explaining things to us in simple Spanish and also very welcoming.

Since we are in lent now there is a big parade by the religious devotees each Sunday building up to Holy Week. Parts of the route are covered in flowers (this will be totally covered by Easter Sunday). Everybody was out and it was a real party atmosphere with street vendors every where.

We had an unfortunate incident with an American Trump supporter who when ranting about immigration levels to the west went on sensitive ground asking how many children we had and made somewhat obnoxious and offensive comments. The vast majority of travellers and locals we have met have been lovely and this encounter has certainly not changed my views of American politics.

Change of pace tomorrow as we start Spanish school. I hated languages at school so hope this is better than that.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Antigua Guatemala
Feb 25–Mar 3, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
We are currently staying in the city of Antigua. This used to be the capital before a devastating earthquake in 1773. It is a UNESCO world heritage site for its cultural and historical significance.

The views from the area are impressive as it is surrounded by hills and active volcanoes (called Agua and Fuego - water (inactive) and fire (active)). The centre is quite busy with several impressive churches but the outer streets are quiet and almost all are cobbled.

We visited Inglesia de la Merced (church of the blessed) and climbed the stairs onto the roof. Health and safety is a bit different here as we could wander all over the roof with unprotected edges. The yellow and white made for nice photography.

This afternoon we climbed “the hill of the cross” for views over the town.

Currently we spend the morning in Spanish school (8-12) the afternoon doing homework for a couple of hours and exploring the town and then evening with our host family or making future plans.

On that final note we have decided we cannot go to Nicaragua as planned next since they will confiscate our camera and binoculars at the border. The military dictator hates journalists so banned quality optics last year. So we will proceed to Honduras and El Salvador by land but then fly to Costa Rica. A shame as we were hoping to do our journey completely overland.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Spanish Lessons
February 29, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
So we have been having Spanish lessons this week. The school has been excellent value and very well run.

The principle they operate under is total immersion so our teachers only speak Spanish and we are living with a Spanish family. They also put on cultural events in Spanish too. At first it is very hard to understand but it is slowly starting to click.

Living with a local family has been a lovely experience. Ana is the mum with four children. There are at least a dozen people living in a small house (plus us). But there are so many people coming and going in the home. Children from relatives she looks after. Neighbours and friends popping in. She also helps people by taking in lodgers and does so even if they cannot pay. There are normally four generations 2 years to 85+ I would guess. A very generous and welcoming family.

We eat meals together and they are very warm hosts. They may not have much but they are very rich in other ways.Read more
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Mexico to Brazil Michael and Helen Cook
Offering for Third Friday of Lent
March 1, 2024 in Guatemala ⋅ 🌙 18 °C
So the tradition here in Antigua during lent is that each of the smaller out of town churches around Antigua host a weekend until the big Easter celebrations held in the city itself.

This involves the village creating an “offering” in the church using their local produce. This includes flowers, fruit and vegetables and coloured sawdust. This is all practicing for the Holy Week itself when the roads themselves will all be covered.

So we took a 15 minute tuktuk out to the nearby village of Jocotenango. Many people came from far and wide on the colourful “chicken buses” for the evening. A long queue led around the full square to get into the church. We queued for about 90 minutes but by the time we left the queue had doubled.

The “evangelicals” were out preaching. They seemed very angry and loud to me. Sadly there is quite strong antagonism between the catholic and evangelical traditions. The catholics have been in Central America for hundreds of years. They have done a lot of harm but they have largely fused/syncretised with the Mayan culture. The evangelicals arrived in the 1960s and teach that everything Mayan (language, sport, music) is of the devil.

Loads of food sellers were present adding to the party atmosphere selling food of every flavour. We enjoyed chatting to the family behind us in the queue who were coming to pay homage to the offering, our Spanish lessons were starting to pay off.

The offering itself was stunning in its detail and showed a lot of hard work (see photos and video). It was really interesting to see how well integrated the catholic church was with the community as all ages were out in force - unlike at home.Read more
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