Aug 2006

Ola!
we are in mexico city baby! we arrived ok,got here at about 4pm and it was a lovely sunny day so we took a stroll around the Zocalo Square where there are aztec ruins,the cathedral and the presidential palace,its all very grand and massive!!when we flew in this afternoon we flew right above the centre and its one impressive city,it just goes on and on as far as you can see and its all hemmed in by mountains-apparently drinking just one beer here has the same effect as drinking three back home as we are so high up at 1500m-now there is a fact I bet you didnt know!

luckily we were not as late arriving this time as in playa del carmen but we ve still done a bit of waiting around today as the plane got delayed by a couple of hours this morning-fingers crossed that doesnt happen tomorrow!

Both really impressed with Mexico city its a wonderful place and soooo much cheaper than rip off playa!,its completely not like you imagine it to be its beautiful,busy but clean and it has trees!-and the hostel we are staying at is amazing we get breakfast and dinner buffets in the rooftop cafe overlooking the zocalo square,free internet and a free 3hr tour and they picked us up from the airport!! tomorrow we are going on the tour and to sample some street fare as we saw some interesting food being sold this afternoon and we re dying to try it- then we are off to the airport at about 5pm to begin the long journey home-tonights not going to be a late one!

Anywho we are going to sit back now and enjoy the sunset, see you all soon!

lots of love,

Claire and Victoria XXX

Hello from Mexico!

well guys we are now in our last country before we come home its gone so fast!we arrived late on friday night after the journey from Belize which should have taken 7 hours was more like 14 oh well esta bien! border crossing was fine,and we managed to find a hotel to stay in which had a vacancy after trawling around the town at midnight looking for a hostel! luckily the hotel we were in turned out to be the nicest out of the few we looked at the next day and at only 7pound a night we get two double beds in a huge room with a fan and an ensuite bathroom!everyday the maids come round to clean the room and leave us a swan made from our towels!the first day it was very overcast so we spent most of it just looking around, its very different from anywhere else we ve been in than its like being in america basically but cheaper!the roads are really wide,theres lots of shopping and restaurants and cocktail bars to keep us busy and we ve a walmart at the end of our road!

ooh guess what the sun actually came out in Playa Del Carmen and now its roasting hot!! the beach is really nice and clean so we re enjoying just laying back on it!unlike all the other beaches so far the sand is really unique as it doesnt get hot and burn your feet-apparently its the coral in it that makes it so cool!theres alot of good diving round here also so we might get in one last dive before we come back we arent sure yet but we ve met up with our dive buddy russ from australia who we met in utila and hes checking out prices here for it but think we ll definately travel down to the maya ruins at tulum where there are supposed to be some spectacular city walls on a cliff overlooking the coast.

we had a pretty spectacular storm yesterday right overhead which lasted most of the mid-day so we were out of the worst of the heat at least taking cover in our hotel room and doing the odd bit of shopping!when we did come out alot of the roads were flooded and the policemen were standing in the water up to their ankles directing traffic! theres lots to do here for tourists (mostly italians and americans!) and we discovered we have a cinema over the road the other day so we saw pirates of the carribean!

we ve managed to get a flight arranged to mexico city for our connection home-we will fly on monday morning and arrive in mexico city at about 10 oclock so we ll just have time to look at the old historic part before we fly home!we ve managed to book a backpackers hostel for the one night we are there and its near the zocalo which is the main square where the president does his speeches and the oldest latin american cathedral in the world and it only costs 8pound a night!plus the architecture and revolution art there is supposed to be amazing we cant wait to see what the biggest city in the world is actually like after hearing so much about it on this trip!!

anyway its just a quick one as we have to get some tea-not from asda walmart tonight thought we d actually sit at a proper table!see you in just over a week! (we fly tuesday evening so should arrive in the UK wednesday around 6pm)


lots of love,
xxx claire and victoria xxx

alright mon!!!

hiya just a quick one from Belize City, we are great, got here ok yesterday morning,we ended up flying there in a little plane it was fantastic!!altho we managed to get stopped and searched and both got stuff confiscated lol! (vicky had a penknife on her and claire a pair of scissors so slapped wrists-hey this is the caribbean!!) Belize City is cool,its no way near as scary as the guidebooks make it out; its got a real caribbean atmosphere,its a real ramshackle and colourful place with a history of pirates and slaves,wish we were here longer!! yesterday when we arrived we went to Belize museum in the old prison and learnt all about hurricanes and maya history-very cultured arent we?!the prison itself was scary-it only closed in 93 and by that time they had 8 prisoners to a cell and the cells were 6ft by 8ft if that.today we went to see jaguars at belize zoo and we had a carribean breakfast at the bus station it was gorgeous! the people and food are excellent,we are only staying tonight though and then taking a bus tomorrow morning to mexico,we are going to playa del carmen on the yucatan peninsula-its between cancun and tulum (where there are lots of maya ruins) so we can hopefully see alot while we're there-cant believe how little time we've got left-although we are looking forward to seeing you all!!!anyway only a quick one as we've got to dash,

lots of love,

Claire and Victoria XXX