Day 1- Cancun, Centro. Met a deaf peddler. Slept in a hostel.
Day 2- Cancun, camped on a playa. Tented on the third floor of an abandoned building on the beach.
Day 3- Cancun, camped on a playa. Security officer busted our tent, moved onto the beach. Read books under the hot sun.
Day 4- Cancun, camped on a playa. Read more books.
Day 5- Cancun, camped on a playa. Christmas Day. Windsurfers flock to the beach.
Day 6- Outskirts of Cancun (Villas Otoch Paraiso), with a family. Got lost looking for a house, received help from a stranger, ended up in another stranger's home with his wife and two sons.
Day 7- Villas Otoch Paraiso, outskirts of Cancun. Went to the beach with the Cob-Hernandez family.
Day 8- Villas Otoch Paraiso, outskirts of Cancun.
Day 9- Villas Otoch Paraiso, outskirts of Cancun.
Day 10- Villas Otoch Paraiso, outskirts of Cancun.
Day 11- Villas Otoch Paraiso, outskirts of Cancun. Stayed in an apartment of Jose Luis, a couchsurfer. New Year's fiesta with the Cob-Hernandez family.
Day 12- Outskirts of Cancun, with Jose Luis, a couchsurfer
Day 13- En route to Tulum
Day 14- Tulum, camped on a playa. Saw mayan ruins.
Day 15- Tulum, camped on a playa. Snorkeling in world's 2nd largest coral reef
Day 16- Tulum, camped on a playa.
Day 17- En route to Chichen Itza. Stopped at Coba to see ruins. Camped in Piste.
Day 18- Piste, saw Chichen Itza ruins, one of 7 modern wonders of the world
Day 19- En route to Merida, couchsurfing
Day 20- Merida
Day 21-´"Domingo en Merida." Danced salsa to bands playing in the plaza with hundreds of other people
Day 22- En route to Celestun, through small pueblos
Day 23- Pink flamingoes in Celestun. On the road to Uman, saw ruins in Oxkintok, ate in a casa of a mayan family in Maxcanu, slept in a small town 35 kilometers outside Campeche
Day 24- Went through Campeche. Camped in an indoor basketball arena in Champoton
Day 25- Ciudad del Carmen. Met deaf peddlers, stayed in one of their shacks
Day 26- Ciudad del Carmen
Day 27- Ciudad del Carmen. Birthday fiesta for a deaf local. Plenty of Sol and drama.
Day 28- Isla Aguada. Small fishing town sandwiched between Gulf of Mexico and Laguna de Terminos.
Day 29- Got invited to eat at four different houses on way to the state of Tabasco, before settling down in Jalpa de Mendez, 45 kilometers north of Villahermosa
Day 30- Couchsurfing in Jalpa de Mendez
Day 31- Jalpa de Mendez
Day 32- Villahermosa
Day 33- Veracruz. Intended for Oaxaca, ended up 450 kilometers off-course in the coastal city of Veracruz.
Day 34- Boca del Rio. A playa next door to Veracruz.
Day 35- En route to Oaxaca, town-hopping. A ride through hell, disguised as a mountain range. Found repose in a casa in northern part of Oaxaca de Juarez, the state capital.
Day 36- Oaxaca. Lost camera, made a preliminary visit to the city centro, bought a new camera, lost it right away. Hole in the plastic bag.
Day 37- Oaxaca. Went and saw Monte Alban ruins, on the spine of the mountains, with Laurent, a fellow couchsurfer from Montreal. Found original camera, much to our gaiety.
Day 38- Oaxaca. Intensive visit, tasted the food in the culinary capital of Mexico, marveled upon the old churches, museums and the markets. Watched the oaxaqueños dance in the night at the Zocalo, the main square.
Day 39- Oaxaca
Day 40-70- Working in a farm/zoo north of Oaxaca. Fed and watered animals (including but not limited to: a fox
Day 71- Traversed across the mountains east of Oaxaca to El Coyul, a dirty little pueblo covered with sand a few km off the coast of Pacific. Stayed there with relatives of somebody we met in Ciudad del Carmen.
Day 72- El Coyul. Leala became a play doll for the children of the family we are staying with. Martin became ill, a first on this trip.
Day 73- El Coyul.
Day 74- Mazunte, 100 kilometers west of Coyul. Hippie-type beach town. Pitched our tent in a secluded cove, watched the sun fall and get swallowed by the ocean on a spotlessly blue sky.
Day 75- Mazunte
Day 76- Mazunte
Day 77- Playa de San Agustin, Bahias de Huatulco. Snorkeling in reefs
Day 78- Playa de San Agustin
Day 79- El Coyul. Returned to the casa of the familia for our stuff.
Day 80- Left the state of Oaxaca to Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican state. The landscape changes into ranching lands and low mountains, and everything becomes bigger like the American West. Camped by a sporting plaza near Ocozoautla.
Day 81- San Cristobal, Chiapas. Difficult day hitchhiking. Three tips to prospective hitchhikers: location, location and location, just like real estate. Passed by the capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez. At San Cristobal, had no place to sleep, were saved by a last-minute couchsurfing request, stayed at a 'hostel' for gratis.
Day 82- San Cristobal. Explored the city, rich with history and culture.
Day 83- San Cristobal. Live band and aerial acrobatics (by a "curtain climber") at a bar.
Day 84- San Cristobal and Chamula, a neighboring town famous for its iniegenous peoples and market. Did not like its 'hustlers,' kids panhandling and men and women hustling and peddling.
Day 85- Palenque. Headed north of San Cristobal, entered the Lacandon Jungle. Territory of the Zapatistas. Camped by a 'comedor' (cheap eatery) at a crossroads.
Day 86- Palenque, Misol-Ha. Visited the Palenque ruins, which are tucked inside the jungle. Went back south a couple dozen kms to the waterfall Misol-Ha, the locale of the 'Predator' flick. Camped there.
Day 87- Misol-Ha
Day 88- Ocosingo. Broke camp at Misol-Ha, went south to 'the entrance to the Lacandon,' Ocosingo. Slept at a homeless shelter by a church.
Day 89- Laguna Miramar. Rode a 6-hour truck drive through the jungle to a poblado, Emiliano Zapata, hiked 7 kilometers to the secluded Laguna Miramar, where motorized vehicles are prohibited from getting within 1km of it. The Zapatistas lived in the villages on the 'otro lado de la laguna' (other side).
Day 90- Laguna Miramar, Emiliano Zapata. Enjoyed the scenery and the water at the Laguna until the afternoon, then went back to Emiliano Zapata and camped there for the night.
Day 91- Cuauhtemoc. 6-hour ride back to Ocosingo, hitchhiked 200km south to Cuauhtemoc. Martin drove about 60km for a sleepy driver who picked us up. Driving in Mexico at night is different from in United States, and more dangerous, on the account of the topes, monster speed bumps.
GUATEMALA (March 22, 2010)
Day 92- Crossed the border. Literally hitchhiked across. Were at awe of the majestic precipices of the lush highlands of western Guatemala as we rode south-east. Stayed at a couchsurfer's place in Huehuetenango, a city of 44 thousand.
Day 93- Huehue. Toured the city.
Day 94- Huehue. Played poker with the host and his friends. Mexico and Guatemala have proved our assumptions and prejudgments wrong and wrong again and again with their good intentions.
Day 95- Huehue. Became a little sick with diarrhea.
Day 96- Huehue. Saw the procession for Holy Thursday at the city centro. About a dozen men carried a float of Jesus Christ heaving his cross around the city. Behind them, women carried the float of the pentient and weeping Virgin Mary ("Guadalupe").
Day 97- Antigua. Easy day hitchhiking, stayed at a mansion (relatively speaking).
Day 98- Antigua, Palm Sunday. Witnessed the beginning of the 12-hour procession, when nearly an hundred men clad in purple vestments carried the 7,000 lb float of Jesus and other saints emerged from a church's entrance. Martin nearly fainted due to dehydration from diarrhea. Toured the city, a beautiful place even with tourists crowding the plazas. Antigua was the national capital until earthquakes and volcanoes rendered the place unsafe for politics in mid-18th century. The cobbled streets and antiquated, bright-hued houses go well with the sunlight. There are volcanoes in sight to the south and north.
Day 99- Antigua, Guatemala City. Day trip to Guatemala City with Julio, a deaf Chapin (Guatemalans call themselves Chapines). Visited a deaf association, learned more about the deaf in Guate.
Day 100- Antigua
Day 101- Antigua, Cerro de la Cruz
Day 102- Antigua
Day 103 to 128- Guatemala City
Day 129- Panajachel
Day 130- Panajachel
Day 131- Panajachel
Day 132- Santiago Atitlan
Day 133- Panajachel
Day 134- Panajachel
Day 135- Panajachel
Day 136- Coban
Day 137- Lanquin
Day 138- A vivero near Tikal
Day 139- Tikal, El Peten
BELICE (May 9, 2010)
Day 140- St. Ignacio, Belice
Day 141- Caye Caulker
Day 142- Caye Caulker. Scuba diving in Great Blue Hole
Day 143- Hopkins
Day 144- Hopkins
GUATEMALA II (May 14, 2010)
Day 145- Rio Dulce
Day 146- Guatemala City
Day 147- Guatemala City
EL SALVADOR (May 17, 2010)
Day 148- Santa Ana
Day 149- Santa Tecla
Day 150- Santa Tecla/San Salvador
Day 151- Joya de Ceren
Day 152- Suchitoto
Day 153- Santa Tecla
Day 154- Alegria
Day 155- Perquin
HONDURAS (May 25, 2010)
Day 156- Comayagua, Honduras
Day 157- Tela
Day 158- Bonito Oriental
Day 159- San Pedro Sula
Day 160- Tegucigalpa
Day 161- Tegus
Day 162- Tegus
Day 163- Tegus
Day 164- Tegus
Day 165- Tegus
Day 166- Tegus
Day 156-
