Mexico
After Canada the journey went down to Mexico and Cuba, first stop was Mexico City, then onward to Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, Chitzen Itza and Cuba. Beach life, old ruins and ancients wonders, also, a lot of scuba diving in the cenotes!
Mexico City
One of the first things we did in Mexico City was to head out and see Teotihuacan, the old religious center with its sun and moon temple.
The temple of the Sun, the largest one.
We also checked out the museum, and found some interesting scenes!
This is how they believe the murals were painted, so If you can imagine these colours plastered all over some of the pyramids, you're there!
Ever been so cool that you've been surfing on snakes? Deal with it! *sunglasses sliding down*
The Mayan Calendar!
Constipation?
Again some more or less weird mural paintings!
One night we went out drinking, and I ordered a tortilla with crickets, tasted really really salty.
Cancun
When we got down to Cancun, I had to try some cactus as well, kinda weird.
The waiters at the restaurant knew how to put on a show, here he is setting the dessert on fire! xD
My first world wonder, Chitzen Itza!
This is the court where they played a predecessor of the ballgame Ulama, the acoustics here are fantastic! What I though of when I saw this was the ballgame from the movie The Road to Eldorado! There are some discrepancies between the actual ballgame and the movie, but close enough!
The carvings on the wall shows the different teams, and here you can see the team captain holding the severed head of the opposing teams captain, quite brutal!
We went diving in Cancun as well, they got an underwater museum, which was quite cool to visit! I would recommend only doing one dive there, that is more than enough! So yeah, I'm just going to dump a lot of pictures for your enjoyment, not that much to say about them really!
Playa Del Carmen
Playa Del Carmen is a bit more chill place and less touristy place than Cancun I feel, also, it's way nicer. We stayed at a hostel called Hacienda Del Sol (one of the better hostels I've stayed at, and the hostess was great) a little bit outside of the city, like five minutes by the collectivo (bus/vans driving around). But it was so worth, peace and quiet, and, they have a swimming pool! My main reason for going to this area was to go scuba diving in the cenotes, which I got recommended from a fellow diver I met while diving in Byron Bay, Australia. I can see why he recommended it, christ almighty, it was awesome! Yeah, more dive pictures below!
And yeah, on to the diving in the cenotes, these are sinkholes in the jungle, and some of them has a combination of freshwater and saltwater, which create a halocline, which makes the water all blurry, you'll see that in some of the vides I have uploaded.
Another world! So beautiful under the water!
The Pit, in Playa Del Carmen
Some of the dives we did were in caves/caverns and the gopro is quite shit in dark environments sadly, so I've tried and picked out the best ones,
Dos Ojos
This is quite the beautiful place to go diving!
And here is the batcave in Dos Ojos, where bats are flying around, also, watch out for bat dung when surfacing!
This is from a cenote called Angelita, it has a layer of hydrogen sulfide at around 25 meters, you can swim through this, and it is pitch black beneath, oh, it also smells like rotten egg! One of the more unique dive experiences I've had!
And here's a video from the dive. Have a look :)
In the Grand Cenote, truly beautiful, diving beneath the mangrove! There might be a thousand videos on my Facebook profile from this place!
And a video from the Grand Cenote!
We also did a dive outside of Cozumel, quite nice, saw this fish!
This is a cenote called The Temple of Doom, and it was a proper cave dive, in quite narrow tunnels etc. And yeah, no easy way up/out if shit hits the fan, BUT, it might have been one of the more beautiful/unique dives I've done. I truly wish my gopro could have captured what I saw, it was astounding.
Aight, here's a video from the cave dive, unedited so there's a lot of black video, yes I am lazy. Anyhow, jump a bit around and you'll find some really nice blue rooms etc!
Playa Del Carmen
Playa Del Carmen is a bit more chill place and less touristy place than Cancun I feel, also, it's way nicer. We stayed at a hostel called Hacienda Del Sol (one of the better hostels I've stayed at, and the hostess was great) a little bit outside of the city, like five minutes by the collectivo (bus/vans driving around). But it was so worth, peace and quiet, and, they have a swimming pool! My main reason for going to this area was to go scuba diving in the cenotes, which I got recommended from a fellow diver I met while diving in Byron Bay, Australia. I can see why he recommended it, christ almighty, it was awesome! Yeah, more dive pictures below!
And yeah, on to the diving in the cenotes, these are sinkholes in the jungle, and some of them has a combination of freshwater and saltwater, which create a halocline, which makes the water all blurry, you'll see that in some of the vides I have uploaded.
Some of the dives we did were in caves/caverns and the gopro is quite shit in dark environments sadly, so I've tried and picked out the best ones,
Dos Ojos
And here is the batcave in Dos Ojos, where bats are flying around, also, watch out for bat dung when surfacing!
This is from a cenote called Angelita, it has a layer of hydrogen sulfide at around 25 meters, you can swim through this, and it is pitch black beneath, oh, it also smells like rotten egg! One of the more unique dive experiences I've had!
And here's a video from the dive. Have a look :)
In the Grand Cenote, truly beautiful, diving beneath the mangrove! There might be a thousand videos on my Facebook profile from this place!
And a video from the Grand Cenote!
This is a cenote called The Temple of Doom, and it was a proper cave dive, in quite narrow tunnels etc. And yeah, no easy way up/out if shit hits the fan, BUT, it might have been one of the more beautiful/unique dives I've done. I truly wish my gopro could have captured what I saw, it was astounding.
Aight, here's a video from the cave dive, unedited so there's a lot of black video, yes I am lazy. Anyhow, jump a bit around and you'll find some really nice blue rooms etc!
Postdive selfie!
Cuba
After Mexico the trip went to Cuba, what a truly amazing place, it's like a rolling car museum! Also, it is quite expensive compared to other south american countries, tourism is big in Cuba, so they know what to charge! Anyhow, it was damn nice walking around and exploring different parts of Havana and look at all the old colonial buildings. We spent a few days in Havana, went to Trinidad, and then Bay of Pigs before returning to Havana.
Havana
An old pharmacy, beautiful place!
You get a really colonial feeling by walking around in Havana, so beautiful!
The guide told us about this statue, and that it was of a governor or something that the people didn't really like, but they had to build a statue anyhow. So what they did was to incorporate a bit of fun in it.
So the statue is holding a scroll, however when you get closer it tells another story. Sadly the parts of the statue was broken and had to be replaced.
As you can see it looks like something else that a scroll, and I guess you say that parts of the texture could be said to look like veins...
Anyhow, it is when you view the statue from this angle you get to see it in all its glory :)
I cans you don't get it, it looks like he is holding his "scroll".
This is one of the few streets in the world made out of wood, the governor had his bedroom on the street corner and didn't like to be woken up by the horses waddling through on the cobble stone, hence the more silent wooden street.
Our guide was a bit of a nerd, so he asked if any of us had played Assassins Creed Black Flag (the pirate one), I said I had, and he pointed to the church and said, there's one of the synchronization points!
Apparently this place is famous it's where they created the daiquiris, also, Ernest Hemingway used to hang out here.
There's a statue of him in the corner.
Some buildings were built using stone from the sea, and they had fossils of sponges and shells etc in them.
And here, some of the cars!
Random art, I think it was called "The Conversation"
If my memory serves me correct this guy was called the poor knight. What he did was to walk around and write poems for people so they could give to their significant other, He would not take alms, so you had to buy the poems. He became quite the legends, hence the statue! It was supposed to give you good luck to touch his beard!
Me and a Fidel Castro! Cred to Elma for picture.
Artsy picture of me waiting for dinner! Cred to Elma for picture.
We found an awesome street vendor/artist. He made all kinds of things out of scrap metal and computer parts etc. I fell in love with his stuff, look at those instruments!
We did a hop on hop off tour, saw a cool cemetery.
This is from inside the presidential palace, where the revolution took place.
You can still see bullets holes several place within the palace.
Westerners aren't popular here apparently xD
Some of the stuff used in the revolution, bullet riddled truck. A flamethrower vehicle, and an armoured tractor.
This was the main police station in Havana, so cool!
Food and beer, that thingy below was filled with ham, chicken, bacon etc. nice! Also, beer tower!
Trinidad
So, we got the ice cream truck back home, here they got the beer truck, the truck just drove up, rang is bell, and people ran out with empty bottles and got them filled!
We did some horseback riding out to a local waterfall, about 90minutes ride, I've never been so stiff or sore. The ride itself was so cool, and I was sitting there thinking to myself, this is the life, this must be how cowboys felt like. Then it started pouring down , we are talking biblical proportions, mud slides etc., I wasn't as optimistic or enthusiastic as before. I almost fell out of the saddle a few times as well when my steed wanted to gallop instead of the normal canter!
Oh, talking of ice cream trucks, this was their local variant, driving around playing christmas songs, and selling ice cream out of a cardboard box!
Also did one dive in bay of pigs, saw a small boat, that is about it!
Back in Havana, we went to a local Cigar shop and encountered this guy making some!
View from the rooftops!
Apparently this place is famous it's where they created the daiquiris, also, Ernest Hemingway used to hang out here.
Some buildings were built using stone from the sea, and they had fossils of sponges and shells etc in them.
And here, some of the cars!
Random art, I think it was called "The Conversation"
We found an awesome street vendor/artist. He made all kinds of things out of scrap metal and computer parts etc. I fell in love with his stuff, look at those instruments!
We did a hop on hop off tour, saw a cool cemetery.
This is from inside the presidential palace, where the revolution took place.
You can still see bullets holes several place within the palace.
Some of the stuff used in the revolution, bullet riddled truck. A flamethrower vehicle, and an armoured tractor.
Food and beer, that thingy below was filled with ham, chicken, bacon etc. nice! Also, beer tower!
Trinidad
So, we got the ice cream truck back home, here they got the beer truck, the truck just drove up, rang is bell, and people ran out with empty bottles and got them filled!
We did some horseback riding out to a local waterfall, about 90minutes ride, I've never been so stiff or sore. The ride itself was so cool, and I was sitting there thinking to myself, this is the life, this must be how cowboys felt like. Then it started pouring down , we are talking biblical proportions, mud slides etc., I wasn't as optimistic or enthusiastic as before. I almost fell out of the saddle a few times as well when my steed wanted to gallop instead of the normal canter!
Also did one dive in bay of pigs, saw a small boat, that is about it!
Back in Havana, we went to a local Cigar shop and encountered this guy making some!
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