Hi friends! Guess what? I’ve booked my next trip!

(images sources linked below)

I’m heading to Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala for the first time. I bought my ticket last week. I fly to Cancun tomorrow — it was only $150 USD direct from JFK. Can’t beat that! I don’t have a return ticket yet but suspect I’ll come back in mid or late May from Guatemala City.

These are all new countries for me. Can you believe I lived in Los Angeles for almost a decade and never drove 2-ish hours to the Mexican border, yet I’ve been to 50+ other countries? I’m happy to finally rectify that and explore part of our neighboring country. I’ll have about 10 days in the Yucatan peninsula area before I move on to Belize for about 8 days, and then finish up with 10 days in Guatemala.

My flight lands late in Cancun so I’ll stay downtown for one night. Then I’ll check out the colonial city of Valladolid for three nights.

The Mayan ruins of Chitzen Itza are about 40km away from Valladolid, perfect for a day trip:

Then I’ll check out the ruins at Ek’ Balam, another nearby highlight.

There are also a number of beautiful cenotes around Valladolid. This one is called Cenote Samula:

From there I’ll hop on a bus to Merida, the capital of the Yucatan peninsula, also called the White City. The following day I’ll visit Uxmal ruins about 50 miles away.

Then I take a 4-5 hour bus ride across the peninsula to Playa del Carmen. I’m using this city as a base to explore nearby areas on day trips, but I hope to get an afternoon at Akumal beach where there are lots of turtles:

I hope to get to Xel-Ha resort about 30 miles down the coast; it’s like the Disney World of water parks. It’s pricey (around $90 per person) but includes most water activities, bike rental, and buffets at fine restaurants within the park. It should be a relaxing splurge after a week of climbing around Mayan ruins.

Then I’ll get down to Tulum as early in the morning as I can manage — it’s best to arrive right when they open to enjoy the pristine beach before tourists descend. A Mayan castle overlooks the shore:

For my last stop in Mexico, I hope to get to Isla Mujeres, which is about a 20 minute ferry ride from Cancun. Aside from the fact that it’s a pretty island and less crowded compared to the tourist resorts along Cancun and Cozumel, it’s got a dive site that I am deliriously excited to visit. An artist named Jason deCaires Taylor creates underwater sculptures at various places around the world, and one such site is called Manchones at Isla Mujeres. ‘Silent Revolution’ is among seven pieces he has on display here, depicted below:

From there I’ll take the ferry back to Cancun and get on an overnight bus to Belize City. This will be the roughest night of the trip, as we’ll do the border crossing into Belize around 3am, and then arrive early in the morning at our destination. From there I’ll hop on the next ferry to Caulker Caye, a sleepy island that is among the more popular places to visit in Belize.

From there I hope to take a multi-day sailing trip to various islands in Belize. I am pretty excited about this.

The sailing tour is likely to end in Placencia. From there I’ll bus to San Ignacio near the Guatemalan border. One of the highlights in this region is visiting the Actun Tunichil Muknal caves (abbreviated to ATM caves), which involves swimming through caverns to sites of ancient human burials. It sounds like cameras are not allowed on this tour after some travelers accidentally damaged a skeleton a few years ago by dropping a camera on its skull. I’m bummed not to photograph this, but am looking forward to it regardless. What a unique place to visit.

I also plan to visit the Xunantunich ruins near San Ignacio.

From there I’ll cross over the border into Guatemala to visit the ruins at Tikal, one of the most impressive Mayan sites:

From there it’s an eight-hour bus ride to San Agustin Lanquin, Guatemala. The highlight here is a day trip to Semuc Champey — it includes a hike to a viewpoint, then swimming in blue pools, and then walking / swimming through caves while holding actual candles (I’m guessing this is for the adventure aspect because why else would they not use waterproof flashlights / head lamps?). This whole day sounds great.

(images via here, here, and here)

From there it’s another eight-hour bus ride to the colonial city of Antiqua. I’ve heard less enthusiastic things about this place from friends so I’ll stay just one night and walk around in the morning to take photographs.

Then I’ll hop on a bus to nearby Lake Atitlan, arguably the best place to visit in Guatemala! I’ve wanted to go here for years; it just looks so scenic anytime I see photos from this region. There are several villages surrounding the lake and I hope to check out a few of them. Maybe take a Spanish language class if time permits. Ideally I’d like a full week here, but my schedule is a little compressed at this point. We’ll see how it shakes out.

And then I’ll take a bus to nearby Guatemala City and fly back to the States! In the event I have more time, there is a slim chance I’ll bus to El Salvador for a few days and then fly back from San Salvador instead of Guatemala City. But I strongly suspect I’ll want more time to chill out at Lake Atitlan for a relaxing finish to my trip instead of trying cram in another country.

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AHHH, I am so pumped about all of this. While this part of the world has been on my radar for the past year, I did most of the research 10 days ago and it all came together very quickly. Whenever someone has asked where my next trip is, I’ve been responding “Central America!” and really thought that specifically Nicaragua would be next on my list. But after plotting all the areas I want to visit into Google Maps, there was a clear route through the Yucatan peninsula into Belize and Guatemala, so that won out. At some point I’ll do a return trip to visit Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama — I think I’d need six weeks total to properly explore those countries.

Sorry Honduras, I don’t feel a strong pull to visit you, but I’m often swayed by dreamy travel photos posted by other bloggers so you never know! I was similarly ambivalent about El Salvador but then saw a photo my friend Phil posted from Santa Ana volcano that made me rethink it.

Shout out to my friend Cheryl — we met on an overland tour in East Africa — who brought this to my attention on Facebook.

And with the initial planning behind me, I am ready to dive into this adventure. I have the first week booked and after that I’m purposely keeping things flexible to adjust the itinerary as needed.

While the Zika virus has gotten a lot of attention lately, I’m not worried about it. I’ll take precaution by keeping my arms and legs covered and wearing lots of DEET, especially when I’m in a jungle setting (there is also a risk of malaria, though the CDC rates it as “very low” in the areas I’m traveling to).

In the meantime, I’ve got a bunch of Colorado posts coming next week, and after that I’ll dive into my Spain and Portugal travels from last fall. Can’t wait to finally share those photos! I’m not sure how reliably I’ll have wifi so updates might happen more like 3x a week until I return to the States next month.

Thanks for going on this journey with me, friends! I look forward to updating you from the road!

XO, Erica