‘The tans will fade but the memories will last forever’.

Gosh so after months of dithering, umm-ing and ahhh-ing, WORKING 7 DAYS A WEEK and planning.. I am back on the road.

Needless to say, I did not learn spanish as I planned nor did I take the zumba world by storm. Nor did I look for other jobs or date. I attempted the spanish and zumba but they required time that one just did not have. (Ahem I do sort of regret the spanish bit now I am back in spanish speaking lands….). Oh well, best not to dwell on le past…. hola to le future-O!

My travel plans ranged from including New Zealand, Japan to Africa … But I ended up just in South America again. Its a grande continente. For the last time…. Or not…..!? You never know.

 Sooooooooooo where does one start?! Did I break down and cry at le airport like last time?! No. Well I guess I had been planning this trip for so long I was happy it had finally commenced. This time I was in a kafuffle to get a visa thing that we needed to enter Miami whilst stopping off there to get to Mehicko. Our kind travel agent who booked our flights failed to mention this….  THANK GOD FOR MOBILE PHONES AND INTERNET ACCESS!! Cue last minute buying visas at the checking in desk….

We then got chatting to a lovely checking in man called the ‘magician’ who managed to wangle Nicky and I the extra leg room seats 🙂 Feliz dias…. 

The flight was uneventful… no Juan this time to swoon at – just Nicky Chalmers ;p Although I didnt swoon at her. I got to watch Gone Girl too which was good. No hunger Games or free alcohol though – disappointing American Airlines. 

We eventually arrived at Mehikoooo and our hotel was sooo nice. They upgraded us to a beach view room as we explained we would need a room with twin beds and not a kingsize. It is not that kind of relationship…. 



The weather forecast had said rain and thunder for the week we were there so imagine our suprise when we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and clear blue skies. Yipeeeee! 



Thank you sun god. 

We rushed down to the pool and lay immobilised – like we had never seen the sun before. We also treated ourselves to a number of cocktails. Mmmm strawberry daiquiri…. Could life get any better?! No. 

The beach was Ammazzzing.. The sea was a tad rough though… No blissful gliding through the waters like watermaids – more like a body slam and dunk by the waves. Salty water in the eyes and falling over. Not as classy an image as one would have liked. But it was the seaaaaa. 

Our sunning actions on the first day had consequences for the next few days as Nicky suffered some random allergic reaction to her sunburnt forehead – cue forehead and eye swelling to the point she couldnt open one eye. It was not good. 

Now anyone who knows me would know that if such had happened to me, drama/panic/devastation would have ensued and an urgent visit to le doctor would be made. URGENT. Nicky, on the other hand, not so much. We even agreed that it was probably for the best that this had happened to her as opposed to me to save extra drama on the short trip we had together. She was very calm about the matter and said she would simply take antihistamines and put cold water over her eyes. Hmmm. 

The next day, such had not helped and my insistence at a doctor attending was approved by Miss Chalmers. Cue randy like doctor attending our room to tell Nicky she was pretty (he then gave me a cursory glance and said you too as an afterthough which I would not have minded except Nicky did have a swollen forehead and eyes….). 

He then said that as well as needing a steriod injection in her ‘pompa’ (this is how I remember the word for bottom but I could be wrong ) but that we also needed mexican boyfriends. Thanks doctor .. In his professional opinion perhaps this would have helped with Nicky’s ailments?! We did not follow his instructions re the mexican boyfriends. 

I then concentrated on my spanish words whilst the doc proceeded to inject Nicky with steriods in her ‘pompa’. Now I must admit at this point I was trying to act sensible and caring at this predicament Nicky found herself in… But once Nicky lay with her pompa out and the doc said ‘what a lovely pompa you have’ … I could take no more and burst out laughing. Terrible friend. It was the same with mum last year and her many ailments. I am a wicked person. After telling Nicky she could not drink, needed to stay out of the sun and have no spicy foods or salt (everything she loves in fact) the pervy doc again recommended mexican boyfriends and left our room. To which Nicky wailed loudly at how much pain she was in due to the steriod injection. Bad times. 

The next couple of days we stayed away from the outdoors to allow Nicky’s reaction to die down. The mexican sun at least had the decency to leave at this time for a couple of days so we didnt miss too much sun bathing time – aka important business time. We jaquzzi’d and went out to a restaurant opposite the hotel – you know to get a bit of ‘culture’ like and leave the hotel grounds. We walked 5 minutes across the road to Captain’s Cove. 

After being seated in the outdoor area, people started getting up and peering over the edge into the lagoon. I asked the waiter what they were staring at thinking it would be some cute turtle or fish…. But he calmly said it was a crocodile. Hahaha I chuckled, I would not be so gullible (like that time a guy told me he was a dolphin trainer in London and I was gullible enough to believe him! Tut) and asked him ‘seriously what is it?!’ . Straight faced he insisted it was a croc. I got up to check and low and behold there was a crocodile staring up at me! 



Like I was dinner. Shudder. I got ill after this experience for one day. Apparently the lagoon was full of them… Were there any signs warning about this?! No. I was then extremely glad we had been upgraded from our lagoon view room to beach view… I could not look at the lagoon in the same way after that. Shudder. If I close my eyes I can still see his eyes staring at me… or hers. 

Nicky then got better as did I. And it was sun time again. And strawberry daquiris. The good times had come back. Just to make us appreciate them more. Important business was back in progress. 

We decided that whilst we needed to sunbathe – it might be worthwhile to do a trip or two. See some ruins?! Nah we were on holiddddayyyy! So we decided to do a trip zip lining as i had wanted to do this for a while. It wasnt that great….. Once you have sky dived and white water rafted – other things just arent as exciting. Modern day problems 🙂 

But we had fun driving this wierd truck like thing on muddy roads and singing ‘let it gooooo’ freestyle whilst kayaking in a cave. We also swam in a cave with bats overhead. Fun?! Not so much for me – i dont like bats and crocodiles. They sort of dampen my enjoyment levels. Nicky liked it though. 





Nicky then wanted to swim with dolphins so we did this. Tooo cute! Although people have said dolphins can sense if you are ill so I was a bit nervous when the dolphin appeared to be making repeated eye contact with me! Alas she did not hit me though in a body part which is what they do if they sense illness…Apparently.. We did feel a bit guilty as the dolphins are not free…. Cue free willy thoughts…



As we had not really partied… The penultimate night we decided to hit Cancun. Howeverrrrrr fate did not want this for us and we ended up chatting to these two british guys for most of the evening in our hotel bar. Not so cultural. We also experimented with a special shot….



It got to 1am and we decided it was a no to Cancun town and hit the sack. Such little old ladies! 

The last day was of course sun bathing and I started to feel nervous about my plans ahead… Solo Tara in Buenos Aires! Eek. We sunbathed, swam, strawberry daquiri’d and jaquzzi’d. The british lads then persuaded us to meet them for a drink in Cancun town…… ‘Just for a couple….’. Hmmm. This did not happen and we stayed out until 3am – which would have been fine had I not had to fly out at 6am the next day. 

So we partied in Cancun, had copious amounts of alcohol and one of the guys proceeded to show me how to loosen up and dance! Hahaha! Muchos gracias! I then had one hour sleep before going to the aiport and flying to my favourite place – Buenos Aires. Good times. (This also happened when I flew to Rio so I may make this part of my flying ritual – get drunk before I fly!). 



Mexican headwear



hilarious monkey named Bob



At the airport they asked me how I was going to get out of Buenos Aires to Peru as I had not yet booked my flight out. The guy looked worried and said I may need to book the flight out at this point. I did not want to do this as I wasnt sure whether I would overland or not. After a 10 minute discussion with his superior – he said ‘ah it should be fine, you are from the UK, you wont overstay in Argentina’. 

I chuckled and smiled as if to say ‘of course’ and skipped onto the plane for the next part of my journey. All the while thinking OF COURSE I WILL WANT TO OVERSTAY IN ARGENTINA and you have let me in!! tee hee ;p 



Sorry – should have warned you about the unnessary close up photo! 🙂 Much love mi amigos.