Ajay – Kiwi Fanau

Chiapas

I fell in love with Chiapas when we entered San Cristobal De Las Casas. Chiapas boasts great coffee, great chocolate, colonial Spanish towns, cloud forests and Mayan ruins.

Our Glimpse of Chiapas

Moxviquil and Na Bolom

This is the story of the two hour mountain climb I dragged Carmelo on, so I could find some old ruins, and act as Indiana Jones in the process.

14/01/2019

Chamula and Zinacantan

Chamula is a village close to San Cristobal that has become a tourist hot spot due to the religious practices in the town church.

06/01/2019

Zona Arqueológica Palenque (Palenque Ruins)

We visited the ruins twice, once using the tour which took us from San Cristobal De Las Casas to Palenque and then I forced everyone out of bed early the next morning to view it before all the tour buses arrived.

03/01/2019

Palenque Tour from San Cristobal De Las Casas

If you are anywhere near Palenque then I highly recommend visiting this archeological site. From San Cristobal there are one day tours.

02/01/2019

2 Day Itinerary for San Cristobal De Las Casas, Chiapas

We bumped into a group of kiwis travelling through Mexico and they only had two full days to spend in San Cristobal De Las Casas. See the best of San Cristobal in 2 days.

01/01/2019

Orquideas Moxviquil (San Cristobal De Las Casas)

This is the tale of how we enthusiastically decided to go for a bush walk and then I ended up dragging the family on a 2km trek up a steep mountain without food or water supplies #mumfail.

28/12/2018

Churches of San Cristobal De Las Casas

I haven’t been able to find out why there are so many churches in such a small area but it is one of the features

23/12/2018

Grutas de Rancho Nuevo

We did not book enough time at this place. There are caves to explore, horses to ride, different foods to try, a market with indigenous

23/12/2018

Canon Del Sumidero

Highlights At each stop I reached down and put my hand in the cool river, until we reached the crocodile stop. Kenzo said “Mum don’t

23/12/2018

Chiapas

I fell in love with Chiapas when we entered San Cristobal De Las Casas. Chiapas boasts great coffee, great chocolate, colonial Spanish towns, cloud forests

23/12/2018

San Cristobal DLC Celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe December 12th In Mexico the patron saint is Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her feast day is December

12/12/2018

Take Your Family To Mexico

Mexico often gets bad media attention and many people are hesitant to visit there, let alone take their kids there. And I’ll be honest, we were scared of those stories about your children being kidnapped. But after spending three months there, if you’re wondering if you should take the family to Mexico, we would say “Take your family to Mexico!”

08/12/2018

Houses and Streets of San Cristobal De Las Casas

One can’t visit San Cristobal De Las Casas and not be enamoured by the cobblestone streets, the decorated homes and the variety of colour. We

08/12/2018

Vehicles in San Cristobal

Police Vehicles We have seen many police Utes, police motorbikes and police cars. They are the same as what we saw in Isla Mujeres and

08/12/2018

Playtime in Chiapas

I love seeing our kids come alive when they’re doing something adventurous.

08/12/2018

Wildlife in Chiapas

Chiapas is full of wildlife. We saw crocodiles, lizards, birds, frogs and butterflies

08/12/2018

Rural Mexico has a lot of old Volkswagen Beetles

Vehicles in San Cristobal

Police Vehicles

We have seen many police Utes, police motorbikes and police cars. They are the same as what we saw in Isla Mujeres and Cancun. But one thing we have seen here in San Cristobal are police bicycles. The streets can be very narrow and there are three main pedestrian streets where it is much easier for police to patrol using a bike rather than a motorised vehicle. And we did see one pink police car.

Rescue Vehicles

The ambulances seem to vary in colour and we have not yet seen a fire truck.

Trucks

When there is a festival, people decorate their trucks. For the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe there were many big and small trucks that had Her picture with flowers on the sides, front and back of the truck.

There are many armoured trucks manned by men carrying guns.

We also saw their rubbish trucks which do not have automatic bin emptiers, they need people to empty the bins into them.

Tourist Buses

There are lots of different tourist buses here in San Cristobal because there are lots of tourists here 🙂

Motorbikes

Many people use motorbikes to travel. Here are some of the interesting varieties we saw.

Volkswagon Beetle

In New Zealand it’s more commonly known as the VDub but here it’s a common form of transport. There used to be a VW plant that produced the beetle so there are many still floating around.

Other Vehicles

We don’t see many construction vehicles here. A lot of construction sites have people doing the labour instead of engines. We have seen a few floats as part of a parade though.

Isla Mujeres

Isla Mujeres is a tiny island off the coast of Cancun, Mexico where we spent the first long term stay of our family sabbatical.

Our Glimpse of Isla Mujeres

Vehicles in Isla Mujeres

Rescue Vehicles Being a small island community there was not much need for rescue vehicles but we still managed to find some. Two blocks from

11/11/2018

Our Playtime at Isla Mujeres

The Playgrounds Islas Mujeres has great playgrounds and quite modern. Where we stayed near La Gloria was a new facility that had an outdoor stage,

11/11/2018

Wildlife in Isla Mujeres

I’ve often found knowing less about a place before arriving creates lots of wonderful surprises. In Isla Mujeres, one of these surprises is the wildlife.

11/11/2018

Challenges at Our First Long Term Stay

My Space Issues It wasn’t about the dog poo you have to watch out for as you walk the streets or the language barrier or

16/11/2018

Garrafon Reef Park, Isla Mujeres

Garrafon Reef Park is located near Punte Sur the most eastern part of Mexico. It is by a reef which offers some snorkelling and it

01/12/2018

The Best Way to Snorkel Isla Mujeres

Booking With The Right People As we travel through countries that have impoverished areas it is important to ensure you are supporting local communities by

01/12/2018

Isla Mujeres

Isla Mujeres is a tiny island off the coast of Cancun, Mexico where we spent the first long term stay of our family sabbatical. Our

05/12/2018

One day family itinerary for Isla Mujeres

We stayed in Isla Mujeres for a month and explored most of the island but if I only had one day to do Isla, this

08/12/2018

Getting Around Isla Mujeres

Getting to and from Isla Mujeres Isla Mujeres is a short ferry trip from Cancun. There are a number of companies that will take you

08/12/2018

Things for a Family to Do in Isla Mujeres

There is a lot to do on Isla Mujeres for younger and older children. What I’ve listed here were our kids favourite activities to do

08/12/2018

Religion in Isla Mujeres

The Cemetery The cemetery was beautiful to visit. Each grave has a special area where families can celebrate their loved ones on the Day of

08/12/2018

Daily Living in Isla Mujeres

We stayed on Isla Mujeres for a month, mostly during November. While it did rain some nights and there were a couple of storms, the

08/12/2018

Take Your Family To Mexico

08/12/2018

Wildlife in New Orleans

The Bayou

The Bayou is where the ocean meets fresh water rivers and lakes, much like Auckland’s estuaries, where the tide creates a current in and out. It tends to be low lying areas with lots of sheltered areas for water plants to take root. This type of environment allows all sorts of wildlife to flourish (assuming that it’s not over-fished or over-hunted). When we went to a Louisiana Bayou we saw birds, turtles, fish and a baby alligator.