We spent new year's eve drinking beer in our hammocks, then in the evening we headed off to the Blue Iguana bar where we sat in the sand & watched fireworks & a huge bonfire they had there. Later we went to a different smaller bar, where a live reggae band was playing.
A few more words on Zipolite - the sea there was crazy. It was actually quite dangerous, they have a couple of drownings a year there due to incredibly powerful currents & undertow. But it's wicked fun swimming there (or rather 'playing' - swimming is not actually possible unless you swim right out beyond the breakers). The waves were huge & constantly changing, so that sometimes they approached at diagonal angles & collided, and sometimes a wave would surge back from the shore as big as the oncoming one, & it was a little nerve-wracking to be caught in the middle as they smashed together. Several times the waves slapped us so hard on the backs of our heads that we were totally stunned & thrown right down onto the sea-bed. One time I attempted to body-surf a big wave in to the shore, & was flipped right over so that my feet went up over my head & I didn't know which way was up down left or right... As our ex-hippy friend Mike said, that sea has an uncanny tendency to suddenly turn on you & 'grind your face into the sand'. On our last day we rented boogie-boards for an hour which was great, most times we sailed fairly gently into shore but occassionally we'd find ourselves hurtling forwards gripping the board in sheer terror as it was throw from side to side... we usually emerged from the sea & collapsed onto the sand not realising until afterwards just how drained we were.
The other guests at the place we were staying were worth a mention too - we met some great people, all between 40 & 60 (which made a nice change from the young, strutting twats at the 'trendy' end of the beach). Gunther & Heidi were Austrian & German respectively... they were lovely but Gunther was continually disappointed in his attempts to get people to go jogging with him early every morning. The other three were Norweigan - I never grasped the husband's name but the wife was called Erika & the son Erik! The couple were both extremely tall, & their son was like a curly-haired Norse elf. One evening there was a bonfire on the beach for him, to which Richard & I contributed marshmallows (which Erika had never seen toasted before). Erik took to them with joy but never managed to toast one himself without dropping it either in the sand or in the fire.
The other thing we liked about Zipolite was the wildlife - the sea was full of fish, and pelicans flew overhead as we swam, diving impressively from time to time. There were some brilliant birds too, which made us feel like we were finally nearing rain-forest territory... and one night we saw a pretty huge iguana hiding in a tree. On the other hand, there were plenty of mosquitos too, and on new years day I awoke painfully aware that I'd forgotten to put any repellant on the previous day. My legs were a mass of bites which mad me look like I had some horrible disease, and they itched for about 3 days straight.
Our journey to our current location, San Cristobal, wasn't quite as simple as we'd predicted. We got stranded overnight in this godforsaken resort town further along the coast... there were no seats left for any of the overnight buses the day we arrived there from Zipolite. So... we got a hotel room & decided to check out the nearest beach even though our guidebook said it wasn't great. There were no buses between beaches there - only taxis - which goes to show what kind of clientele usually went there. As we got out of our can we were accosted by a waiter who escorted us to a table on the sand. There was actually NO sand on the tiny hideous beach that wasn't covered by restaurant tables. We passed a little harbour with jetskis and gaudy boats bobbing in it, and we were seized with giggles at the crapness of it all. 'We've come to the wrong place!' tittered Richard. We attempted to walk to the next beach - past a lovely military base & unnaturally green & neat lawns (the rest of the vegetation was parched & brown). The hotels were in psuedo-Mediterranean style, & painted colours like bright pink with white trimmings. But when we spied it from a hill-top we gave up, it looked just as crap as the last one. The next day was not a total loss however - we consulted a taxi driver about which beach might be less busy, and he recommended one that you reached by walking for 20 minutes through the woods. He dropped us at apparently a deserted stretch of road, and pointed to a barely-visible path leading off into the woods. The walk in itself made up for everything else - there was towering vegetation all around & bright yellow & blue birds in the trees. The beach too was much much nicer - with only 5 people on it & no restaurants at all. In the distance tour-boats went past, we spied the tasteful 'Tequila Catamaran', but thankfully none of them came to our beach. So we had a nice hour or two there before our gruelling 11-hour bus-ride to San Cristobal...
And that's all my news... the only thing we've done so far in San Cristobal is visit the Museum of Maya Medicine, which shows you how they cure people by passing live chickens over their bodies.