It's been a while since the last entry as so much has happened. I am now into the second week of my all inclusive tour of MEXICO having such a ball with amazing people and sights.....
I left last time on the verge of leaving Costa Rica so I will commence from then on............
So yes: had a tough time getting up for my 3am departure on coach to El Salvador still feeling groggy.... This international bus service is awesome - very comfy, hi-tech buses with great staff aboard with food etc... During the first 18 hours of the trip, we crossed 3 boarders with 3 exits/entrances (Costa Rica - Nicaragua, Nicaragua - Honudras, Honduras - El Salvador)...Such a mission with scary poeple at each stop.... security with huge guns, crowds of beggards, loads of dodgy blokes wnating to exhange money etc....the process of crossing went smoothly though.. in some instances, the attendant on board just collected all the passports and rushed off the bus to get them all stamped in 1 go like... in other instances, there were hardcore bag searches and explanations to the point I felt i was in the army on a drill.... The time passed FAIRLY quickly as met loads of people reading the old lonely plante and also locals full of advice... watched shrek, shrek 2, ice age and another film so kept entertained.... hardly slept so felt zombified upon arrivial in El Salvador.
Stayed over in San Salvador, the capital, but was up at 4:30 for the connecting bus to Mexico.. Yay! The remaining 12 hours went vvvvery slowly... El Salvador - Guatemala and Guatemala - Mexico boarders were more intense and so was very glad to finally arrive in Tapachula, Chiapas where I promptly told the taxi driver to take me to the nearest and cheapest hostel so to crash.
On the Wednesday I just chilled in the town and took shelter in the 40 degree virtually 100% humid heat.....Tretaed meself to a fancy Mexican meal which was divine. Thursday I had to be up again at the crack of dawn so to get to the airport to catch my flight to CANCUN baby!!!! There was just no way I was catching 2 buses more to reach there so I indulged in faster comfort transport! There were great fun and games at the Tapachula airport where bags were checked twice, passports checked twice, to-ing and fro-ing etc. palava! The flight was great and I certainly saw some wicked views from the plane.. We passed over Mexico city which was awesome - mountains for miles, strips of concrete outlining the millions of houses and buildings etc...... The altitude of 2,300m above sea level was definitely noticed upon arrival as felt queezy. Connection to Cancun went fine and I finally arrived at my destination at 2pm Thursday.
Thankfully Cancun was fairly subdued due to the 3 day long bank holiday period during easter week, but loads of tourists and mexicans pouring in to make most of holiday time. Just got bearings and checked out the hotel where I would join my tour group. Met a strange Jap bloke in the hostel which I hadnt booked before. Very lucky as was told there was no accommodation left in the city. LIES. Crashed out after dinner to recharge batteries before a funky all inclusive cheap booze cruise to Isla Mujeres, half hour East of Cancun in the Carribean. - Well what a treat!
On Good Friday, the weather was kind, the boat was huge and had an open bar and buffet service with dancing and live music. the water was almost unbelievably crystal clear, not too deap, pale turquoise in colour. I took up the optional snorkelling activity with certain people on the cruiser, since I just could not let the chance of swimming in the world's 2nd largest coral reef barrier slip by. Was out of this world obviously, shame couldnt take pics of that one. What else did we do that day on the small island? bike ride, historical tour on foot and just lounding around on the golden beaches.... That evening I returned to 2 Ozzie lasses in the hostel who took me under their wings, already knowing the area quite welll..... What happened was something along the lines of an 18-30 evening out in the bustling hotel zone of Cancun, famous for hi-school aged yanks pouring in for Spring Break etc... the clubs were well posh and had live music as well as a dance stage etc. òpen bar.... finished at 6am so ruined following day.
On Saturday, just turned up at my tour joining hotel early and made good use of the pool. We had an orientation and welcome meeting at this hotel on Sat pm where I met my co-travellers to be! nice mix of folks really. 1 mid-aged kiwi couple, 1 mid-aged russian couple with Oz residence, then about 4 30plus ozzies and 5 early 20yr old ozzies and brits.... 17 in total. nice number. sharing hotel rooms with 2 guys. we have a GERMAN (stereotyical humour etc) woman as the tour guide/administrator and a cool mexican bus driver with local guides in each city on the trip as well for historical overviews.... won't bore you much more on this as pics will speak louder than words..
So what have I been up to on my tour so far? Basically, the majority of the first week was spent visting many of the most stunning and best preserved Mayan, Zapotecan and Aztec ruins in eastern mexico... First stop on easter sunday was Chichen Itza - aamzing mayan/toaltec pyramids and buildings. as regards the ruins themselves, its probably best to show yaz all the photos rather than describing...
..would get a bit monotonous methinks... 1 thing about C.I is that after 6 falls from the top of the tallest pyramid, the 7th persron died so ONLY then did they prohibit climbing up it. hmmm.. o wel...that afternoon we headed straight to Merida, a very nice colonial town westwards..culture was in full fow with street dancing and partying, with live musicians etc..... hotel had a pool again so nice to cool off. we had a stunning mixed mayan meal for a great rate in a restuarant overlooking the main square.
Easter Monday was a free options day in Merida so the group split off and we did our own thing.. i went swimming in a "snk hole"..just a large crater with fresh water and fauna inside, within ruins sites, where mayas were said to traidiotnally throw their dead sacrificial people..... was nice though?!?! that evening was my second wild night out where the group really bonded shall we say..we found ourselves in this local bar and had this funky mexican bloke serve us all evening at a table.. he got out sombreros for uss to wesr free, he brought us yard glasses of cocktails and force fed us tequila slammers etc and gave discount. very charming! then we proceeded to try our luck at slasa type dancing in a typical disco.... intriguing.
Tuesday 18th: painfully early start. left merida for Uxmal ruins another restored famous site with pretty much the same to offer... then we stopped off at a traditional maya house on the road to campeche....there we were shown cotton plants, tequila plants, fresh tortilla making on a stove, tried out a family sized hammock, saw how rope was made from grating this plant and drying out the skin type thing. fascinating. (i have the unfortunate role of translating/interpreting and getting us out of shit on a frequent basis on this trip since Im the only one with a fairly extensive knowledge of spanish lingo :S so you can imagine....)
We arrived in Campeche t-time and had a short orientation tour. we ate fish at a local resturant then went to a bar where tension finally erupted in the group. 2 ozzies girls thought it would a be great to order shots of water as spirits and propose to the rest of the group to have voddie of tequila ...got them drunk and they fell for it but problems with the bill led to outbursts later on ooops..... not good point to end evening!
Wed was another free day in Campeche where we just took a tram around the city and explored local artisan and food markets really....
Thurs. long drive to Palenque next......5 hours on road...our tour bus is bright yellow with tv on board, multi cd player, a fridge,a safe, a mini library and tables at back so plenty of amusement. no toilets though!!! pain for those with delicate stomachs and fragile bowels.
Palenque: favourite spot so far........................... that evening we had group meal and crashed early as the following day was an early riser to yet more ruins, but these were out of this world.. more green, open plan, cut out of the forest overgrowth..... stunning..... we had to search for a hotel witha pool that afternoon as it was sooooo incredibly hot and sticky. that evening we bought booze from off licence and played my 12 card drinking game with thumbs/swigs of drink forfeits for various rules etc... half the group were up for it and it was certainly enlightening! great fun in the hotel rooms but my goodness did i feel rough as the following morn.
Friday - went to these 2 different waterfall sites so i dipped early in the morn... spent 2 hours just lounging around the lagoons and recovering... then there was another 5 hour drive to San Cristobal De Las Casas..... this town was magical in that there were open squares and boulevards uite similar to french cities... altitude of 2 200 metres so the weathe was COOL as and overcast... such a blessing after weeks in scorching heat getting sunburnt often. out came the woolies believe it or not. orientation was followed by a divine thai/hindu/vietnamise meal in a hippie international cuisine restaurant for pennies... nice chillout sesh followed by early night.
Saturday - another highlight so far..... we were escorted up to these 2 isolated 100% mayan villiages in the highlands around the city where the mexican president is FORBIDDEN entry unless authorised, where rituals and sacrificies are v close to centuries ago, dress sense is conservative and photo taking is forbidden for fear of evils etc. weird.... you may have heard about the zapatista mouvements and uprisings a couple of decades ago with genral marcos etc..... well this feeling is still very vivid today... they want autonomy and dont consider themselves mexicans... no taxes paid, poor education and so on........ chickens are stranged, coca cola is consumed - ALL AS A DAILY CONFESSION PROCESS similiar to going to a cathoic chruch confession....crazy but they truly believe in it. for the rest of the day we strolled the streets really..... Night-time was the best... another wild night where certain things withing the group came to a head as expected.... romance on the cards lol!!!!!! flyers promoting drink deals in clubs etc so we couldnt turn that down.... this was more of a back home style night out really.... boogying away to familiar tunes...... zzzzzz
Sunday - left at 8:00 for the canon del sumidero where we had a rough speed boat tour ride of this canon...saw crocdiles, iguanas, monkeys, birds................ drove on to this shitty small town just for overnight stay..... hotel was aweful with blocked loos, no water or air con etc o wel..-.
That evening to top it all off, we received news that our bus engine wouldnt start ie doors openining and luggage compartments.. so evry1 was stressed out. all was fine folowing day though.... worst yet to come..
Monday 24th - 6:00 early rise for Mitla ruins.. no guide so pretty boring... then onward to this cool famous mezcal factory where this spirit simialr to tequila is made... got shown the distilling and fermentation processes and of course sampled one of the many different favlour drinks...couldnt help but purchase half a dozen miniatrure bottles.. tastes nicer than tequila... well the shitty cheap stuff we know back in UK anyhow.... then we explored the site which had emus and other animals on.. then we had a short drive to where we are now in Oaxaca, a beautiful city with boulevards and open squares etc. we have a casualty on the tour now in addition to diarrhoea sufferers.. this 49 yr old guy who drinks and doesnt eat and doesnt exercise seems to have a seriuos infection. so thats a shame.... yesterday evenining the rest of us were entertained by local folklore and regionsal dances by the locals in traitional outfits.... nice alternative..
Today we went to another ruin site v high up in the mountains with an amzaing panorama of the surrounding Oaxaca valley.........we were held up for an hour and a half this morning where our the abck of our bus scraped against a ridge in the road and thus damaged the chassis and burst open oil tank so the traffic was going crazy and we were stranded half way up hill. we caught taxis to our ruin site but we still dont know what the bus is like now afte was towed away!!! first time ever apparently....
this aftee we plan to sit in cafes and catch up and write postcards before heading out on the town as it is a uni town.
later
hope you get gist of this ranting.. i fel i will forget most if leave any longer....
