Ok, so first up let me apologise to those avid readers out there (aka Mum and Gran) who have been waiting so long for me top update my blog. I realise I am at least a month behind by now, if not more, and have long ago traded in North America for Europe, but don’t despair, I intend you fill you in on all my adventures…
From Tulum, we thought we were in need of some more beach time (Tulum had been so rough we couldn’t go in) so we headed straight to Isla Mujeres, bypassing Cancun like it was the plague. We’d heard that it was wonderfully beautiful up there. Unfortunately, it was not the island paradise that we were envisaging. We’ve been spoilt so badly by our adventure to the pristine and untouched San Blas islands. Isla Mujeres was a mini Cancun in terms of the millions of Americans that had invaded the small island. Everyone spoke English, every shop keeper nagged you incessantly to come into their store, it was just so touristy with streets lined with souvenir shops full of key rings and Corona singlets. It was just so un-Mexican. We left early the following morning, not even having spent 24 hours on the island to head to Merida; though we did get to enjoy the best Mediterranean plate and chorizo we’ve had to date at at restaurant called Comono while we were there.
The view from Isla Mujeres back towards CancunOn the way, we got our first Mexican bus experience – being good little backpackers we booked second class bus tickets for the 3 hour journey because it was at least $10 cheaper. At the time, we didn’t realise that the second class bus was not just cheaper because they lack a toilet and TV. After a good 5 hours on the bus, we realised that the bus was taking an entirely different route to the first class bus, taking an old bumpy highway and passing through and stopping at every minute town on the way. Seven and a half hours later, we arrived in Merida. We never bought a second class bus ticket again.
Though getting there was a huge pain in the bum, we loved Merida. It is a wonderfully vibrant city - everyday the zocalo (the main plaza) comes alive with festivities – music, dancing, markets, and food stalls. We spent days just wandering and watching the local people, including a plaza full of 70-something year olds carving up the dance floor with afternoon salsa, enjoying the buzz that this truly Mexican city has to offer. Annnnnd, I got to try mole (pronounced mol-ay) – the 21 ingredient sauce (including chocolate and chilli) that they like to put on everything, which was delicious!
OK, so this looks a bit gross, but this is mole sauce you can buy at the markets
Other adventures from Merida included:
(1) A day trip to Celestun – we made the 2 hour bus journey from Merida to Celestun with the hope of visiting some beautiful lagoons we’d seen in photographs that are home to thousands of flamingos. It being low season because tourists are kept away because it’s hurricane time, it was impossible to get a boat to take us around once we got there. While our potential guide tried to rummage up a few other participants we sat and enjoyed lunch in a beach front restaurant in which, despite my new ability to eat fish when forced, I ate the only non-fish item on the menu. Unfortunately, no one else was around to go on the tour, and when we refused to pay $700 Mexican Pesos to take the trip (the cost of filling every seat – about AUD 70), our hopes of seeing any flamingos or lagoons that afternoon quickly vanished and after a quick stint sunbaking which was cut short by storm clouds rolling in over the mountains, we got back on the bus to Merida. Shame! Though it was probably a blessing in disguise, with one girl at our hostel going three days in a row without one flamingo.
The beach at Celestun and the boats we would have taken had it not been low tourist season
2) Exploring Chichen Itza – we’d heard from other travellers that the ruins of Chichen Itza were amazing, and being one of the new seven wonders of the world we couldn’t just scoot past it so we got up at 530 to get on the 630 bus to the site. I was most impressed at ourselves – though it was pouring with rain when we woke we somehow managed to get our feet out the door on time to trudge to the bus station, which isn’t normally the case (though I must admit to some umming and arhing about whether to go because of the rain).
The early morning start was definitely worth it – the sky cleared up and we arrived right as the gates to the site were opened so we had the place almost entirely too ourselves except for a couple of other early risers and a random dog that was not interested in our pats what so ever.
The site is amazing – heaps of original carvings of snakes and skulls (a bit eerie) remain, unlike Tikal where there is only the odd relief scattered throughout the site and sheltered from the rain by newly built palm tree branch roof huts; here, they line the steps of the structures as protectors. My favourite spot in the place, besides the El Castillo that stands proud and greats you as you enter the site in the middle of a not so well maintained green lawn, was the Caracol (‘snail’ in Spanish) or observatory. It is amazing to think these people who lived thousands of years ago and had nothing but the naked eye as a tool could be so in tune and accurate in astronomy, including knowing that the solar calendar is 365 days long.
From the top: the main pyramid at Chicen Itza with
me and the random dog; one of the snakes that protects
the temples; Claire and I in front of the Observatory.
me and the random dog; one of the snakes that protects
the temples; Claire and I in front of the Observatory.
The following night, with it still pouring with rain in usually sunny Merida thanks to a hurricane off the coast of Mexico, we set off from our hostel to walk the 10 blocks to the bus station - We were all set for our lengthy journey to the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, via another site of ancient ruins – Palenque. On our walk to the bus stop, we were greeted by a “Oh my God!! I’ve been looking for you guys!! WELCOME!!” Turns out it was no more than a local drunk that was stumbling around in the rain. He insisted on personally escorting us to the bus stop, though we already new exactly where we were going. He did come in quite handy on the way there, apart from the time when he told us we were now at the bus stop and then replied “just kidding, this is a hospital” (it was a bus station, but the wrong one…), he would run out into the middle of the road, stop traffic, and wave us on like a lolly-pop man on a pedestrian crossing which is handy when you’re carrying 30kgs of stuff and can’t spare an extra second standing around. It did get a bit awkward though when we hit an intersection that was entirely flooded. As we tried to manoeuvre ourselves to the shallowest part, he ran straight through the knee high water to the middle, and with car horns blowing and lights flashing he stood there and said “take a photo… no, I don’t like that one… take a photo…”
After an all night bus ride along a very windy road, we stored our bags at the bus station in Palenque for some ridiculous per hour charge, and got a collectivo to the ruins. However, by this stage we were a bit ruined out, as I’m sure you are by now just from reading this, so we did a quick climb of the main temples before jumping back on the bus to keep going to San Cristobal.
San Cristobal is a wonderful little city. Apart from being a beautifully colourful place, it is full of good restaurants and activities with heaps of Indigenous villages close by to visit – where you can’t take any photos because the Indigenous believe it steals their souls. Shame for us that the entire 6 days we spent there it rained quite badly so our exploring was limited to running between places during breaks in the storms and ducking into the nearest cafe when the skies opened up again. In some ways the rain was a blessing. It gave us a much needed break from moving around so much, and it also meant that we discovered a lot of hidden restaurant and cafe gems. One in particular was a tiny one room and one man operated Italian restaurant called Napoli where we enjoyed the best Hawaiian pizza (which I’ve decided to stick to after a terrible pizza experience while branching out which consisted of 4 ingredients with each slice having a different ingredient. Who does that?!) and home made cannelloni. Having time to chill and sit around also gave us a chance to perfect our “get the local drunken pervert away from us technique.” With “No tocar” (“no touching”) having no effect on this guy who was oozing of booze, when he got too close for comfort for Claire and tried a sneaky hand up the leg manoeuvre I proceeded to squirt the entire contents of my water bottle all over him. He got the message and quickly left us to enjoy the afternoon sun.
While in San Cristobal, we had really wanted to visit the Canon del Sumidero – a canon that is one kilometre deep at points – so we took a punt and booked it for our last day in San Cristobal, hoping that there would be no rain because we couldn’t find a company that had tour boats with a roof and considering all the rain over the past few days we didn’t feel that hopeful that we wouldn’t get soaked. Luckily for us, it turned out to be a beautiful day and the canon was amazing, though the scenery was spoiled a little bit by all the rubbish that had flowed down from upstream because of all the rain and now covered parts of the Canon from bank to bank. As well as crocodiles and monkeys, we saw some breathtaking waterfalls and cliff faces as we bobbed along in our big orange boat.
From San Cristobal, our next stop was Oaxaca. We arrived just in time for the annual Mezcal festival (similar to Tequilla, and most types of it just as disgusting) which we enjoyed twice, sampling Mezcal of every flavour from creamy passionfruit ones to ones that were barely drinkable at almost 48% alcohol content. A little trick we learnt though: if you inhale, then shot, swallow and then breathe out it is a lot easier to shot very strong things. It still tasted disgusting to me, but it did help.
Oaxaca was very busy – we’d arrived just before a big local dance festival kicked off. Though we missed the big festival by a couple of days, we got a sneak peek of the dancing when a big parade made its way through the streets and right past our hostel. Big colourful skirts and bright suits danced down the street. My favourite was the pineapple dancing ladies. For some reason they all dance with a pineapple sitting on their shoulders(?!).
Oaxaca was lovely to wander around and explore. We spent a lot of time walking through the markets looking at all the things you can buy – from tiny turtles to giant piñatas. Grasshoppers was one thing we’d never seen before. From far away they look like nothing more than a pile of nuts, but on closer inspection you can see all their little bodies piled up together. Gross! You buy them in some sort of sauce to snack on. We were all game to try them until we saw the pile move and realised that some were still kicking. We quickly decided to pass. Plus there would have been the added yuk of getting grasshopper legs caught in my teeth, which I didn’t really fancy.
Puerto Escondido, as well as being the most lazy we’ve been the whole trip, was probably also the healthiest we’ve eaten. We stayed the week at whole week at a hostel just up the beach called Osa Mariposa which served delicious vegetarian food. Delicious is not usually a word I would use in the same sentence as ‘vegetarian’ considering how much I love a huge slab of steak, but we ate the hummus plate and falafel wrap so many times I cannot count, and we stayed for dinner on numerous occasions. Just to make you drool – one night we had pasta with barbequed vegies, including lightly crumbed eggplant with creamy pesto sauce. Ok, so it maybe doesn’t sound that good on paper, but I am drooling just thinking about it. It was so good, I asked for the recipe.
Next stop and last stop in Mexico – MEXICO CITY!!
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