We did an amazing thing today and GOT UP EARLY. Up at 7am to be at palenque ruins when it opened at 8am. Infact we were the first people in! and ohhh i liked palenque so much better than chichen itza. It was reasonably tepid at 8 so also gives you enough engery to climb all the ruins, which really are in pretty good nick. there were so many and all surrounded by thick jungle (could hear those monkeys again!). We were able to walk into 1 tomb and all around the palace. Saw so many carvings in the rocks they used, really amazing. cant really describe it, best look at photos but even den was impressed.
Outta there in time for breaky (COFFEEEEEE) and on the bus at 1140. record time. Lovely drive this time (well apart from the windy corners) through jungle and slowly see the bush change from hot jungle to more dense forest. Mmmmm cooler climates! and yes we get off the bus and its cool! lovely.
Nice backpackers place, le gite. And ll these backpacker restaurants!!! which is always nice as it makes it a bit easy. buuuurgers for dinner. Nomnomnom!
Saturday 28 May 2011
25th May Campeche - Palenque, mexico
Another day, another bus. Today we took the bus to palenque. Whew! 6.5 hours...delayed because of MASSIVE road works and so hungry i could eat my arm. Still watched 2 episodes of outrageous fortune on the bus so not toooo bad. Thought we would be able to buy lunch on the go, buit the 2 stops were just full of chocolate and chips. even too much for me. Luckily had 2 AWESOME muffins and some 'nanas to keep us (sort of) going.
Arrived palenque and took a taxi to an out of town place called El Panchan...its this...community of backpacker places in the jungle. I tell den, you can tell its jungle by the vines. You can also tll its jungle when you wake up to screaming monkeys in the night,...
found a wee cabin and thank christ we got our own bthroom else i would have wet the bed avoiding th trip outside to th shared bathroom to avoid the monkeys and god knows what else. never send me into the amazon! i'm not a hero!
Anyways our room was comfy and apart from some FLUSHING issues very good price. Part of jungle palace...not really a palace! We gorged on beer and pizza and HEAVEN, garlic bread. Nice to have some home-y food.
Arrived palenque and took a taxi to an out of town place called El Panchan...its this...community of backpacker places in the jungle. I tell den, you can tell its jungle by the vines. You can also tll its jungle when you wake up to screaming monkeys in the night,...
found a wee cabin and thank christ we got our own bthroom else i would have wet the bed avoiding th trip outside to th shared bathroom to avoid the monkeys and god knows what else. never send me into the amazon! i'm not a hero!
Anyways our room was comfy and apart from some FLUSHING issues very good price. Part of jungle palace...not really a palace! We gorged on beer and pizza and HEAVEN, garlic bread. Nice to have some home-y food.
24th May - Merida - Campeche, Mexico
we took a bus to a stop off town today..campeche. Found a nice dark room (read...dark = no sunlight = cool) and tried to look around. WAY WAY WAY too hot, so brought some peanuts and coke, cooled down and had a rest! Took a cab tonight to a LP suggestion for fresh fish...not really what i had in mind...thought it would be small fishing shacks...turns out a series of fish restaurants. Nice dinner tho, overlooking the water and trying to discourage the hawkers. We ended up walking home along the malecon (boardwalk)...full of campechians running and then several orghanised aerobics sessions. Looks like campeche is making in-roads to tackle the massive problem (no pun intended!!) of mexican obesity. by the looks of it, its a bad problem here...and soooo much takeout and sugary foods.
23rd May - Merida, Mexico
Ahhhh a lay day. it is SOOO hot at night, i am sleeping under my wet sarong at night, a classic dennis suggestion, but it does keep you cool. not much sleep then. room has 2 fans, so stuffy. miss my cuban air con! viva la revolution and free electricity!
So we had a quiet day today and mished about town. Checked out the markets full of goceries, MEAT, lots of pig heads and flowers! in town, so hot, kept ducking into the air conned shops. streets are busy and the pavements are so small! fashion in mexico has a bit of a mind of its own...purple and yellow are big here and mostly...it just needs to be tight and short. realised i am taller than surely at least 97% of the women and most of the men too! Made like the locals and got an iced frappe from OXXO...LOVELY. Nice dinner at a local joint. mmmmm guacamole.
So we had a quiet day today and mished about town. Checked out the markets full of goceries, MEAT, lots of pig heads and flowers! in town, so hot, kept ducking into the air conned shops. streets are busy and the pavements are so small! fashion in mexico has a bit of a mind of its own...purple and yellow are big here and mostly...it just needs to be tight and short. realised i am taller than surely at least 97% of the women and most of the men too! Made like the locals and got an iced frappe from OXXO...LOVELY. Nice dinner at a local joint. mmmmm guacamole.
22nd may - Merida, Mexico
decided on something a bit different today and went to some Cenotes...basically caves with nice big natural swimming pools in them. It sounded like a bit of a mish and so at breakfast (PEANUT BUTTER, get in) i heard 2 japanese girls ask about it, thiking it would be good to team up...aka 4 heads better than 2, we went together but turns out that they were so sweet and polite and their english not so good....they tagged along with us! but that was fine. So we took a collectivo...minibus that just waits til its full and then leaves to a small town. There we caught moto-trikes (take from that what you will) and THEN the best part, a horse drawn carriage that runs on a small rail way! wicked. We went to 3 cenotes, all having to climb down some steep steps, except for the last, which was a full on ladder about 30 feet down! the water was fresh and cool and heavenly! it was a bit spooky swimming around , especially in the dark parts! 2 of th cenotes had holes to the ground, and light streamed right in and through the clear clear water, you could see the bottom. turns out i float and den sinks so he spent most of the tie clinging to the edge and i actually for once, out sported him (anyone!) and fished about. took most of the day to do this, the carriage rides between the cenotes were about 10-15 minutes sometimes! it was so ricketty and turning any corners really felt like some sort of a surreal disney ride (remnants of thunder mountain perhaps??).
so tired, slept on the way home! (in the collectivo, not the rickertty cart!)
Then found once we were back at the hostel, a big THING on at the square, just outside! a band was playing on a special stage, and food stands everywhere. Thought this was a perfect place to have some of our favourite panuchos, but alas the language barrier produced a big FAIL of BLACK panuchos. It looked like gutter water. didn't taste great either. compensated slightly with corndog. NICE.
so tired, slept on the way home! (in the collectivo, not the rickertty cart!)
Then found once we were back at the hostel, a big THING on at the square, just outside! a band was playing on a special stage, and food stands everywhere. Thought this was a perfect place to have some of our favourite panuchos, but alas the language barrier produced a big FAIL of BLACK panuchos. It looked like gutter water. didn't taste great either. compensated slightly with corndog. NICE.
Saturday 21 May 2011
21st May - Chichen Itza - Merida, Mexico
We trekked from Chichen itza to merida today. Trek is a strong word...we took an aircon bus and i think it was the coolest ive felt all day. Now im in a hostel in merida which is lovely, but the sweat is literally dripping from me and its really really hard to do the “one coke a day” rule when all you feel like is an ice cold coke or beer! perhaps i can stretch the rule today.
Bus ride ws fine and then walking through a few blocks in merida, we realised we hadn't really been in a proper mexican city! and it is saturday and the pavements are heaving with shoppers. lots and lots of colourful pinatas for sale! did a bit of perusing and had a cheaaaaap hotdog for lunch. but hey...it helped the budget. and hopefully that means something substaintial and beer-included for dinner. tho we're hardly starving.
but finally heat a bit too much and we've had to have a siesta. shame! hahah
Ahhh den mished down to OXXO for an ice cold coke and beer. lovely.
Bus ride ws fine and then walking through a few blocks in merida, we realised we hadn't really been in a proper mexican city! and it is saturday and the pavements are heaving with shoppers. lots and lots of colourful pinatas for sale! did a bit of perusing and had a cheaaaaap hotdog for lunch. but hey...it helped the budget. and hopefully that means something substaintial and beer-included for dinner. tho we're hardly starving.
but finally heat a bit too much and we've had to have a siesta. shame! hahah
Ahhh den mished down to OXXO for an ice cold coke and beer. lovely.
20th May - Tulum to Chichen Itza, Mexico
we arrived in Chichen itza today...a longer bus ride and 2 movies in spanish. can work out a childrens movie fine but a paranormal movie with a twist? still working that one out.
Found a hostel first hit which was great cos dennis wanted to trek around in 30 degree heat with packs on to save 2 quid. i can't grumble too much, if the monies was left to me i'd hve eaten and showered it all in 3 days. did make a cranking spreadsheet tho.
Anyways nice wee CHEAP bungalow and nice and dark too...keep out that sun! walked into piste, we decided it was better to see the chichen itza ruins in late afternoon, so we grabbed an early lunch...PANUCHOS again but gosh they good. I did end up with some picante (HOT) on my lips....not recommended.
Anyways...PISTE (small town outside of chichen itza) is 1 km long...didn't take us long to walk around and see all of the non-sites. SO few hours to kill in the middle of the day...what better to do than SIESTA! i passed out for about 1.5 hours. All that hard work in the sun and beach had clearly got to me.
But arose perky and ready for ruins. i even suggested we walk there!! paid a small fortune to enter but sooo worth it, and amazing seeing something so old...and something that you seen on tele so many times. Discovered that the big pyramid is actually a calendar with the 4 sides of 91 steps to equal the 365 days a year. pretty cool. Saw a few sacrificial ...stages. these are the ones with skulls carved in them. They even had a football field/stadium! apparently noone really sure how they played but that they apparently think that the losing team captain and possibly team members may have been sacrificed. guttered.
kind of awe-inspiring to see all these old structures. hears hoping the mayans were good at construction and shite at fortune telling (world supposed to end december 2012.
MORE PANUCHOS for dinner. and the worlds biggest bottle of SOL to share in the local. nice.
Found a hostel first hit which was great cos dennis wanted to trek around in 30 degree heat with packs on to save 2 quid. i can't grumble too much, if the monies was left to me i'd hve eaten and showered it all in 3 days. did make a cranking spreadsheet tho.
Anyways nice wee CHEAP bungalow and nice and dark too...keep out that sun! walked into piste, we decided it was better to see the chichen itza ruins in late afternoon, so we grabbed an early lunch...PANUCHOS again but gosh they good. I did end up with some picante (HOT) on my lips....not recommended.
Anyways...PISTE (small town outside of chichen itza) is 1 km long...didn't take us long to walk around and see all of the non-sites. SO few hours to kill in the middle of the day...what better to do than SIESTA! i passed out for about 1.5 hours. All that hard work in the sun and beach had clearly got to me.
But arose perky and ready for ruins. i even suggested we walk there!! paid a small fortune to enter but sooo worth it, and amazing seeing something so old...and something that you seen on tele so many times. Discovered that the big pyramid is actually a calendar with the 4 sides of 91 steps to equal the 365 days a year. pretty cool. Saw a few sacrificial ...stages. these are the ones with skulls carved in them. They even had a football field/stadium! apparently noone really sure how they played but that they apparently think that the losing team captain and possibly team members may have been sacrificed. guttered.
kind of awe-inspiring to see all these old structures. hears hoping the mayans were good at construction and shite at fortune telling (world supposed to end december 2012.
MORE PANUCHOS for dinner. and the worlds biggest bottle of SOL to share in the local. nice.
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