Hi All,
Sorry it’s been a while and I haven’t been able to reply to the emails which you have sent, I will get around to it eventually. There has been a a lot of political stuff going on over the last few months so it has been hard to find a reliable internet provider which doesn’t attach all political spam to e-mails which can be annoying. Luckily where I am staying at the moment the owner has his own PC so safe enough. I will try and catch up over the next few weeks as we leave Mexico to Guatemala so hopefully the internet will be fine.
A bit late, but here goes, second month of traveling in Mexico, even though I am near the end of my third month! Once again we have traveled many miles, 1800 in total and some more very long trips on the buses.
We finally arrived in Campeche after a 9 hour bus journey, which are never the best as very difficult to get any sleep, a combination of uncomfy seats, load Music from the driver or Mexican film, snores or even worse travel sickness! The only positive to come from it are all the the long journeys have been overnight so saves the cost of a nights accommodation!
On our arrival we were very tired so couldn’t be bothered traipsing around looking for the best deal for accommodation, so trusted are lonely planet guide, which every travelers learns to depend on as their bible. Unfortunately on this occasion it didn’t come up trumps. On first impression the room was nice and clean and the cheapest up to now at 8 pound per night. We took the room and got a few hours kip and we woke in the afternoon with the midday sun shining through our window making the room very hot. Didn’t really think much of it and went out exploring the city, which I will tell you about later. We we got back to the room it was like an oven and the mozzies were out in force and it stayed that way until the morning. A night of no sleep and a few pints lighter, blood and sweat that is! The second days aim was to find somewhere else to stay. We managed to find the best room of our travels up to now. The room was huge, with two double beds and high ceilings in a typical old colonial house and surprise surprise the hotel was called colonial house!! It had a great air-con system which was a great escape from the outdoor heat and no mozzies, a bargain for 15 pound per night. Campeche is very similar to some of our older towns in England by being surrounded by a fortress wall and lots of picturesque buildings. You can spend for ever walking the streets and the wall and find something to catch your eye, similar to York. As most of Mexican cities there is a huge Cathedral as center of attention, they do like there religionon. In Campeche´s case this was on the edge of the Main Square or Zocalo as they call it. We were fortunate to witness a graduation ceremony. There were about 100 teens dressed in suits or gown dresses as they went to the cathedral for the fathers blessing and take part in mass to celebrate graduating. A pretty impressive site. I felt sorry for the blokes as it was very hot and having to wear a suit is not the best, I’m surprised no body passed out!
The heat is still playing a big factor in everything we do. For now I have found a great antidote. A raspardo, a cup of crushed ice and choice of different flavours, my favorite being Uva (grape). I must being having 2-3 a day and a great way to combat the heat, for a short while anyway and a bargain at 25p a go. If only the bars would do them with alcohol, I could be drinking them into the night too!!
From Campeche we visited Edzna, home of more ruins from 600 BC to 1500AD. As you can imagine a lot of the ruins are becoming very similar and you find yourself being very picky. What I liked about Edzna was the peacefulness and open spaces. This helped as there were very few tourists and the ruins were in great shape and easy to imagine what it originally looked like. The main thing that stood out was the Nohochia (big house), a massive elongated structure with built in benches for spectators to watch ritual events, sport and theatre. Once at the top, you had great views of the whole city and were an impressive site.
After Campeche we were off to Palenque for more ruins, 100 BC-240 AD, but this time set in thick jungle and my favorite to date. The town of Palenque was not really a pretty site, looks like one of those places that doubles in size every year. An overcrowded and disorganized place with lots of character, so I liked the place straight away! The town is in a middle of a valley, so surrounded by beautiful scenery and reminded me off a lot of the towns in S/E Asia. The first night it rained like I never seen before. A big dark and angry cloud came from over the hills and the heavens opened. Within minutes the roads turned into rivers and caused havoc to all the street sellers trying to pitch up all there stuff before it got washed away. The noise was deafening as the rain poured down and the thunder and lighting to add to it made it look like the town was going to disappear overnight. We were gladly locked away safely in our hotel room and just watched the entertainment from the window, better than T.V any day!
The next day was the visit of the ruins at Palenque temple. Once again lots of tourists so we planned our route so we could get some good pictures before everybody started clambering around the place. With the ruins being set in jungle and it being early in the morning the place was covered in the morning mist making it more of an eerie and surreal place with the noise of the birds, insects and howler monkeys just like something out of Indiana Jones. The ruins were spectacular and reminded me of the ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, so brought back some happy memories. We spent about 5 hours exploring, I found it hard to believe how they were ever built considering the Mayans didn’t use the wheel as it was considered it sacred, nor did they use pack animals or have metal tools. All completed by hard labour. The ruins today like all ruins are grey, but in their heyday they were painted blood red, vivid blues, greens and yellows, they must have looked amazing and magical. We were also lucky enough to see one of the resident Howler Monkeys and got some good photos. We couldn’t believe how huge it was, at least as big as a teenage boy, and looked very graceful swinging through the trees. We were alone when we saw it luckily as I had to throw stones into the surrounding trees to try and get it into a good position for a photo! This must have taken 30 minutes, eventually I must have thrown a stone a little too close and it went a bit mental and shot off into the jungle, it must have thought some other monkey had gotten a little too close to his territory so he went to investigate. I wonder if David Attenborough has ever had to do anything similar?!
I also got to see my first and so far only Mexican snake, a tiny thing about 3ft long and as wide as a hot dog! It was all black with stripes of yellow, I don’t think it was poisonous but I kept my distance anyway.
After the ruins it was an afternoon of visiting waterfalls, Misol-Ha and Agua Azules. Both were made famous by the Predator movie, fans of this film will remember them near the end when Arnie was fighting the predator and he fell over the waterfall. The water here was freezing but a great escape from the humidity and heat. The only problem like most places with water were the screaming brats, it didn’t help that we were there on a weekend! Luckily it was large enough to find a quiet spot and relax surrounded by mountains and the sound of the waterfall.
After Palenque we traveled to the highland town of San Cristobal De Las Casas, another 6 hour coach ride and probably the worst journey to date! Due to the town being in the mountains there was switch back after switch back and the driver seemed to be under the impression he was a formula 1 driver! It was like being on a roller coaster for 6 hours and we both felt very travel sick. For the last hour I had to concentrate very hard on not being sick, it didn’t help that others behind us were pucking. I couldn’t hold it any longer, luckily Michelle had a plastic bag (without holes!) into which I spewed as discreetly as I could, anybody who´s seen/heard me being sick, should know that’s not something I do very easily! I was bent down on Shells legs and she had the pleasure of feeling the sick going into the bag on her legs! At first she said it was nice and warm, but that wore off with the realization that she was sitting with a bag of puke in her lap! Typically, 15 minutes later we arrived at our destination, I was gutted, if I’d have known I’m sure I could have held it in! The timing of the bus couldn’t have been any worse, not 5 mins after arrival the heavens opened similar to Palenque and we had to wait in the bus station for an hour hoping it would stop. We had waterproofs but even with them we would have been soaked! Looking back we should have just legged it to the first hotel instead of waiting, as after an hour all of the roads were flooded and we had to wade through them with our heavy bags and water up to our ankles, my shoes took about a week to dry! Finally after an hour of wading we found a hotel cheap enough, we were both soaked and looked like drowned rats, we stayed 3 nights to take advantage of the cold air and not have to worry about sweating or using sun cream! Typically though we both got a cold and all I wanted was my Mums chicken broth! Thankfully we found a good enough substitute, ´consome de pollo´ (chicken soup with rice and veg) that sorted us right out. Michelle found her substitute in another way, retail therapy, this place is renowned for its Amber and silver jewellery, all housed in quaint shops. The girls would have loved it, all very cheap and pretty unique, she bought a necklace and bracelet for 15 quid, bargain! Another thing it’s famous for is its hot chocolate, so she was obviously very much at home! The area of San Cristobal due to its remoteness has lots of indigenous people and you see them selling their wares on street corners and in the market places. Their clothing is very bright and they look very colourful, they always had a nice smile which worked as a good selling technique as we bought some tacky souvenirs, just for the sake of giving them some money. The area has a resident rebel movement know as the Zapatistas, they are trying to break away from the Mexican government and become a self governing Mayan state, so they can have equality and fairness for the indigenous population. They have been a poor exploited people for a long time and want the rich to give some of the land they took´, back to the Mayan people, so you can understand their claims. When marching they all wear black balaclavas and look a bit scary, similar to the old IRA. They have been fighting the government for the last 12 years, over the last few years though the protests have been peaceful with more propaganda over the internet, so we were safe enough.
The days we were there was the start of the 2 weeks leading up to one of their largest festivals, unfortunately for us the main church would ring its bells and set off huge fireworks at 6am and every 15 minutes after until 8am! We asked at the hotel why they did this and apparently the festival time is a time of partying, at 6am in the morning I don’t think so, not my kind of party anyway! So, as you can see, lots of bright and early starts for us each day, it’s just a shame it also rained every day and got soaked or stuck in a café for 2 hours waiting for it to stop!
San Cristobal itself has a lot of Italian influence with its bars and restaurants. On our last day we fancied some nice pasta, unfortunately, it was the worst pasta we’ve ever had, and it was even cooked by an Italian chef to add insult to injury! The pasta was undercooked and the meat was like dog food, an Italian who can’t cook pasta, I didn’t think it existed. One of our other great buys was a 2 quid waterproof poncho that keeps us dry, it’s so big it even covers our rucksacks and it will come in very handy. Michelle thought I looked like Bruce Willis in the film Unbreakable, Ill show you the photos one day!
From San Cristobal we took an overnight bus to Oaxaca City. It took 12 hours and I managed to keep my food down for this journey! We were both looking forward to Oaxaca as we had heard great things. Upon arrival though things didn’t start too well, the taxi dropped us on the edge of the Zocalo as he couldn’t go any further due to the entire area being blockaded with corrugated iron fences. We entered the barricade through a gap in the fence and the place looked like a bombsite. It had also been overrun by mass graffiti artists. Our first impression was that the taxi driver had just dropped us in the middle of nowhere and as it was dark (6am) we didn’t know what to think. We managed to find some street signs and after all we were in the right place. Confused we found the hotel we had previously booked and checked in. The reception guy didn’t speak a word of English and Michelle’s´ Spanish didn’t stretch to asking him what had happened or to understand his reply at such an early hour. The hotel was expensive but nice enough, the first thing I did was put the T.V on and City was playing Shanghai, then Utd were playing after them against Porto in the Amsterdam tournament, so I was happy with that!
After a few hours sleep we ventured out and everything began to sink in. Something big had happened here and the locals were not happy. Every building around the Zocalo (square) had graffiti on it and the whole area; around 200m square were covered in makeshift tents filled with demonstrators. A lot of the lower floors of the buildings had been burned out and destroyed. The only building untouched was a large Cathedral-no surprise there. We managed to find out the demonstration was due to a Teacher strike which started in May and the presidential elections in July. Only 2weeks before we arrived, the Army was called in to remove the protestors and 11 people were killed, including 2 children. Since then the demonstrations have been peaceful but the police are not welcome or safe to enter the area! After speaking to a few people they said that we shouldn’t worry as tourists are still welcome, even though next to our hotel some graffiti says ´turistas go home´! The problem lies with the corrupt state Governor Ulises and not the tourists. Even with this turmoil we still stayed 6 nights and had a great time. With no police the people in the area started there own vigilante groups to ensure things wouldn’t get out of hand. We heard stories of thieves having hands chopped of and sex offenders having other things removed for there crime. May sound harsh, but it kept the streets safe.
We visited all the local sights, the best of these were the Hierve El Agua, a petrified water fall (rock formation that looks like a waterfall). At the top of this was natures own infinity pool with nice cool waters and fantastic panoramic views of the surrounding valleys, it was very peaceful and a great place to relax.
After the political turmoil we encountered we decided to look into the situation more deeply, the election in July was very close, less than 2% separated the left wing and right wing candidates. The current government is the right and a new president has to be chosen every 6 years, from either within his party or the opposition if voted in. The right won but it was the closest election in history and due to this the loser has disputed the result, claiming electoral fraud and demanded a recount of the votes. The left have been getting evidence of dirty tricks employed by the previous government to win the election. The worst of these were in the last year, the government gave out lots of free subsidies to the poorer people, e.g, concrete mix and other house building materials, so they could build better houses than the wooden shacks they were living in. To be eligible to obtain these handouts they would have to fill in lots of paperwork and hand over their ID cards, the government was true to their word; they gave them the materials but were slow in giving the ID cards back thus ensuring they were unable to vote for the opposition. Records show that these people did vote and all were for the current government, so their votes were essentially stolen by the government in order to keep themselves in power. This is just one of the many tricks employed, this has now gone to the High courts and was resolved on 6th September, it was found that the original count was correct and the loser is still the loser. Unfortunately he doesn’t agree, and neither do his supporters. I’m not sure when/if this will end and I’m sure there will be more trouble in the future.
One of the Golden rules is never to travel to a country during an election year, trust us!
2 weeks after we left Oaxaca the school term started and so did the riots in earnest as the teachers were still on strike. They even hijacked radio stations, burned buses and stopped traffic entering/leaving for a few days.
After Oaxaca was Veracruz, this was a strange place. Not too much to do during the day but the nightlife was fantastic and reminded me of a typical holiday resort. The Zocalo came to life with Mariachi music and traveling musicians, from solo artists to bands 10 strong, playing everything from guitars and violins to trumpets and marimbas! The square was surrounded by restaurants meaning the musicians moved from table to table selling their services for a few pesos. Because I’m a pickey I just listened to everyone else’s bands and got a free night of entertainment! The other attraction was the port and harbour, you could walk along it at sunset and browse all the various market stalls, all selling tacky tourist gifts. The atmosphere was great and felt like Blackpool without the arcades or cold wind!
On one of the days we decided to go to the local aquarium, I’m glad we did as it was fab. It was only 2 quid to get in and there were lots to see and do. It was good to see lots of the fish we’ve seen diving even closer up and get some info about them. We also got to see manatees; they look like a cross between a hippo and a dolphin, really odd. It was good to see these as we hope to be able to swim in the wild with these later on in our trip. It was a bit sad to see them though, the tank was tiny for 5 full grown manatees and they looked very bored swimming around in circles.
After Veracruz was Xalapa (Halapa). This place was the opposite of Veracruz as in lots to do during the day but nothing to do during the night. We didn’t know much about this place so once again we trusted the recommendations of the Lonely Planet and it didn’t let us down! The coach journey was very picturesque, rolling green hills and snow capped dormant volcanoes on the horizon and also the live volcano blowing smoke plumes from its peak. I’ve always liked volcanoes and would love to see one erupting or get close to a lava field to witness it first hand. The opportunity was there to do it here but unfortunately it was expensive and you had to be an experienced snow climber, so there goes that one! Hopefully the opportunity will present itself in the future.
One of the main things we wanted to see here was the Museum of Anthropology, apparently one of the best in Mexico. It was brilliant, we spent all day there (much to Michelle’s delight ??!!) The main attraction was the giant Olmec heads, similar to those on Easter Island, you may have seen them on T.V, and as were hoping to visit this Island later next year and thought it would be good to see something similar. The Olmecs are one of México’s oldest inhabitants and the museum had 10ft high statues up to 3000 years old. It also had lots of pottery and jewelled funary masks.
Surprise, surprise there were more presidential protestors here. Due to our good timing they just happened to be protesting outside the government offices as we arrived! There were around 100 police dressed like Robocop in body armour with shields. A bit scary at first but we got ourselves a drink and watched it pass peacefully. After Oaxaca it seems to be a normal occurrence, easy to sit back and not worry too much about it.
After a few days we moved onto Puebla, the second largest city in Mexico. Known for its 70 churches and Cathedral with the largest twin towers in Mexico! Nothing too spectacular about this place, just the usual big city attractions, more museums and art galleries. One thing we did do which was unexpected being so close to a big city was go on Safari! We saw loads of different animals all based on the African theme, the usuals of lions, giraffes, elephants, gazelles and lots more. It was good to see them in open spaces as opposed to behind the cages of a zoo. The only problem was the driver, he hardly stopped and when he did it wasn’t for long so trying to get good photos through the windows of a moving bus on a potholed road wasn’t easy, our patience was waring very thin. It was a cheap day out so I suppose you get what you pay for. Maybe on our next travels we will go to Africa and do it for real.
A funny story to tell you which made Puebla memorable was on the second day; we started early and headed to another museum. After 5 mins of walking we were stopped by the police as the whole of the Zocalo and centre was blocked off. We just presumed there were more protestors and didn’t think much of it, we found the museum just on the edge of the cordoned off area and went in there for a couple of hours. When we emerged the roads were deserted apart from the cordoned off area about 200m away, this was keeping a few hundred people back, and a few police bikes going hell for leather up the road. Then a lone man appeared from nowhere with a megaphone asking people to clear the streets for their own safety. We looked around and saw locals squeezing into doorways, then a number of armed police with machine guns appeared and then even more people rushed into the doorways so we did the same. I started to get a bit worried as there was nowhere to hide or run too. Then there was a lot of commotion as people ran around a corner followed by a by a big truck with film cameras pulling a car, that’s when the penny dropped, we were on a film set! They were asking people to clear the streets so they wouldn’t get in the shot! The hundred people behind the barriers were just people trying to get a glimpse of the films stars. All that worrying for nothing! I’m not sure what the film is and we didn’t see anyone famous but there were lots of extras walking around covered in blood as though they had been in a bomb explosion, the cars had EU number plates too so I can only imagine they were filming to look like it was in Spain, probably something to do with ETA. You can’t blame us for being stupid with the trouble we’ve seen in the last few weeks!
Mexico City was next; I celebrated my 30th Birthday here too. Its one of the largest cities in the world and we had heard lots of scary stories about it, from people being kidnapped and forced to hand over credit cards, the thieves then taking the maximum amount of money each day, until the money ran out or they were discovered. There were also the usual big city worries of pick pockets, muggers and bag snatchers, so we arrived with apprehension. The L.P also advised about dodgy taxis who would take you to some seedy area before mugging and dumping you. At the bus station we had to make sure that we got an authorised taxi, usually an easy thing to do, except this time, the traffic was really busy in the centre where our hostel was so no taxis were going there, we were stuck. Our only option was to bite the bullet and get the tube with our big heavy rucksacks and heavy lunchtime traffic to deal with! It started well enough as all journeys on the tube only cost 2 pesos, 10p, what a bargain! Just like getting on a bus as a kid! We had no problems at all, it was just like London at rush hour, just throw yourself on and hope the door closes before someone throws themselves on you! After that we used the tube every day and had no problems at all.
As usual when you celebrate a birthday you want to do something memorable and different so we decided to go and watch Lucha Libre, Mexican wrestling! It was fantastic, very similar to the American WWF, lots of play acting and entertainment which made it really funny. One of the main differences was that around 80% of the wrestlers wore brightly coloured spandex masks to add to the mystery and keep their identity secret! There were about 20,000 people in the stadium and they were all going mad. It was just like watching the wrestling as a kid with the likes of big daddy and the haystacks, the difference being that the style was all acrobatic and play acting and glitz. The crowd had their favorites and there were women screaming cos they wanted it, kids because they were their heroes and grown men because their just big kids! Loads of the crowd had masks on and holding up signs and the chanting was funny. We went with a guide from the hostel and he was telling us what they were saying, loads of different swear words! To see women as old as our Mams shouting this was really funny! The entrance was 50 peso, 2.50 pounds for the cheap seats but the view was good enough and there were a few large screens to catch the replays. The best seats were at the front as there was no barrier from the front row to the ring so when somebody got thrown out off the ring they landed on the crowd or a row of chairs if the fans were quick enough to get out of the way! 3 wrestlers got took away on stretchers but not sure if that’s all to do with the play acting and stuff!
There were about 8 matches and all of them were tag team 3 on 3. The guy said most of the matches are this way and it’s the best out of 3 that wins, all of them went to 1-1 for the last match to be the decider that’s the bit that I hate as you know it’s all fixed. The women bringing each of the wrestlers out were well fit and always in some sort of sexy underwear or bikini busting out all over the place, this was where the screens came in handy as the girls were filthy and the camera man a right perv, splendid! A few bruises from Michelle to say the least!! The best match for me was the first, one of the 3 wrestlers was the size of mini me and seeing him throw these huge wrestlers about was comical and even funnier when he was getting thrown, as you might have guessed he was one of the 3 who ended up on a stretcher! The main wrestler that everybody loves was Mystico. He was like Hulk Hogan always getting battered and then getting strength from no where to win!! Most of the matches the wrestlers always pretended to take the masks of there opponent and in one of them it actually happened and both wrestlers looked shocked as what have you done and the other like, oh sorry I pulled to hard and my hand must of slipped! Funny as the play just stopped a few seconds as the guy tried to get it back on!! All entertainment and well worth the money and would definitely go again!
After that we went back to the hostel and got blitzed drinking loads of tequila with the usual travelers, Aussie, Dutch, Canadians and Germans. Once Michelle told them it was my birthday that was it, drinking games and game over for me...I was wasted and can’t remember getting to bed. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and running to the loo and then was praying to the porcelain god for the next few hours. The next day was my birthday and had load of plans but instead lay wasted in my pit and being sick and very hungover for the rest of the day!! Finally recovered a few days later! No more tequila for me and I mean it this time. Michelle said the same as she was wasted too. Then a few days later we went on a trip and stopped at a tequila factory, she had 7 shots and bought a bottle. Alcoholic or what!!
One of the tours we did was to the Mayan ruins at Teotihuacan, these date from 250 – 600 AD, we expected so much as these are the most famous in Mexico. Unfortunately we were a bit disappointed as they weren’t as good as some we have already seen. Maybe if we had started with these it would have been a different story. The pyramids were huge; one of them, the Pyramid of the Sun is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world. You may not know this but the largest pyramid ever built is also in Mexico, at Cholula, it looks like an overgrown hill now but its still the largest, its even bigger than that at Cheops in Egypt, something for you all to remember when you play Trivial Pursuit! In its day Teotihuacán would have been very impressive, it was built on an island surrounded by a huge lake, it’s now surrounded by desert and hills, the Spanish drained the lake to their closer base in Mexico City.
We stayed in Mexico City for 5 nights, as with is being the capital there is so much to see and do. We needed longer than this but prefer countryside and greenery to big cities so decided to move on.
As you can imagine the political demonstrations were at their peak here, the entire Zocalo, a 400m square area was engulfed by tents. Independence from the Spanish is celebrated on 16th September and is huge, with everyone celebrating in one way or another. With all the political tension I can see it kicking off big style here, we will have to make sure were somewhere quiet for it, maybe a beach!
That’s it for now as my fingers and brain hurts. I will try and e-mail the final month in the next few weeks. It’s now the day before Independence and we are at the beach, Puerto Escondido, known for it big surf. We are having a fab time and enjoying the sun and the huge surf waves. Lots of surf dudes and chicks so nice and chilled out. We staying in luxury above this Canadians guy house with huge veranda and great views were you can just sit and relax in a hammock and let the worlds go by. We have stayed a week up to now but have to leave soon before our Mexican visa runs out.
Speak to you all soon and enjoy your British autumn!
