We were greeted by Karina from ActionAid and Mario from Oxlaju, when they picked us up at our hotel in Flores. We had been corresponding with Karina to organise our visit to El Mango and the surrounding communities supported by ActionAid, so it was nice to finally meet her. Mario, who is an indigenous man from San Benito, helps the communities that we were to visit and besides being our driver for the day, he was also our translator (into Spanish), as the people at the communities only speak Q'echi. It was a 3 hour drive, mostly on dirt road to [View Full Entry]

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The Tzotzil village of Chamula is famous for its market and church. It is a very political town that has no tax law and has its own police force. The Mexican police and military are not allowed in the town, which has been a strong hold for many years keeping any external forces out. It is the only town that the Spanish never entered. The strength of the town's warriors at the time were too strong and since the town has always contained its own rules adn customs. It is a very rich place, with many extremely large houses, and has [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Zinacantan at around 10:30am. It was a small town with many greenhouses growing flowers surrounding the centre. Flowers are a large part of their industry, however they are famous for the textiles that they produce. Dan and I had already seen and bought a woven piece the day before at the indigenous markets in San Cristobal, but were keen to see what else they produced. We visited a house on the main road, that had the first large room totally dedicated to a religious shrine (with a tv in the corner). No other furniture was in the room. [View Full Entry]

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Sleep required We arrived on the overnight bus from Oaxaca at 6:30 in the morning and took a cab to a not so nice hostel not far from the town centre. The location of the hostel was good and the price was cheap, so that was enough to make us stay there for 3 nights. The ride on the bus was very uncomfortable and so we went straight to bed for a few hours when given our room, safe in the knowledge that things don't really kick off anyway until afternoon and evening and we wouldn't be missing out on anything. [View Full Entry]

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Early morning arrival We arrived at 6am into Oaxaca on the overnight bus from San Cristobal de Las Casas. We were tired and dirty and after catching a cab to the hostel that we booked for the next evening, we found it closed up behind large iron gates. Even though it says 24 hour reception, we didn't want to wake the manager and get charged for an extra evening as part of our stay. Fortunately, the manager heard us talking and generously checked us into a clean well prepared room without an extra charge. We showered and passed out in bed [View Full Entry]

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After a relaxing day in Merida, sleeping in and swimming in the sister hotel's pool, we jumped aboard an overnight bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas, which was a town on route for us to catch another bus to Oaxaca, our next official destination. We had read the warnings about theft on overnight buses and so carefully put our backpacks at our feet under our seats, thinking that that was the safest place to put them if we nod off for a while. We had heard that the bus to Palenque, a near by tourist destination, always had reports of [View Full Entry]

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Chichen Itza Getting there We paid for a transportation package thinking that the entrance fee was also included to Chichen Itza, but upon arrival, we discovered that it was not.... lesson: always read the fine print! At the entrance, there were many vendors selling hats and we soon learnt why, because the heat at the grounds was exceptionally hot to the point of unbearable for some. We joined an American group for an English tour and an elderly lady in their group had to sit down under a tree and miss the tour due to the searing sun. Due to the [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Merida in the early afternoon after a 4 hour bus ride from Cancun. We didn't want to be in Cancun any longer than we had to be, due to its reputation of just being an unslightly tourist town. Our hostel in Merida was a pleasant surprise being built around 2 courtyards with tropical plants cooling the air. We dumped our bags and headed out to see our first real Mexican town. Dan appeared to be a giant towering over the local Mayan people. Merida has a large indigenous Mayan population and the people look distinctly different to what [View Full Entry]

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Upon exiting our plane in Las Vegas, it was funny to see how so many cliches about the place popped up. One guy on our shuttle at the airport was talking about "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas..." and a lady was talking about luck or some such thing. After our time at the Grand Canyon, we made the 5 hour drive back to Las Vegas, with the city first appearing out of a flat desert. The hotels of the main strip arose marking the centre of the tourist area. We drove up the strip from the south towards our [View Full Entry]

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As we are ending our tour of the Middle East, I would like to point out that the Turk's consider themselves to be part of Europe and not the Middle East. They are very proud of being Turkish and are insulted if you call them Arab or talk to them in Arabic. Turkey is a beautiful country, which immediately makes you feel like you are back in Europe due to their more efficient systems, clean and gardened streets and modern society. The people are helpful and friendly, without wanting to sell you something. It is the most expensive place visited on [View Full Entry]

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