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Published: August 24th 2008
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Pirate hostel
Holaaaaaaaargh The Yucatan Peninsula. 22nd July - 29th July
After 13 hours on a bus that seemed to make more stops than was really necessary, we arrived in Campeche bus station glad to be able to stretch our legs again. We took one of the local minibuses into town to get to the Hostal Pirata (Pirate Hostel i.e. a hostel with loads of pirate related ornaments and artifacts), which was on a quiet street within the towns old walls. We took a stroll around town and to the seafront before going back to the Hostel for a much needed siesta. In the evening we went out for a couple of drinks before taking some beers back to the Hostel where we sat on the rooftop terrace and met Brian and Jessica from New Zealand and chatted to them for a while.
The next morning we managed to find a shared taxi or Collectivo to take us to the ruined Mayan city of Edzna about an hour’s drive away. There was hardly anyone else there and the iguanas outnumbered people as we climbed the pyramids and temples and admired the view of the surrounding jungle. Back in Campeche we decided to use the
Hostels kitchen facilities and cook ourselves a meal. The terrace was busier that night but we were still the last ones up!
Our friend Gillian from Edinburgh was on holiday in Cancun while were in Mexico so we had planned to try and get there before she left. We had got our dates a bit mixed up so ended up getting the bus all the way to the other side of Yucatan on Thursday as Gillian was leaving on Friday. We arrived in the evening and quickly found the hostel we'd booked and then headed out to find Gillian's five star hotel. When we got there, Gillian and her family treated us to free beers and food from their all inclusive resort which was great! We managed to take the wrong bus back into Cancun town and ended up getting a taxi back to our bunk beds at the hostel. A big difference to the hotel we had just left. The next day was a beach day, got a bus to small and busy beach and hired sun beds and an umbrella. In the evening among many other food stalls near our hostel we found a great place which sold
Edzna
View from the big pyramid. quesadillas, which we watched getting made and fried in front of us. They turned out to be our food of choice for the rest of our time in Cancun. Whilst down at the beach we'd been offered a few different tours, one of which we quite liked the sound of so we booked it for the following day.
Our tour involved us going out on a catamaran, with eleven others, (where they gave us free beer and cocktails, yum!) to the Isle of Mujeres (Island of women). The first stop on the island was to see a sand shark. Each group on the tour got in and had their photograph taken holding the tame and probably harmless shark. We were then dropped off to do some shopping before being taken to a nice beach where we had a free buffet and a swim. The highlight of the day was when we sailed across the amazingly blue and clear sea before stopping by a reef to go snorkeling. This was fab; we saw loads of shoals of fish and a massive manta ray. The following day was spent hiding from the sun as we were a little pink from the previous
days sun. We managed some quesadillas and a snack called chicharino preparado, we'd had one previously in Papantla and it was really tasty. The one here had a new topping of puerco which we understood to be pork and therefore a welcome topping, however puerco appears to be like raw pig skin, we realised this a few bites in and spent the rest of the night a little green around the gills!
Cancun was the furthest point East on our trip in Mexico so it was time to turn around and head back west. The Yucatan’s most famous sight is the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, one of the existing wanders of the world so therefore had to seen! Our bus arrived at the same time as all the other tourist buses so the place was mobbed as we bought our entry tickets. Luckily they store bags there for free so we didn't have to carry our rucksacks around. The sight was bigger than others we had visited but was mildly disappointing as we couldn't climb most of the buildings. The ball court here is supposed to have inspired the quiddich game in Harry Potter. Compared to the ruins
we had already seen and ones we saw later, we thought Chichen Itza wasn't the most wondrous of them all. However this was fine, it meant the others were less full of tourists, which meant less open to damage and therefore had fewer restrictions on being allowed to climb the great pyramids. Outside the ruins we caught a bus to the nearby town of Merida where we checked into a hostel and went out for a well deserved dinner after our long day of sightseeing. The hostel provided a good breakfast and allowed us to store our bags there for the day. We were booked on the night bus to Palenque that night so spent our final day on the Yucatan Peninsula at the free zoo and having a wander around the shops.
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