A splosh in Palenque

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We don’t have anything on our agenda today. We are waiting on news as my dad is back in hospital with a suspected heart attack so we really don’t want to go far.

I go to the bakery for a couple of rolls for lunch and a croissant for breakfast. I also dump another bag of laundry off. The Mexican equivalent of a ‘lollipop man’ is standing at the road junction. Seeing that I am waiting to cross, he leaps out in front of an oncoming car with his ‘HALT’ placard and beckons me across. :-)

I arrive at the fruit shop. It is packed and there are no avacodos left. Pity. I purchase a yoghurt from the shop next door instead.

It rained hard for most of the night leaving a much cooler start to the day so we decide to walk to the bank whilst the going is good. We hope it won’t be another fiasco like yesterday.

Despite our best efforts, we are both dripping by the time we reach the place where Santander is ‘supposed’ to be! Good old google maps! Yesterday it took us to a supermarket, today it takes us to a restaurant. We are not far from the bus station so we try their ATM again. It is 99 percent sure to be out of order and guess what...it’s out of order! I take the opportunity to stand in front of their huge fan for 10 minutes!

We return to our hotel. We cross the main roundabout in town, which has a hopscotch painted on it...are they child haters here? Seems a very odd place to paint a playground item! Ian is telling me off for standing in the road taking a photo of it...but then the pavements are just as much of a liability with huge metal things protruding as trip hazards...I still haven’t healed from my last fall on the pavement in Oaxaca!

This morning google maps and Ian disagreed on the route to the fictitious Santander so he took his route and I followed the phone. We both ended up in the same place but Ian’s was the better route (less up and down), so we return via IanMaps! We did try to hail a taxi but all seem to be full today! It really isn’t far but the humidity is killing us.

We pass a shoe shop where I attempt to purchase some leather slip on shoes. Unfortunately the largest size is 6 - no chance! We also pass several fast food stalls - have I mentioned their ‘party plate’ approach? To save washing up, they take a plastic plate, slip it inside a plastic bag, then serve the food on that. Once finished, the bag is removed and a clean one put in its place! Not too good for the planet but I have seen a lot of waste here so I think the Mexicans have a way to go on that score.

We drop into the fruit and veg shop as we have just seen a new delivery arrive. They now have the avocados I want for lunch. We also buy some bananas and apples. We cannot fathom out why, when there is a shop full of fresh veg: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, etc, that there is no sign of them whatsoever in any restaurant meal that we order! The closest we come to a fresh vegetable is chips! We are longing for a really healthy meal!

This afternoon, I cool off in the hotel pool. It’s another goldfish bowl where no serious exercise can take place but it’s nice for a splash in these temperatures. A call home has confirmed that Dad is still in hospital on a heart monitor so we just have to sit tight and wait for the results.

We return to the square for our evening meal. I type into my translator, ‘do you have anything on the menu with fresh vegetables’ - non, is the reply. But then the lady writes three words on her pad...a quick translate reveals, pumpkin, carrot and artichoke. I plump for carrots. Not my favourite vegetable but best choice from these three. We also order papaya cocktails.

A lady has come up to our table to beg indicating that she wants to eat. I take a tortilla and fork in a generous helping of my steak and onions, carrot and rice. She rejects it out of hand...she just wants cash - forget that then!

Now it’s back to our room to pack - we have an early start tomorrow as we are on the 8am bus. This will be our last really long bus journey, which is a relief as we are starting to feel quite weary.

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