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Published: July 13th 2012
I haven’t updated the old blog for a few days now. Partly because the places where we have been haven’t had internet access and partly because we have been on some seriously long journeys. Before leaving Tulum on the Mexican coast we checked out of the hippy retreat we were staying at and headed into town. The towns here are hard to describe, whilst the Mexicans take care in their appearance they don’t seem to take the same approach with the streets which tend to look fairly untidy in the smaller towns.
Unlike most ruins in Central America Tulum ruins are located bang smack on the coast with a cool breeze coming in and a pretty picturesque beach within easy striking distance. Unfortunately we were in transit between hostels so had 20 kilo backpacks to carry whilst touring these ruins. In 35 degree heat and surrounded by hundreds of American tourists (probably on package tours from Cancun) we found it hard to absorb the impressive 1500 year old ruins. The temples and other buildings on the site were scattered around the relatively small site, making it easy for most to see the majority of the site within a couple of
Tree House
In El Panchan (Pelenque)hours. Unfortunately the combination of hundreds of American tourists (hey, I have nothing against bum bags and the classic flip flop/sock combo), the heat and our heavy bags meant we could barely muster the energy to explore this small Mayan site. Convieniently, Pelenque- home to one of the largest and most famous Mayan sites in Central America- was our next destination. Rather inconveniently, we aimed to get there by 7 am the following day via an 11 hour bus journey across eastern Mexico.
After killing 7 hours in Tulum we headed to the bus station where we got an 8.30pm bus destined for Palenque a town situated in a mountainous jungle region of Mexico. National express has nothing on these buses, the drivers took shifts, one driving whilst the other slept UNDERNEATH the bus! For our first long distance journey it was a pretty decent ride (cost 600$MEX). I was awoken at one stage when the army boarded the bus with machine guns to do a routine search… I myself had my bag checked by a rather cantankerous looking gentlemen (must have thought my haircut was dodgy).
On arrival in Pelenque we caught a Collectivo (small minibus) into
the jungle. We were dropped on the side of the road with barely a soul in site. We knew there were hostels nearby and headed to one nearer to the ruins named Maya Bell that was recommended in the Lonely Planet guidebook. Rather ominously the woman behind the reception desk spoke absolutely no English so, not knowing what we were asking for, we went for a cheap option on accommodation from a list which clung to the wall. On consulting the phrasebook I found that the name of the room translated as ‘under tree’. This raised a few eyebrows (or four eyebrows to be more specific). However, on a wider inspection of the hostel site we found we would be sharing the site with… massive hornets, red ants, lizards and more mosquitos than you can shake a sombrero at. So we were pretty relieved when we reached our accommodation which was a small cabin under a tree. That day we decided to head straight to the ruins.
I don’t know what I expected really. Having been to Tulum we were slightly under inspired. We hot-footed it through the associated museum to get a grounding on what the hell we
were looking at. We then reached the entrance to the site which was shrowded in street sellers offering ‘real Mayan art’ probably made by the 'real Chinese Mayans' a few thousand miles to the east!! We paid around £2 to get in and followed a path which wove through the jungle. We saw some small Mayan buildings here and there and the backdrop of the jungle made these fairly impressive.
After around half an hour we reached a clearing in the jungle and were greeted by ruined temples that just seemed to get moire grand the further we moved into the site. There were around 8 large temples (and that’s just the ones that have been excavated) with associated structures. The sheer scale of the operation was very impressive. These Mayans would spend 20 years building each one, carrying each slab of stone on their backs and with thier bare hands. The fact that the ruins have been preserved for so long (around 1800 years) is awesome. It is also very interesting to be here in 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends! We saw a huge iguana and I tried to get it in shot (see pics) with the biggest Mayan temple in the background. This site is huuuuge and it took us a long time to navigate through and around the different buildings.
Baring in mind that the humidity is around 90%!,(MISSING) by the early afternoon we were getting pretty tired. ALMOST thankfully the heavens opened up (for the first time since we arrived!) so everybody scarpered and we headed out of there. It’s hard to describe how magnificent the ruins were but just picture magnificent pyramids of stone on the crest of the highest point in the region in the middle of a jungle with howler monkeys and all manor of wildlife providing an authentic soundtrack and your some way to imagining this experience.
I won’t bore you with the details of our evening which involved a few card games and some pretty funky local music. We survived the night relatively unscathed by mosquitos and the next day we decided to head for GUATEMALA. Mexico had been cool but we wanted to get more onto the traveller trail so chose a starting point in Flores, a Guatamelan island surrounded by a warm yet icy looking lake (Lago de Petan Itza) some 250 miles from Pelenque. This trip was mammoth. We didn’t book in time to get on an all inclusive trip so had to make our own way by public transport. The following is a summary of the relatively epic journey into Guatemala-
Three and a half hours on a collectivo (minibus)- We rucked up at this local bus terminal (more akin to a building site). Again no Spanish speakers but we managed to book ourselves a ticket to Frontera Corozal on the Mexican border for a measly $100MEX (or £5). This journey lasted 3 hours and took us through some really poor parts of rural Mexico… lots of shacks which seemed self sufficient with pigs chickens and dogs dodging the minibus as we burned it down the road overtaking every other vehicle in sight (our driver had no fear). The ride was so bumpy that I was literally thrown into the air several times. We arrived at Frontera Corozal (river border crossing with Guatemala) and took a taxi to the ‘port’ (I say taxi, I don’t think I have ever ridden in a car with so little of its interior intact).
Boat ride from Frontera Corozal (Mexico) across the river to Bethel (Guatemala) We were expecting a bustling port with plenty of boats maybe a jetty or two. What we got was a couple of shacks in the mud. We turned up, passports stamped, and there was not a soul in site. We asked the woman behind the counter for a ticket to Bethel which we assumed was a relatively large border town on the other side of the river. So for $400MEX we headed down the river on a longtale boat (maybe they call them something different in Mexico but that is the best way to describe them). The river was pretty big maybe twice as wide as the wider parts of the Thames in the UK. The river was swelling as this region has seen a lot of rain lately but fortunately we made it to our destination. Jim and I hopped off, just the two of us and our bags ditched in the middle of nowhere (I’m detecting a theme here!) We were greeted by a Guatamalan woman who said ‘welcome to Guatemala’ in Spanish to which I replied ‘what?’ (man those Spanish lessons came in handy). Bethel consisted of a couple of derelict buildings and an old bus. You really notice the difference in salesmanship when you cross from Mexico to Guatemala. The woman that greeted us had a reel of bank notes in her hand and relinquished us of our Mexican Pesos for the favoured Guatamalan Quetzal at a fairly dubious rate. We had no choice but dispose of our Pesos anyway so it was swings and roundabouts. Once we had our dollar for onward travel we found ourselves handing it back to the same woman for the bus ride to Flores!
Bus ride in local chicken bus for four and a half (seemed like ten) hours! Expecting a Collectivo to shoot round the corner we were greeted by the mad honking of a local chicken bus (fortunately no chickens aboard this time. There was a peg leg though... an oldskool one too!). So we hopped on board (at a rip off rate) and headed for Flores. The roads don’t actually seem to exist in this part of Guatemala so this ride was crazy. We headed onwards and the bus picked up more and more locals before stopping at passport control where we got off to get the relevant stamps (rip off charge of $40Q or £3.70 from these guys as well). Whilst Jim and I duly paid the man, our Italian comrade (guy we met on the bus with his girlfriend who we named linguini) began to argue in fluent Spanish. He told us we shouldn’t be paying and that they were corrupt officials. After about five minutes of Italy versus Guatemala, linguini duly paid as well and we were on our merry way! This bus was nuts, they packed it to the rafters but fortunately we sat right at the back and avoided the crush. 4 hours later we arrived in Santa Elena a large town next to Flores. We jumped off the bus walking like we had spent a couple of months in a Mexican jail and mounted a tuc tuc (basically a motorbike with a plank on it!) and headed for Flores.
One hell of a journey but its ALL part of the travelling experience and it was actually a pretty sweet trip considering we made our own way! Whilst I am painting a fairly bleak picture in some places these are the parts and aspects of Central America and life on the road which I love the most. Good times.
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Diane Freeman
non-member comment
You don't do things by halves, then?!! Hope you have found somewhere to relax and recharge your batteries, keep blogging and lots of love to you and James Diane and Nick x x