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Published: December 2nd 2006
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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.
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