Advertisement
Published: November 20th 2008
Edit Blog Post
It may occur to our readers that the illustrious duo have been gone for some 8 weeks whereas blog reports to date have us but 8 days into our journey! I can now reveal that this blog is in fact a further three countries behind schedule as I write from Honduras about to embark on a bus journey tomorrow for El Salvador having already graced the lands of Guatamala and Belize. So, with this in mind I shall complete all tales of Mehico here and now with a view to picking up some time and getting our readers a little closer to where we actually are....
So. We last left the pair in San Cristobal. Next stop, the Mayan ruins at Palenque. This was to be our first taste of Mayan ruins and was eagerly anticipated. We arrived in the town of Palenque with a view to seeing the famous ruins and also some other local tour spots namely the waterfalls at Misol Ha and Agua Clara. We managed to combine all activites into a single day tour spending the morning at the ruins and the afternooon at the waterfalls.
The ruins at Palenque are spectacularly set in the
jungle though a fair bit has of course been cleared in the ruins complex. The main pyramid of the inscriptions was an amazing structure though we weren't allowed to climb it which was a bit of a dissapointment. We were however able to explore the palace which had some interesting nooks and crannys and passageways to wander through. The heat was pretty severe so it was a fairly tiring morning but we explored most of the buildings and got a good feel for what the city would have looked like in Mayan times. The pictures here probably won't do it justice of course.
Having spent the morning at the ruins, we then picked up our tour shuttle bus and headed for the waterfall at Misol Ha. Movie buffs will recognise this waterfall as the one made famous in the classic Arnie film Predator (towards the end and sometime after the immortal words of "if it bleeds...we can kill it!). So I was pretty keen to re-enact the film casting myself as the rippling Dutch (Arnie), leaving Emma to be cast as the Predator (no resemblance of course). We were able to walk behind the waterfall though got drenched in
the process and were also able to have a swim at the base of the waterfall. We were the only ones that went into the water whilst we were there. I think there was hesitations from the others as to the safety of such an endeavour, but Emma and I in possession of courage equal only to the Lions of the Serengeti took the plunge.
The second set of waterfalls at Agua Clara were impressive especially given the rainy season contributed to a more ferocious body of water tumbling over the falls, but we weren't able to swim anywhere halfway decent so our sense of adventure was quickly muted.
From Palenque we took a bus north into the Yucatan peninsuala through Merida and to the smaller town of Valladolid. We'd heard there were some impressive cenotes here which we were keen to check out as well as making a good jumping of point to see the ruins at Chichen Itza. Again, the accomodation was less than impressive in Valladolid as we stayed in what appeared to be an old car lot down some back street! Still, it was cheap! We jumped in a Collectivo (a small shared mini
bus taxi) to head out to Chichen Itza and spent the day at the ruins. There were far more tourists at Chichen Itza which is always a bit annoying but the buildings where pretty spectacular. Having said that, unlike Palenque there is no jungle backdrop and the lawns around the buildings are quite well maintained so it detracted from the experience somewhat. We also saw Placido Domingo wandering around the ruins under heavy armed guard. He was perfroming there in a couple of nights time.
Our tickets entitled us to return in the evening to watch the "Pink Floyd Experience" at the ruins. I of course had visions of a sole guitarist playing "Wish you were here" or "Another Brick in the Wall" from atop the tallest pyramid whilst doused in a laser display to rival any club in Ibiza. The show actually involved lights shone on the ruins whilst the Mayan story was told over the loudspeaker. Perhaps less impressive - though to be fair probably more relevant! We had a tough time getting back to Valladolid that evening as there didn't appear to be any public transport. We had to walk in the dark through some rather
dodgy streets to a rather dodgy town before picking up a rather dodgy mini bus to get back to our rather dodgy accomodatione. Altogether a rather dodgy experience!
We were keen to check out the Cenote's on day 2 so having consulted the Lonely Planet, we saw that we could bike to teh Cenotes a few km's away. So we hired a couple of bikes and set off. It was a gorgeous day so we thoroughly enjoyed the biking and it only took a half hour or so to get to the cenotes. The first cenote was amazing. For those that don't know, the cenotes are basically underground pools of water that you can swim in. Basically swimming in an underground cavern. The pictures below will give you an idea, quite a sight. As we'd gotten up pretty early, we were the first there so had the swimming to ourselves. Having had a good swim we checked out the second cenote and then headed back to Valladolid on our bikes.
From Valladolid it was onto Playa Del Carmen on the caribbean coast. Playa is supposed to be a little less touristy than Cancun but compared to where we'd
been to now, this place was tourist central. Felt very much like an American holiday resort but all the same was very nice. White sandy beaches and clear water as well as the obligatory beach bars and restaurants so was pretty nice. We found some cheapish accomodation on the beach and settled in for 4 days. The plan was for me to do my PADI open water course and Emma to do some diving as well. I'm pleased to say that I am now a qualified diver after completing the course. Emma did some diving ion Playa and Cozumel as well as diving some Cenotes which I'm told was a fantastic experience! Playa was a welcome return to comfortable amenities but after 4 days we were keen to get back on the road.
We headed slightly south to the town of Tulum which is a pretty laid back town. There are some fantastic ruins at Tulum only because they're perched on a small cliff overlooking the Caribbean so quite a setting. There's a great small beach at the ruins as well which allowed us to cool off as well. We had a fantastic burrito dinner in Tulum as well
which I from memory was actually the best meal we'd had to date. From Tulum we headed south to Chetumal which is the border town with Belize. We were due to head through Belize to Flores in Guatamala to meet up with Emma's friends Amy and Cath. We spent a rather uneventful night in Chetumal before waking up at 4:30am to catch the 5am bus to Flores.
So that's the end of about 2 and a half weeks in Mexico. We had a fantastic time and saw some pretty special places. Certainly a great start to a long trip. But the show must go on and Guatemala was next on the radar. With Amy and Cath in tow, the dynamite duo quickly became the furious four! But whoa there Silver for that is story for next time. Prepare yourselves readers for tales of laughter and tears, cocktails and beers, crystal clear lakes and damn fine steaks! I shall now bid you adieu...until next time.... Adios!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0417s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Wiggy Wiggins
non-member comment
Words from Wiggins
The places look amazing! Sounds like you are having quite an adventure! Keep it up duo, look forward to your next entry! :)xxx