From the Stagless Party to the ruins at Palanque

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Dear friends and family,

It has been a while since my last entry - was Ann and my honeymoon really a year ago? Since our good friend Kevin moved mountains to get his stag party organised for Mexico, it gave me an opportunity (with wifely approval, of course) to spend a couple days with the boys in Puerto Vallarta and then make my own way across Mexico (fondly remembering a similar trip with my father in 1995) to fly out from Cancun.

So the original plan fell apart when Kevin became deathly sick and could not make it to Mexico. As vacations were booked, plans made and tickets non-refundable, most of us headed out anyway to celebrate on Kevin´s behalf. As I had points to use, I stopped over in Santa Monica on the way and avoided the drunken debatacle of the first hours of the stagless party. I saw the famous pier, walked amoung the locals at Venice beach and caught a 6am bus to get back to the airport.

I arrive to a fancy resort - The Grand Mayan - with all the amenities you could want (except cheap booze that we headed to Walmart for). My days with boys included drinking, clubbing, the pool bar, volleyball, pub hopping and ATVs. We had all the other guest trying to guess which one of us was the real stag-in-hiding or whether we had lost him on the roof on the first night.

I left early one morning before the others were up and caught a plane to Mexico City. Unknowingly to arrive on Oct 2, the anniversary of one of their great riots. The whole Zocalo (main plaza) was shut down and barracaded with Policio. I had no actual trouble but figured I would head out of town to see the ruins of Teotihuacan the next day. I met a couple friends - Candis, Josh, Hank and the chinese gentlemen that tried so hard to be friends with our limited communication options. The next day I got a bit more of a look around the hisotirc town and out to the main park and museum of anthropology.

Another short hop brought me to the out-of-the-way local of Villahermosa from which I caught a bus to Palanque to see the ruins. I ended up with a couple hours before my overnight bus ride to Merida so got caught up on my blog.

Cheers, Richard

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