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Published: October 3rd 2011
We took an overnight bus from Merida to Palenque. Not a "first class" bus with fully reclinable seats, but comfy nonetheless as it was fairly empty and easy to stretch out.
Palenque isnt too far from Merida but the journey was slowed due to very bad roads, and these crazy speed bumps everywhere which slows vehicles down considerably. On arrival in Palenque we tried to book a hotel but to no avail. I had emailed them and called them and I should have known from this the service wouldnt be great!
However Maya Bell got a great write up in Lonely Planet, so we took a taxi there and checked into a room. Thankfully once again it was empty so checking in at 11am was fine.
The hotel is set in the jungle and not far from Palenquye ruins. It is advertised as a "trayler park" so you can take your RV there, you can also rent a hammock although where these were was quite infested with mozzies so youd have to be brave! We settled for a cabana with AC that was so old and noisy it wasnt funny. There is also a pool but it didnt
look that clean which was a shame as it was so hot and humid!
We went up into the ruins in the afternoon and it was dead. I think we wsould have seen total 20 people in the grounds the whole time. We didnt opt for a tour guide this time which may have been a good idea as there werent many signs and we didnt know much about it. Palenque was another Mayan city founded in 100 BC and was there until around 700 BC. It doesnt have the astrological significance of Chitchen Itza so wasnt as interesting from that perspective. However much of it was covered by thick jungle until relatively recently and they are still discovering buildings. You can climb on some of the ruins which I am not sure I agree with for conservation purposes!
We spent the afternoon relacxing and recovering from the extreme humidity and met a lovely couple in the restaurant. A common topic of conversation was the rudeness of the staff. They didnt speak english and our attempts at spanish were sometimes met with blank looks or them laughing with one another. COupled with not great food and service we
ended up not being very happy with Maya Bell. A shame, as it has so much potential!
Anyhoo, Justin and Sandi were Aussie and Swiss respectively. They had been living in Switzerland and are on their way back to Oz to live and travelling for 4 months. We ended up heading out for dinner at El Panche which is another place to stay and a bit of a traveller institution. It was great to see, they had a good restaurant and many bars with live music. Justin and Sandi joined us later and we got stuck into the beer. They suggested a tequila shot and as we hadnt had tequila yet we readily agreed. A serving of tequila here isa whole glass full so we were able to split one between 4 and have 2 shots each from it! Its the best tequlia I have ever had and went down very well with lemon and salt 😊
Things got a bit racucous and we met some crazy Canadians also. A fun night was had by all and my head was a little sore the next day!
We decided to head straight to San Cristobal de las Casas
in the mountains and so jumped on a bus around lunchtime. Our other Aussie friends were also on the bus - the travellers trail through Mexico! Again the bus was very slow, very windy going up into the mountains and SC is about 2000m above sea level.
On arrival in SC we checked into a guesthouse recommended by Lonely Planet. It is decorated in Indian furnishings and has a yoga school and you could have been confused and thought you were in India! Accommodation was very basic so we decided to move on the next day.
SC was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity of the coast. We could wear pants at night and even my fleece came out! All of the locals were wearing winter coats and the indigenous ladies were wearing wool skirts. It seemed a little excessive given it only went down to around 14 at night, but perhaps we have become hardened from living in London so long!
SC has a high proportion of indigenous people, all selling their wares, and a lot of little kids selling cigarettes, shoe shines and souvenirs. Of course we were big targets, and were even
followed into the local version of 7-11 with kids begging us to buy them sweets and give them pesos.
We tucked into an Argentinian steak dinner with empanadas and a bottle of malbec. The steak was so soft it was like butter and delicious - perfectly seasoned and even with my love of condiments I needed nothing to accompany it. We finished ofgf with a yummy dulce de leche dessert and if this food was anything to go by I cant wait to get to Argentina!!
The next day we hired a scooter and headed up into the highlands. It was great to have our own transport and the freedom it gave us. We headed to las grutas de Rancho Nueve which is a park that Mexicans love to go to for its horse riding, picnic grounds and other activities. The first thing we spotted was some massive slides and a couple of families with lots of kids using them. The kids would sit on plastic bottles to give them speed and it was great to watch. Steve decided to have a go and raced one of the girls but she was better. Put it down to practise!
We had some yummy quesadillas for lunch and then headed into the caves. There are over 2km of underground caves that can rival Jenolan Caves - massive stalictites throughout and just amazing to see the formations.
We then headed into Zincanatan which is on the other side of SC. On the way there we found ourselves in deep fog and we were literatlly up in the clouds! It was very cold and after a while we decided to turn back. A great experience though.
Next was Chamule which was written up as having interesting religious practices. You cant take photos in the church and before entering you have to visit the "tourist office" for tickets, which was a little man at a desk at the entrance with a hand written sign.
Upon entry I realised why the practices are described in this way. There were no seats in teh church and the floor was covered in pine needles which made up a kind of carpet. Religious deities and saints (made of wax) lined the wall in glass cases and in front of them were tables with hundreds of lit candles. Locals would come in, stop and
say prayers out loud with lots of hand motions and then go and sit on the ground. Groups of people had put candles on the ground in front of the tables and sat around them on the pine needles. I saw a couple of people preparing what looked like a 100 long row of mini candles - sticking them to the floor with wax, in what looked like preparation for a ceremony. On exit they would say more prayers before leaving. I felt like a bit of an intruder so didnt go too far in and just watched from the side. An amazing site to behold!
For the second night we had checked into another much better hotel - Las Palomas. We headed out for a pizza dinner as we needed something a little different from Mexican, although I loaded mine up with chili still - yummo!
We had had a conundrum about how to get back to the coast. Buses were estimated as taking 16 - 18 hours to get to Playa del Carmen, after which we would have to take a ferry to Cozumel. We weighed up the options and decieded to fly from nearby Tuxtla
Guiterrez to Cancun via Mexico City. We jumped in a cab to TG, and when we were about to board the flight for Mexico City were told we wouldnt make our connecting flight and we and our bags had been transferred onto the next flight. We were worried about making the last ferry to Cozumel so argued a bit but as our bags had already been checked we had no choice.
On arrival in Mexico City we headed to information and the airline staff asked why we had been put on the later flight as we would have made it - we werent happy but they managed to book us into exit row seats and give us food vouchers which was ok.
On arrival to Cancun we jumped in a cab to Playa del Carmen and made it in good time for the 10pm ferry. In fact, we were able to have margaritas and tacos while we were waiting. My first taste of fish tacos was very satisfiying, and I love teh margarita flavours here - lime was yummy, but tamarind better! They had put salt and chili flakes around the edge of the glass which gave it
some bite.
We made the ferry and found our accommodation easily in Cozumel. I will write more in my next installment!
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Natalie
non-member comment
Hahaha!!
Love this pic Anj! There's so many captions I could write here! "I already know about your new Converse sneakers Steve!!" or "Not-Bali Belly strikes at awkward moment.." Haha sorry I couldn't help it! ;-)