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Published: November 8th 2006
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We arrived back in the familiar surroundings of Merida with only one focus - to head to the supermarket (even if it was Walmart) to buy stuff other than beer, soft drinks, rum and bread and cook a wholesome meal for a change! Although the food in Cuba was good (Richy was in peso pizza heaven), nothing beats homecooked and tastes familiar to the palate on the occassion! So pumpkin and coconut curry, minced pork with basil, rice and fruits it was - yum yum!
Our orignal intentions were to spend a few days in Merida recharging, succumb to another couple of cenote dives with Eduardo as well as a visit to Progresso for an introduction to kite surfing also with Eduardo. The few days quickly became a week as on the eve of our intended departure, Rich came down with the first case of SERIOUS food poisoning so far in the trip - we think it was COSTCO pizza or just payback for splashing out on a new 80GB iPod after losing his MP3 player in Cuba. So another 3 days were spent in Merida with Rich doing the triangular trip between bed, loo and shower and San with
San prepares for the Sabak-Ha Dive...
Sabak-Ha was unusual in that due to its openness to sunlight it had an algal merk in the top 10m. A huge cenote some 200m across. some cramps and the occasional toilet trip playing nurse and entertaining herself with walks around town and the supermarket. We finally got an overnight ticket with the ADO bus company to Palenque on 30th October (6 days later than intended.)
Palenque is a sleepy Mayan town on the foothills of the mountains in the Tabasco region. The key attraction is the Mayan ruins set amongst the jungled slopes and waterfalls about 60km out of town (we didnt go to them).
Only one night was had in Palenque before we headed on to San Cristobal de las Casas which as advertised was 4 hours away. 5 hours into the journey, we started wondering were we on the wrong bus or were we on the 'scenic' route - it turned out to be the later as the Zapatista rebels were active on the normal route (linked to all the trouble in Oxacca you may have read about in the news). We did make it to San Cristobal eventually - 10+ hours and 5 roadblocks later.
San Cristobal de las Casas is a historic mountain town set high (2120m) in the Sierra Los Altos de Chiapas
- map Day One Dive buddies.....
From left Juan-Carlos, San, Eduardo... we spent looking around the streets, visiting the various churches (one of them set on a hill requiring a breathless 200+ step which rewarded us with a view of the town) and the Amber Museum (the area is famous for its Amber mines.) We found a really cool restaurante
El Calderon with no more than 20 seats and serving the best traditional regional soups and stews. All we could eat for less than 5USD each - Yummy! It was so good we went back the next day for more. We finished the evening off with a few drinks and some live music in the Revolution bar (ironic having only just come from Cuba)
Day 2 we took a collectivo an visited a small local village called Zinacantan to the north west. We dodged in and out of the showers by taking look at the local church which displayed an interesting mix of Catholic and Mayan pagan god worshipping and so steeped into traditional that photos and filming are not allowed. One of the little girls dressed in traditional garb hanging around town stuck with us long enough to pursuade us to go and see her mum's handy craft. We
Silloette of San and Eduardo Sabak-Ha
Once we got below the merky layer it became crystal clear and you could see the 100+m across to the other side of this huge caldron of a cenote. This is one of the deepest Cenotes to be found in Yucatan at 212m deep. The green glow from above gave it a sureal atmosphere a bit like diving the platforms in Brunei below the Baram merk. did but didn't buy. After only an hour we had had our fill of Zinacantan and waited for the Collectivo to fill up to head back to town.
3/11/06 it was another over night bus for the 13 hours from San Cristobal to Mexico City in time for our flight out to Ecuador on 5th November. We took the slightly cheaper option of OCC over ADO having had the explanation from the ticket sales person that the only diffference was 2 toilets instead of 1. The hugely more important thing she missed was the 2 drivers rather than 1. After some swaying from lane to lane as we approached Mexico City our star of a driver managed the 14 hour journey with only 1 break - monumentous!
We stayed the night in Hostel Amigo (where we had stayed during our initial stay in Mexico City some 6 weeks ago) and anticipated an afternoon flight to Miami and on to Quito. Only at 11am did we realise that the flight was 7.50AM!!!! A bit of smooth talking with the AA staff over the phone and at the airport managed to get us on an alternative with a night's stop
over in Miami. We'll see how it goes... flight is in a few hours....
Take it easy all and will be in touch again before we head off to the Galapagos Islands for some chilly willy diving... Ciao...
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Jules
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80 GB Ipod???
Richy, what do you need 80 GB's for? All you need for your Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond and Richard Clayderman collection will fit into a 1GB Ipod. PS - The picture of the Pelanque looks stunning!