Mexico

---

Into Mexico and into the final leg of the world tour - central America, only 8 weeks left now which is very sad given how quick they last 16 have gone!

We started off in Mexico City spending a couple of days exploring the local area just walking the streets, taking in the atmosphere and visiting all the major sites. The first day was the Zoccolo close to our hostel. This is the main square in Mexico City and contains the biggest flag I have ever seen, this is a focal point for the town and it seemed to host a different protest ever evening! Surrounding this square is the magnificent Cathedral and next to it the ruins of the major Mayan temple. The temple would have been very impressive in its day, it was rebuilt and expanded 6 times to illustrate the expansion of the Mayan empire and survived floods and earthquakes, however the reason this, what would be enormous, temple is in ruins is that the Spanish took it down to build their Cathedral when they took over Mexico city in a very bloody coup, something we have learnt plenty of whilst exploring Mexico city and its surroundings. Also in the Zoccolo is the Spanish built palace which is still in use by the Mexican government since their independence, another beautiful building containing huge murals showing the bloody Spanish conquest over the indigenous peoples? Later on we explored the local markets thinking we had found a few gems buying DVDs of the new Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean only to find we were given a copy of buffalo bill and Spiderman 3! Ah well at least they were in English and only cost 50p for both!

On the evening of our first night we went for a quiet drink in our hostel bar, only to find this wasn't possible due to the barman who became known only as tequila man. With every beer bought (and even when you didn’t) he stood up on the bar and free poured tequila into your mouth until you could take no more, I think this explains how I ended up in a Mexican club at 3am, a great experience never the less and there was plenty more tequila to come in Mexico!

Thankfully not all the temples where destroyed and the next day we went on a day trip organized by the hostel to take some of them in as well as some more major Cathedrals. Due to the Spanish influence the Mexicans are deeply religious, along with the rest of Central America and many of the most interesting architecture and art can be seen within the churches. Along with the churches and Temple I also visited a major Mayan ruin (the Mayans being one of the major civilizations to live in the Central America area along with the Inca's and Aztecs). Amongst these ruins was the biggest (admittedly in terms of volume, the one in Egypt is taller) Pyramid in the world, the Pyramid of the Sun, I’m very proud that despite the scorching heat (Mexico is very hot) I made it all the way to the top and a great view of the ruins in the "Valley of the dead" named so as the Mayans seemed to sacrifice nearly everyone to their gods! For me this site is up with Angkor Watt in Cambodia for one of the most amazing man made buildings I have ever seen. What made these huge temples and pyramids even more amazing was the fact that the Mayans never invented the wheel so all the huge blocks had to be carried and lifted into position!

For our third day in Mexico city Babs and I headed a bit out of town and to the massive anthropology museum which took hours to walk around but gave us a huge background knowledge into the Inca, Mayan and Aztec cultures as well as the Spanish takeover which put a lot of things we had seen so far and hope to see in the rest of central America into perspective. Feeling a bit museumed out we headed over the road into the huge city park which also contains the Mexico City zoo, and as soon as we found out it was free entry headed straight in and was glad we did as it’s the best zoo I have ever been too. Despite the free entry they had every animal you can imagine many of which I had never seen before such as Pandas and Hippos all in good size cages and well treated, it was a lot of fun and a nice break from all the ancient cultures we had been concentrating on for the last few days.

For our final evening in Mexico City we took in a very important part of Mexican culture - Masked wrestling! Heading out with a large group from our hostel to the local stadium we found thousands of Mexicans enjoying a Friday night out at the wrestling, which is one of the funniest things I have ever seen, particularly when mixed with a few Coronas. It’s more like a dance routine than a fight with huge summersaults, flips and jumps off the jumps as well as crazy costumes and even fighting midgets! A perfect night out to finish off Mexico City. Having seen loads of the city and soaked up a lot of the atmosphere I can say I really enjoyed this place and felt a good gasp of Mexican life, however I also realized that my lack of Spanish won't get me by and have promptly bought and am studying a phrase book!

After Mexico city we flew East to Cancun and the Yucatan Peninsula, which is very touristy and contains much more Americans than Mexicans however this was the best route for us to take to get down south into Belize and the rest of Central America, so we took advantage and headed for a Saturday night out in Cancun. We also were able to meet up with Adam and Dave, two of Laura's friends from Warwick and enjoy that and the next few days as a larger group which was good fun, it’s always nice to see a familiar face when you’re so far from home. In Cancun we stayed in the cheaper downtown area which has some real nice small bars and restaurants and has the feel of a small Spanish holiday town, however in the evening we headed over to the hotel zone which is full of high rise hotels, loud clubs, very drunk Americans and lots of in your face neon - just what you expect from Cancun. We headed into the famous Coco bongos club and had great night as this club was like nothing I have ever seen before. Basically you pay on the door and all the drinks inside are free which is awesome but once inside its not a club as such more a stage show with various Mexicans dressing up as famous music stars and performing a ten minute piece on each star with lots of noise, lights, special effects and bungee wires sending them over and into the crowd. This was then followed by a very complex superheroes bit with various flights recreated from Batman, Spiderman, Matrix etc with characters in fantastic costumes running around the various bars and swinging from the balconies, an awesome show that had to be seen to be believed and a great night and Cancun pretty well covered in a day, needless to say Sunday was mainly a write off!

It's fun here for a night, but Cancun gets old very quick, the beach is ok but not brilliant how people can spend two weeks here I don't know! Plus I broke my camera here which really annoyed me and put a downer on Cancun (so sorry no pictures of the islands but I'm looking round to buy a new one, I have seen so many fantastic things whilst I've been away I don’t think I can go another 8 weeks without a camera!)

From Cancun we took a short trip for a few days to the nearby Isla Mujeres, which has more of a backpacker feel and was good for a few days relaxing with the guys from Warwick again. The only major activity apart from beach was exploring the island in golf buggies, lots of fun even if they only go about ten miles an hour.

Continuing our way down south Babs and I headed to the island of Cozumel, which is a major stopping point for cruises so during the day is full of big, loud, cigar chomping Americans, meaning expensive restaurants and bars across this part of the island. Fortunately we found that if you walk 500m outside the centre, which few tourists seem to do, there’s loads of great very cheap locals restaurants and bars. We also shared drinks with a few friendly locals who insisted on giving me his hat and Babs a book intended for his children so that we won’t forget him or Cozumel and we are welcome to stay at his house anytime! However we didn’t come to Cozumel for the cuisine, it’s a diving Mecca and we quickly racked up another two dives. The dives here are particularly good due to the small numbers; there were only 4 people on our boat, but also the visibility which was over 20m. We were able to see quite a bit of marine life including a 7ft eel, which was pretty scary. The day after the dive we decided to explore the island further, however as its much bigger than Isla Mujeres so golf carts weren’t the answer, instead it we hired mopeds! Like the golf carts a lot of fun, however having never ridden one was a scary experience at first, although I lived to tell the tale and got to see some cool Mayan ruins too. After Cozumel we spent a night in Playa del Carmen, yet another American tourist trap but hopefully the last we will visit as Im starting to get sick of seeing more tourists than locals!

Thankfully my prayers were answered as we got to Tulum further down the south coast, a much quieter area and populated more with backpackers than two week holiday makers. Tulum. Here we were able to stay right on the beach in a cool little wooden shack, spending a well needed relax day having been moving constantly since Fiji and also going to the Mayan Ruins next door. However we were hit with a bit of tropical weather storms overnight, amazingly our little shack stood up to it. Tulum is also close enough to Coba, another Mayan site with another huge pyramid. The interesting thing about the Coba ruins is they are set deep in jungle and have only been recently reclaimed, still many buildings can be seen completely covered in trees and vines around those which have been restored. From here its a 6 hour bus journey over the border to Belize, another country down and only 6 weeks to go, very scary given the distance we have to cover and the things we want to do but I’m sure we can make our flights (just!).

By flying to Cancun although it was logical given our timescale we missed out most of Mexico and so this is definitely a place I want to come back to and explore some more, I have really been taken with the friendly locals, great weather, fantastic Mayan Ruins, spicy food (plenty of fantastic Tacos, Fajitas and Enchiladas in local stalls as well as nicer restaurants) and of course tequilas which taste so much better over here!

Sorry for the long blog, a bit behind but at least Im having a fantastic time rather than slaving over blogs!

---

Photos

Tequilla in Mexico City
This seemed to happen every night in our hostel!

Hitting heights
On top of the worlds biggest (in terms of volume) pryamid

A midget beetlejuice
I could explain this photo but you really had to be there!

Mean machines
Taking mopeds around the island of Cozumel

Not quite Old Trafford
The ruins of a Mayan ball game court in Coba

Love shack
Our beach hut in Tulum which stood up to some serious battering from the rain, I was very surprised