Storms and bus journies

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1/5/09 = A church and stormy day in Oaxaca 😞

Actually had a half decent nights sleep, only ruined by the bitten body I woke up to...my body that is! Been really lucky in Mexico so far; not even seen any mosquitoes, but they got me good and proper last night…arms...legs... back...everywhere! Curse my tasty blood! Skipped out for the tasty eggs and toast breakfast had seen advertised only to be brutally shot down when the lady announced it was ‘Mexican Breakfast’ day. What even is a Mexican breakfast? I’m sure it doesn’t involve anything by Kellogs!

To this day, we don’t know for sure what was on that plate, only that it consisted of 3 things:
1) A dark, black and slightly sticky pot of coffee (yuk!)
2) The same sized pot, but this time full of aluminous orange jelly…and I mean aluminous, glow in the dark type stuff.
3) A plate full of a thick, brown, sloppy sauce with mounds of cream cheese dumped on top and something v.suspicious looking hidden underneath it all. And did I mention it was all luke warm…possibly just passing into the next life.
Urgh…what is a Mexican breakfast? You know me, I’ll give anything a try once, so off I went. It tasted somewhat reminiscent of my granny’s corn beef ash. A definite meaty taste, but with no actual meat and some kind of pancake dumped in the middle. Using my trusty travel-eating strategy (eat quick and don’t look), I actually managed quite well. Deb, using her ‘pretending it’s chocolate’ strategy didn’t fare so well. Managed most of it, but not the jelly. To quote Peter Kay:
“ Don’t eat any thing that’s aluminous…scientists don’t know!”

After that delight, milled around, did mundane things like washing and internet, then headed into town at midday. Zocalo was crowded with people all jammed in listening to some kind of justice talk. Nice enough square, but not as pretty as Puebla; don’t know that will ever see anything as pretty as that place again. Did the obligatory ‘search for journal’ in a few streets that a guy at the hostel had told us about, but not surprised to find Art museums and shops closed. Damn you swine flu! Settled on lunch instead. Found a nice spot under arches and ordered particularly big chicken dinner - something so tasty it should eradicate taste/memory of breakfast forever. Found that the waiter spoke impeccably good English = a real novelty. Only problem was that it happened to be a real novelty for him too; had to all but push him away from table to get him to stop talking to us.

Didn’t have much to do today, and if in doubt in Mexico…visit a church! Really not appreciating the churches anymore. Visited Basilica de la Soledad (same format as other churches have seen) and then wondered back into town to visit cathedral (again same format as others). Only one more thing to do then = visit craft district. Wondered back up journal street and found the little market. No journal, but did have a nice bracelet; that would cheer me up. V.frustrating that don’t know language well enough to barter and had to pay what he asked - guess that’s my own fault for being so language limited! Only just bought it when felt a spot of rain and watched as sellers all rushed around frantically throwing plastic sheets over their stalls and packing things away. What’s the big deal…it’s only a bit of rain?

Within a few seconds, the thunder cracked at the sky above, which blackened in response. Wow…never seen the onset of a storm happen so quickly. Noticed an indoor shopping centre across the road and bolted for it instantly. Was now becoming all too clear why the sellers were rushing so much; think they know a little more than me about Mexican weather. The skies opened and the rain poured down…lashed down. Heavy, thick rain. So, what did we do? Bought an ice cream of course; tasty ice cream too. Debs must be rubbing off on me. And the unbelievable happened too; actually found a diary that was not-too-bad. No skeletons anyway. Bought the diary, ate ice-cream and 30mins later, rain had eased enough that we could escape centre and still open our mouths without drowning.

Everything looked a little drab and grey post storm, but the pretty red flowered tree outside our final church (Santa Domingo de Guzman) still brought the street to life. Did our now expert 1min tour in and out of the church (it did start off as a 10min tour) then headed back to hostel at 5pm. Within 30mins of being back, thrashing rain started again, accompanied by most ferocious thunder have ever heard, and that was it for the rest of the night. Glad we came home when we did. Used free internet for few hours, listened to the unbelievable and undoubtedly loudest thunder have ever heard in life, then went off to our room. Good job like thunder storms, or would have been really scary. Again, dinner was a no-go, but this time, no survival supplies left in bag to save me 😞. Lit mosquito coil - I’ll be damned it I give them a free ride tonight! - wrote diary for a while as an attempt at catch up, but then had to give up as smoke from coil became so think and potent it made my eyes water every time I tried to open them. Better be worth it!




2/5/09 = A 14hr bus journey to Palenque

Slept and itched my way through the night - once again, hate mosquitoes! - and strolled out of bed to accept the delights of today’s breakfast. V.pleaseantly surprised to be greeted with a small bowl of cornflakes and plate of fruit. Hurray! Not usually a fan of fruit for breakfast, but when the competition is corn beef ash, you’ve got to pick your battles. Usual internet time, then took part in one of my worst showering experiences so far. Firstly, shower was in an open courtyard and there wasn’t really a place to get changed, so had to stroll round in my towel. When got in the shower, was like stepping into bug heaven. All the bloodsuckers of night used the shower to sleep through the day, and there they were…perched on the wall, watching me, probably laughing at the little marks they had left me with. Gross! Killed as many as I could with my deadly weapon - the Flip Flop - then had to bite the bullet and shower. Shower in some of the coldest water ever; as cold as Thailand. Emerged from that shower shivering and feeling more dirty than when I went in. Not nice.

Packed up and checked out = a nightmare. Lockers for bags all full, so cheeky reception lady charged us 10peso just to store bags in a room that wasn’t even locked. Ridiculous! Headed into town for last few hours in Oaxaca, to shop and eat (one of my favourite combos). V.disappointed to find that the market wasn’t on - of course it made perfect Mexican sense that all the markets would be open on weekdays but not weekends! - so had to go straight for food. Opted for the non-Mexican but v.tasty spag bol, then went back to hostel. Had to guess where the bus stop was - Reception lady didn’t speak any English and our Spanish still shocking- and half asked a guy in Spanish who kindly stopped the correct bus for us. Made the short 4.50peso journey to bus station then (the simple journey we should have been able to make here) and arrived v.early at 2:30. Bus not leaving for Palenque until 5:30, but lucky we got there when we did, because we got the last 2 tickets.

Spent the hours in the station eating, writing diary, obsessing with my phone game - funny how the little things take over you when you have no other obligations in life - and doing more eating. Had to stock up for the 14hr journey ahead; really not looking forward to it. Overnight trains I love, but not a fan of the overnight bus. Not sitting next to each other on this journey either, but at least in the aisle next to each other. Good thing about Mexican buses = brilliant reclining seats; back and bottom slide out = much more comfy than a plane.

Didn’t want to get suckered into the Spanish film, but when saw it was a modern day version of Lassie, couldn’t not. Made me quite sad to watch as Lassie ran through all English countryside; do miss home sometimes. Film finished at 7:30, then read and ate. The eating part was a mistake. The not-so-good looking sandwich I bought in the station turned out to be even worse than I feared. Sweet bread, sweet butter, with cheese and ham in between it. Found myself gipping at the first bite. Couldn’t eat it, but even just that first bite was enough to make me feel really ill; really sickly.

Spent next few hours sleeping off the sickness, reading and daydreaming intermittently. Just dozing off properly when the bus pulled in somewhere at 1am and all the big lights got turned on. Great! That happened every hour from that point onwards. Why on earth turn the big lights on every time? At 3am the police got on and demanded to see my passport - that was an interesting wake up - and at 5am we all got woken up and kicked off the bus so that it could be cleaned. This latter waking up really annoyed me. Apparently, the bus being cleaned is a big part of making the customers satisfied, but surely waking those customers up at 5am and lining them up in a cold, cramped bus station for 20mins is highly detrimental to that satisfaction! It certainly was mine.

Tried to sleep for one last miserable hour, then arrived in Palenque at 7am looking like Pete Docherty after a 7day drug fest. Hate overnight buses!

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