The Mayans and Others in Mexico

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January 28th 2011

Published: January 28th 2011

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Slowfeet

Christmas Eve

Near the main square in San Cristobal.

We interrupted this post to bring you news of Cuba – that appears in the two posts that we actually put up before this one. Our apologies for the confusion but we wanted to keep Mexico pure – so to speak.

Mexico deserves to be kept pure in a post to itself. It has been a surprise for us. As is, unfortunately, our habit, we hadn't done a great deal of research on the country. Truth be known we probably treated it like a country that is on the way to somewhere else. Most of our time was concentrated on dealing with the possible difficulties we could confront on our way into and through Mexico rather than reading up on what the place has to offer. Of course, when we did look at what the place had to offer, most of the books and web sites seemed to concentrate on the beaches and resorts. For us, beaches can be good to walk along late in the day or to sit alongside with a cool drink, so we would pay some attention to them, but resorts, well we did try one once. Thankfully, Mexico has a lot more going for it

Cold in San Cristobal

We're not used to needing jackets and boots at Christmas time.

than beaches and resorts.

The trip down the centre from Ciudad Juarez to Mexico City and then on to Christmas in San Cristobal de las Casas was the subject of our earlier Mexico post so this one will cover our trip down from San Cristobal to Palenque, from there to Cancun and then, miraculously, we will jump back to Cancun and through Tulum etc, then we roll out to Belize.

We had included San Cristobal de las Casas on the list of places to go mainly on the recommendation of others who said it was a nice, attractive sort of town with a bit to see and do. It sounded like a good place to spend Christmas and, given previous experiences of trying to move around countries in the throes of religious or major holidays, we figured that it would make sense to sit for a few days and allow the festivities to flow.

San Cristobal is indeed a nice and attractive sort of place and it is well set up for tourists. We had some concerns that it may be booked up over Christmas so booked ahead at Casa de Joseva. This is a well located

Christmas shopping San Cristobal

Not a lot different from the crowds at home.

hostel with comfortable double rooms, kitchen, terrace and a common lounge. Unfortunately, it was only comfortable until the temperature dropped. Then it became cold, very bloody cold. It was brought home to us that, even though we had the reached the tropics – well inside the Tropic of Cancer – the fact that we were still in the Northern Hemisphere, combined with the altitude of over 2100 metres, outweighed our proximity to the Equator. The locals seem to deal with the cold by putting on more clothes and we also layered up. There was no evidence of much heating anywhere and certainly not in Casa de Joseva Hostel.

But we had a very enjoyable Christmas anyway. They have a drink here that is consumed normally at Christmas, called Rompope. Traditionally made by nuns of a particular order, or perhaps a particular nunnery, it is based on rum and egg nog. Goes down well on cold days, and warm ones too. We drank it only for its nutritional value, partly because the rest of the food we consumed for most of the day had very little such value. Still, we had enjoyed an excellent breakfast and were planning on a

Quiet Christmas Morning

Our home street in San Cristobal

good feed at night so it didn't matter all that much that our 'lunch' was based on junk food.

Soup seemed like a good option in the cold weather and the LP had a recommendation for a place that sounded good. Armed with two LPs, one pretty recent and one, downloaded off the net, a little older. We didn't realise till later that they had the place at two different addresses, but that didn't matter much because we couldn't find it at either. We eventually found a place that looked OK and we were tired enough so had a reasonable feed. The next night we decided to find the place we had been looking for and did - right next door to the place we had eaten at the night before. Somehow we had missed it. Did I mention the Rompope? Great soups there though and worth the trip. The restaurant was called El Calderon or something similar.

Among the many warnings about Mexico is one that says you should be careful on some overnight bus routes. Stories float around about buses being held up by machete wielding people who proceed to rob the passengers of some of

Christmas Day Feast

More of a pig-out really. A collection of things we felt like eating, none of which is particularly nutritious but all of which we enjoyed.

their valuables. The trip through the mountains to Palenque is supposed to be one such trip. We weren't terribly worried about the prospect but taking a daytime bus seemed sensible. No drama at all except that the (very flash) bus we were on sprang a leak in the radiator area. This cost us an hour or more and we eventually arrived well after dark. Still no machete wielding robbers. Maybe it was too early in the night for them or perhaps they were still busy with Christmas.

Palenque is a tourist town. A lot more here than there were at San Cristobal de las Casas, although that had been enough of a shock. After not seeing many at all in the north we had thought Mexico was deserted. Still not too many from the USA but plenty from Europe and a family of Australians on the bus. Palenque, the town, seems to owe its existence to Palenque the ruins and that, of course was the reason for our visit. There are all sorts of packages you can take to get to the ruins. We had a look at these but very much the best value were the public mini

Street art/Graffiti

at San Cristobal.

buses that charge up and down the road from the ruins charging 10 pesos per head per trip.

The ruins are well worth the visit. Situated in a national park they rise out of the tropical forest and are an impressive sight, even with a thousand or so tourists a day flowing over them. Just as with Egyptians, the Mayans had twigged that you could build high if you used a pyramid structure, but they were also pretty skilful at building arches and made more use of columns than you would typically find in the Egyptian pyramids. These structures were not as large as the pyramids but by no means less significant as far as we could tell.

We needed to be in Cancun to catch a plane to Cuba so an overnighter was indicated. On to a bus – another flash one with comfortable seats and a toilet on board – at 8.00pm with a bus almost completely full of other tourists and travellers and made it to Cancun at around 9.30am next day. Not an eventful trip, although I was woken from a deep sleep as our daypack, filled with two computers and sundry other material,

Looking for El Calderon

No luck this night though.

fell on my head. My glasses were broken but no other bits of significance. A new frame purchased at a shopping mall in Cancun and fitted for the princely sum of less than $40AUD sorted that matter out successfully.

It was a shock to return to Cancun and be hit with a nice little scam that operates at the airport. We had taken a cab out there for 150 pesos (divide by 12 for A$) but when we came back from Cuba we could only get a cab for 500 pesos. Only a few cab companies are allowed in and they all seem to charge about the same. Maybe the airport charges big bucks to come in? It wouldn't be a cartel. Surely not. In any case it is all about milking tourists. Pretty much consistent with the rest of Cancun.

The need to replace some equipment and to send some gear home kept us in Cancun for 2 nights. We had been able to take just one pack between 2 of us to Cuba, partly by a hard-headed look at what we were carrying. A package of over 21 kilograms was eventually put together to send home.

A Plaza in San Cristobal

Just a block or two from the main square, and decorated for Christmas.

Admittedly this included some Cuban pottery and carvings but there was a lot of other stuff as well. We now have room to build up more souvenirs.

Tulum is not far down the road from Cancun. Beautiful beach, some ruins to wander around and some lovely weather. We probably should have looked harder at the accommodation options. The place we picked wasn't too bad but there were better between us and the ruins along the beach. Could have been more expensive though. Tulum is close enough to Cancun to have caught a bit of the milking disease. Not over the top but not so good in terms of value for money as you might expect. The three nights we spent in Tulum were pretty quiet for most of us. All bar Klaire fell to some kind of gastro bug so a quiet couple of days where we could sit about, and have the facilities nice and available was very handy. We were able to have one very good night in a Thai restaurant next door that served the first quality Thai food that we have found since … home.

Chichen Itza has been voted as one of the

Ruinas at Palenque

The jungle surroundings give a different feel from the other ruins we've seen so far.

wonders of the world. It is impressive. So are the numbers of tourists it attracts. When we arrived it was obviously a little early for the bulk of the tour buses so had an enjoyable time for a while. But it was shortlived. The tours duly arrived in their squadrons as did the sun, and things became a little less than comfortable before we finished our walk around the site. We all enjoyed it I think but were left feeling that Palenque was more impressive. Chichen Itza is larger and more rehabilitation has been done. There are more sellers on the site though and, while you wouldn't really deny them the right to profit from the work of their ancestors, it may be better if you could be allowed to feel that the whole thing is not just an excuse for a massive market selling the same things in hundreds of different stalls.

We wouldn't have missed Chichen Itza but the real revelation for us was the town of Valladolid. This town doesn't receive much press as a tourist destination. For us though it had a nice feel and gave us an enjoyable couple of nights. There is free

Tourists Climbing Steps at Palenque

At one of the smaller buildings.

and good wifi in the town plaza – you get the code from the tourist information office on one corner of the plaza – some good restaurants around the centre of town, a few cheap and clean hotels and the place has enough historical interest to give you something to look at if you are so inclined. And good coffee with free wifi at a coffee house not far from the centre. And that seals it as a place to visit.

From Valladolid we caught a bus to Belize. A trip that was to take 6.5 hours but took and hour and a half less.

And so we move on now from Mexico. We could be back. I still think I may have done the wrong thing in Chihuahua in ignoring all of those boots for sale. The hats could be worth another look as well. We missed the Copper Canyon and Creel and a lot more. But we have also spent a fair amount of time here and it is time to move on. From here we go through Belize, spend a couple of weeks in Guatemala, fairly smartly through the remainder of Central America and then

Tourists Climbing Steps at Palenque 2

These were much taller and hard work for short legs.

spend some time in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. After that the USA and Canada need a look before we go back to Australia, if it hasn't all washed away, in November. Getting a bit close now. That is a worry.

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