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Published: August 10th 2010
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Palenque
Pre-Hispanic City and National Park A decade of travels around the globe
“Nostalgia isn't quite what it used to be”.... 10 years. A decade. If only someone had told me back then how much there's to see...
Flashback to Mexico City's airport,
August 2000. We just landed, trying to find our way out of the enormous terminal, feeling utterly exhausted from the long flight. 24 hours ago we were celebrating the Queen’s Day in frenzy Amsterdam. "Excuse me sir"- I'm approaching an officer in uniforms. No answer. "Excuse me!"- I'm trying again with his partner. Still no reply. In the second attempt I'm starting to realize the bitter truth.
No one speaks English here! Now how are we going to find a place to lay our heads?
We rushed to the nearby public phone and tried the first hotel on our Lonely Planet's list. "Hola" I read straight from the book, "Una habitasion doble por favor" (one double room please)- the words came slowly from my mouth. Two minutes later we were on a taxi taking us to Zona Rosa quarter, where we cruelly got ripped off ($40 instead of the usual $10). Ignorance has its toll.
The days that followed were
frustrating. We just couldn't adapt. Cultural shock they call it, and we had it big time. We didn't like the city at all. It was big and unwelcoming and without speaking its local language we felt lost. We couldn't understand what the big deal was about backpacking in the third-world, an idea so appealing back home. How are we going to pass the two months we took off from work? Are we actually that kind of losers?
We decided to change place and luck and took the first bus out, to the town of silver, Taxco. There we found a picturesque quite town indeed, but boring as hell it was. Where is the Latin magic we were promised?
Without hesitation we moved on the next day towards the Pacific, to the city of Acapulco. Now here’s an enigma - how could a place looking so nice on TV (“Love Boat” anyone?) be so poor-looking in reality? The word Gaza crossed our minds… We found ourselves in a rundown guesthouse, symbolically named “Hotel California”, where it all came out in tears.
We broke down!.
We felt this trip is going nowhere. Simply a waste of time and money. We wanted home. Now!
…However, as usually happens in fairy tales, this lowest point marked the beginning of a brighter future. After leaving Acapulco (we actually ran away the next day), on the way to Puerto Escondido, we started feeling this itch for the first time --
WE ARE FREE!. As the road became dustier we started seeing locals in their day-to-day lives. It started looking more promising...
From now on everything has fallen into place. The white beaches in Escondido were perfect. San Cristobal De Las Casas was beautiful. Sumidero Canyon - impressive. The Mayan ruins of Palenque - extraordinary. And then Isla Mujeres (the Island of Woman - what else…) was the ultimate vacation - white sands on the shore of Caribbean turquoise water. Heaven on earth. Only after a week there we took a flight to Costa Rica, our next destination, where the climax of our Central American adventures was yet to come…
Back to the future
Leap in time 10 years later, summer 2010. So much time has passed. So many places were visited. So many things have happened. People came and went, but the passion for traveling only intensified.
Next
week I’m going on a trip to Georgia in the Caucasus, where I'm expecting to find again pure nature surrounding me. HASTA LUEGO! Till the next post.
~ The title is taken from Red Hot Chili Peppers' song, “Soul to Squeeze”.
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yaron and hagit
Baby makes six
Excellent Entry Bro!
proving you are never too young to be Nostalgic