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Published: September 12th 2005
Tulums ruins
Great photo of the view at Tulum´s ruins.Hey all, Im currently sitting in an internet cafe at the busy bordertown of Chetumal, as we await to board a bus to a new country, Belize! But let me tell you what we have been up to in the last week!
Since I last wrote, we satisfied our culture vulture needs, and visted the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. A good tip is to get there early, because plagues of tourists tours bombard the area by noon. Luckily, we managed to have the pyramid almost all to ourselves. Its a fascinating piece of ancient architecture. Its mighty challenging also - with no rope of safety net to hold onto, it is a case of get on your knees and start climbing pyramid - but the views at the top are well worth it. The whole complex is quite awesome and extremely interesting to see the mystery of the Mayan remains, including a ball-court where it is believed that basketball games were played, where the players played their hardest to become the winner - rewarded with the most bizarre trophy of all - their sacrifice to the gods! Sounds very much like a Mayan version of "Mad Max" gone
Hands up who likes pyramids!!
Chichen Itza´s main attraction - the spectacular, and challenging, pyramid. wrong!
We got out of Chichen Itza early afternoon to move away from the swarms of snap-happy touristicas and pressurising ornamental sellers; and venture into another brilliant cenote lake. This one was much more bat-friendly than the previous cenote, and included a massive 15 foot jump off a cliff. I plucked up the courage and bombed off it, slapping my body to worried cheers on the way. Despite Dad being severely scared of heights, me and a few Italians persuaded him to run and jump - he did, made a splash but lost his contacts and googles! Whoops. Take a look at the photos to see how pretty this place is. Definite recommendation.
We retired that evening to the cinema and watched a hilarious, if not confusing SPANISH version of Charlie y Fabricad Chocolate - which I hope you can guess which film that is, although Jonny Depp with a Spanish overexcited dubbed voice, isnt quite the same!
Valladoid is worth going to for the ruins, but not a lot else. There simply isnt much else to do. In our time there we only found two very average restaurant/bar combos, so by the next morning it was
Going up?
Its a long way up the Chichen Itza pyramid! time to get out.
So we grabbed a bus to Lonely Planets "backpackers haven" known as Tulum. We wanted to stay in a beach cabana, so got a taxi to another LP recommended hotel. It looked awesome, 20 metres from a tropical beach, own beach bar, restaurant and disco, and lots of other travellers. However, be wary of the true standing of the idyllic sounding "beach cabana", it turned out to be 30 US dollars for literally as basic as you can ever get. They asked us to wait to clean it out, but we werent quite sure what they did to it! The beach cabana is about 6foot by 7 foot, and contains two beds, two holey mosquito nets, and a slab for a table. Thats it! For 30 dollars! More importantly, it had no fan (or window!).
Having already paid for it and already sweating profusely, my skin was getting ready for a mosquito feast and a pool of sweat. But alas, I found another kind of cabana that was available. This was more like it, big clean double beds, tiled flooring, safe lock, private bathroom, and more crucially - a fan.
"We take it!" we
The one that got away...
Say hello to the Iguana that beat me to it up the pyramid,amidst the high views above the Chichen Itza pyramid said.
"Si amigo" the reception replied.
"80 dollars?!". Bugger. There always had to be some sort of snag.
Feeling like a couple of overused ATMs, we revived ourselves in town; Mexican food and a couple of cervezas is bound to be a good remedy to being utterly ripped off. We found a cool reggae bar which Bob Marley classics pumping out with trombones too, complete with hippie beach bums. We narrowly lost in a pool match of England vs Germany, plenty of banter about the football there, (5-1, 5-1, 5-1!!!). We got back to the hotel and feeling a little drunk, me and Dad made some shapes on the dancefloor with lots of people there, unfortunately 95% of them were Italians! Dad volunteered to be the chief coconut cracker for the rest of the night, he was the only one who had the strength to wrack them open for the Mexicanos group of guests, who were actually living in London. In the early hours of the morning I had a quick swim in the sea with some Californians and it was back to the pricey cabana for a deserved rest.
The next day was one the highlights so
El Cenote...JUMP!
Its a bit blurry but you can just about make me out jumping off the ledge and posing!! far. We moved hotels to one in town, at 50 dollars cheaper, we werent complaining about the 2km new beachside location. Then we got ready for a bus to the new ecotourism parque, called Xel-Ha. We got some supplies for the journey.etc, including a bag of sour cheese crisps. It doesnt take much to shock me, but the reciept from the supermarket did. it was 4 dollars 50 for the packet of crisps! thats 3 quid!!! Taken aback I walked out without realising what I had done. Little tip, check the price of crisps in Mexico before you buy them! Otherwise, you might just get economically raped!
Anyway, the entrance of the parque had a pathway to follow where we encountered numerous iguanas as well as almost crapping ourselves when a cheeky Mexican pointed out a bird-eating spider. Now that is not for the faint hearted!
Xel-Ha was a place however that we were extremely impressed with. Its not cheap to get in, at 30 US dollars each, plus 10 for the snorkel hire. Touristy yes, but the sights are splendid. Its a self-preserved eco-tourist lagoon, surrounded by mangroves and many other attractions. But the best thing was
Dad at Tulum beach
Dad amongst the fisherman at the bonita Tulum beach under the water. In a tropical storm downpour, we plunged in it with our snorkel gear and screamed very loudly through our snorkel piece. The fish here were MASSIVE. We are not talking goldfish, these are schools and schools of 6-8 foot parrot fish, angelfish, coral groupers and all sorts. It was beautiful and fascinating, if not bloody heart-racing!
Some of the other attractions werent open, as the damage from Hurricane Emily bored scars from its battering of the area only 3 weeks before. Yet we jumped off some more cliff dives, explored a mild Mayan cave, and lumbered onto a rubber ring as we floated down the river and back into the lagoon. We were constantly surrounded by hoardes of tourists, but the beauty and magnificence of the place is the way it is so well preserved and designed. I really hope it stays that way for years to come. Almost as much as I hope the 3pound bag of crisps tasted better too (after everything, they were gross!).
Our last dinner is Tulum was a meat BBQ feast from "El Pequeno Buenos Aires", on Tulum Avenue - well worth its pricetag as food and service is
Snorkel geared up
In my kit before the plunge at Xel-Ha excellent. We were on the move again the next day, with only an hour to spare before our bus to our next destination, we literally sprinted around the Tulum ruins in 10 minutes! Normally taking well over an hour, we got the fantastic photos we wanted (hope you can see them), and before we knew it we were on the bus again to our last Mexican location, Laguna Bacalar.
The bus journey was pretty frentic as jingled Spanish and panic shouts to the driver dropped us in the middle of the urban highway in 90 degree heat! But luckily we only had to walk half a kilometre before we reached the Laguna hotel.
Laguna Bacalar is in a word, quiet. Far from the hustle and bustle of Reggae bars, tourist parks and packed buses, there is literally only a handful of people here. Our room was expensive, but its big bonus was the spectacular vista of the main attraction, the Laguna, or lake. A 60 km expanse of clear water with white sand remains a tranquil and peaceful destination. The only thing is, adventure seekers like us, apart from relaxing, there just isnt that much to do!
1000 pillars
The view from the top of Chichen Itza pyramid of the ruins of the ancient temple of 1000 pillars We kept up our swim-a-day vow, and walked around the dog-barking avenues. After a seafood lunch at the excellent recommended "Restaurant Alexmul", we finally found an activity we were looking for, kayaking.
We rented the kayak and paddles off a lonely looking Dutch girl, and walked across the pier. Only for me to feel some sudden really sharp shooting pain on my foot, like a thousand little daggers stabbing at my toes. I looked down, and in the grass my feet had been swarmed by ants!! Theyd bitten me all over the little bastardos!! The Dutch girl warned me that it will really hurt for 20 minutes then cool down, i shook them off in the water and cringed. This was unbelievable pain, I whined to myself as to how I had managed to become enemy number one for an entire ant colony!
I tiptoed onto the kayak with my stinging feet. Spurned on by the pain, Redgrave style, we powerkayaked to the cenote and stunning bird island, where hawks, eagles, doves and other tropical birds gathered as the sun came down. It was a rewarding experience, a salute to the ants and their bastard stings.
Anyone
Xel-Ha
The highly recommended Xel-Ha parque, 10km from Tulum whos thinking of going here, be warned, it really is the best impression of a "sleepy-town". We tried to get a taxi on the highway to no avail, we only encountered a sound of a rattle snake, which made us very very scared! We looked round and the restaurants were all closed by 9.30pm. We managed to hitchhike a lift into town eventually, had a very dodgy burger before being advised by some Aussies that there was bull-fighting and a fair in town. Finally, a bit of noise!
We walked down and it looked like we"d missed the bull fighting, but came across a fair like no other. It was a weird mix of gun stalls, dodgems, lots and lots of food stalls, and Papa Lazoro (aka League of Gentlemen) auctions (??!). Oh yeah, I almost forgot, and I was called "my sweetheart" by my first meeting with a Mexican transvestite. Ahem..very amusing.
Our bodies were exhausted by 12pm with all this excerise, so we went back to bed not forgetting to buy an obligatory photo-made key ring of me and dad. Unfortunately we only discovered after, that it has the caption "you are mine forever" with a
Xel-Ha snorkelling
Xel-Ha parque and its beautiful but monstrous fish! heart symbol - so looks like the wrong impressions of a gay couple, rather than father and son.
And so a very bumpy bus ride later we have arrived in Chetumal. Its the end of the road for us Mexico, and the start of the road to Belize.
Mexico is a fantastico country with a lot of opportunities. You can see that its slowly being grasped by the invitable feed of tourism, but it is possible to avoid it sometimes and soak in your own version of Mexico and its people.
Its been a great time over the last week. In Mexico I have boated, bused, walked, cycled, swum, snorkelled, climbed, and kayaked a whole host of islands, Mexican highways, dusty roads and turtle farms, cenotes, reef parks, paradise beaches, ancient Mayan pyramids and a vast laguna. Many memories, and many great photos. Its only been a week!
Not much else to say but adelante across the border to a whole new exciting world....Belize.
Lucian
xxxx
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Pink Kangaroo
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Deskbound in Blighty
Brilliant - but can you keep up the pace for another 4 weeks? Enjoy Belize...