Before I talk about what we have been up to lately I wanted to add some
props to the Rose Selling Lad of Merida who I forgot to include in my last
post. This kid, no more than 8 years old, approached Jack and I as we were
eating outside just like every other street vendor in this country. He walked
up with a bunch of roses and said to me “Rose?” I said “no gracias”. He then,
whilst maintaining a completely emotionless face, followed up with “come on!
Buy a rose for your boyfriend” I laughed, he left. He then wondered over to a
couple sat on a bench fully getting off with each other, plopped his roses on
her lap without saying a word then stuck his hand out expecting money, the
couple looked at him, paused, and continued to get off with each so the boy
took his flowers and walked off in a strop. I just wanted to say well done to
that lad – I appreciated his blunt sales technique.
So, we rode the 9 hour bus to the small town of Palenque, hidden in the
hills and jungles. It was buzzing with the excitement of Mexican independence,
but we were shattered so we booked into a hostel with air con, ate a pizza and
whacked on Gladiator which was playing in English and rested for the mega tour
we had planned for the next day.
The tour included a trip to see ancient Ruinas de Palenque, Misol-Ha
waterfall and Aqua Azul, a lush river section of cascades and the like. The trip
would then take us onto our next destination in San Cristobal de Las Casas; all
in all a 14 hour trip with everything included for under £18 each.
So first we arrived at The Ruins; now we didn’t think much of Chicken
Shitza so didn’t have massive hopes for this place… it was actually really
good. The main attraction was you can climb all over the old stuff and
significantly reduced numbers of tat sellers.
This ancient Mayan city was nicely nestled in a load of jungle so all the
surroundings were nice and set up well for an actually decent look round. Oh course after you’ve done the tour and you have your ticket left over,
you really only have two options.
Then we boarded a mini bus to Misol-Ha, basically a big waterfall, also
nice. You could walk round the back of it and also go for a swim. You would
literally be a complete nutcase if you did, so some locals were doing it.
And finally went to Agua Azul, which means blue water. The water was more
green really and we soaked it up, we were about to go swimming in it, then it
rained. But rain was good because I had been so fed up with this gay Mexican
heat which is super draining.
So then we got the mini bus to get on another bus to get to San Cristobal,
a 5 hour ride through the hills and jungle. I would like to add that if you
think these slightly less developed counties wouldn’t have speed bumps you couldn’t
be more wrong. They are everywhere, as in like every 500 meters and they are
laid down by locals apparently, and most are made from clay or something so not
smooth at all. So I’m thinking, “wow these Mexicans really care about road
safety and their children’s wellbeing”. But actually these speed bumps just
serve as a spot for the children to run to the window and offer to sell you
midget bananas or bags of unidentifiable black stuff!
When we arrived in the next town we hadn’t even looked on Google so didn’t know
where to go but we made friends with some German Doctor called Christian that I
had pointed out as being a pillow biter earlier in the day; but turns out he’s
got a bird (allegedly) so he was alright (potentially). He said to go to this
hostel which was good, and it was. The owner was a bit odd and he had a pet dog
called Pollo (which is Spanish for chicken).
We went out that night after a long day and walked into some bar after food
to see all that Strictly come Dancing shit, where locals were really like
spinning around and looking very impressive. I was completely intimated and didn’t
feel I could shimmy so leant on the bar, but J Bird pulled so must have been his
sort of scene.
A few days passed and after more Mexicans selling shells, bags, hankies, hammocks,
roses, chewing gum and 5 years olds trying to shine your shoes for 10 pesos and
steal your chips; it’s time to move on and head to the coastal town of Puerto
Escondido. We had tickets for a bus at 7 and had time to kill so went for food
before picking up our washing and going. At 6ish it starts raining, like really
raining:
We now had to trek down that road which seemed to turn into the river to
get our clothes as the rain got worse. We were fully saturated which helped as
we had to walk through knee deep streams. I would have been just as wet jumping
of Cookham Bridge. It reminded me of when you have swimming lessons as a child
and they go next week can you come in your pyjamas, I’m glad I went that week
because If I didn’t I wouldn’t know what to do.
When we got our clothes we had to get changed and bag up all the wet clothes
in like 5 mins, that meant our soaked clothes sat in a bag for 13 hours on a
bus. Potentially ruined clothes include: my tramp jacket, Jacks leather boots
and my 5-6 years old beautiful Adidas Gazelle II. Jack made the good point that
at least he didn’t waste 10 pesos on a shoe shine.
x
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