Jan 2008

After almost a straight day of travelling, we arrived in Palenque. The bus ride there was pretty torturous though, as we spent the night on the night bus, which, in typical latin american form, blasted the air con all night. Since I had accidentally forgotten my sweater in the bus station, I was pretty frigid all night. Luckily, we arrived in San Cristobal a lot earlier than we were supposed to, so we were able to jump on the first bus to Palenque. Unfortunately, the bus to Palenque had no air con and the road was pretty curvy, so the trip went from freezing to boiling and vertigo-inducing.

Anyways, it was definitely worth it to get to Palenque. We took a colectivo (basically a mini-van that people use take them places) to El Panchan, an area in the jungle near the ruins where people stay. It was gorgeous - we had a nice cabin in the middle of the jungle and there was a great restaurant / bar with a cool live band, hippie bead stands, and jungle all around it. We ran into a bunch of people we had met in either Puerto Escondido or Oaxaca and ended up having a blast with them all night.

The next day, we went to the ruins and they were, simply put, spectacular. Probably one of the most spectacular sights I've seen so far, and not just in Mexico. The ruins are Mayan and in the middle of the jungle, so they are layed out on different terraces with jungle, waterfalls, and flat green area in between them. We spent all day climbing around the ruins, then checked out the museum and headed back to El Panchan. On the way back to El Panchan, there were Mexican guys who kept jumping out of the bushes offering to sell Magic Mushrooms, which was pretty funny as well.

Unfortunately, since we all have to fly out of Cancun on the 19th, the next day we all jumped on the bus to Tulum, so we weren´t able to stay in Palenque as long as I would have liked, but it was definitely a worthwhile stop. I've now arrived in Tulum, and I'll be staying here for a few days or so.

Adios!

I have to say, Puerto Escondido is pretty cool. Playa Zicatela is gorgeous, there are waves (although the surf hasn´t been that great since I´ve been here) and the party scene here is better than most places in Mexico. After arriving last Thursday, we went out and had a big night, then switched over to a 3 bedroom apartment that was pretty sweet for the rest of the week. It was called the "Hippy Room" as there were funky paintings all over the room.

To be honest, I don't have much to write because the last week has basically been spent just partying, chilling out in a hammock or on the beach, bodyboarding (because the surf wasn´t that great and I´m pretty out of shape, I didn´t end up getting a surfboard and got a bodyboard instead - still massive fun) and recovering from my drunken sojourns, so there´s not too much else to tell. The first few nights here were pretty mad, but after the weekend most of the tourists took off so it´s been a bit quiet since then. We also had our first incident of "Dangerous Mexico" when my Aussie mate got mugged by a Mexican with a tiny knife who grabbed a dollar out of his hand and ran away, which was a bit random.

Anyways, tonight we´re taking a 12 hour overnight bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas, then jumping on another 5 hour bus to Palenque to see the Mayan ruins and hike through jungles to get to waterfalls.

Hasta Luego

After a nice week at home, I am now back in Mexico. I flew out of Canada at 1 am and didn't arrive in Mexico City until about 5 pm, and when I went to the hostel, there was no power so I couldn't check in! I was pretty knackered, so I just crashed out on the mats in the lounge until the power went back on, then ended up doing shots of free tequila and drinking Coronas with a Japanese girl I'd met named Ai.

When I woke up the next day, there was once again no power, which signalled to me that it was time to leave Mexico City to Oaxaca. Unfortunately, quite a few people wanted to go to Oaxaca as well, so I ended up having to wait at the bus station for four and a half hours. I met a couple cool aussies there, and when we arrived in Oaxaca (a few hours late) we ended up having a pretty big night.

Oaxaca is ... ok. The central zocalo is nice, but it really doesn't have anything to distinguish it from any other Mexican town (except the food). We spend a few days there, but there was nothing really exciting to report. On New Years, we went out for a fancy meal which involved fried, spicy grasshoppers and got tanked on tequila, but after midnight, most of the Mexicans went home with their families so the party scene was surprisingly boring.

After a day recovering from all the tequila we drank, the day after we climbed up to the Mixteca ruins of Monte Alban. The ruins were up on a mountain and pretty cool, so we spent a few hours exploring them, but after that, we were all pretty much finished with Oaxaca, so we booked a minibus to Puerto Escondido. The ride to Puerto Escondido was ... torture. It was pretty much the worst ride I've ever had in my life. The minibus was fine, but there are so many curves (that the driver chose to hit at a high speed) that it was basically 6 hours of me wanting to vomit. I've never had motion sickness that bad before - if you want to experience it, I recommend spinning in a circle for 6 hours.

Anyways, we are in Puerto Escondido now and, even though we only arrived a few hours ago, it seems really cool. The beach is gorgeous and there are loads of people around. If the waves look good tomorrow, I'm gonna rent a board and get my surf on.