When we finally made it to Mexico City, after a delay with the plane (apparently a toilet was leaking on the landing gear, and then a door was closed or wasn’t and it should have been or something), some 3 hours late we were tired and very grateful that there were authorised taxis to take us to the hotel. After a sleep in we decided to take a walk around. We ended up heading into the Bellas Artes (the Palace of Fine Arts) and exploring the architecture museum (Laurence’s pick – which was not worthwhile as everything was in Spanish). The building itself was spectacular. We also went to the ballet here.
The next day we headed to the Anthropology museum and the Bosque de Chapultepac (my pick’s) which were a short taxi ride away from our hotel. The museum itself took us around 3 hours to complete (and that was doing the upstairs part quickly). It was incredible, even if the majority of the material was in Spanish and we were just looking at the items displayed.
Laurence also got in trouble for the police officer/museum security (it is so hard figuring out which one is which, they may in fact be both) for entering into this fountain in the middle of the museum.
After our exploring, the tour that we had joined started. We have a group of 14 people, plus our guide, with which we travel around most of Mexico with. After a short tour of the historic centre, we headed off to the floating gardens with a couple of people on our tour. It was a good time had by all – just hired a boat, a Mariachis band, bought drinks, and floated down the canal. It was very relaxing and well worth our time.
The next day we took a tour to Teotihuacan, an archaeological site, with a guide. It was a long day, mainly because we walked up and down both the sun temple (19 odd floors up by my Fitbit count) and the moon temple (where the steps were so large I basically had to crawl).
Laurence decided that he wanted a funny photo and as we were standing on the edge of the sun temple, with a couple of people on our tour taking our photo, he pulled me backwards. This meant that my arms flailed as if I was falling over the edge. However, the girls taking the photo were so freaked out that they did not actually take the photo, and Laurence’s efforts were not rewarded.
After a 2 ½ hour ride we arrived in Puebla. It was a very tiring day and we became very aware of how the heat can affect us. Despite this, we went out to see a Libre show (Mexican Wresting) after a short nap on my part. Although I think this may have been a waste of our time and money, a lot of Mexicans (and the drunker people within our group) appeared to really enjoy the show. As for myself, I do not think I could get over the fakeness of it all.
Puebla was a very nice city, a quiet one, one that likes to lay in late in the morning. But being travellers, with a lot to see, I did not allow Laurence to laze around. We took a taxi to Cholula, a village just 20 minutes out of the city, to take a look at the Church and markets there. The Church had been constructed out of an old Mayan building (they just demolished part of the ruins and built the Catholic Church over top of the remainder of the ruins). Part of the ruins could be seen under the hill via some tunnels. It was an extremely nice view of the nearby volcano from the church as well.
We tried to visit the Santa Domingo Church a few times, but every time we went past it seemed to be closed. We did manage to get in after 8:30 pm, but they actually started to turn the lights off as we were walking around – we made a quick exit as we had to leave early in the morning and did not fancy sleeping on the hard floor (although, the floors might have been similar to the firmness of the very small bed very were sharing at the hotel). Our dinner that night was Mole – a traditional dish which mainly refers to the sauce that is placed on top of the tortillas. My favourite was the brown one (chocolate and chili) whereas Laurence’s seemed to be the green one (chili and tomato – we think), there was also a red one.
The drive from Puebla to Oaxaca was interesting – there is a teachers strike at the moment (from what I can tell the government has enacted legislation that means that they have to sit an exam to become a teacher and the sit an exam to continue being a teacher – at this stage they pay money to join the union and then get appointed to a teaching position by the union (no degree required/quality control undertaken), but I am not an expert and can only repeat what I have been told). We were supposed to take public transport, however the buses were not going due to the protests and road blocks that had been taking place so we used a private mini-bus. There were a couple of road blocks that slowed us down, especially the burnt out vehicles. We ended up taking a long dirt track to avoid one of the road blocks (and paying the owner some money for the ability to travel across their land. The drive was long and we were all very glad to arrive at our hotel. We later found out that we were the first Intrepid tour to make it to Oaxaca in 1 ½ months (due to the protests/road blocks).
Our first day in Oaxaca was pleasant. We had a short tour of the historic centre and were taken to a local lunch. We were given wax paper for a plate and in the middle were beef, hot pork, and chorizo sausages, along with vegetables and sauces, for communal eating. I ate so much, as did everyone else, but we did not manage to finish what have been given to us – our tour guide had the leftovers packaged up and given to a homeless person in the street. Everything was delicious.
The next full day we took a trip of the surrounding area, Monte Albon Ruins, Hierve el Agua, Tule (a 40m round tree), and a Mezcal Distillery. The ruins themselves were great, there was an astrology aspect to the ruins – a room that had been designed where the sun shone (like a waterfall of light) into the room when harvest and planting should take place each year.
Hierve el Agua was the highlight of my day – a petrified waterfall. There was an aspect of waterfall, however, the water was just natural rock formations. There was a pool area whereby we could go swimming and look out over the valley.
Our second day in Oaxaca we headed to the botanical garden and looked at the local plants in the area. This was also a historic site that the army had taken over (and almost ruined) in the 1900’s. The garden, although not conventionally beautiful, was very cool to take a look though and we very much enjoyed learning about their plants and plans for the garden.
From there we headed to San Cristobal de las Casas, stopping in the Sumidero Canyon on the way. During our boat ride up the canyon we looked out and saw, herons, pelicans, crocodiles, and spider monkeys. It was extremely hot sitting in the boat and I was extremely glad not to get sunburnt from the experience.
San Cristobal de las Casas was a lovely little (ish) town where we seemed to see a lot of Mexicans on holiday (we think). We hung around and relaxed a lot, the narrow cobble-stone walking streets felt very much like Europe. We did take a trip out to a Mayan village, San Juan Chamula, where we looked through their local market (which also had a lot to do with tourists visiting) and the church. The church was the main visiting point of the village, and the market was centred on this point. The church itself was a mixture of Christian and Mayan cultures/religions. There were pine needles on the marble floor (very slippery) and incense burning everywhere. There were also parishioners who had cleared spaces on the ground and had stuck candles to the marble. There were people praying with their candles, babies being baptised, and a band playing on one side to a couple of people that looked like they were in morning. The children ran around everywhere and it just seemed like an inclusive mixture of everything. No photographs were allowed in the village and out of respect we did not take any photographs of the village.
From San Cristobal de las Casas we travelled to Palenque. On the way there we stopped off at a couple of waterfalls, Cascades de Agua Azul and Cascades de Misol-Ha. We didn’t spend too much time in each place, but they were each beautiful in their own way. The only thing is that there were too many tourists, I know that we added to this, however, with tourists come the people selling food and items. I think that there were well over a hundred vendors in the first place an around 20 in this second (much smaller).
Palenque was our relaxing town. The only real thing to do there was the ruins, which we did do on a very hot morning after a bit of a sleep in. The ruins themselves were very pretty, they were well restored and we could walk up and through some parts of them. I was feeling pretty drained so I left Laurence to climb a few by himself.
That night we took our first (and last I think) overnight bus. We were supposed to have one earlier on in the trip but missed it due to the protests and road blocks. Laurence was ill on the ride and ended up taking some of his migraine medicine in order to stop throwing up. The ride was about 8 ½ hours in total, I think I slept for about 5, Laurence probably didn’t sleep at all.
Arriving in Merida was wonderful, although Laurence was dead on his feet. I was very glad to get off the bus. After a quick breakfast and a short orientation walk Laurence and I headed back to the hotel in order to wait for our room to be ready. We spent the remainder of the day relaxing and trying to get over our Mexican diet (somewhat like Deli-Belly). The second day was much better. We wondered around the city and took a look at what it had to offer (while remaining close to the hotel room). We did go to a museum to see the Mexican masks that they had on display. I think that the museum, although small, was one of the best. We also saw some street art, which was very appealing.
We left very early the next morning to head to Playa del Carmen. On the way we visited one of the new wonders of the world – Chichen Itza. The place was good, however, having seem some of the other ruins I cannot say that they were my favourite. Had we gone their first they might have been. Nevertheless, they were a sight to see and apart from the oppressive heat and the sheer quantity of vendors trying to sell items to you, they were well worth the visit.
From Chichen Itza we took a short drive to Ik Kil, a cenote (sink hole), which our group had decided to take a swim at. Like the waterfalls, it would have been better with less people but at least we had had a good swim prior to a lot of the people arriving. I think that when we arrived there were half a dozen in the water but when we left there were at least 30 with about 50 people at the side waiting to hop in. However, since I am a tourist as well, I cannot complain too much. I must say that the water was very refreshing and the scenery very beautiful.
Playa del Carmen seems like the Vegas of Mexico. There are so many Americans and Canadians in this area. For the first time on this trip I hear people speaking English a lot more than Spanish – very strange. We did take a look at the beach but it looked as though each people in the water had been allocated 1m² each. Even the sand was packed with chairs and umbrellas. I have heard that Cancun (the rich American’s playground) is much busier and that you cannot get to the beach without either staying at or paying for entry at the resort.
Also, I must say that the hotel was terrible, there was no hot water, no internet, our key card stopped working and we had to convince them that we were staying two nights not one, and the bed was a couple of beds pushed together and called a king. The people at the hotel was not very helpful and seemed to just be waiting for us to check out (i.e. if they waited long enough to fix the problems then we will have gone and they wouldn’t have to fix them).
It is also in Playa del Carmen that we got our new tour leader. She took us to a very nice Italian restaurant, although I do not think that my stomach was happy with the rich creamy food after our Mexican diet of late. I ate everything on my plate (except for the mushrooms).
The next morning we took the local bus (must have been first class as it had air-conditioning) to Tulum. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon due to the heat and my unwillingness to wander around the town in the middle of the day. The next morning we got up early and headed out to the ruins by bike. The ruins themselves were set next to the ocean on a clifftop. We have seen a number of ruins, but none in this kind of setting (they are usually in the hot jungle).
From there we rode out to the Gran Cenote for a well deserved swim. It was a hot ride and was about 4 km out of town. The downside was that we had to ride back into town in the heat of the day after our swim. It was wonderful swimming with the turtles, they were big and small.
After Tulum we headed to the border of Belize. We are very much looking forward to this water focused country!!