Mexico - Part One

Tulum

After getting across the border to Chetumal we then had to get another bus up to Tulum. It was all quite organised, no chaos and jumping on buses, you actually have to queue and buy your ticket before you get on the bus, which was unexpected! Then because I got on the economic one rather than the first class one, there wasn't anyone to put my bag on the bus for me, I actually had to put it in the luggage bit myself!! But at least it's slightly more secure than being thrown on the roof I guess!

One of the pitfalls of travelling by yourself is having no one to watch your bags when you need the toilet! But on the positive side you then have to talk to someone to ask them to look after the rucksack! So I then found a few people going up to Tulum aswell so I had some company for the journey!

And as seems to be the norm here, a 4 hour bus journey actually takes about 5 hours, and during it there was a huge rainstorm and lots of lightening - it was slightly scary but really amazing to watch! And then eventually we got to Tulum and went to the hostel that had been recommended to me, but the dorms were full except for one bed and I turned up there with another girl... I really wanted to just be selfish and take the dorm room but I think that goes against all traveller's principles so I ended up sharing a (more expensive!) private room with this girl I had sat on the same bus with all day but had not really spoken to!! Quite strange really, but it all worked out OK!!

Got up early to go and see the ruins at Tulum. I was a bit too keen though and had to wait to buy a ticket but was then the first one in! The ruins aren't that impressive but they are set on a cliffside by the beach, which is very impressive! Wandered round for about an hour, looking at all the buildings and temples. I was glad someone told me to get there when it opened as just as I was leaving hoardes of tourists (probably Americans as they seem to be everywhere!) were turning up, and as it was quite a small place it would've spoilt it to have been surrounded by them all the time!!

The beach looked gorgeous - lots of lovely white sand, and the sea was an amazing blue colour. I hope all the beaches in Mexico are this nice as it's so hot over here a dip in the sea will be a perfect way to cool down!

Cancún

Well, so I was expecting to not like this place as I figured it would be super touristy. What I wasn't expecting was for it to be a Spanish version of America, although not even that Spanish as there are Americans everywhere and all signs and adverts are in English too! On the positive side though there is a huge supermarket, which is good as I have an obsession with supermarkets when I'm away and spend hours walking up and down the aisles!, but everything is just too super sized and in your face for me so I am looking forward to getting out of here pretty bloody quickly!

Tried to get to the airport to meet Jo which was easier said than done. Waited ages in the torrential rain for a bus and got completely drenched in the process and one never turned up so in a moment of madness I jumped into a taxi and got completely ripped off. And then when I got out of the taxi at the airport a bus pulled up behind us so was slightly pissed off at the amount of money I had spent getting there, i.e. the equivalent of nearly 2 night's accommodation! Oh well... Met Jo and got a shuttle back which took us via the Zona Hotelera which is where all the posh hotels are - needless to say we are staying nowhere near there! Although the next day we hopped on a bus and went back there and wandered around for a bit and found the beach - it was gorgeous white sand and amazing blue sea again, I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of seeing that view!

Whilst sitting sipping a strawberry daiquiri in a little bar I also got to practice my Spanish as a waiter guy started talking to me, telling me all about his 2 wives, 7 children and 73 cousins! Apparently that is normal in Mexico and he thought I was odd for only having one brother and one sister and no boyfriend...!!!

Anyway, as nice as all this was two days here was enough so the next morning off we went to visit some more Mayan ruins, how exciting...!

Chichén Itzá

Caught the bus to Chichén Itzá - we got the first class one as it was supposed to be quicker but it left late and arrived at the same time as the second class bus so not overly impressed! Chichén Itzá is a pretty big Mayan ruin site and is apparently the most famous and best restored of the Yucatán Peninsula's Mayan sites, and awes even the most jaded visitors...! Well I'd never heard of it before! Anyway, it was quite impressive, although also very busy and very hot! We found out afterwards that the day we visited was the day of the equinox which explained why there were so many people there!! But we wandered round for a couple of hours anyway, taking it all in and then once we felt all ruin-ed out we caught the bus to Mérida...

Mérida

Got to Mérida after dark and although I thought we were supposed to arrive at a bus station we appeared to get dropped off in the middle of nowhere! Why does this keep happening to me?!! But eventually we found somewhere to stay and some food so it was all quite simple enough!

In the evening by the main plaza there was a bit of entertainment which was quite exciting! They closed off part of the road and set out lots of chairs and there was music, a guy narrating and some men and women performing some traditional Yucatecan dancing which was really interesting to watch. Lots of locals were there to watch it aswell so it didn't feel like a tourist trap and it was really good!

The next day we just spend wandering around the town visiting the local market and the artesan places. Everyone seems to sell exactly the same stuff and most of it is tat but I guess there must be quite a few unsuspecting tourists who buy it otherwise they wouldn't still be doing it!

Uxmal

Caught the bus to Uxmal in the morning - left when it was supposed to and took the right amount of time which is a first over here! This is supposed to be among the top Mayan archaeological sites apparently, and is definitely one of the most harmonious and peaceful so the LP said...! Well Uxmal is a lot nicer than Chichén Itzá - it's smaller and there were less tourists there so it was nice and peaceful too! Am impressed the guide book actually got it right for a change! Also the ruins themselves were a lot more impressive - the carvings on the stones were really intricate and detailed which was amazing - they must have been really patient to do all that!

We cleverly decided to leave our bags in Mérida and go back there and then get the bus to Campeche. However, after 2 1/2hrs of waiting for a bus back to Mérida when two had gone the other way towards Campeche I realised this was probably not the best idea I had! But eventually we were on the road again (after Jo had turned a nice shade of pink from sitting out in the sun waiting for the bus!) and we were on our way to Campeche...

Campeche

This is a lovely little town, very colonial I think and all the buildings are really pretty - all different colours! It's by the sea and so I thought we could spend a nice day relaxing at the beach but when we got there I found out that there isn't actually a beach, just the sea and a road. Hmmm. Oh well, was still a nice place to spend a day!!

In the evening there was another little performance of the local dance, this time by some children. They were all dressed up in the traditional clothes and performed lots of different dances. The little ones were really cute, although some looked a bit scary with the amount of make up they had on, a bit like those kids that take part in those American beauty pageants! One dance they all had bottles on their heads that had liquid in and I was waiting for one of them to drop one but was very impressed when they didn't!!

Palenque

After a six hour ish bus ride and some really bad movies we arrived in Palenque. I was pleasantly surprised by this place - even though it is just a stopping off point for people visiting the ruins, the little town is actually quite nice too! All very touristy with lots of shops and a little artesan market but it has a nice atmosphere and feel to it which is good!

Got a collectivo to the ruins which again were pretty impressive! I'm amazed that all these ruins manage to be different somehow - this one was quite big but we were allowed to climb up most of the temples and buildings which makes it more fun and the views from the top are always great! The site is supposed to be set in the jungle but I guess most of it has been cut away for the thousands of tourists that come here each day! There were still quite a few trees around though, but it wasn't a dense jungle like I thought it might be! This is also the first site that they allow people in trying to sell you stuff which is a little bit annoying but I find ignoring them generally helps, and most of them seem quite happy just to sit there all day and not do anything!!

San Cristobal de las Casas

Caught a bus to San Cristobal in the morning, and five hours later we arrived... It's so easy to get around Mexico, although slightly dull as nothing interesting ever happens on these buses!! This is a really lovely place with a really nice atmosphere. There is a main plaza with a huge cathedral on one side and then down a street with LOTS of jewellery shops selling amber there was another little church and a market. All the buildings are really pretty - all different colours and it all just looks quite picturesque!

Found an excellent restaurant too - it did Asian food which I know is cheating when I'm in Mexico but I have been eating some form of tortilla most days so this was a refreshing change! Had a fantastic thai meal, it was soooo nice!!

It's suddenly got bloody cold here! I guess it's because we're up a lot higher (over 2,000m), and as I'm used to it being in the 30s most days (I know, tough life!) the cold came as a bit of a shock! I actually had to put my fleece on for the first time in a few weeks and we had two blankets on our beds and it was still cold!!

Got a night bus to Oaxaca as it took about 12 hours. I think I was spoiled in Argentina with all their posh buses as I thought this would be OK. It was in fact pretty horrendous! To start with it was OK as there were only a few people on the bus so we had two seats to ourselves and even though the road was quite windy and I kept getting thrown all over the place I still managed to sleep a bit. However, at about 1am loads more people got on and then we had to endure a man snoring REALLY loudly all night, someone else had a hacking cough, and then this really annoying little kid just cried and whined for hours on end which was driving me insane!!!! So even though we got there at 6.30am which was a little earlier than I would've liked, I was actually quite pleased to get off the bus and away from all these annoying people! Fortunately we found a hostel that had beds and let us in so early (although I have never come across a hostel with so many rules - they don't even have electricity in the rooms so if you want to charge anything you need to pay extra!!) so by 7.30am we were sound asleep!!

Oaxaca

This place was supposed to be a bit dangerous with riots and stuff but as usual I was completely oblivious to it, until I saw some posters in the hostel in Campeche saying that Oaxaca is open for tourists again and it's all quite safe, so that was quite handy!!

And I found it to be quite safe too! There were quite a lot of police around, but they seem to be around in a lot of the places I've been to and generally they just stand on street corners whispering 'Hola baby!' or something equally imaginative at you as you walk past! Interesting form of work!! Not quite sure what would happen if they actually had to do something...!

Oaxaca again is quite a nice place (yes I know it gets boring after a while visiting all these nice places!), a big plaza where a brass band played in the evening and during the day, a huge Cathedral, a few other churches knocking around and lots of artesan shops that weren't really that great but mooched around them anyway!

This place is famous for chocolate which was quite exciting when I found this out, so we went into the local market to sample it. Unfortunately we went just before they closed but still ended up with a bowl of hot chocolate with milk and a roll of bread to dip in it! And it was actually quite nice! Wasn't quite sure what to do once the bread had gone as I wasn't given a spoon so had to pick up the bowl and drink from it, but I figured I was in a market so they probably didn't worry too much about manners!!

Got the bus to Mexico City in the afternoon - before I could even get on the bus they search your hand luggage and frisk you and then once everyone is on they have a video camera and go round the bus filming everyone!! I'm not sure if this makes me feel better or not!! There was a bit of excitement en route when the bus broke down! But even then it was still all quite organised, they called for another one and an hour later when it finally turned up they transferred all the bags over and off we went again! In the meantime every bus that went past stopped to see what was going on so it was nice that we were a source of entertainment for everyone else!

Mexico City

Arrived about 21.30, slightly later than planned! Got to the hostel and was very impressed when the guy at the reception didn't know whether to speak to me in English or Spanish as clearly I was English but obviously my Spanish is sooo good now I'm nearly fluent (for saying I have a reservation anyway which is all I had said to him!!)! The hostel is in a really good location in the central historic area - from the rooftop bar you can see the cathedral and the big main plaza and when it's all lit up at night it looks fantastic. We've got a really cool room - apart from being quite small and a bit dismal there are murals all over the wall which are really good, although one of them is of a woman with three nipples which isn't really what I want to look at before I go to sleep but it's different!

The road that the hostel is on is full all day every day with street vendors - they sell everything from food and drink to clothes, jewellery/watches, bags and hoses! They just seem to take a bit of the road, put all their stuff out on it and off they go! They are just shouting all the time aswell - it's a bit overwhelming at first but you soon get used to it!

Went on a little day trip to Teotihuacán, which is a huge Aztec site and has got the third largest pyramid in the world. Got the metro to the bus station and then hopped on a bus. The site is huge - the Avenue of the Dead is about 4km long and runs all the way through it, with the Pyramid of the Moon at one end and the Pyramid of the Sun at one side. There were lots of other ruin-ey bits around but not quite sure what they were used for, places to live maybe... It was really busy and there were loads of school children there and Mexicans, aswell as your bog standard tourists! It must be quite exciting as a child to visit something as amazing as this, I only got to visit Windsor Castle and the Tower of London, which are quite impressive themselves I guess! There were also loads of hawkers trying to sell jewellery, blankets and various other tat!

I climbed to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun which was the big one and the views from the top were great. You could only go about halfway up the Pyramid of the Moon, which was a good thing really as the steps were so big and steep that it was quite hard going!! Both were made harder by the heat as it was super hot and Jo's arms turned a nice shade of red again!!

Weren't quite sure how to get back but we asked a few people and then one guy sat us in the shade and then he sat under a tree and flagged down the bus for us when it came along which I thought was very nice of him! Then we had to get back on the metro, only this time it was rush hour which was quite an experience! I thought the tube in London got packed but that was nothing compared to this! We were in this crowd that just surged forward so we got on the train regardless of whether we wanted to or not! Then I accidentally elbowed someone in the face as I tried to find something to hold onto, which was slightly embarrassing! Then there was this guy who was standing right behind Jo with his nose in her hair! After a few minutes he started touching her arse so she tried to move and ended up face to face with another guy who kept smiling at her! I think we were probably the only white people on the train and as I was laughing so much we got quite a lot of stares! Then as we fought our way out, Mr Overly Friendly started touching my arse too, clearly he wasn't fussed who he perved over which was nice!! Another sight I saw which amused me was a woman curling her eyelashes with a spoon on the metro - these people are very resourceful sometimes!!

Jo had an early flight back to London so decided to stay at a hotel closer to the airport. First of all the taxi that took us there had to negotiate its way through the people selling stuff in the road which I was quite impressed with - we even managed to not run anyone over too!! Then he drove like a maniac to get us to the hotel, but a combination of rush hour and some sort of accident meant we kept ducking down side streets in a bid to get there slightly quicker!! He also had a sidekick with him who seemed to know where to go better than the driver!

The hotel was like pure luxury! I think I have been slumming it for far too long, although if I stayed at places like that all the time my money would've run out a long time ago! We had a double bed each, a TV, a big bath and a shower that had hot water, it was great!! And the best thing was we were right next to two huge supermarkets so I was in my element! When Jo left at 5.30am I got to watch the appalling Arsenal vs Liverpool match (we lost 4-1), caught up with some news and then went on a little shopping expedition for some supplies for my 24 hour bus trip to Cancún! As the hotel was nowhere near the city centre I then got the complimentary shuttle to the airport and after walking the entire length of the airport, found the metro to go back to my hostel and back to normality...

I am now staying in a 12 bed dorm, with my bed right next to the bathroom, and so far I have only seen men in there so am glad I am only staying one night! I also am a bit disgusted that for the first time since I've been here I have had to do my own washing!! What is the world coming to, it's a disgrace!!! But it's also cheap and as I am on my ever lasting economy drive I should be grateful really...!! It's a bit weird being by myself again but I guess it won't take too long to adapt and if I go and sit in the rooftop bar like a billy I'm sure I'll find someone to talk to!

This city does really amaze me! Spent the day walking around seeing some of the main sights and there always seems to be something going on. Everywhere you go there are streets with stalls down both sides (selling lots of p*rn I've noticed which is nice!), so half the time it is easier to walk in the road and just try to avoid the cars! You can buy anything you might ever want so easily it's crazy! In parks and plazas there generally seems to be people playing music or little bands or someone preaching at people. And some of the buildings are just amazing to look at, one places was covered in mosiacs which looked really good. Something I found a bit strange was that outside the cathedral there was a row of men sitting there and they were all plumbers or electricians. I guess they were sitting there waiting for business but there didn't seem to be much!

I went to the cinema (on my own which I figure is acceptable in a city where you don't know anyone!) and saw The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon which was quite good actually! And it had Spanish subtitles so I like to think I was improving my Spanish at the same time!!

Went over to the Chapultepec park on Sunday which is huge and full of museums and art galleries. But I wasn't feeling overly cultural and didn't have much time before my bus so went to the zoo instead, along with half of Mexico City! But it was quite good, they had a random range of animals, from monkeys and emus to elephants and yaks and they all seemed well looked after in open air enclosures where they could roam around which was good!

But the moment finally came when I had to get my bus to Cancún... I'm not quite sure what it is about the combination of the metro, a perv and my arse but yet again I got groped, and this time it wasn't so easy as I had my rucksacks on but this guy was persistent which was quite annoying! But I managed to shake him off and gave him a few dirty looks which obviously did nothing but made me feel slightly better!

Got to the bus station and whilst waiting for the bus got questioned by someone. I was reasonably polite but then started to my Soduku (which always comes in handy in these situations!) so he stopped talking to me! I felt a bit bad because half the reason of coming away is to experience the culture and talk to people, but generally when I do talk to a man over here (women generally don't stop me in the street or randomly come up to me to talk to me funnily enough!), within about 30 seconds they ask me if I have a boyfriend, then ask why not, then start telling me how beautiful I am! So that is why I cut the conversations off, but perhaps I'm generalising too much and some people are genuinely interested in what I'm doing in their country... Perhaps I'll start to make more of an effort in the future!

Anyway, the 24 hour bus journey took nearly 28 hours and the highlights include:

• sitting next to a man who didn't talk to me the entire journey! (goes against everything I've just said above!)


• Enduring about 8 appalling films, most of them in Spanish and the ones in English were so rubbish that I couldn't be bothered to watch them!


• being thrown off the bus at 3.15am for 20 mins (i.e. 45 mins!) for no apparent reason! The bus then moved as obviously you get off it in one place and on it somewhere else! Not realising this I got back on the wrong bus, got off again, followed some other people who were on my bus, waited for ages then got back on our one again!


• having a drugs search at 6.30am! Wasn't quite sure what was going on so jsut got my bag out of the bus, had it searched then put it back again! It wasn't the most thorough search I've ever seen but it seemed to do the job!


• breaking down three times! First for 1 1/2hrs, second for 1/2hr and the third time for 5 mins as they knew what they were doing by then!

But I got there in the end and then had the fun of finding my hostel! They gave me two street names and after wandering around the block a few times I asked someone and the reason I couldn't find it was because they didn't actually have a sign saying it was a hostel! Talk about making life hard sometimes! But nevermind, it's only for one night and then I'm off to Cuba!! Yay! Am really excited but am also really scared as have heard a few not so great things about the place... But fingers crossed it will all work out in the end! I'll keep you posted, although I've heard that internet is quite hard to find over there so may go underground for a couple of weeks...