Merida, Carlos, drugs and the cenotes

Trip Start Apr 16, 2006
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Trip End May 18, 2006


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Flag of Mexico  ,
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Merida is a beautiful city, definitely the first place in mexico where I felt I could live. However it is worth mentioning at this point that there is such a thing as the too concerned traveller... when matt and I disembarked the bus we were confronted with pamphlets galore each espousing an even more glamorous place to stay for "reasonable prices". To this matt said lets go, but I was more cautious. I didn't like the idea of being pushed into accepting places I knew nothing about and insisted we refuse the offers of a ride. Matt, however, had already seen a picture of a so called pool and wasn't going to budge on the idea, so as we had already left the station we thought it might be nice to walk...

35 blocks later we reached the mayan backpackers hostel, and its highly chlorinated yet still green slightly bigger than a blow up kids wading pool, pool. Luckily for me matt was carrying all the bags another of the 14 metre jump
another of the 14 metre jump
 ! Ahh male machoism can be handy sometimes! Still even with the awfully false advertising about the pool I definitely recommend this place the owners name is Carlos and he is quite the character.

Carlos used to run raves in mexico city then had a club there for 1500 people, an american bought it from him for massive amounts of money and he travelled the world settled in merida and bought a hostel. In short Carlos is one interesting dude and he's well connected.

The next day we went out to the cenotes with Carlos. Cenotes are the limestone caves that are filled with water (and sometimes fish) found in the middle of the desert. The cenotes themselves are really beautiful, with the waters shimmering colours from crystal clear to emerald green - just stunning! While the boys may have had most of their fun jumping off things, including a 14 metre drop - see video up soon - , i rather enjoyed the transportation.

Well enjoyed my be the wrong term, but i did find the horse drawn train fairly amusing, especially when matt lived up to his reputation and actually fell asleep on the thing. Keep in mind it rocked so violently that carlos and i where constantly trying to keep matt from falling out and the noise from the tracks was so loud that conversation was nearly impossible. Most people with a hangovers worst nightmare, but for matt apparently not a problem.

We also had a delightful meal in one of the homes there and met for the first time a lovely couple (french and canadian i think) whom we ran into many more times after. That evening we returned home exhausted got a bit fucked and passed out... what a great day! The next evening we headed for Palenque.
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