The heat and a hamack
Trip Start
Apr 09, 2008
1
37
115
Trip End
Apr 19, 2009
Merida,
Yucatan Peninsula,
Mexico
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Anyway I wondered into town. And imediately got lost, even with my map. It is the easiest system in the world, all the streets are numbered, odd numbers go east-west and even numbers go north-south. My problem was I got lulled into a fals sense of security and stopped reading the signs so that I was walking out of town instead of in
Cathedral
. It was really hot with my backpack and the heat of the day (even at 10ish in the morning it was already stupidly hot). After trying a few places that didn't have dorms I resorted to the HI which is always my fall back position. I ate in a little restaurant on the plaza, I soon realised it was a tourist trap and pricey but the food was nice. They had two types of chilli sauce and I could eat both with ease. I was proud. The hostel was great, really open with a courtyard that all the rooms conected to and also lots of fans and big windows with mosquito nets. Really cool in the traditional sense.There weren't many people staying there when I arrived but later I met loads of great people (mostly european, as in no americans which is great for being relatively close to cancun). I met a lovely girl from poland who was really honest and open and easy to talk to and now I can go stay with her in poland when I go there. And a guy from Austria who was great to talk to and really funny. I met an Irish girl with a Galician boyfriend and tried to talk spanish with him but they have such an accent. It is impossible. Really diferent to South american spanish. And a french girl who was so quiet that I assumed she didnt speak english at all. So I was trying to get her to go out with us in spanish, the Austrian guy didnt speak much spanish so we spoke in english and the found the french girl could speak english as well. I feel really guilty speaking always in English. I really feel after meeting so many people learning spanish as their third or fourth language. I blame english schools but I really could have tried harder with german. I think I will try for german next. Try to feel less guilty.
The first day I booked a bus ticket to Chichen Itza bought an alarm clock for the early morning and then went out into town to eat some more mexican food, it is so good but I couldn't find any of the highly recomended street food, (I want some now) I went into a restaurant and tried a local speciality which turned out to be steak milanesa with rice chips hot sauce lime and tortillas
Modern Art
. Basically bolivian food but with lime and tortillas. The hot sauce I assumedwas the same as the one I had eaten on the way to the restaurant. It was the same except with halapenio peppers in there. I blew my mouth off with the first mouthful but it is not like eating a curry that is too hot, the flavour soon goes and you mix with lime and tortilla and it is all good. Learnt a valuable lesson, not all hot sauces are equal. The next day I woke up early but looked at the alarm to see I still had two hours till the bus and went back to sleep. I woke up again maybe an hour later to see the alarm clock had hardly changed at all! I realesed that the battery must not be working and rushed out to find my bus had just left the bus station. I rushed to get to the station with my bag I had prepared the night before. I made it just in time for the next bus, luckily there was space I had just wasted 2.50 and I didnt feel too bad it was the fault of mexican batteries.
Chichen Itza was great, the ticket office is near the car park and you are obliged to walk some distance through the jungle to reach the ruins. The trees are thick and you start by walking past just lines of stones by the path, maybe foundations and then suddenly the trees stop and you walk out into a clearing and there is a huge pyramid in front of you
Central Square
. I spent the whole day there wondering around, it is a huge site and several times you wonder down a path through the jungle to find more ruins there, temples houses etc There were huge numbers of American tour groups on days out from the resorts in Cancun but because of the size of the site you could leave them behind and feel a little less crowded although I was not alone the whole time. The other downsides were that the whole site is being repaired and reconstructed and it is impossible to tell which parts are authentic. It is slowly becoming less historic monument and more tourist attraction. Also, the whole site is full of locals selling cheap chinese made nic-nacs. I managed t get lost on the way out which proves how big the place is. I ate a common mexican pudding made of ice and flavoured with syrup which is great to cool off after a hot day in the jungle. I then sat listening to music in the clearing looking at the huge pyramid until it was time to take the bus. By this time the crowds had gone and I could take a few pictures with out tour groups in them. It started to rain and there was a tropical storm, it lasted only a few minutes and it was impossible to get wet in it, nothing like english rain, you could walk between the rain drops. However, I saw some incredible lightening, normally you just see a flash in the clouds but this was likelines drawn in white on the horizon.Returning back to town I got back to the hostel just in time to be invited out to go to a salsa club. We had cheap pizza on the way and I realised I had only eaten doritos, chocolate and and ice thing since I left Mexico city I ate a lot of pizza, long after the others had finished. We went to the club and it was spectacle. There was a group like n-sync dancing around and singing. The musicians, particularly the trumpeter was incredible but even he was out staged by the ridicules boys prncing about, they were really camp with earings and tight vest tops on
Chichen Itza Ruins
. Like early take that or something. It was great fun though. Mexicans are quite funny on nights out. Only the men dance to start with and then try to get women to join in. Dancing like birds trying to attract a mate. The exact oposite of England. The next day I went with my friends to a small town outside the town to buy a hamack I didnt intend to buy one but in the end I did. I decided I would use it in asia and some other places instead of a sleeping bag which I hear is quite possible. After dropping of the hamack at the hostel we went to the beach to have a swim and build a small sand castle. After we had dinner in a restaurant, everyone ate fish, which was really nice. My last full day I went around the town looking at the churches taking the photos I hadn't taken before. Bought a bus ticket for the next day and in the evening went to see a live bad in the bar around the corner from the hostel. It was really great.
The next day i wasted in the sun eating and using the interent waiting for the bus to Tulum.
