~ Oscar Wilde
Mexico
December 27, 2007
San Diego, California
Our good friends Sean and Jen have dropped us at the border of Tijuana and San Diego, our adventure is finally beginning! We cross the border into Mexico and out of United States for what should be nearly an entire year.
Immediately across the border we stop at a tourist information booth and get directions to the central bus station so we can catch a bus to La Paz. We catch a local bus to the bus station and purchase two tickets to La Paz departing in 4 hours. We get some nice bus station food, quesadillas and tacos.
We board our bus and begin what is to be a 24 hour bus ride through Baja to La Paz. Surprisingly the bus was pretty nice. I had images of sitting next to goats and chickens (I am sure we will meet the goats, and chickens soon enough), however the bus was clean and even had movies for us (Firewall, Next, Nacho Libre and others).
In the middle of the night Doug went to use the bathroom in the back of the bus only to find that when the bus took a sudden turn and he was thrown into the room that there was already an old lady inside using the bathroom with the lights off because she couldn’t find the switch. After she left Doug quickly found the switch thus avoiding any intrusions during his private time.
Two things to remember when traveling: 1st Make sure you have toilet paper handy at all times of need, and 2nd make sure the snack quantity is higher than normal. (I am sure there will be more additions to the things to remember when traveling. Let’s call this the first of many suggestions.)
28 December 2007
La Paz, Mexico
Upon arriving in La Paz after the very short 24 hour bus ride we met a nice lady on the bus who had a good lead on a hotel in town. We walked with her a couple blocks to the hotel. The Yeneka hotel was quirky and reasonably priced. We asked to see our room first and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was filled with various types of art and seemed pretty well kept.
The first thing we did upon registering into our room was to thoroughly shower. The smell we both acquired was very appealing :). We spent our first night wandering through the town and dining at a nice little taco stand.
29 December 2007
La Paz, Mexico
We went to a bakery first thing in the morning and picked up a couple things to eat. As we walked out of the bakery Anna went to take her first bite of a cookie that we bought and a clothes rack jumped right out in front of her causing a small collision and resulting in the loss of our cookie.
We wandered back to the hotel and had some of the free coffee that they make for you. Turns out a French lady who was staying there decided to take over coffee making detail. Anna said it was excellent.
We later spent some time emailing family and later decided to break down and have some Chinese food to break the Mexican food trend.
30 December 2007
La Paz, Mexico
As we went to catch our 1000 bus we discovered that we missed it. It turns out that Southern Baja is on Mountain Standard Time, not Pacific Standard. So we had to buy another bus ticket. Thankfully they gave us a student discount and the new bus tickets cost us about $15 total, instead of $30.
After arriving in Cab San Lucas we took a taxi to our hotel, the Norman Diego Mexican Inn. It was a nice little hotel, very Western, but with obviously heavy Mexican influence (Anna found it on the INTERNET for a new year’s reservation).
We headed into town to find that Cab is definitely a huge tourist destination. The main street along the water was filled with huge hotels and huge restaurants. Oddly enough the prices for these places were’t that far off from prices you would expect to find back in the states.
We finally stopped to eat in at a very touristy spot right next to the Cab Waco (owned by Sammy Hagar) called Taco Loco. We watched a bit of the Chargers game.
31 December 2007
Cab San Lucas, Mexico
It was time to do laundry. The lady at the inn recommended a place close by, we decided to spring for the “complete service.” When we came back we found out that our one load of laundry had somehow cost us $10USD. That is the last time we do complete service, without pricing the service first.
We wandered on down to the beaches to see just how crazy they were. These beaches were definitely full with lot of tourists.
In the evening we went to a couple different bars and finally settled back at the Taco Loco. We met a nice couple from Acapulco, and chatted with them for a while. They gave us a lot of good advice before the evening was over.
1 January 2008
Cab San Lucas, Mexico
It was time to head back to the bus station because it turns out there is no ferry from Cab to Mazatlan. While we waited we met a couple guys visiting from up in the Bay area. Chris, one of the guys we met, had spent a significant amount of time down in Central and South America and had all kinds of great advice. The one point he gave us that we knew in advance was “we don’t have enough time.”
We got back to La Paz and it felt like we were on the “Amazing Race.” Our bus just arrived; we need to get another bus to take us to a section called Unflinching (the ferry terminal) before the ferry departed at 3 pm. Well we caught the next bus and arrived at the ferry terminal only to find out that the ferry does’t go until tomorrow…and the office is closed so we can’t buy our tickets until tomorrow either.
The very same bus that dropped us off was on its way around within the next 15 minutes so we hung out waiting with two other locals who were trying to catch the ferry as well. We shared our holiday Hersey Kisses with them and next thing you know we are good friends.
Well back to the Yeneka hotel, we checked in for the night.
2 January 2008
La Paz, Mexico
Before catching the bus to the ferry terminal we went to get some coffee and ran into Dan, a guy from Belgium we met on our bus ride down to La Paz. He said he was also taking the Ferry today as well, but not to Mazatlan. He said he had rented a car and was planning on driving to the office and invited to drive us to go along.
The ferry office had us play the "take a number and wait your turn game," so we took our number. While we were waiting an English couple showed up. During our conversation Dan thought he might have to have identification for his girlfriend to purchase their tickets. Well the line wasn’t moving too fast so we took his number and said we would switch it out with the English couple, who was about 10 numbers later, if he didn’t make it in time.
Our number came up and we got our tickets without incident, however we were unable to get a cabin which means we are stuck having to sleep in chairs instead of beds. Meanwhile Dan didn’t make it back in time so the English couple snuck in a little early. As the numbers ticked off Dan still hadn’t arrived. As his number came up Dan drove up, Anna proceeded to run out, stop them while they were driving, and Dan’s girlfriend ran inside, they made it just in time…whew!
We made it to the ferry and while the line was dragging to board we met our first “revolutionary” American. You probably know the type, anybody from the government is evil…especially if they are from the USA. By the end of the trip we did our best to avoid him. While we were in our seats another gentlemen sat down near us and introduced himself as a friend of our Belgium friend Dan. Anna quickly remembered Dan speaking of Michael from Switzerland. The three us hung out for the majority of the boat ride to include us subjecting him to numerous rounds of boring card games.
3 January 2008
Ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan, Mexico
The ferry wasn’t too bad. The assigned seats didn’t seem to matter and people brought lots of blankets and pillows and were sleeping on the floor in between the rows. They served two meals with the trip. The first was dinner, they provided tortillas with rice and beans (big surprise there) and a choice of chicken or beef stew. We both went with the chicken and were pleasantly surprised. For breakfast they had the same but this time with a choice of scrambled eggs or liver. Neither of us was really hungry and the line was very long so we passed.
We arrived in Mazatlan, Michael being the really nice man that he is, lead us to a nice and inexpensive hotel right by the beach. We caught a bus that dropped us off near by the hotel and checked into the Perlamar Hotel. For $25 we got a no frills room, bed, TV, toilet, shower…but clean.
After getting a hot shower and cleaned up, we met Michael for a tour of the town. We took a taxi to the market (old town) and then wandered through a couple of nice squares. Then we walked to the original beach that launched Mazatlan’s tourism. And walking some more we walked across a man made dam that connected the mainland to a nearby island that has the tallest working lighthouse in the world (around 570 feet high). After the nice walk up the short hill we walked back into town for some food and drinks and ended back at the hotel pretty early to close the night.
4 January 2008
Mazatlan, Mexico
We woke up and decide to take a tour of the stone islands just off shore. The lady at the hotel recommended this tour as it was supposed to be pretty informative. The total cost of the tour was $36 total, this included a taxi to the boat, a boat ride to the islands, a ride to a very long beach, lunch with free drinks (all the tequila you can drink), and then transportation back to the hotel.
We ended up being the only English speaking tourists on the boat which sort of made us the novelty for the guide. Despite our protests he decided to do a bilingual tour for us which although was short, it pretty was fun. We took a little boat out to a couple little stone islands and the big highlight was a bunch of sea lions that go and sun themselves every day in the same spot. Next stop was the beach. There was a tractor pulling a carriage to and from the boat drop off and we were taken to a little resort and served our lunch (breaded fillets of fish and chicken with a quesadilla and rice). While we were eating and drinking, some of the teenage kids there definitely took advantage of the open bar and one girl had to be carried out of the resort and back to the water taxi and then back to her bus.
While we were enjoying the sun, who should walk by but our friend Michael. It turns out that he took a water taxi over to our same island and ended up eating at our same spot. We were joking that we all paid the same money just to take different ways to the same spot.
We got back to the hotel and put Anna to bed because she started fighting a small fever. Doug later headed out for an emergency pizza run that helped Anna feel a bit better.
5 January 2008
Mazatlan, Mexico
Anna was feeling a bit better so we headed to the bus station and bought tickets for the 1100 Guadalajara bus. We stopped by Michael’s room for a farewell and to get some info from his Lonely Planet. It is always nice to meet friendly people who are open with information.
The 1100 bus ended up being completely full. Our bags wouldn’t even fit in the storage underneath the bus so we took them on the bus with us. It turned out there was space at the back of the bus for storage, thank goodness we weren’t going to have to have our bags between our legs for the next 7 hours.
The bus ride was pretty uneventful. After driving through Guadalajara and arriving at the bus station, we were pretty amazed at the size of the outlying city. There were even a couple of Walmart’s we passed by.
At the bus station we broke down and hired another taxi who thankfully gave us some good information, he recommended a hotel closer to the center of town that was the same price and also gave us information for the Lucha Libre (wrestling matches). After checking in we got a bite to eat and called it a night.
6 January 2008
Guadalajara, Mexico
The next day we decided to find a different hotel. The place was nice enough, but they gave us two small twin beds and the bed frames were attached to the floor, so we couldn’t even push them together. The night was interesting with two adults sleeping on a twin bed. We did a quick search of the outlying area and found a place two blocks away from the first place, a little closer to the center of town and a little cheaper, with a slightly bigger bed.
We checked into the new place, and it was time to go exploring. Being that it was Sunday, most of the places were closed, but the city did do something kind of neat. They shut down one of the main streets to traffic and opened it up for everybody to ride their bikes, skateboards or just plain walk. As we were walking with the bikers our street started to descend down underneath another main street. The city had posted signs that told everybody that this was a mandatory walking area because the road was going to be too steep to keep control of the bikes, or skateboards with the amount of people on the street. Sure enough we got a demonstration why they did this. To our left a small boy not much older than 5 goes flying past us on his little bicycle complete with training wheels. He is weaving in and out of people just barely missing them; however the way the people were dispersed was causing the kid to have to keep going to his left towards the wall while his speed keeps picking up. Sure enough he tries for one last swerve but his training wheel makes contact with the wall and he thrusts his hand out toward the wall to catch himself dragging his hand across the cement near 20 mph until he ends up as a tumbling ball intertwined with this bike. The crash brings a mixture of gasps and laughter. Walking past the little boy a group of people have come to his aid, they are cleaning his wounds which are primarily scrapes on his hands.
To the left of the road there was a mall like structure that appeared to be a huge market. We decided to go check out. Inside it was three levels of goods. The first level was a variety of stuff including: raw meat vendors, vegetable/fruit vendors, and then the typical touristy stuff: shot glasses, blankets and what not. The second level was mostly food and drink vendors. The third level was flooded with pirated DVD’s and CD’s and “name brand” clothing. The size of this market was pretty overwhelming and seemed to go on forever.
There was a historical district nearby that we went to next. The museum was closing in about an hour and a half so we decided to put it on our to-do list tomorrow. As we went through the historical district they had some sort of concert going on. The concert had a complete set up with a stage, lights, announcers, and security nearby for accidents. The place was absolutely flooded but we managed to work our way through the crowd to a place to watch a few of the songs. The first performer we saw was some sort of Mexican Country Rocker complete with a four horn section and three back up dance guys. The next performer was a Latin diva with a couple more back up dancer guys. The crowd seemed to enjoy it but we pushed our way out after about 5 or 6 songs.
To get a break from near constant taco diet we stumbled across a Subway and had some sandwiches for lunch/dinner.
On the way back to the hotel we decided to go get our tickets in advance for the Lucha Libre (wrestling matches). It turns out we started in the wrong direction and ended up taking a scenic tour of suburb Guadalajara for about an hour until we finally came across the arena. The tickets were pretty reasonable with the most expensive being about $13 USD, we decided on the “rows 5 through 8,” $11 tickets. When we took our seats we were in the fifth row near the center. It was interesting waiting for the matches to start, they sold normal stuff like beer and soda, but then some other stuff like doughnuts and microwave popcorn, and there were some things we didn’t even recognize.
There were a total of 5 matches; each match was divided into a best of three format. Every match would split the first two rounds to make sure they provided a dramatic third round. However the $11 per ticket we spent was probably the best money we have spent so far. Alex, if you are reading this…you would have loved this. It was cheesy in all the right ways (kicks and punches that sometimes miss but somehow still hurt), but impressive in many others. Some of the jumps they do off the ropes were unbelievable. And if you were in the first row, it was assured at some point during the night you would have to jump out of your chair to avoid having a couple wrestlers land in your lap. They would do jumps off of the top rope right in front of the first row seats, and the matches with three on three at times would have one fight happening in the ring, one in the front row seats and another in the back section behind some of the seats. There were times we were both pointing in different directions so the other would seem see an impressive throw or kick. Once again, the best money we have spent so far. Anna’s impression of the whole was evening, was excellent, but best described as “Really bad WWF, but with acrobatics."
7 January 2008
Guadalajara, Mexico
We took our time getting ready for the day. The day prior was spent wandering many streets, and after the Wrestling our legs needed some rest. Doug spent a lot of time with the computer, trying to figure out how to update the website without his computer. A “hopeful” solution was discovered, and we were off. Luckily there was an internet/photocopy store within two blocks of the hotel. Doug logged on, and began his “solution.” After about an hour, we knew there was some information left back at the hotel on the laptop, so we decided to do some more exploring. Because this was a Monday, the city was more alive than the day before. About half of the businesses are closed on Sunday, even in the touristy sections.
It was time for lunch we walked back to the large market, and decided on a little café within all the other cafes. After breakfast/lunch we went to the museum only to find out it was closed on Monday. I guess we just can’t win with the Sunday/Monday thing in Mexico. However there were a lot of funky statues near the museum. It was picture posing time. You will see some quirky photos of us sitting on some laps. We proceeded to wander down this section of the Historical district. There are no cars allowed to drive down it, and there are some frequent fountains.
After a couple of hours we went back to the hotel to get the information to update the website. Doug logged on to the same computer he was working on a few hours before. After about an hour Anna logged on to the computer next to him to pass some time. About 2 ½ hours later, and Doug trying not to throw his computer out the door the website was finally about 75% updated. The only thing left was the photos, this could wait. We began wandering through the streets. Popped into a department store, and asked where we could find a bookstore. It was only a couple blocks down the road. We didn’t want to buy country guide books because we were going to so many countries. But what we have learned is, guide books will save us a lot of money. The book store had a Lonely Planet for the Yucatán in Mexico, and better yet, it was in English! We began to plan the next couple weeks of our trip through our last portion of traveling through Mexico.
We went back to the hotel for some freshening up before going out for dinner. The students were out of school, and everyone was getting off work. Downtown was becoming alive with people and buses. We stumbled upon a very cheap Chinese place, and each ordered a plate of food. One thing that is becoming consistent about our meals is they are costing us about $10 total including drink. The night was getting long, and it was time to turn in. The next day was to be a day of travel.
8 January 2008
Guadalajara, Mexico
After getting up we got information about getting a bus to the bus station (how novel). There were no buses direct from Guadalajara to Veracruz so we had to buy tickets to Mexico City. We unknowingly purchased the “fancy” bus. They gave us a sandwich, cookies, a bottle of water and a drink of our choice (soda, juice, or more water). The seats had more room than we were used to and they almost laid flat.
As we arrived in Mexico City we were amazed of the size (and smog) of the city. After arriving at the bus station we got the first bus to Veracruz, it was going to leave in about 5 hours. Anna got a Sudoku book and Doug tried his best to not tell Anna how to do the Sudoku.
A couple of hours passed, it was time for dinner then to follow we decided to play cards to pass some time. While in the middle of a hand we were approached by a young kid in some pretty worn out clothes who absolutely stunk of paint thinner or some other solvent. He said something that neither of us understood and decided to just lean on our table and watch us. After a minute or two a security person came and said something to the young man, probably something along the lines of “leave the American Touristas alone please.” Sure enough a minute after she was done talking to him he was back. He got bored though and left.
We finally jumped on our bus and were off to Veracruz.
9 January 2008
Veracruz, Mexico
The bus arrived 6 hours later just liked it was supposed to. This put us arriving in Veracruz at 4:45 in the morning. We walked a few blocks looking for a hotel, and in the mean time brushing off at least 20 taxi drivers. They were everywhere, honking asking us for business, it was chaos at 5:00 in the morning. We settled on a hotel a block away from the bus station, the check in time was 6:00. They let us leave our bags in a locked room, and we walked to the beach. There will be a lot of “first times” for Anna and Doug through the travels. But this was the first time Anna had seen the Gulf of Mexico, granted it was still very dark out, but beautiful to the ears.
We checked in around 6:10, took showers, and went to bed. It was 12:00 or so, and time to explore the city. The beach being an easy start was the first destination. After about an hour we passed a little café hidden in a drive-way. Doug had mole sauce on his pollo enchiladas, and Anna went safe with fruit, yogurt, and granola.
The city streets began calling us again. There was an Aquarium in the city. This is something that we are both interested in. There were a lot of the typical things in an Aquarium. But there were a lot of water turtles, and sharks. We were able to walk inside a large tank and have sharks, and stingrays swim above us. After the Aquarium we walked along the water, and through the city. Along the way stopped for some ice cream like dessert, and found a bench in a little square to share our helado. We proceeded to figure out how to get back to our hotel. Each of us had our ideas, and we were both incorrect. Finally after asking a postman on his bicycle found the way. The shoes came off, some ahhh’s came out of our mouths, and we relaxed for a bit.
For dinner we wandered around the block’s trying to agree on a good place to eat, or find a place for Anna to eat at. After enjoying Baggett sandwich’s it was time to turn in, and update the journals for another day.
10 January 2008
Veracruz, Mexico
We decided to knock out our laundry today. All the clothes were gathered up and we walked to the lavanderia (laundry mat). The problem was it wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow. Both of us had thrown our shorts in the wash and were wearing pants, and now the prospect of wearing pants all day in the Gulf of Mexico humidity was not appealing, but with no other laundry available we didn’t have a choice.
It was time to do some more exploring; we decided to check out the southern side of town. After wandering down to the beach we caught a bus for Boca de Rio (mouth of the river). As it took us south we saw the “new” part of the town. It was fully equipped with a Holiday Inn, Mickey D’s, Burger King, Walmart, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, a mall, an IMAX and many other comforts of home. We continued right on past them until the bus driver made us get out in a small, normal looking neighborhood. Looking around we came to the mouth of the river, there was a Mexican Battle Ship museum there. After a very short deliberation we decided to pass on paying $10 to go on a boat (especially since Doug has spent over a year of his life on naval ships).
Continuing through town we came across a nice little square and then a local Mercado (market). Inside Doug got some great knock-off soccer shorts for about $4 USD and Anna got three new shirts for $5 USD.
Having grown tired of the “new town,” we caught the bus back to “old town,” and then headed back to the hotel after a bit to get cleaned up for dinner.
For our evening meal we found a new little café that made great little tortas. While we were there we saw that they had wireless and we would try it out the next day.
As we were headed back to the hotel for some sleep the café owner’s wife and daughter came running after us with Anna’s long sleeve shirt in hand. Anna had taken it off inside and we left it behind by accident. We were so happy we decided to make sure we went there for breakfast in the morning.
11 January 2008
Veracruz, Mexico
There was a lot to do today. First was pick up our clean laundry and change out of our very “well seasoned” pants that we were using the day before.
Next was breakfast and time to try to update the internet. We went back to the same café as the night before. Doug was trying to get the wireless connection up on the computer but we kept having the same problem as every other internet cafe all through Mexico. The computer can connect to the wireless saying it can “receive” but it won’t let us “connect through”. So in the grand scheme of things, we can’t use any programs that connect to the internet. Even better is that when you click on the options that pop up for help to connect to the internet, it tries to access the internet to get you the answer…which ultimately fails because, once again, we aren’t connected to the internet (brilliant!).
Then we had an epiphany. What had been working years before wireless? Answer: just plugging in the stupid LAN line. So today we wandered into an internet café that had privacy walls set up all around the computer and we pulled the plug from their computer and slapped it into ours, next thing you know, our internet connection is HOT! We finally begin to dump all our new info on the website, which included two weeks of photos. About two hours later the website just finished fully updating and the battery on the computer ran out, we just finished in time.
Finally satisfied that we got a big update in, we headed back to the hotel and got cleaned up and enjoyed our room for a few hours because we wouldn’t be checking into another one for awhile.
Around noon we finally vacated the room. They were very nice, and stored our bags in a closet for the day. We decided to take a bus back into New Town. The idea was to possibly see a movie and try to get Doug some new books.
We caught the same bus and were dropped off at the mall. This was our first time in a Mexican “mall” and we weren’t disappointed, it looked like any normal modern mall. It had two main levels and all the stores had different names then the ones in the States, but the stuff all looked the same. We found the movie theater but were disappointed to discover that it is only open on weekends, so no movie for us. As we completed our search of the mall for a book store we gave up and started to leave. As we were passing by the last store Doug caught a reflection of a magazine rack inside a store. We went in sure enough they had a small book section with two rows, about 10 books wide of books in English! Doug grabbed two new books (at the tune of $12 a pop, ouch!), and then it was back to old town.
The bus dropped us off at the square and we back tracked a bit to a fort that was set up in Veracruz to protect the town from pirates. It was a small fort probably near quarter of an acre large, interesting none the less.
We decided it was time for a drink since we hadn’t had any since Cabo (these one year trips aren’t cheap, you got save cash somewhere). We went down the beach and all the restaurants were way over priced. We finally found one that had Anna’s piña colada for a more reasonable $5 USD as opposed to all the competitions $18. When the waiter asked if tequila was ok in her drink we probably should have realized something was wrong. We had to clarify that piña coladas come with rum, and that’s what we would like. Well when he bill came for our service: 1 beer, 1 piña colada (with rum) and chips and salsa, we came out to $18. We shook our heads and promised ourselves to try and not make that mistake again.
We went back to the hotel and gathered our stuff and settled in at the bus station for a few hours until it was time to go to San Cristobal De La Casa.
12 January 2008
San Cristobal De La Casa, Mexico
It felt nice to get off the bus from an 8 hour bus ride. This was an interesting ride, right in from of us there was a sleeping gentleman with snoring so bad it was amazing he didn’t wake himself up. The bus driver had his cab music on so loud to try to drown out the noise, not a lot of sleep was had on this ride.
This town didn’t seem too interesting at first. We made an attempt to walk to a hostel our book recommended, and ended up going to wrong direction. After walking about 20 minutes, we asked a couple people for directions, they all pointed us in the opposite direction we were walking in.
When we arrived, the hotel was cool just as the book said. The room available for us had two single beds, we decided to just move the beds together like the in old movies.
It was time to check out the town. We found the touristy street, and took our walk. This town we soon discovered was very well kept. Also there were two different types of people living here. There were the standard modern day people with modern day clothing, and the traditional style clothing similar to Mayan and Mexican cultures.
As we were walking past a theatre there was a girl soliciting a play about the Palenque people’s history going on that evening. She talked us into purchasing two tickets for the evening. It seemed pretty interesting especially since we would be visiting the ruins the next day. Continuing on there was a lot to see. The shops were nice for Anna to look at, and Doug was happy that Anna was happy. Despite the large number of vendors, there were not a lot of different items available. However most everything there was handmade. Anna was very good, not to purchase anything, although the marketers were very persistent.
We remembered a church up on a hill with a very interesting stairs leading up; it was time to find it. There was an incredible view from the hillside of the church; it was also strange because our book didn’t mention this church holding any significance. We sat, and admired the view. The town was a valley enclosed with luscious green hillsides. There was another church at the other side of town we decided to take a look at. This church turned out to be a very old temple, this was something else not mentioned in the book. The temple was very beautifully built on a hilltop, overlooking the city.
The hostel had a sign up saying the hot water was only turned on from 5am-11am, and 5pm-11pm. Well we got in the “much needed” shower right at 5:00pm, turned on the handle for hot water…no hot water came out…10 minutes later no hot water. This was not going to be pleasant, but we both needed a shower. This was our first cold shower of the trip.
Before the play we wanted to get some dinner. Walking around to find something to settle on we found this little restaurant on a corner. The menu said they had pollo (chicken) so Anna approved. Upon ordering we asked about getting Anna some pollo fajitas. The guy who ran the restaurant said they were out, then thought a second, and asked a woman who worked there to go get some. WOW, talk about service. This meal was the best meal we have had in months including the states. Doug’s meat melted in his mouth, and Anna’s chicken was perfect. The total bill was $13, perfect.
We went to the theater for the play. The theatre was set up to be a jungle-like setting. The play turned out to be very well acted out. One of our initial concerns was our poor Spanish, however the play had very little spoken words, and what was spoken was all in Mayan. It was very interesting to see a play in another cultures setting. We were given a pamphlet ahead of time, to learn the basis of the play. So it wasn’t completely unclear of what was going on.
13 January 2008
Palenque, Mexico
The alarm went off at 6:00am (the first time we have used an alarm clock since the day we left), our bus was leaving at 7:15. We gathered up our stuff, brushed our teeth, and walked to the bus station. Five hours later we arrived at a town called Palenque. The town is supposed to have some amazing Mayan ruins in the middle of the jungle.
We arrived, put our bags in the storage at the bus station, and found a bus to take us to the ruins. It was $2 to get into the park, and another $4 to get into the ruins. We walked through the entrance to the ruins, maybe 100 feet inside there was an ancient city to see. This was defiantly worth our time. These ruins were amazing, and they were enclosed inside a beautiful jungle setting. There were paths to follow; we stopped at each structure admiring the architecture. We were able to walk up the stairs, and do most of our own exploring.
After taking a good 3 hours looking at the ruins we went down to the museum, and learned more of what we just experienced. Then we took the bus back to the city, and walked around the little town. Everyone we talked to, including the book said there wasn’t much to see in this little city. We found a little square to sit at, and watch the people. Our bus left at 9:00, so we had about 4 hours to kill. After the square we found a taco stand, and had dinner. Our total bill including 6 small taco’s, and a fanta was $3.50.
14 January 2008
Campeche, Mexico
The bus arrived around 3:00 in the morning, just on schedule. We knew from experience with checking in at the Veracruz hotel that if we checked in now, they would end up charging us for two night because of the time. The check in time for that day was 6am. We sat in the bus station and read and planned our visit in Campeche. Around 5:30 we caught a bus to the Mercado in town and walked to our hotel. When we arrived, minutes before 6 am, the gentlemen running the desk informed us that check in was at 7:30. He did offer to take our luggage and recommended a café down the street.
We headed off to the beach and watched the morning joggers go by while we relaxed for a bit. Eventually we went to the aforementioned café and had breakfast. Anna had a coffee and bread with jelly, Doug decided to go really exotic and had pancakes.
7:30 arrives and we check into the hotel room, grab a shower and promptly feel asleep. We woke up around noon and headed out to explore. We went to Mayan Architecture museum only to discover they were closed because it was Monday. Then we decided to do a little walking tour recommended in our book. The first stop was a tourist information building. Inside they had a model of what the town would have looked like around 200 years ago. Apparently this town was attacked quite frequently by pirates, so they built a protective wall all around the city. After completing the wall the pirates thought better than to screw with the town of Campeche ever again. There were a couple interesting places to see, an old mansion, a couple churches and we got to tour inside the largest section of the wall that was still standing.
Once we were done exploring we came across a grocery store and found something we have been looking for around 2 week’s now…peanut butter! We bought a small loaf of bread and some jelly along with water and headed back to the hotel room for some fantastic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
15 January 2008
Campeche, Mexico
Once again it was laundry time. We gathered our stuff and headed to the laundry, which we found after walking by it twice (we probably wouldn’t have if they actually put up a sign that said “lavanderia” or something close to it).
Then we finished packing up the room and checked out. Once again the people at the front desk were quite friendly and said they would watch our bags for us while we went exploring. First stop was the bus station. Planning on purchasing on our tickets, we ran into a problem. We knew we couldn’t take a direct bus from Campeche to Tulum and that we would have to use Merida as a middle point. However, we would not make it to Merida in time for a night bus to Tulum. We decided that the latest possible bus to Merida (10 pm – midnight) and the earliest possible to Tulum (6:30 am – 11:00 am) was the way to go. This was going to give us 6 ½ exciting hours in the Merida bus station, but that is the price you pay I guess.
We went back to the market and shopped around a bit, and then went to the Mayan architecture museum that was closed yesterday. This museum was sort of a dual museum since it was housed inside the protective wall built around the city. Once we were down looking the museum we could walk around on the wall. While we were up on the wall we came across a large bell that Doug was certain would be disabled…he was wrong. As the bell rang out across the busy city streets below Anna glared at Doug and suggested they leave…right now.
It was finally time to pick up our laundry, followed by our luggage. Anna tried to tip the lady running the front desk for all her help, but she refused.
There was a lot of time to kill before our bus, and now that we had our bags it wasn’t going to be as easy, so we went to the local square and sat and read until it was time for dinner. For dinner we found a nice little torta place around the corner. It was so good we both had a second one, and by the time we left, we were stuffed. Our next stop was Merida for our 6 hour layover.
16 January 2008
Tulum, Mexico
The bus arrived at Merida around 1:00am, and Anna was not interested in spending 5+ hours at the bus station. Doug did a little search around the bus station for a really cheap hotel. He came back with three options: $28, $24, and $12. Doug said all of these options were ok. We went with the $12 hotel room, and checked in. Well what we found out is really the room was $12 for a reason. Anna took a cold shower, and Doug ended up not sleeping at all due to the mosquitoes/bugs in the room.
The alarm went off at 6:00, we packed up and walked to the bus station which was only 5 minutes away, and we were off. The bus arrived in Tulum around 11:00 am. We immediately found a hotel 2 blocks away for $25. It was clean, no bugs, and had hot water.
We decided to explore the nearby ruins. The walk to the ruins ended up taking us about 30 minutes. Once we got there we couldn’t believe the amount of tourist buses, and the different commercial venues (a subway sandwich joint). The ruins were exciting to see, this city was enclosed by a huge wall on four sides with the ocean side wall having a small opening for a cove. We walked around viewing the incredible architecture. Walking up to the small cliff facing the ocean our eyes opened up to the Caribbean Sea. This was the most beautiful Sea we have both laid our eyes on. The water was just like the blue sky, and the sand was the consistency of sugar. We walked down to the water, it was nice and warm.
After exploring the ruins we went back into town, and checked out the small little town. It was quaint but to our surprise the restaurants catered to the tourist pricing (almost US prices). We stumbled upon a dive shop for possibly going snorkeling; the price was $500 pesos per person. Since this was over our daily budget, we declined, and continued walking. We came across another dive shop their price was $35 per person, this we could do. A deposit of $200 pesos was given for the next day.
17 January 2008
Tulum, Mexico
The first to wake up was Doug, and it was time to catch up on journal entries. The new system was each of us to write two days at a time. At 8:45 we wandered over to the dive shop for our cave snorkeling trip.
The woman who took us ended up missing the turn to the spot “Dos Ojos”, so we got a good view of the highway. After finally arriving at the spot we weren’t sure what to think because we were not on the ocean side of the highway. What the guide had told us was the Yucatan used to be completely under water. Now that it was covered with land, the ground is very flat and soft. Over the years the rains have created cenotes (caves) on the land. The cenotes are all linked to the ocean underground. She said there are numerous underground rivers. We were going to snorkel in one of the caves.
We put on our wetsuits, snorkel gear, and got into the water. The caves were awesome. There were very little amounts of small fish in the water. The limestone was incredible inside the water. This is also a very popular diving spot. One section of the caves is a bat cave. We were careful not to disturb the bats. We explored the caves for a couple hours with our flashlights. It was one of the most interesting things the both of us had ever seen.
After snorkeling we wanted to go to the beach, and experience the blue water. We walked the 2 miles to the beach, and had a light lunch of peanut butter and honey. The beaches had the typical resort type feel with restaurants and hotels, but on a much smaller scale. This portion of Mexico will soon be merged into a Cancun type atmosphere. It was nice to just lie down relax, rinse off in the water. We met a Canadian woman who turned out to be a writer, and an artist. She gave us her website to download her book.
As we were walking back to our hotel, we found a place with beer specials, and it was time to eat. Anna ordered pollo fajitas, and Doug got pollo enchiladas with an order for a couple pacificos. This was the perfect meal. The day was long, and we were tired.
18 January 2008
Tulum/Chetumal, Mexico
After waking up, our first stop was the bus station. The bus for Chetumul left every two hours. We opted to buy tickets for the 10:30 bus. Back to the room to check out, then stop for a quick bite to eat and a last minute e-mail check. Today we would be meeting up with the brother of our friend Juve in Chetumal. An email was sent to Juve with the arrival information to Chetumal so he could pass it along. There wasn’t enough time to receive a message back before we boarded the bus. So we weren’t sure how things were going to play out after arrival
The bus arrived in Chetumal, and Doug went out searching for an internet café to see if Juve replied. Sure enough he had an address and recommended taking a taxi.
Our taxi driver was a bit lost, and being new to the town, and not being able to speak much Spanish, we weren’t much help. The driver spent about 10 minutes asking directions in his radio, but it finally came down to us just wandering through nearby street that we were finally able to find it. The whole ride over we were asking each other a lot of questions neither of us knew the answers to regarding our friend’s brother whom we have never met. What kind of house do you think they have? Do they speak English? Do they have kids? Do they even have room for us?
Arriving to the address we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the neighborhood was, and were even happier once we were greeted by Luise in his beautiful house. As we went inside we started getting all the answers we had just asked ourselves. They have a beautiful house, Luise speaks a little English (more than we speak Spanish anyway), they have one adorable son and another on the way, and they had a room that put all the places we’ve stayed the last three weeks to shame.
We sat downstairs and talked with Luise and his wife Lupita for awhile in long Spanglish conversation. They were pretty surprised to realize that we had no jobs, no house, and most of our belongings were in the two backpacks sitting in their living room floor.
Luise had to go back to work but offered us a ride downtown so we could check out the sights. After Luise dropped us off we wandered down to the water where we could see across the river. On the other side was Belize, our next stop. After taking a couple photos we continued walking. Wandering down the water front it began to sprinkle a bit. Walking along the rain was getting stronger, and then we noticed we were walking right into and underneath the very darkest part of the cloud above. This was enough to change our direction. After a bit we realized we needed to go back to the bus station for information on the Belize bus. The lady at the bus station told us there were two buses tomorrow, one at 5am and another at noon. Additionally, we couldn’t buy tickets right now, only on the day of.
It was dark out now and so we decided to spend $2 on a taxi back to Luise and Lupita’s house. Our cab driver had another person in the front seat and as we pulled out of the bus station. After doing the math we realized the guy in the front was a paying fare, not just a friend or co-worker. After going about 10 minutes out of the way for this guy, it was off to our place. Well this cab ride was probably one of our more interesting ones. As people slowed down for speed bumps, this guy would accelerate past them on the shoulder, merge and slam on his brakes for the speed bump. We began to think Luise and Lupita live in some secret part of the city, because this driver couldn’t find the place either. He even pulled up on the shoulder next to another cab driver and asked him. Finally we arrived in one piece.
In the house Luise was busy with work and Lupita had taken little Luise off to a birthday party for a friend. Doug worked website update stuff and Anna did some research on Belize. Shortly after Lupita came home it was time for dinner. Everyone loaded up in the car and we were off to the water front where we just walked a bit earlier. It was interesting to see what was a quiet street had come alive with lots of young and old (mostly young) out for a big Friday night.
We came to a restaurant and they brought over an English speaking waiter despite our protests. It was probably good he came though because he was nice and even talked Anna into getting meal with something neither of us tried before: cactus.
When the food came out Doug opted for the safer beef tacos, Anna however had an interesting chicken with cactus that was fried and then had a cream sauce and a bit of cheese on it. It wasn’t too bad.
After dinner we headed off to get desert, machados. Neither of us had ever tried these earlier and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. Once we arrived we saw we needed to pick a fruit. With no strawberries available Doug went for banana and Anna went for pineapple. Thankfully we were able to watch them put these things together. First they took our fruit and put it in a pint glass. Then they meshed it up as best they could. Then took about a cups worth of shaved ice and put it inside. Now for Anna’s they added water (by request) and for Doug’s they added what looked like condensed milk. Then they added some cinnamon and some brown liquid (vanilla maybe?) and mixed it up a bit. There might have been some other magic that happened while we weren’t looking but when we tried them we were amazed at how good they were.
We got back to the house, sat out on the patio drinking our machadaos, and talked for awhile before calling it a night for a great day.
19 January 2008
Chetumal, Mexico
Doug got up first and put together our laundry because Lupita was kind enough to offer us the use of their washer and dryer.
Shortly after everyone started to get up and Luise offered us a ride to bus station so we could purchase our tickets to Belize. The tickets could be purchased from the same bus station we arrived in the previous day. We arrived, and began asking the ticket counter about going to Belize City. A guy stood up from one of the benches where people wait for their buses (instead of waiting behind his little counter that was separate from the Mexican ticket booths), and sold us our tickets. He had mentioned the bus was leaving not at noon like we thought; instead it was leaving at 10:45 am. He handed us our tickets, there were no assigned seats, just two little pink pieces of paper. Leaving the bus station we hoped we just bought real tickets.
We took a taxi back to the house, and Lupita had put together a breakfast fit for a king. We had vanilla and strawberry yogurt, cantaloupe, pears, apples, milk, juice, coffee, grilled ham and cheese and more...we were absolutely stuffed when leaving the table.
After getting packed up we said our “thank you’s” and “goodbyes,” and Luise took us to the bus station. There wasn’t much of a wait for us before we boarded our bus to Belize. This was a lot different than the buses we had been taking up tell now. It was a modified old school bus, no plush seats, no TV, no air conditioning. With us on board were a bunch of missionaries from around the US and Canada. They were going to San Ignacio, Belize for the weekend.
The bus arrived at the border and directed us to the Mexican immigration official. He asked for our passports and then for our tourist cards. Now we had a problem. At some point during our two weeks in Mexico, we were supposed to stop in at a bank and pay for our tourist cards ($23 USD each). Well we hadn’t, and there was no bank in sight. We got out of line and fished out our tourist cards and started trying to figure out if we were going to have to stay in Mexico another night if we couldn’t find a bank or if the official wouldn’t take payment on the spot. We stepped in front of the official again and handed our unpaid tourist cards to him and confessed that we hadn’t paid and if they would take payment on the spot. “Sure, no problem.” Was the answer we received (loosely translated of course). Apparently we weren’t the only people to screw this up before. With the problem solved we crossed the border.
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