23/12/2010

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We couldn’t stay in Flores for more than one day because we wanted to get a move on the celebrate Christmas somewhere around Atitlan Lake that was at least a 12 hour bus journey away.

We again packed up our things and left them in storage at the hostel so we could wonder the small island of Flores.

We found lunch at a place with a lake view where we each inhaled a plate of spaghetti carbonara; after we chilled at the hostel where we took advantage of the free internet so I could upload some blog entries and manipulate some photos in photoshop.

For the rest of the day we chilled in the sun by the lake on a pier where we met a couple of Germans and also some Austrian girls where we threw ourselves into the warm water of the lake attempting double backflips and crazy rotations.

We had to organize bus tickets for later in the evening and so we headed into town where we bought the appropriate tickets and found some street vendors cooking on a BBQ. The food here was SO much better than the food in Mexico and SO much cheaper too. For Q15 (approx $2) you get a plate filled with rice, beans, salad, delicious BBQ meat (chicken or beef) served with tortillas… Mexicans should take note of the food here.

The tickets to Guatemala City (that was half the price of tickets in mexico for the same distance) and later went back to the hostel for a few drinks during happy hour and more chilling before we set off.

We went back for another dinner at the same street vendor for another plate of BBQ meat before the 8 hour trip.

Lake Surrounding Flores

Museum on Island

Backflips and other tricks into the Lake

Sunset

The lovely lady who cooked us food

22/12/2010

Time to leave Mexico!

Edwin and I packed our things and set off at midday to Palenque town to catch our cheap 60 peso bus that took us on the road for 3 hours towards the border. The journey at first was very cramped with 15 people in a van that’s only suppose to have 9 or 10, it was such a relief when some of the passengers hopped out along the way because sitting on the very edge of the seat was not comfortable at all.

We then had to get a taxi to the river boarder crossing Crusera Corazol to Frontira Corazol on the Guatemalan side by a 30 minute boat ride costing an expensive 150 pesos.

On the Mexican side I was ripped off because I again had to pay 262 pesos to leave the country… they put another stamp in my passport but I found out later that this wasn’t nessesary and I could have just crossed the boarder into Guatemala. Damn corruption!

Guatemala!

Another country, another currency.

This always gets me, having to change to another currency and figure out the conversion so you don’t get ripped off. Which is exactly what happened when buying some bus tickets from the boarder to Flores… thankfully I managed (and with Edwins Spanish) to sort out some confusion with incorrect change.

We took another 3 hour bus journey where we met a German/Swedish couple and enjoyed the bumpy dirt road to our first destination of Flores.

Arriving at the hostel by taxi Edwin and I found a cheap room costing a nice sounding $5 each a night, sleeping on comfy double beds. The tacos I ate for dinner too where much better than Mexican standards, cheaper too.

Didn’t do much else for the evening but I like this place.

 

The cramped bus

The boats to the Guatemalan Border

  

On the boat (Edwin and I)

 

Guatemala! 

Out of Mexico, another country another Chapter

21/12/2010

Yesterday we organized a tour to two of the nearby waterfalls setting us each back $120 pesos. The bus took off at midday so we grabbed a late breakfast in the restaurant around the corner with the Swedish girls (My and Jennifer) and our crew of myself, Manu, Amelia, Dan (English guy) and Edwin.

We met some Dutch guys on the bus, Oleg and Ernst with a very cool and hot German girl  named Carolina.

The first waterfall was Misol-Ha where the water cascaded 50 meters into a large rock pool. It was good fun swimming into the area where the falls hit the water and feeling the force of it.

We only spent 45 minutes here before having to get back into the van and headed an hour around twisting mountain roads to Agua Azul which is another place to view several waterfalls.

This was cool, with cascading water falling into turquoise rockpools with rope swings and lots of drinking to be had.

We were here for a good 3 hours where everyone got along and no complaints. It was the perfect time to relax and watch Carolina… um, I mean those turquoise rock pools. We left the waterfalls at 5.30 to get back to Palenque where we hopped off at the bus station in town to find out prices and times to get to Guatemala tomorrow.

The Dutch guys, Carolina and Dan all had buses leaving this evening so we said our farewells and we headed back to the cabanas.

We bought some fuel for my stove that wasn’t quite right and it was difficult to keep it going so that we could boil all our eggs for breakfast and lunch. This took a very long time whilst we drank in the room.

We were going to head out to drink at a bar but we were all so tired and sat back and fell asleep to a film.

 

Misol-Ha Waterfall 

Misol-Ha waterfall again

 

Agua Azul, one of many waterfalls

 

The Group of us

20/12/2010 Apoc-eclipse

What an epic day!

Ill continue in the usual format and start from the beginning of the day and work to the end, but bare with it because today was awesome.

After the 6 hour bus journey that only took us 220km from San Cristobel to Palenque where I slept on the floor of the bus next to the toilet in the isle, it wasn’t surprising that all of us were nackard when we arrived.

There were a bunch of people at the bus station looking for where a hippy gathering was held somewhere near by. It is called rainbow festival and not my type of thing as the people who attend are too hippy like for me giving blessings and giving themselves the o’natural experience, there were a few rainbow festivals in India when I was travelling there too.

Anyways the group of us (7 in total) made our way to the La Panchan area where we looked for some cabanas for the nights here. We found a cheap place called Jungle Palace that had very basic Cabanas backing to a small creek. It was good enough for me because it was only 50 pesos a night each sharing with Edwin and Manu.

We wanted to check out the Palanque ruins today so we put away our stuff and grabbed lunch/breakfast at a restaurant down the road.

Manu and Edwin have Mexican student cards so they we able to enter for free; unfortunately my 4 year old student card did not work for this occasion and I had to pay the 51 pesos entrance fee.

Upon entering the site i again was refused entry because of my camera tripod… this really pisses me off as I can take some amazing shots with it and I still have no idea what is the issue?

Although I was a little agitated the Mayan ruins were very impressive and we wondered around the site for several hours. It was incredibly touristy like every temple, waterfall, ruin, whatever and wherever it is but this was well worth it. At one point I went inside a pitch black ruin only to fall into a excavated grave where I stumbled out covered in mud.

We headed off by collectivo to the town where we went to buy food for the next few days. I went for some Quesadillas at the market that not only were very expensive but tasted like crap… im going to Guatemala in a few days and please… im hoping the food there will be better.

After all our shopping we hopped in a taxi and got back to the cabanas where we started drinking and introducing our different rules of the card game Shithead. Where ever you go in the world people know Shithead, it was a large game with two decks and 8 people playing.

The Swedish girls My and Jennifer said they were arriving this day so Edwin and I went to go look for them; we managed to find them very easily at a bar where we had a few drinks before fatigue hit me hard and I needed to sleep.

I slept for a good 4 hours before the Swedish girls and Edwin woke Manu and me up to pursue their idea to check out the full luna eclipse that only occurs once every 100 years from on top of one of the Mayan structures. A great idea I thought so I got up and drank some beers whilst I got ready.

Manu joined us on the walk there but picked out early because he wasn’t feeling well.

When we saw the first checkpoint the four of us jumped a fence and tucked into the forest where Edwin lead the way by bush bashing, after a while and many flipflips lost and recovered we found the museum and checkpoint. We were able to evade the security guard with a gun and sneak behind the buildings to get back to the road.

It was easy sailing to the entrance of the ruins where their were more guards so we again hopped into the forest to find our way behind the structures and avoid the gurads.

We wondered down a dark path towards the sounds of howling monkeys (that actually sounded like a roaring panther) that really freaked out the girls but Edwin and I managed to convince them that it was an audio tape playing… they believed it.

We followed the trail path for far too long and through the leaves and branches we could already see the eclipse starting. At this point we turned around back to the road where we entered the jungle… The girls were so sure we were headed in the right direction back but luckily we managed to walk out exactly where we needed to be, right beside the Mayan structures. We quickly climbed one to get out of site of the guards who carried flashlights who walked the paths and we lay down watching the shadow of the Earth cover the sun.

It really was incredible… what a thing to do; watching a full lunar eclipse on top of a Mayan temple exactly 2 years before the Mayan Calendar finishes with a good buddy and two Swedish girls.

Guess what happened next… we got caught. L

The guards sat us down and asked for 1000 pesos each but we didn’t have that type of money, all we had collectively was 70 pesos. They checked my pockets and saw that I had a camera but they didn’t want that or my tripod that I was able to get in J.

They threatened us by telling us they would call the police but unfortunately for them the police phone number seemed not to work. During this time the moon was still in full eclipse, it lasted for a good 2 hours

We got off very lightly only giving the security guard at the checkpoint we evaded earlier the 70 pesos we had and we walked away. Pfew!

We reminisced back at the cabanas with a few beers and soon after crashed out.

What a night!

The Mayan temple we climbed later this Evening

Mayan temples and me

 

Edwin, Amelia and I

 

 

View from above

Waterfall in the ruin park

The Eclipse that i managed to take with my crappy (not broken anymore) camera

360 view of the main Mayan ruins in Palanque

19/12/2010

Got up early this morning to get organized to see the small town of Chamula to check out a market that is only held on Sundays; I munched down all te free fruit from the guesthouse I could manage (especially after 48 hours of being sick of not really eating) and we set off.

We found a cheap taxi to get there that only set us back 20 pesos each.

The four of us (Edwin, Manu (German), Amelia (Aussie) and myself) wondered around the market squre where my camera, again, fucked up… I spend a little while eating luch trying to fix it but only made it worse.

We then paid 20 pesos to get into a church that was only open on Sundays where Christian missionaries tried to convert the town folk which they succeeded although apparently the locals only still discretely worshiped their Mayan gods hidden under the alter.

The church floor was covered in pine leaves making it very slippery and the hall was filled with smoke, I was expecting people to fall over on the pine leaves for a bit of a laugh but unfortunately it never happened.

We were going to go see a cave but we cave up on that idea because it seemed too difficult to get to.

Later back at the guesthouse I cooked some lunch and managed to fix my camera using the spare parts from Edwins broken camera; it honestly has been 10 times ive managed to fix my camera and so I was happy to get it working again.

We then booked our bus tickets to Palenque where on the walk back I bumped into the Swedish girls I met in Puerto Escondido.

After a few drinks at our guesthouse we left with our packs and went to the hostel where the Swedish girls were staying… we got very drunk before boarding the bus to make our way to Palenque.

 

 

This is where my camera broke down :( this is Amelia

Everythings over exposed

Manu

18/12/2010

I tried to join the others this morning to go hire a car and see some waterfalls. I managed to get down the street before turning back around to the hostel because I still wasn’t feeling 100%.

I slept for the day again and only ate some noodles in the evening. I suppose I can look at being sick as a bit of a benefit as I haven’t spent any money over the past two days and my stomach has certainly shrunk – meaning I wont have to eat much of the Mexican food that ive enjoyed so much since travelling here *cough*.

17/12/2010

It must have been the chill from scootering up the mountain yesterday evening that made me feel so ill today.

I was very disorientated and tired and spent the day sleeping with the help of some sleeping pills and watching films.

I didn’t eat anything and I can only hope I feel better tomorrow.

16/12/2010

It was an early start to the day with Edwin and I hiring out a scooter to get to Canyon de Sumidero. After a spectacular ride down from San Cristobel we arrived in Tuxtla where the climate was more to my liking.

We debated whether or not we should do the 2 hour boat tour through the canyon as it was quite expensive. We opted to do it in the end although it was incredibly touristy.

It was an amazing tour with cliff walls towing 1km above and a crazy amount of wildlife like crocs, vultures, iguanas and more crocs, the pictures below hardly give justice to the crazy height of the canyon it really was worth the money in the end. There were some crazy rock formations and unusually growing vegetation with even a cliff face covered in a thick growing moss that resembles a Christmas tree.

After the boat tour we got lunch at a local place offering (again and only) tacos and we headed back on the low powered scooter through the winding roads to reach the lookout points of the canyon.

These again were very impressive if not surreal and it was good fun to drive on the winding roads to get up and down.

Sunset was approaching and we needed to head back to San Cristobel ASAP because as ive mentioned before the temperature drops dramatically when the sun goes down.

The scooter that we hired was severly underpowered especially with the two of us on it and it did take us a very long time to climb the mountain, with a max speed of 40km/h.

We did unfortunately get caught in the cold, and I didn’t have a sweater.

I was freezing my tits off as I drove the scooter counting down the kilometers so we could return the scooter at 6… but we were 45 minutes late.

Frozen, I quickly warmed up the leftovers from yesterday and downed some tea.

We headed out later to another hostel where Edwin had to catch up with his friend from Holland, but like a lot of hostels guests were not allowed. We then headed back to our guesthouse where I struggled and failed at making a fire and sank back a few beers.

the road down from San Cristobel

So touristy… snap happy mexicans… i suppose i cant talk much

Iguana’s

Edwin and Me

Checkpoint

Vultures

Crocs

Moss formation on cliff face in the shape of an Christmas tree.. and Christmas is a week away

The moss up close

Me

More crocs

Its a long way down, dont worry i didnt jump.

 

 

Sunset on the freezing road back to San Cristobel

Our scooter HDR

Sumidero Canyon Panoramic

Sumidero Canyon Panoramic from the viewpoint

15/12/2010

Arriving in San Cristobel we all had to immediately change from t-shirts, shorts and flip flops, it was 7am and the sun had not yet warmed up the little town.

As we walked out of the bus station a bunch of people approached the 6 of us trying to get us to stay in their hostel/hotel. After some debate and bargaining we went with the one that offered a free taxi ride.

The guesthouse was great with albeit cold, I managed to share a room with Edwin for 80 pesos each and the other Aussies found a room for the four of them.

We helped ourselves to the free breakfast and chilled out chatting about how I travel with a soldering iron and how I can fix a lot of thing.

Before long the 5 others threw all their broken electrical equipment at me to fix, I ended up with 2 cameras and a portable speaker system. I had all the equipment and bits of electrical goods sprawled over my bed attempting to fix the issues. Unfortunatly I was only able to fix one item as the others were broken beyond repair.

When the sun finally warmed up the town we headed out to see what was what.

San Cristobel is a very laid back town where the locals are friendly the markets are filled with a vast amount of goods and some streets are open just for pedestrians (always good).

Edwin and I wondered around the markets were everyone seemed to by doing all their xmas shopping.

I returned back the guesthouse to catch up on some sleep from the bus journey where I crashed for a good 4 hours.

I promised the 5 others that ii would cook dinner and so when it was dark Edwin and I set off to the markets to buy groceries, it was so cold outside and when we got to the market unfortunately it was closed.

I managed to make do with crap meat I bought from the supermarket and other tinned shit to make a simple dish of Spag-Bol. It turned out better than I thought using left over ingredients found at the guesthouse, everyone seemed happy with the food and later we chilled by outside upstairs fire drinking beer.

Down the street from our guesthouse

 

The church in the main square

stacked oranges at the market