Goodbye Cancun

My last day in Mexico! I tried to sleep in, but after all the early mornings it didn't work too well! I had a relaxing breakfast a the hotel, went to the internet shop next door to check-in for my flight home, then went with P to get massages! It was a very relaxing end to a sometimes hectic trip. P, A, and B were all on the same flight which left just a few minutes before mine, so we got a taxi together to the airport. P, A, and B had a long line at their airline desk while I didn't have any, so I went through security and waited for them there. After snacking on expensive airport food, we said our goodbyes and boarded our flights.

The flight home was uneventful, but I think from now on Mom and Dad will be adding an extra half hour to their pick-up time. I always have trouble getting back into Canada and even had my bags searched this time! I guess I didn't fit in with all the other people returning from the resorts!

Tulum

This was our last day together as a group, but there weren't any planned activities. Most of us wanted to see the ruins at Tulum, so got together in the morning and found a group taxi van to drive us to the ruins. The place was crawling with resort tourists and iguanas, and after all the much more impressive ruins we had seen, we all seemed more fascinated with the iguanas than with anything else! One of the reasons to visit Tulum is to swim at the beaches in the park, but the stairs down to the main beach were closed and the surf was really high, so we only looked down at the beach. After about an hour we were hot, tired and hungry, so found another group bus and went back to the hotel. We spent the afternoon lazing around in the hotel pool then went out for a fancy "last night" dinner followed by a few drinks. I went back to the hotel with part of the group early in the evening, but the others stumbled home the next morning.

Playa del Carmen

Back to Mexico today! We decided to pay a few extra dollars and take the water taxi back to Mexico - a 3 hours trip by boat instead of and hour by boat and then 5 hours by old school bus! The only problem was that the water was rough - the boat kept slapping down which got really tiring and really annoying pretty quickly.

We got through customs into Mexico without too many problems - still not a "normal" border check point (a table under a shelter at the end of a dock), but it seemed a lot more official that the other borders we had crossed. It was also interesting to watch the drug dogs go over all our luggage, including hand luggage, searching for drugs. Then it was back on the wonderfully cold ADO buses north to Playa del Carmen, our final stop on this trip. The drive up wasn't too interesting, except for the thousands of butterflies over the highway and being able to see the massive resort complexes along the coast.

After finally finding our hotel (we arrived in a different bus station than S thought we were at), we went out for a simple Mexican supper, then walked downtown. It was too touristy for me and so expensive compared to everywhere else we had been! We had a few drinks at a cheesy tourist bar that had a nice view, then went back to the hotel.

Crossing into Guatemala

To avoid taking the Guatemalan chicken buses with all our packs (and to shorten the length of our trip), we upgraded to our own private van. We left San Cristobal early in the morning, eating breakfast as we drove. It was an "interesting" trip. Our first snag was a road block, causing us to have to turn back and find a route around the protest, adding about 20 minutes to our trip. 3 km from the border, we stopped at the Mexican immigration building where D took our passports to be stamped. I'm not sure why they didn't need to see us, but noone was complaining!

We drove the last few kilometers to the border, unloaded our bags, and walked through the open gate surrounded by market stalls into Guatemala. D still had our passports, and after we had changed a bit of money into Quetzals to pay for our tourist cards, D stood in line again and did all the paperwork for us. Unfortunately the computer system was down so it took about 30 minutes to get it all sorted out, but we beat the other large group of tourists who were all standing in line individually. It was definately not your normal border crossing - no one ever compared my to my passport ... and people were walking back and forth across the border the whole time we were there with nobody stopping them or checking who they were.

We got a new van in Guatemala ... one with a driver who had a hard time finding gears (lots of grinding) and road the brakes going down hills (stinky!). We got to the look out over Lake Atitlan just after sunset and stood admiring the hazy view for a few minutes, then continued down towards the lake. We didn't get far before we had to stop again - this time waiting over an hour for an accident that was blocking the road to be cleared (it would have taken 4 hours to drive around). We managed to entertain ourselves pretty well though, singing along to songs off of Mm's iPod! The people behind us must have wondered what was going on as our van rocked from side to side :P

We finally made it to our hotel in Panajachel, and went to a great asian restaurant for supper.

San Cristobal de las Casas

Since I was feeling a lot better, I decided to do a tour of two of the Mayan villages that surround San Cristobal. The first community was definitely the most unique. The town and market surrounding the church were just like most other towns in the area, but inside the church is where things got weird.

In this town, Christianity has been mixed with traditional Mayan beliefs. The church is officially catholic, but it isn't like any other catholic church I've ever been too. There are no pews, the floor is covered in pine needles (to ward off evil spirits, I think) and burning candles (the reason so many of these churches have burnt down). Along the walls are statues of the saints, covered in layers of clothes and mirrors hanging around their necks (so evil spirits will see their ugly reflection and stay away from them). There aren't many images of Jesus, but since it was the church of St. John the Baptist, there were lots of pictures of him. We also got to see a healing ceremony take place in the middle of the church. The person who was there to be healed was sitting on the floor holding a chicken, while the healer, also sitting on the floor, lit candles and chanted. When he was done, he took the chicken, waved it over the person to "absorb" the evil or sickness, then broke the chicken's neck. The chicken was then returned to the person to be buried. Not your normal, everyday church activity!

The second town was a bit less Mayan (no killing of chickens), but still had the pine needles and candles - but they were on stands, not the floor. In this town, we also stopped in at a family's house where they quickly pulled out all their weaving and embroidering to demonstrate how it was made and to sell it too us. We were also given a demonstration on how they made tortillas using a press.

We got back to San Cristobal early in the afternoon, so there was plenty of time to wander the city streets, find a post office, send an email home, and do a bit of laundry.

Waterfalls and Speed bumps

It was another long day of travelling, but this time we paid a bit extra and booked our own van and driver for the trip so we could stop at some waterfalls along the way. I was up a few times during the night, so loaded up on medication in the morning to help clear up whatever was bothering me - it must have worked because I was feeling a bit better that evening, and back to normal the next day! Our guide D was also having problems that morning - he got stung by a scorpion (which he didn't tell us until later) and whacked his elbow in a failed attempt to get away from it. The first waterfall stop was at Misol-Ha. It's a 35 m high waterfall set in the middle of lush jungle with a path that goes behind it. There is a spot to swim, but it was early and still relatively cool, so no one from our group went in. The second waterfall was Agua Azul. The waterfall isn't very high, but is a series of naturally formed, turquoise pools. I had lunch in one of the small restaurant stalls, then walked to the top with W. After a few pictures, we walked to the bottom, had a quick dip in the surprisingly cold water, then waited in the shade for the others. The rest of the drive wasn't too exciting, except for the almost 400 speed bumps (speed up, slow down, bump, bump, repeat) and K on my left and G on my right arguing about something ... for about 5 hours! We were given a quick orientation walk around San Cristobal, had supper at a really nice (and cheap!) restaurant, then I headed off to bed while the others went out for drinks.

Palenque

I started getting sick today :( I already was getting a sore throat, but this morning my digestive system started acting up, too. Luckily it waited until we had finished visiting the ruins to really go crazy.

We had, or in some cases, tried to have breakfast at the hotel. (Service sucks and some people never got the food they ordered) We were picked up by van and driven the short distance to the entrance to the ruins where we met our guide. The ruins here were awesome! Half covered by jungle, not many tourists, and we were able to climb them! Of course, it comes with a few risks though - as we were getting to the first courtyard, an ambulance was coming out from behind the temple, probably carrying someone who slipped and fell.

The main temples and buildings have been uncovered and restored, but there are many other buildings still covered by jungle, and it was neat to check them out after the tour ended. I was with Mf and I, and we all felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie ... or maybe Lara Croft since we are all girls :P I even almost got hit in the head by a stick a monkey threw at me!

After we got our fill of ruins, we had a quick look at the museum, then walked back to the hotel for lunch and a relaxing afternoon beside the pool.

Journey to Palenque

We spent most of the day on the bus, driving 9 hours to Palenque. The scenery was nice, the movie wasn't too loud (it sometimes comes blasting out of the overhead speakers), and even the bathroom at the back of the bus was clean (cleaner that VIA rail train bathrooms!). We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch, but other than that, we only stopped at the bus stations where we could get out a stretch our legs, pay to use a bathroom that wasn't moving, or grab a snack. Our guide, D, always counted to make sure we were all back on the bus, but at one stop, G was missing (it was a bit of a recurring theme, unfortunately). D got the driver to stop, pull back into the station, and D ran around looking for him. It wasn't until D had looked all over that we realized that he was in the toilet at the back of the bus! Sigh.

There isn't much to the town of Palenque, so we stayed at a hotel and "traylor" park inside the national park, less than a kilometer from the ruins! The setting was beautiful.

Behind our rooms, we found a rope hanging from a tree branch. K was the first to swing on it, then it was my turn. Neither of us were all that good, but a really hot guy came up and offered to give me a push :) Of course I couldn't turn that down and he also caught me and lowered me down when I couldn't hang on any more. Mf took a turn too, then we walked around a bit. A while later, I was back in the same area when W came up (K had told her about the rope and the hot guy). She went up to the rope (where the hot guy was again), turned and shouted, "K was right, he is hot!". He pushed her and she started shouting "The hot guy just touched my ass ... he touched it again!" She didn't realize that he spoke English until she was down! It ended up being the start of a short (2 day) but intense relationship.

We spent the evening at the hotel restaurant, eating supper and laughing about W and "hot guy".

Merida

Our group split up into various activities today and I chose to go for the coolest option - visiting 3 cenotes (water sink holes) south of the city with K and I. The transportation to the cenotes was a bit of an adventure in itself as it involves taking small wooden horse-drawn carts that run along old rail tracks. It was a jerky ride and since there aren't any places to pass, we often had to climb out and take the cart off the tracks to let another cart go by.

When we got the the first cenote there were already 7 carts there, so our guide decided to continue on the the next one and come back to this one later. It was a great decision, because we got to have the second cenote (which I found the most beautiful) all to ourselves for quite a while. The water was a perfect temperature for swimming! Our guide brought along snorkel equipment for us to use, which was great.

The second cenote had the best entrance - through a small hole down a 20 - 30 foot "ladder" made of branches cemented unevenly into the walls. The third cenote (the one we skipped earlier) was the largest and busiest, but it was interesting because we were able to swim way into the back were it was pretty dark! Our guide had a flashlight and showed us different things under the water, including a large catfish that started to come after K ... until she screamed :P

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Merida - a pretty, colonial town.

Chichen Itza

We left Cancun around 9 and took a very well air conditioned ADO bus to Chichen Itza, arriving around 12 - meaning that it was scorching hot walking around the ruins!

We were given a 2 hour guided tour of the ruins, estimated to be founded in 432 AD. I gave up on the tour near the end (the heat was too much for me), but I did get to see all the major parts - "El Castillo" (the large pyramid), the huge ball court, and the cenote.

After lunch, we hopped back on another well AC'ed bus to Merida were we had a quick orientation walk and then supper with most of the group.

Cancun, Mexico

The start of another 3-week adventure with GAP Adventures - this time to Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize on the trip Mayan Adventure!

I took WestJet out of Hamilton in the afternoon, so could sleep in and didn't have to deal with any lines at check-in or security. The flight down was fine though a bit bumpy for the last hour, but in Cancun we had to sit on the ramp for about 20 minutes. Going through immigration was simple (I never have problems in foreign countries, only in Canada!), but unfortunately got a red light going through customs which meant that my bags had to be checked. The officer didn't do a thorough job though - he seemed more interested in the fact that I work contact lenses and have blue eyes!!

I had arranged to have a shuttle from the airport bring me to the hotel, and it eventually showed up ... after me standing around and searching through all the other people holding signs for hotels. I got to the hotel just in time for the group meeting and then it was off for a late supper (at a place with ridiculously slow service).

Our group was supposed to have 15 travellers, but one never showed up, so, here are the 13 other people I'll be spending the next weeks with. (If there's an * after their name, they stayed for 3 weeks, otherwise they left in Antigua)

MZ* - early 30s girl from Austria who was my room-mate most nights

P* - early 30s girl from Germany

K - early 30s girl from England

MH* and T* - late 20s boyfriend and girlfriend from Australia who are spending the next 4 months travelling around Central and South America

W and MV - mid-30s friends (both girls) from Australia

G - early 40s guy from Toronto (and he talked about Canada A LOT!!!)

S - late 30s guy from England

L* - women who turned 50 on the trip (and didn't tell us until the day AFTER) from Thunderbay

B* and A* - late 40s couple from Scotland

I - mid-40s girl from Quebec City