2.7. - Caye Caulker
When we got up it was already really hot. We started looking for a place to have breakfast. It took quite a while as everything was really expensive. Finally we ended up in one nice, but still expensive (8USD for a breakfast!), place. Instead of bread we had some kind of langosh (sth. deep fried) to our eggs and frijoles (black beans), which was nice but heavy. Then we booked a snorkeling trip and started soon after at 10:30 for 3h. We went to 3 different locations. The corals were great and also very nice fish. Though, I remember that there were much more such fish when I was a kid in Cancun. At our last stop we were snorkeling with sting rays and nurse sharks. It was great! Back in the hostel it was still very hot and we relaxed a bit. Then I went to register for the boat the next day. On the way a thunderstorm stopped me for sometimes for some time. Back in the hostel we soon left again and just made it to the Sandbox restaurant before the next rain came down. I had a fish with a nice banana chutney and Radka a burger. We only had one beer as less than a quarter liter was more than 2 Euros and not even drought! So we bought some beer on the way and had it on the porch of our nice bungalow.
3.7. - Caye Caulker – Tulum
We packed and just made it to the dock before an intensive thunderstorm started. It was a spirit of doom. At 7 we left and it was quite a bumpy ride again as there were a lot of waves. At 7:30 we got our passports stamped in San Pedro. We had a coffee and some cookies there. Then we went back on the boat for two more hours before we arrived in Chetumal. Our backpacks were very wet, as they probably lay at the bottom in the boat. We passed the customs and migration without any problems. Then we walked to the famous Maya museum, but, unfortunately, it was closed, except for some local modern art and photos, which was ok but not great. We had a juice and walked on to the bus terminal. We bought a ticket and luckily noticed just in time, that the time was shifted one hour. SO our bus left one hour earlier than first expected. We had a soup and empanada before getting on the 3,5h bus ride. In Tulum we went to the “Weary Traveler” hostel where we got an airconditioned room (for the first time) in a new building across the street. It looked a bit like a hospital but as ok. After checking in we had a burger in the hostel which was interesting, as we just got all the pieces and had to fry it and put it together ourselves. It was good though! We had some beer and then managed some emails, blog and finally also the ESTA registration for the US.
4.7. - Tulum
The breakfast was also do-it-yourself, so we got two raw eggs and bread to toast. After that we took a taxi to the Tulum ruins. The setting is very nice there and the ruins as well. The downside was, that it was flooded by tourists and it was hard to move through the masses. The small beach inside the site were overloaded, so we decided to walk on to the nearby beach 1km from there. Amazingly, almost no one was there and it was very nice. We had some fruit there and also went swimming. The water was very warm, almost too warm for Radka. Later we took a taxi back into the center where we were looking for a place to have local fish. In a nice restaurant they recommended us another restaurant, El Camellon. It was quite a walk there but it as worth it. We were lucky and had to queue only a few minutes for a table. People arriving after us were waiting much longer for a table. We had squid and fish and it was very good and a lot. Quite full we went back to the hostel. Later we had a great mango and then had some beer with the people in the hostel. We also took part in the free salsa lesson offered there. It was a bit fast, as we learned, or rather were shown, many steps and figures. An amount you would probably learn in 2 to 3 courses (not lessons) in Austria. It was fun though!
5.7. - Tulum – Valladolid
After breakfast we realized that the next bus to Valladolid was just going at 12:30, so we had more than enough time to pack, email and relax. We arrived in Valladolid around 14h and were looking for a recommended hostel, La Candelaria. So were two French with whom we went on the search. Soon we arrived there and Jose took his time to check us in and explain everything we wanted to know. A very nice hostel with much more character than the one before. It had a huge garden and one of the two kitchens was set in the middle of the garden. Then we went out eating together with the French, Amandine and Alban. He was in his last two weeks of a 10 month travel and she she just came to Mexico to travel with him for the last 3 weeks. The food was very fat but ok. Back in the hostel we had mate and the two Uruguayans we met there liked that of course! :) I talked for a while with Valentina and her boyfriend and the other guy from the hostel. Then we met another guy, Pato from Chile. We visited the chocolate factory together. It is an interesting place where they produce chocolate the way the Mayans did. Everything by hand. And wow it is delicious. We also tried chocolate with water and with milk, both cold. It was great! I have to try that at home. In the hostel we met Christian from Sweden. We made plans with him and Pato to go to Ek Balam the next day. Later we went to a place nearby to have some very nice Quesadillas and Jamaica juice, a kind of hibiscus flower tea. We had fun sitting together with all the nice people and had beer with them in the garden. We got to bed at 1.
6.7. - Ek Balam
At 7 we had breakfast and at around 8:30 we took a taxi-collectivo to Ek Balam. The ruins are nice and there is a really great mouth-entrance on the main temple. The whole site was much more developed and clean than I thought. Christian wanted to take a guide even though we did not and so we split. We walked around with Pato and it was nice to talk some time in English some time in Spanish. When we finished we walked to a Cenote, a clear water cavern, very typical for the region, 1,5 km away. There was no one except us. The water was refreshingly cold and crystal clear. We swam for quite a while and later Christian caught up. After this nice cenote we walked back and took the collectivo back to Valladolid. On the way we stopped in a town which is famous for its dried meat, carne ahumado. We tasted some and bought a lot. Delicious! Then we went to the supermarket for fruit, bread and beer and went back to the hostel. There we had a great lunch and it was nice to sit together with all the people. Later we had mate and wrote blog. In the evening we had beer with the others in our nice garden.
7.7. - Chichen Itza
After breakfast we went to look for the collectivos to Chichen Itza, together with the two French, Christian and another Swedish guy, who was a country collector. He is 34 and wants to become the youngest to have traveled all the countries in the world. There's not much missing. As the collectivos did not seem to depart soon we chose to take the bus at 8:15. Unfortunately, the bus was 20min late. At the site, the other wanted to take a tour guide, and we agreed to join. We thought one guide in the Maya region would be ok. The guide however, was terrible. We could not stand it and left the tour 30min later and went on our own. The site was very nice, unfortunately however, only the big plazas are open to walk around and all the temples are closed. Along any path there are vendors, and also on the plazas many mobile vendors try to sell all the same souvenirs. The worst were the small jaguar heads, with which it is possible to produce a sound like a jaguar. Everywhere and all the time this sound was audible and very loud. It felt like being in a huge jaguar cage, just that instead of jaguars there were thousands of tourists. After we went through the whole site we met the other guys. By that time the masses had flooded the site completely. On the way out we had a brief visit to cenote of the site, no swimming possible, though. The famous temple El Castillo was in a great setting when we left, a background of very dark clouds. We took the bus back to Valladolid and got off at the junction to the cenote Samula. We walked the 2km there and went swimming in this cave-like cenote. Very refreshing! We took a taxi back to town and again had a nice lunch with the dried meat. We had mate and went to buy food and beer. We had a kind of Letcho, one of the dried saussages and a lot of vegetables, very nice, for a change. We had beer together in the garden again, and spent the time mainly with the French and later two Swiss joined. It was fun and after finishing our beer we got some more, of some nice Mexicans. It was fun and we stayed up until 1.
8.7. - Valladolid - Merida
At 8 we had breakfast and when we checked, we unfortunately missed the bus at 8:45 and the next was just going at 10:15. Buying the ticket they sold us some kind of insurance, which was of course not possible to change afterwards and the woman gave us back too little change, which I realized too late. A bit late we arrived in Merida at around 12:30. There we had to realize that Mexico is in means of transportation very different to other Latin American countries. Between 12 and 17h there was no kind of transport to Uxmal, which we wanted to visit as a stop over. We went to eat something outside the terminal, which was actually quite bad, but it at least did not harm us. We bought a night bus ticket to Palenque for the next day and had a coffee in the terminal as we waited for the rain to stop. Then went to look for a hostel. We took one close to the terminal, Casa Becil, but finally the description of the Lonely Planet did not really match the reality. The place was very run down and it seemed that we were the only guests. Furthermore, the internet was very slow and there were a lot of mosquitoes. We went for a walk through the center and visited the museum of contemporary art, which was not very exciting, but a few things were nice. On the main square there was live music and a lot of locals were dancing to the music. Right there we met Alban and Amandine again. We had some tacos and tortas (sandwiches) on the plaza and then went back to the hotel.
9.7. - Uxmal
In the morning we did not have warm water. When I complained they generously offered that we could take a shower in the evening, before we take the night bus. That was nice. On the way to the bus terminal we had breakfast in a nice bakery. We took the bus at 9 to Uxmal, together with the French who just made it. Uxmal was great. It was very quiet and relaxed with almost no tourists compared to Chichen Itza, but at the same time the place is for sure equally beautiful. There were a lot of Iguanas all around, much more than tourists. The main temple was unfortunately closed but another big one was open. Then we had to wait for two hours for a bus back. While waiting I went back in together with Alban to look for the cemetery. We walked a long way through the jungle until we decided to turn around. A lot of aggressive mosquitoes helped us to decide fast. Back in the ruins we realized how close the so called cemetery actually was. After arriving back in Merida, we were looking for a place to eat. We ended up in a place recommended by their, much better, hostel, near to the main square. I had a really nice grilled pork cutlet and Radka a bean soup. Both very delicious. After dinner we went back to the hotel to take a shower. We went to the bus station and had a beer until we left at 22h. When they sold us the bus they told us something about cama. In fact it was a pretty much standard bus, so it wasn't very good to sleep.
10.7. - Merida – Palenque – San Cristobal de las Casas
At 6:30 we arrived in Palenque. We were approached at once by a guy, who wanted to sell us a tour to visit the ruins, some waterfalls and then continue to San Cristobal de las Casas. We did not decide and went to have breakfast. First we only found a sandwich place, which was not good, then we had coffee and some fruit in another place. We decided to skip the waterfalls and bought a bus ticket to San Cristobal for 14h. We took a collectivo to the ruinas where we were not the first. Again a lot of tourists were there. Unfortunately, again many places were closed for visitors, but still it was a very nice site. After the ruins we visited the museum which was also very nice. After taking another collectivo back, we again had a torta, coffee and a soup before getting on the bus to San Cristobal. The trip took 5:30h and the bus had some troubles with the video system. Several times a movie started but soon after it stopped and it was not possible to resume, but another movie was started. In the end we saw one movie completely (in two stages though) and 3 movies partly. (Stranger than fiction – ok, salt, some sorcerer and some fantasy movie.) Arriving in San Cristobal, yet another tout talked us into having a look at a hostel. The taxi was free so we had a look. Unfortunately, they only had dorm rooms available, although the tout told us different. The girl at the Iguana hostel was nice and sent us to another hostel across the plaza, La Teraza, where we got a room and which was very nice. Later we went to the Toyol Witz restaurant which they had recommended us which was very nice! They sell organic products there and also use them for cooking. There we had some kind of oval taco, really nice and later espresso. We went to buy some beer and had it on the nice terrace of the hostel.
11.7. - San Cristobal de las Casas
We packed our stuff and went to the market to buy some breakfast. There was so much great fruit and vegetables. We bought some fruit we did not know but looked good, some mango, avocados and bread in the supermarket, as they only have tortillas on the market. We had a huge breakfast in the hostel. We then walked to St. Domingo where there is the mercado artesenal. Then we walked to the bus terminal to buy the bus ticket on. On the way back it was raining some times. On the mercado artesenal I bought some zapatista t-shirts, as San Cristobal is the capital of the zapatista, the movement for rights for the indigenous people, once led by the famous Subcomandante Marcos. Radka bought a nice necklace. We went on to the museum of Mayan medicine. It was interesting, especially the debate about huge pharmacy enterprises stealing the knowledge of indigenous people and selling it for solely their own profit. There was also a Mayan pharmacy. We took a taxi back to the hostel as it was raining a lot then. We again went to the Toyol Witz to eat, which was ok but not as great as the day before. Then we grabbed our backpacks in the hostel and walked to the terminal. On the way we stopped for a short while for a marimba band. We had a ticket for a bit better bus, the ADO GL, which wasn't much more expensive, but worth the money. There was a nice movie and the 12h ride was pretty ok.
12.7. - Oaxaca
The night on the bus was ok and arriving in Oaxaca we took a taxi to a hostel recommended in the LP. The taxi charged us quite a lot for the short ride and when we realized that the hostel was in fact not there anymore, he wanted to have again a lot to drive us on to a different one. We refused and walked. The problem was that the driver did not know other hostels either so we started a search. After one not so nice hostel, which was also expensive we had breakfast and then continued. We walked a lot but finally ended up in the Luz de la Luna hostel, which was very nice. As it was still early we had to wait for a room. We walked a bit through the city which is very nice with nice plazas and churches. Walking around I suddenly found myself in a street where I took one of my favorite photos 14 years ago. Radka again was looking for a t-shirt but did not find anything. We went to a nice cafe and then back to the hostel to move to our room and finally take a shower. Radka wrote blog and I walked to the bus terminal to buy a ticket on to Mexico City. I again bought the better class, which in this case also saved me half an hour of queuing in the other queue. Feels like business class, but still is a bit different. ;) Then we wanted to get something to eat but it was raining a lot, so we had to wait. Finally we ran when the rain was easing a bit. We took the second restaurant which was kind of ok for some meat with fries and a beer. Then we went on the main square where we hit a great marimba band. When we arrived they were playing a Coldplay song and one of the three marimba players did a great solo. Later came also more classical pieces. We sat down and had drought beer. It was nice! After that we walked back to the hostel.
13.7. - Oaxaca – Monte Alban
We got up late at 7:45 and were still tired. We had a basic breakfast in the hostel and packed our stuff. Then we walked to a bus to get us to Monte Alban. On the way we got offered a lot of roasted grasshoppers. I tried one of the big ones. It was juicy but only tasted like the garlic sauce it was roasted in. Radka did not feel like tasting. We arrived just in time for one of the buses and arrived in Monte Alban at 11. Unfortunately, that's the time when most people arrive and so the site was flooded with tourists. The site was nice though and especially the setting on the hill is great. We had a very brief visit to the small museum to be able to catch the next bus at 14h. We had some food at the market and also looked around. Then we went to a restaurant and had one of Oaxacas specialties, Mole Negro con pollo. It is a black sauce and I had it with chicken. Delicious! Back in the hostel I tried to get some sleep behind our backpacks which were stored on a gallery above the reception. A nice and quiet place up there but unfortunately no mattress. Then we wrote some blog and started to talk to some Belgians who were a bit in a rush to find something to eat. We started looking for some place to eat a bit later and by chance hit the same place as they did. So we joined them. My torta de chorizo and also the other food was not really good but ok. We had some beer and later a Mezcal and when we had paid, the owner invited us on a Margarita which was a nice gesture, but did not taste very well. We arrived back to the hostel a bit late and had a fast beer there, as the clock in the hostel was half an hour behind, which we luckily realized in time. We took a taxi to the bus terminal which was packed with people as around that time, every few minutes a bus leaves for Mexico City.
14.7. - Mexico City (DF)
We slept quite well on the bus, but unfortunately the ride was just a bit more than 6h. At the terminal in Mexico City, of DF as it is referred to by Mexicans, the taxis were quite expensive and so we took the Metro downtown. It is one of the cheapest Metros in the world for something like 20 cent a ride. The Metro was already quite busy for 7 am but we made the trip to Zocalo, the main square, without problems. The square was huge and quite empty and the weather was rainy. In the hostel around the corner we did not get the room right away as everything was full. The nice guy at the reception explained us a lot and also said that we could just take the free breakfast in the hostel where we met a nice German guy. The breakfast was pretty ok and after that we took the Metro to the Frida Kahlo museum, the Casa Azul. From the Metro station we had to ask around quite a bit to find it and we also had to finally buy an umbrella, as it was raining a lot. The museum was nice but unfortunately it displayed only very few of her paintings. Then we went on a market there, where we had soup and tacos. We also got to taste fried skin of maybe cattle. It wasn't special. We took a bus back to the Metro and went to the hostel, where we got our room and some rest. Later we looked for an ATM, which was quite a quest, as we were not the only ones and did not feel like queuing half a block maybe just to find out that this ATM does not accept our card, which happens quite some times. We managed to find one in a hotel which worked fine. We went to a Chinese restaurant. And afterwards to El Popular, in fact a really popular place to have coffee and some sweat stuff. Then the 2 Euro investment for our umbrella really paid off as the pouring rain did not want to stop. Back in the hostel we had a beer and soon after went to bed.
15.7. - Teotihuacan
We were still a bit tired when we got up and had breakfast at 8 am. We talked to a German couple there, before leaving to get a trolley bus to the north bus terminal. There we took a bus on to Teotihuacan. The bus got stuck in a traffic jam for a while and all the time we were going through urban zones. It made us realize again how huge Mexico City is. Arriving in Teotihuacan we realized that it was free for Mexicans that day but we of course had to pay full price. The site was packed with masses of people. The site itself is nice though and I liked being back there. We visited the museum and then approached the huge sun pyramid. There was a long queue to walk up. We hoped that this would ease later and walked on the the moon pyramid, where it is only possible to walk up the first bit. We had a snack there and the went back to the sun pyramid. The queue was even a bit longer and it took us 45 min. They said they let 500 people up every 10 minutes. I don't think it's really that much, but that it is rather limited by the people walking up very slowly taking a break after every step. In this manner the whole stream of people slowly moves up the stairs. The very top is also closed but it's possible to get close to it. On top we wanted to have a 7up but had to leave it behind as very aggressive bees were attacking us. We walked down, the same speed as up in the queue. Walking out we passed again the countless souvenir stands where Radka found a t-shirt. We got a bus back right away but unfortunately it hit the sidewalk and had a flat tire a few blocks after we left. At the highway ramp we waited on the bus to switch to another one. The problem was that all the buses back to DF were of course full, so we had to stand all the way back. Then we had to queue to get on a trolley bus back downtown, but this was very fast. Then we were looking for an internet cafe for quite a while to print out our airplane tickets. Then we again went to El Popular and had dinner there. We had something typical but the food was not very good. We had a coffee and then went on to the hostel next to our hostel which had a bar. We had some beer there which was in the end quite expensive, as their big promotion did not apply for the place we were sitting. We went to bed early as I had quite a terrible headache.
16.7. - Mexico City – Laguna Beach
We got up at 4am and took a taxi soon after. The taxi organized by the hostel did not look like one but brought us to the airport safe. Soon after 5am we were queuing to check in. Next to us was a band checking in with a huge pile of equipment. Later we found out it was “Cafe Tacuba” which is very popular in Mexcio. At the check in they wanted to know not only the ESTA number but also when we applied and also the exact address where we want to go in the US. Luckily I knew the address of Sylvia still, only the number of the house I had to guess, but I was close. Everyting went ok, except our window seats and we took off at 7:55. The flight was ok and we even were able to see a bit even without window seat. We had a good view on the volcano Popocatepetl. In LA at the immigration they were kind of grilling me asking same questions several times but finally after I also let them my fingerprints, they let me in. At the customs however there was the next interview and they decided to search me. They unpacked everything but as they did not find anything they did not like, they also let me through. So I arrived a bit later then Radka, also in the US. Behind the door, Radka and Sylvia were already expecting me. It was a nice reunion with Sylvia. Right away we had a discussion what we will do the next days and then started off to go to Laguna Beach. It was like arriving in a different world. Everything was so different and it took some time until I dared to put the toilet paper into the toilet after almost 4 month of throwing it into bins. Then we had a big pile of salad, fruit and vegetables. Then we had filled peppers. It was great! Later we met the nice neighbors Mike and Torry. We brought over a lot of things to eat to them, as Sylvias original plan changed to start for our trip right away. We went to a shop nearby so that I could buy a replacement for my shorts I left in Mexico, they were really at the end of their days. Later Radka and I walked down the few blocks to the beach. One other thing that is very unbelievable here is the size of cars. They make the SUVs in Austria appear small. After a long time in south and central America they seem even bigger. Later we brought more food to the neighbors and booked some motels for our tour through the national parks. We went to bed late.
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