Category: travel

Hola Amigos!

This post comes to you from mountainous Guatemala! Land of the Chicken… but I will get to that.

When I left you last we were still in San Cristobel de la Casas. That was a beautiful place that we became quite fond of and were a little sad we didn’t have another night to spend there. While we had time to see a lot of the city, we felt it would have been the perfect place to chill out for a day mid-tour. Alas, it wasn’t to be. 

We finished the night enjoying some Argentinian cuisine. It was both on the recommendation of Deiber, but also it was a nice change of pace from the constant Mexican food that while tasty, we could use a reprieve from. And this was delicious! Check out the size of the piece of meat above. Cooked to perfection over fire. Mmmm.

With that it was to bed for the early rise. We had another epic journey, this time leaving Mexico and into Guatemala! The trip consisted of two private small buses. One to get us to the Mexican border, and one to take us into Guatemala.

The border crossing went nice and smoothly. Deiber had it all organised, however involved relinquishing the passports for a period of time while it all got sorted out for us. Always a strange thing, but it all went without a hitch.

There seemed to be in instant change on the Guatemala side. Everything looked that little bit different. Hard to pinpoint how, but I was excited to feel I was in a new country.

The first thing that hit me was the crazy number of public transport buses. And not just any bus… Chicken Buses! These were quite colourful and elaborately painted buses that are used for public transport where they are jammed with people, luggage piled on top, and as Deiber mentioned “you are very likely to find chicken’s on”.

What followed was a long 7 hour bus ride to our destination of Panajachel, situated in the Guatemalan highlands on Lake Atitlan, with me trying to snap pictures of the chicken buses (to no real avail). It was 6:30pm before we arrived so all was dark, but the drive through the highlands, especially near Panajachel was quite spectacular. Looming large over us was one of the main volcanos, and resting below us was the majestic lake. 

Given it was dark on arrival, we settled into our hotel and wen tout for some food and an explore of Panajachel rather than go down to the lake. The Guatemalan cuisine already felt a little different… more chicken, different tortillas, more salad. Mmm… I could get used to this.

Also the beer was different. I think I found my favourite local beer of the trip (maybe running close with XX Amber). This was called Gallo. How could you not love a beer with a picture of a rooster on it? I am imagining I will become quite acquainted with that one.

Off to bed after a long day, and with the prospect of both a sleep in and some shenanigans down on Lake Atitlan I drifted off to sleep.

Today was a free today in San Cristobal de las Casas. This was the toughest day to decide what to do. We had two great optional activities (boating down a massive canyon or visiting some traditional Mayan folk) as well the the thought of just wandering the city. That was super appealing since what we had seen so far looked incredible.

But we, like most, decided to head to the canyon! We knew we would have a number of hours in the afternoon to explore, so thought we had better get on the rapids of Mexico while we could. An hour in the bus and we were at our destination. This wasn’t going to be rapids, nor NZ jetboating, rather a small group in a fast boat, doing a round trip of about 80km, through the massive canyon. It sounded perfect.

Off we went. Like many things of this nature, you think you see a postcard at every turn. In this case it got more impressive as it went on, as the height of the cliffs grew and grew to about 1000m. We were dwarfed by the scale of it.

What was extra special that I didn’t expect was being able to see some wildlife as well. A couple of crocs, an iguana feeding in a tree and 3 spider monkeys added some extra excitement to the ride.

Along the way hidden in a cave was a shrine which was quite incredible. Apparently we just a week ago missed the big celebration for her… how all the people get there and put the things on her I will never know.

We meandered to the end point, which was the location of a newish hydro-electric plant. Nothing particularly to see. In fact the highlight was the random appearance of a boat selling snacks. They sure seem to love their snacks here.

From that point we could hammer back to base much quicker. With that expedition a success we jumped back in the van back to San Cris.

We got back at about 2pm leaving plenty of time to explore. Kate and I wandered first to the seemingly imposing church at the end of our street, Our Lady of Guadalupe. From distance it looked huge, but as we got closer its size seemed to diminish.

In the end, while cool, it was not too impressive. Inside was a strange, slightly garish mix of religious iconography and neon. Mexican tradition maybe.

From there we headed back to the centre of town to check out some of the markets. On our way I hit paydirt. I had one thing I wanted to get while in Mexico, and bingo! You can check out the photo at the end of this entry.

The markets were not too bad. In the end it ended up being the same handful of items over and over… blankets, stuffed handcrafted toys and clothes. Kate picked up something for the house, but in the end we were not too entranced by the goods. We knew we would have further opportunities later.

So we wandered some more until dusk, when I thought I had better try and catch up on all the news. Shortly it will be out for some dinner before an early night ready for the epic journey into Guatemala tomorrow!

Oh, and as promised, here is my purchase…

Today was another fairly epic travel day. While distance wasn’t so much the issue, it was a winding trip up into the hills, heading for San Cristobal de las Casas (San Cris for short from now). San Cris is at about 2200m above sea level, so we had some climbing to do.

Good thing about today was that we got to stop off at two waterfalls on the way to break the trip up.

The first was a short 45 min drive from Palenque, and was a pretty cool single drop waterfall called Misol-Ha. We had seen a few of these before (if you have been keeping track of our other holidays like Iceland) but they are always great.

This one was nice as it had its jungle setting. We had the opportunity to walk right behind it, but as we had quite a few hours in a mini bus to go, we thought being soaked may not be the best thing.

Back it was into the bus and on to our next waterfall, this time the bigger and more cascading Agua Azul. This was a much bigger waterfall, but with many more cascading levels. So not as impressive as the first in terms of drop, but way bigger in terms of water.

We wandered right up, checking out all the different levels. It was quite raging due to the amount of rain that had been around in the previous days, so it was definitely roaring.

We also had time to have some empendadas from a local vendor. Not the tastiest thing of the trip, but they did hit the spot.

Back it was into the bus for the long 5 hour stint to San Cris. It was a bit of a slog as we could not go that fast, in part due to the windy nature, but mostly due to the speed bumps. Not a handful, but HUNDREDS. It is no exaggeration to think there were in the order of 500. Deiber indicated they have been out in as too many children were being hit by cars. So a good thing for sure, but boy it made the trip long.

But as the sun was setting we entered beautiful San Cris. As we arrived in the traditional downtown area, it was instantly the most gorgeous place we had been to so far.

Take Merida and aplifiy it in terms of the small cobblestone streets, beautiful buildings and churches. Deiber also indicated that it was the safest city in Mexico as well, with a population knowing that the tourists that come are the lifeblood and doing what they can to make a great experience.

We got a chance to wander as the sun went down. Dinner was more delicious Mexican cuisine (although I will admit, I am starting to reach the limit of tacos!) and then some sneaky drinks before bed.

Today was an exciting day… we were in the Mexican jungle! The plan was to spend the morning at the Mayan ruins of Palenque, and do a jungle trek in the afternoon, with some swimming at a jungle waterfall. Alas best laid plans…

We woke to puring rain. Not just drizzle, but constant rain. We were warned that we would have to wait to see if the Jungle Trek would still be an option, as the rain made it a bit dangerous. Regardless, we headed to the Palenque Ruins.

With rain jackets done up tight, we ventured into the rain with our local guide. while they are still Mayan ruins, they could not be more different from Chichen Itza. Rather than a big open area, we were indeed in the jungle, surrounded by rainforest (more rain than forest). While nothing is as spectacular as the main pyramid at Chichen Itza, this site as a whole was arguably more impressive.

We were able to wander in to most ruins, as well as up the steps of many of the structures. The driving rain did not stop us taking the precarious climb up a number of them to check out the amazing frescos and stucco reliefs.

One of the most incredible things was that they know that relatively few buildings have been excavated, and there are many others in the jungle. To think that ruins still wait to be found is quite mind blowing.

Our tour guide was lovely, explaining it all in great detail and doing her best to keep us out of the rain.

While we were getting quite damp, it did make the jungle quite spectacular, with mist settling in on all the buildings.

Once our tour was finished we had a little time to wander ourselves, where we could climb more slippery steps to the top of more ruins. The rain ws certainly not going to slow us down!

Meeting the group back at the entrance (those of us that stuck out the rain), we had some lunch with a local street stall. Mmmm… $30 pecos for 4 tacos (so about 3 dollars). Kate and I devoured them and went back for more. The chili the vendor gave me was spectacular… chili and lemon and was tasty then hot. Perfect!

It ws now that Deiber gave us the bad news, which was that the jungle trek was off. Due the incessant rain, it was not too unsafe. One part was the risk of flash floods, but even more dangerous was that snakes were likely to be out. Here the rain sends them out of our holes, and meeting vipers and rattlesnakes was apparently likely. Hmm, sounds like a wise choice. super disappointing, but alas, that happens.

Instead we came back to the hotel to get dry and take up another option. Kate was up for a rest, so I wandered to the nearby museum with my new English pals Blaine and Jacqui. While small it housed quite a number of artefacts from the nearby ruins. Most spectacular was the sarcophogas of the most famous ruler Pakal. It was a nice way to spend a dry hour and a half.

We saw the afternoon out by chilling, having a drink, and chatting to the others. We celebrated a birthday with dinner, with one of our German gentleman celebrating a milestone. He had no idea what Deiber had planned, which was a lovely surprise for him. Cake and cerveza and tequila and mescal helped celebrate. Having your birthday in a Mexican jungle? Sounds like a perfect party to me.

Buenos Dias! Or Buenos Tardes or Buenos Noches depending on when you are reading this. Here is the first of a bunch of catch up posts, although wi-fi is flakier here than in Cancun, so we shall see how we go.

Last I posted was about cenotes and swimming. That night was another group dinner. I thought just to prove we were in Mexico, it was worth showing a photo of us wearing big sombreros and drinking mescal. Sure there was pictures of Chichen Itza, but I know you have all been holding out for this, so here it is.

On to today! Today was just a travel day. I shouldn’t say just a travel day as it was a LONG travel day. 9 hours we were going to be spending in a bus to get from gorgeous Merida to jungle surrounded Palenque. We knew there were going to be a few of these long ones, so got a bunch of snacks and settled in to our comfy bus.

Not much to report really. The bus ride went well. I found myself getting sucked into watching the movies they were showing on the TV’s in the bus. They were dubbed in Spanish, however I have a sneaking suspcicion that watching either Battleship, or some Adam Sandler movie where he plays himself and his twin sister, would not have improved if in English.

What I must say though is that Mexico is clearly where old VW Beetles come to die. Kate introduced me to a game called “Punch Buggy” where we punch each other on the arm when we see one. Well, a conservative estimate of punches during the trip would be in the hundreds. They are EVERYWHERE.

At about 6:00pm we arrived into our jungle lodgings. No photos yet as it was dark and a little wet. The night was spent in the connected restaurant. Some more tasty local food and Kate and I decided to call it a night early for a change and let the others drink into the night themselves.