Palenque will ruin you

Some people think that once you’ve seen one ruin you’ve seen them all. That’s not quite true. They’re all different in some way. However, I will admit that once you’ve seen one that’s particularly beautiful or spectacular (like we’d seen in Palenque and Teotihuacan) the rest can suffer in comparison. But known for it’s pyramid that casts a shadow in the shape of a snake every equinox, Chichen Itza is one of those must-sees and we were looking forward to our tour.

After our past tour experience, we weren’t expecting much especially when our meeting point was a parking lot in front of the supermarket on the town limits. When a deluxe air-conditionned bus pulled up we were pleasantly surprised. When we were handed a packed breakfast we were doubly surprised even though we’d already grabbed stuff to eat from the supermarket. Something for later I guess.

The bus took us through the ugly jungle scrub which even the guide (yes an actual guide) admitted was nothing to look at. We had a pit stop at a souvenir stand (go figure) which gave Adrian and I plenty of time to try on huge sombreros. I don’t know who buys this stuff but someone must since you see it everywhere in Mexico. Then it was back on the bus.

In just over two hours we arrived at Chichen Itza where the bus was separated into groups based on language given free ice cold bottled water for the tour (pleasant surprise #3) and then taken around the site. By now it was after 11am and the sun was so hot that you could fry an egg on the sidewalk – if there had been sidewalks or eggs. There was very little shade but the excellent guide was great at finding trees where he would stop and gather us around while explaining stuff.

Chichen Itzen means people of the mouth of the water cave and was important for it’s location over huge cenotes or underground cave that contained fresh water – very important for this hot barren land. Water was so important that sacrifices were made to the water god to insure that there would always be enough for the people. And in Chichen Itza a lot of sacrifices were made, and I began to scan the crowd for someone to throw into one of the pits if it went relief from the sun.

Walking from shady spot to shady spot, the guide pointed out residences, observatories, tombs and sacrificial stones before taking us into the biggest ball court in the world where the Mayans played a game with very simple rules – get the ball through the ring and you win. But did you want to win? The prize was having your head cut off and your heart ripped out as a sacrifice to the gods. Frankly, that would have made me proud to be the Maple Leafs of the Mayan sports world.

The final stop on our tour was the famous pyramid, although we’d been able to see it for most of the tour. Here up to 50,000 have gathered on the equinox to witness the shadow. Really, the snake shadow is more impressive than it sounds. Why? Well, the pyramid is actually a super large and intricate calendar; each of the four sides was 91 steps that lead to a large platform. 4 sides for 4 season. 4x91+1=365 days of the year. And the pyramid was built on exactly the right access to catch the sun on the equinox. The steps cast the shadow and a large stone snake head marks the spot where it ends, twice a year, every year for the past 1000 years. And the acoustics are so precise that one person clapping at the bottom will have the sound echo through out the plaza. All this without calculators or the wheel. Told you it was impressive. After more than two hours, that’s were our tour ended. We were given 30 minutes to wander around at our leisure but Adrian and I (as well as many others from the bus) used the time to cool off in the shade.

Next stop was the promised lunch. It was the typical tourist buffet but with bottle dancers – dancers who did a soft she with bottles or full trays balanced perfectly on their heads. Unfortunately for them people were more interested in the food than the entertainment. We digested our food during the bus ride to a cenote – one of the thousands of underground caves full of fresh cool water. The Mayans had once revered them but now it was the tourists who flocked to them to cool off. It was about 100 feet underground through the limestone and into a giant cavern. The bottom was a small pond (photo above) and at the top a whole from which tree roots dangled all the way to the bottom. Adrian went jumping into the water but with only 30 minutes allowed here (and 15 used up waiting in line) I passed.

Finally, it was time to head back but there was one last quick stop in Valladolid, a pretty little colonial town. It’s claim to famed is something to do with the start of the Mexican Revolution. It’s felt like an underrated little town and probably much cheaper than the coastal towns. Unfortunately, we only stopped long enough to see the main plaza and church before herded back on the bus so I could be totally wrong.

An hour later we were dropped off at the supermarket parking lot where our day began. The tour was one of the better ones, if only for the air conditioned bus. Because in the end it was the heat that almost ruined us.

A penny, I mean, 10 dollars for your thoughts.

Waking up to the sun rising over the waves did wonders for our mood and we made a pact not to let the price of everything bother us. With that in mind we set off for the ruins. No collectivos on the beach road meant a taxi but thankfully, all the prices were standardized. As did the admission price at the ruins – it was the same as we had paid at Palenque at Teotihuacan but that’s where the similarity ends. There were 10x the visitors to this site that was a 10^th of their size. And there was no shady jungle to shelter us from the blazing sun. The ruins are notable for their position right on the sea (see above) which didn’t disappoint but the small beach attached seemed to be the big draw for most folks. But we had endless beach back at our cabana. And the ruins were tiny and crowded compared to what we had already seen. We were thankfully done in an hour and jumped into an air conditioned collectivo and headed into town.

First stop was the bank to replenish our dwindling funds. And then we stopped in at the infamous Weary Traveller Hostel – infamous for its bedbugs. It’s the cheap place to stay – only $30 US for a private room, well semi-private if you remember that you’ll be sharing it with some 6 legged friends. But it also offered tours that we figured might be better priced. We decided to head to Chichen Itza the next day and the price ($45 US) didn’t seem too bad since it included lunch and a couple of other stops including a visit to a cenote. We also took advantage of the cheap hostel beer before the hostel put up a sign saying no cash bar, guest accounts only. I guess the Weary Traveller was weary of us. It was close to dinnertime so we set off in search of a reasonably priced meal along Tulum’s main street (the creatively named Av. Tulum) but were disappointed and relieved at the same time. The prices were about the same as they were back to Papaya Playa which at least meant the slightly shady owners weren’t completely taking advantage of us. But the food not nearly as good as what Papaya offered.

We ducked into a place that appeared to have a lot of locals in it – usually a good sign. But they were all family members of the owner and the food was mediocre. Even the waiter rhetorically asked “How was the food, so-so?” when we settled up. Oh well, lesson learned. We attempted to buy drinks to take back to the cabana but it being Sunday things were locked up – especially the alcohol so we settled for ice cream before heading back to out to the beach hut.

I caught up on a few emails when the generator turned on for a few hours in the evening – yes the place had wifi but no consistent power supply making a computer hard to use. Adrian played chess with one of the itinerant Argentinian musicians who were hanging around. He and his friend played music at the various cabanas and hoped to make enough money in tips or selling homemade cds to pay their way. They were slightly crazy but they were a nice break from the dance music that the bar pumped out the rest of the evening. Oh and Adrian won the chess game.

Stop in the name of drugs

Since we’d moved out of our apartment at the end of February, we had moved enough that packing up in the morning was getting to be really easy. This morning however, we were just a little more thorough. Reports on the internet mentioned that the night buses to and from Palenque have often been the victims of bandits who hold up passengers. We don’t usually have more than $500 dollars on us and at the moment we were down to $20. But my biggest worry was losing my camera and hard drive full of photos, music and movies. So we carefully divided and packed up our electronics into our two packs and securely locked them. That only took a half an hour and our bus didn’t leave until 9pm which left us another day to find something to do. So it was back to town and the internet café for another day of surfing. Thankfully, it was only 35 degrees this day.

We went back to El Panchan to have dinner and pick up our packs then took a taxi to the bus station. Just beyond the curve in the road, our taxi was pulled over by an army check point. Carrying big guns, the officers shone lights into the taxi. The driver got out nonplussed and opened the trunk which they searched. Finding nothing they sent us on our way. What were they searching for? Drugs? Guns? Relics from the ruins? Endangered animals? Who knows, but I was just happy it was the army and not bandits.

At the bus station we spent two hours in hurry up and wait mode. Talked to an Aussie girl who was headed off to Merida with two friends and then headed for Tulum as well. They were eventually going to Cuba so I shared some tips from our visit. Then their 10 oclock bus arrived before our 9 o'clock one. I was concerned that maybe we had somehow missed ours but when I asked the attendant she pointed to 10 o'clock and said “mas o menos” since it was already after 10 I realized it would be more mas than menos.

At about 20 after 10 it arrived – only 80 minutes late. It wasn’t as deluxe as our first night bus. No fully reclining chairs. No coffee machine. No eye masks and earplugs. But we had our own and put them on and drifted off.

A few hours later we were awoken by a voice yelling at everyone. Taking off my eye mask, I saw it was a gun. And when my eyes adjusted, I saw the soldier behind the gun. Phew not a bandit and if I hadn’t have been half asleep I’m sure my heart would have stopped for a second but I was more annoyed at being woken up than anything else. Everyone got off the bus and I could see we were at a checkpoint and the soldiers were searching bags. Adrian’s bag was still on the bus but mine was on one of the tables. However, they had no interest in ours picking on some locals and a few hippies instead. They did a cursory search of their stuff and finding nothing they waved us back on the bus and we were back asleep.

Waking up at dawn, I pulled back to curtain on a completely different part of Mexico. This was Quintana Roo state on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was flat, rocky and covered in what I can best describe as jungle scrub – a sprinkling of palm trees but mostly it was just twiggy bushes thanks to the dry season. Not exactly picture perfect. And Tulum, the town wasn’t much more impressive. I can best describe it as a touristy strip mall with souvenir stores alternating with restaurants named things like El Mariachi. We got into a cab and headed to Papaya Playa where I had made a reservation.

It was one of the first cabanas on the beach after the town (and big fancy all inclusive resort) and the only one that didn’t have completely negative reviews that we could book in advance. It was also $36 US a night. Gulp. Checking in the woman at the desk gave us some song and dance about the website – they don’t have any connection to it. Someone else had the passwords. But they’d give us a 10% discount for the hassle – however, that 10% was the same as the deposit we’d already paid so it wasn’t really a discount after all. Instead of the 3 person cabana we got a 2 person shack on the beach that had only a bed, a mosquito net and a light bulb. It was also at least 150 metres away from the shared bathroom. Immediately sticker shock hit us. We tried to shake it off and enjoy what we were paying for – the beautiful white sand beaches and clear blue waters of the Caribbean. It was hard, especially when the meals and drinks were also double or triple the prices we were used to paying for. We didn’t get held up on the bus but we were certainly getting robbed here.

But an afternoon soaking up the sun and floating on the waves did help, as did the 2 for 1 cocktails at 3pm. Soon I’d shaken off the beginnings of the crusty traveler.