Ready for a bit of normality we winged our way back in to Cancun. After having quite a good time there the day before we flew to Cuba we were expecting Cancun and Mexico to be easy in a way that Cuba had not been. On arrival it took us quite a long time to get through customs and then I was randomly selected to have my bags searched. Why is the random selection always for bag searching and never for a free first class upgrade?! By the time we got through we had just missed the bus going to Cancun and had to wait for another 30 minutes for the next one. This was not going to plan...Tired and hungry we finally arrived at our hostel only to discover that it really wasn’t the hostel we had been hoping for. No window (as in the glass was missing from the frame) meant that it was dusty and noisy and the spotty Wi-Fi was really not what we needed after 2 weeks of being out of communication with everyone over Christmas and New Year. We are not normally travellers who are particularly bothered about being ‘connected’ but having been totally out of touch we at least wanted to the chance to check in quickly with everyone! Although we desperately needed to stop and gather ourselves for a few days we decided to push on to Merida (384MX/$26.30 AUD/20.45 USD for a? Hour journey on ADO) and give ourselves time to settle there. Those of you who are already long term travellers will likely be familiar with traveller’s fatigue and for those of you wanting to travel long term it’s something you should be aware of. People at home don’t generally understand that long term travel is not a permanent holiday and that it’s a lot harder than all the “totes instagramable” pictures suggest. It can really wear you down and make day-to-day existence really hard. We find that we have about a 3-month cycle and every 3-months we try to plan some time where we just stop and catch our breath for a while. We had a 9-day break planned in New York at the end of the month so instead of stopping we decided to carry on as planned in Mexico. In hindsight this made Mexico feel a lot harder than it really was and after Cuba, Mexico is a dream to travel around but we were tired. We decided to splash out and upgrade our accommodation in Merida to treat ourselves and try to shake off some of this travel fatigue. Unfortunately as nice as the room was there was something about the giant cucarachas in the bathroom that would have stressed out even the most relaxed of individuals. Dani decided that the best way to feel a bit better about the city was to book us on to a walking tour and once again we used the tour to orientate ourselves. We can highly recommend the Pink Cactus tours as a great way to see the city as well as get the local tips on where to eat as it is one of Mexico’s great food cities (try the gorditas on the left hand side of the Cathedral they’re divine). Merida is also a good spot to visit Uxmal ruins from. Despite having a 1 temple ruins per country rule in Central America we feel that Uxmal was definitely worth breaking the rules for. It’s not the biggest or the grandest but its beautiful and has a highly impressive pyramid at the entrance. It’s an easy day trip from Merida. You go to the second-class bus station (round the corner from the 1st class ADO station) and get a return ticket to Uxmal. Don’t worry your return ticket (130MX/$8.90 AUD/6.90USD) is open so you don’t have to figure out how much time you need until you’re there. We found that 2 hours was plenty of time and pretty much everyone on our bus to Uxmal came back with us at the same time. Merida is also famous for its Sunday food market so we had planned to leave on the night bus on Sunday night so that we could check it out. The food was good and the market was nice but I have got to say that it may not be worth planning your whole trip around being there for the market, which we do know some people do. After our day at the market, not really feeling totally ready to leave, we headed to the bus station to catch our night bus to Palenque (420 MX/$28.80 AUD/22.40 USD using ADO from the 1st Class bus station). We pulled into Palenque at 4.30am and knew that it was too early to go out in search of accommodation, so we made ourselves as comfortable as we could in the very cold bus terminal. At 5.45am Dani sent me off into the dark to try and find us somewhere to stay and I was lucky enough (after 45 minutes) to stumble across Hotel El Chechen. I’m still not sure how I got this beautiful, newly renovated room for only 400MXP ($27.45 AUD/21.35 USD) but I ran quickly back to Dani because he was even letting us check in at that point rather than waiting until a reasonable hour. I’m not sure our plan around Palenque helped with the travel fatigue but 2 hours after checking in (8.30am) we were off to the ruins. The ruins are really easy to get to from the center of Palenque without any need for over priced tours and shuttles. There are mini vans that run when they’re full for 20MXP ($1.40 AUD/1.10 USD). They leave from the center of town but ask anyone and they will point you in the right direction. They stop for you to purchase your park ticket 34MXP ($2.30 AUD/1.80 USD) at the entrance and then carry on to the ruins, which cost you a further 70MXP ($4.80 AUD/3.7USD). Palenque is beautiful and well worth the effort to get to just make sure you get in early before the tour groups arrive. It’s quite different from other ruins and has some fantastic hieroglyphs in some of the temples but the jungle setting is not quite what you imagine if you have already been to Tikal. We did however manage to spot some toucans flying over the ruins though which was pretty special. After a few hours wandering around we headed back to town, which was just as easy as, getting there as there was a minivan waiting at the entrance which cost the same 20MXP ($1.40 AUD/1.10 USD) to get back. Now, there are a few options from Palenque to San Cristobal, which is most people’s logical next stop. You can either catch the ADO bus that goes the long way around to avoid the illegal “tolls” or you can combine transport and a day trip via Agua Azul and Mi Sol Ha waterfalls which only costs you just over what the ADO bus would cost (330 MXP/$22.60 AUD/17.60 USD + 70 MXP/$4.80 AUD/3.75 USD for entrance to the 2 attractions). Mi Sol Ha is pretty enough but it’s really Agua Azul that makes this option worth it. The many aquamarine pool tiers that culminate in a stunning set of falls makes this trip totally worth your time. Our only tip for this trip would be that you should agree with your tour company that you will pay your own entrance fees and do this yourself don’t hand the money to the driver as the driver often ups the prices and takes a cut. You may also have read about this highway and it’s tolls and to be honest when you read about them the people who man them they sound terrifying. Most of the time these tour vans are not stopped but if you are, I promise they aren’t violent horrible criminals who are trying to rob you. These men are genuinely collecting money for the local area to help develop the community, as they are getting nothing from the government. No, what they’re doing isn’t legal but they are trying to support a very poor area. Men in balaclavas stopped us but they were polite and friendly and asked for 100MXP for the car making it only 5MXP each. After learning more about their plight in San Cristobal it seemed only fair that we pay their tolls as they have not been treated fairly and receive no help for their community from the government or local authorities. They are not the terrifying criminals they are made out to be.
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After soaking up the sun and ensuring Dani had had her fill of cheap seafood it was time to leave Belize and head to Mexico. Having done the research earlier, we knew it was going to be cheaper (and longer) to head back to Belize City and then take the bus from there to Chetumal (the first town in Mexico) rather than take the quicker but much more expensive ferry that went via San Pedro directly to Chetumal and only took 90 minutes. We jumped on the 7.30am ferry to Belize City (having had one last Jenny Special fry jack) and were soon back on the mainland and heading to the bus station. At the bus station the only person who seemed to know about buses to Mexico was the man at the ADO store who wanted to book us on the very expensive 11am bus to Chetumal and as it was only 9am this didn’t really appeal. I had read a blog that said the Chetumal bus left from the furthest gate in the station so that’s where we planted ourselves. It was lucky that I had read this because at 9.10am up pulled a bus to Chetumal (14 BZD/$7 USD/9.20 AUD) and people were stampeding to get on it, as the next bus wasn’t for another hour. Quickly seeing the stampede we used our backpacks to block people and secure our places on the bus as everyone tried to scramble in front of us (we had officially adjusted to the Latin American way of just pushing instead of the British ‘form an orderly queue’ mentality). Once on we settled into the journey that we believed should only take a few hours in total, however we didn’t even arrive at the border until just after midday. The Belizean border was quick and efficient and after paying our $20 USD (40 BZD/$26.35 AUD) exit fee we jumped back on the bus to head to the Mexican border. Upon arrival, we alighted with our bags and headed inside the building, only to discover there was only one customs officer working and an annoyingly long queue of people snaked around the room. By the time we got through immigration, nearly an hour after arriving, our bus had left. It turned out that this was not common practice as there were enough Belizeans on board, who had clearly done this journey before, were irritated as the bus is definitely supposed to wait for all of us to clear immigration and then continue on to Chetumal. After having our bags scanned (not something we are used to having to do at a land border) we were told that we would have to wait for the next bus to come through. Dreading the thought of having the wait for the bus that was scheduled for an hour later than ours and having to wait for its passengers to clear customs we were pleasantly surprised when a bus pulled up 15 minutes later to take us to our final stop for the day. Figuring we would be pulling up to a real bus station we hadn’t worried when we missed the opportunity to change money at the Belizean border nor when there were no money changers at the Mexican border. Going into a relatively developed country and a big enough city we figured ATMs would be plentiful and easily accessible. When we pulled up to a glorified car park with a snack shack in the middle of what appeared to be the middle of nowhere we started to feel mild concern regarding our lack of useful money. We asked if anyone would change money for us or if there was an ATM nearby…everyone said no and told us that the nearest ATM was a taxi-ride away but not to worry as it would be very cheap. This would have been a fine solution had the source of the need for an ATM in the first place been a total lack of appropriate money! They also said that the best chance for accommodation was about 2km away and if we couldn’t take a taxi we’d have to walk. Knowing that we had to return to the same car park in the morning to take the colectivo to Tulum we didn’t really want to end up so far away. Both of us tiring and starting to despair we made the decision that I would do a quick scout around to see if there was any accommodation near by. Only 2 minutes down the road I found what felt like a little oasis…Posada Costa Azul. It was a roadside hotel and not only did they have rooms (550MX/$37.56 AUD/28.95 USD for a double room with aircon and ensuite) they also said they’d accept American dollars (and it turned out also card). Running back to Dani with my discovery it wasn’t long before we were settled into our room and able to go out and find an ATM without bags. We set off to find the Walmart that was on my map as we had been told at the bus station that this was where the closest ATM was. Only about 100m into our walk, just past the gas station on the main road visible from the bus station was an ATM. How had no one at the bus station known about this ATM?! Knowledge of this would have prevented huge amounts of stress and a concerning spike in my wife’s blood pressure! Money swiftly procured, we continued our journey on to Walmart (as we hadn’t seen a western supermarket in months) to get some food and stock up on some of those comfort items we hadn’t seen in a while! It’s odd the things you realise you miss when you’ve been on the road for a long time. After a really good night’s sleep we got up the next morning and crossed the road back to the bus station. It was here we needed to take our first colectivo to Carillo (90 MX/$6.15 AUD/4.75 USD) and we were on our way within 10 minutes of arriving. In Carillo we were dropped off in a different location to where the colectivos to Tulum were leaving from. Once out of the minivan we were ushered into a taxi to take us to the other station. Surprisingly, it seemed that a taxi to the right station was included in the cost of the colectivo as none of us (including the Mexican passengers) paid the taxi driver when we were dropped off. It was a quick transition and we were soon on our way to Tulum (65 MX/$4.45 AUD/3.45 USD), which was to be our final destination for the next 4 days. Pulling into Tulum I’m not sure it was what either of us had been expecting. A total gringo town on the surface, but everyone was friendly and we had been travelling for 2 days so it would certainly do. Dani set off to find us somewhere to stay and came back quickly with a room for 400MX ($27.30 AUD/21.05 USD) at Hostel Riviera Maya which felt like an amazing deal considering it had a private bathroom and it was definitely peak season so there weren’t a lot of cheap deals to be had. Our first priority on arriving in Tulum was to find some good local food. We have both been looking forward to trying authentic Mexican food since we had started planning the Central American part of this trip and our time was finally here. After checking out a few places we stumbled across a BBQ chicken place that had some amazing looking food for Dani, so she ordered a plate and what arrived was huge. A massive plate of rice, beans, ¼ of a BBQ chicken, salad and the biggest stack of tortillas we’d ever seen. It all looked so good I ended up ordering a vegetarian version. This feast set us back a whole 75 MX ($5.10 AUD/3.95 USD), we were astounded! We had 2 activities that we wanted to do while we were in Tulum. One was to visit the ruins, which are the only Mayan ruins in Mexico located on a waterfront. We found out that you could catch one of the colectivos heading towards Playa del Carmen for 20 MX ($1.35 AUD/1.05 USD) and that they would drop you on the main road about 800m from the ruins, which was by far the cheapest way to get there (we decided to walk back to town but you can flag one of these down in reverse to get back and they will flash their lights at you and stop if they have space in the van). The ruins (70 MX/$4.80 AUD/3.70 USD) are gorgeous and very different to others in the area due to the beachside setting, but make sure you get there early because it becomes quite unpleasant when all the tour groups start arriving around 10.30am. Having spent a good 2 hours wandering around we decided we would walk back to town via the beach…this turned out to be a stupid move as not only was it VERY long but it also put us out in the midday sun walking back with no shade and thus very little reprieve from the heat. This meant that by the time we arrived at the supermarket (about 2.5km away from our hostel) we were knackered but they did have cold drinks and aircon, which was enough to give us the boost we needed to complete the journey back to our hotel. The second activity we had penciled in was a cooking course. Desperate to be able to take the secrets of Mexican cuisine away with us we eagerly signed up to the amazing sounding class run by Rivera Kitchen, despite it being quite expensive ($75 USD/97.20 AUD). We met at the owner’s son’s house in Tulum centre where we were picked up in a taxi and driven to her house about a 15-minute drive out of town. It definitely felt like a good home-style cooking class to begin with as we were warmly welcomed by Lily who asked us all about our previous Mexican food experiences and then told about the menu for the day. There were 4 other people doing the class that day and everyone seemed friendly. Unfortunately, we soon realised that almost all of the cooking was done by Lily and her son (throughout the duration of the 3 1/2hr class we chopped a tomato each, pressed some tortillas and rolled some flautas). Don’t get me wrong we had a really wonderful time getting to know the others in the class, drinking good beer and eventually eating the food that had been prepared but neither of us left feeling like we had a better grasp on Mexican cuisine than we had arrived with (although we do have recipes now) and for the cost of the course this was a real shame. Our last stop on this short visit to Mexico was in Cancun from where we would catch our flight to Cuba. Having checked out the ADO bus we realised it would be just as quick and cost a hell of a lot less to catch a collectivo to Playa del Carmen (40 MX/$2.75 AUD/2.10 USD) and then another colectivo to Cancun (40 MX/$2.75 AUD/2.10 USD). This was a really easy process as the Playa colectivos stop right next to the Cancun colectivos and the Cancun colectivos terminate opposite the ADO bus station. Having read that Cancun was a bit seedy and full of resorts we had decided to arrive the day before our flight and stay near the bus station, as we needed to take a really early ADO bus to the airport (78MX/$5.15AUD/$4.10USD). It turned out that we both kind of liked Cancun and outside of Zona Hotelera it really wasn’t that bad. We spent the afternoon wandering around and picking up last minute bits for Cuba (all about the preparation needed in our next blog) before stumbling upon a great food market near our hostel. This place had every Mexican street food snack you could have ever wanted and all really cheap, so knowing that we had almost 3 weeks in Cuba ahead of us we decided to gorge ourselves on tasty treats before we went. We rolled back to our hostel (Moloch Hostel: 240 MX/16.40 AUD/12.65 USD per night in an 8 bed female dorm) and into our room ready for our next adventure. |
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