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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