Tulum was our last Carribbean beach of the year, and a pretty good one at that, but time is pressing so we headed off to see some of inland Mexico. First stop was the fiesta town of Merida at the top of the Yucatan Peninsula. The town has a regular series of outdoor events and we thought we might have a look at some of the local culture. Most of the events involved bands playing old Mexican music to which the local OAPs were getting down. It was amusing, and sometimes quite painful, to watch the old guys still pulling their moves on the dance floor despite the risk of a broken hip. We also caught an outdoor concert of local dancers (all they did was stick their hands in the air and spin around a bit), some singers dressed up in Mexican grab (complete with gun and sparkly waistcoat), and some Mayan musicans who were pretty tedious as most of the songs only involved mimicing rainforest sounds and saying a Mayan word or two in an earnest voice.

After Merida we took an overnight bus to the awesome Palenque ruins in the Chipas state. Mexican roads are a bit of a chore to travel on as there are speed bumps every 200 yards but it was well worth it see the ruins which have probably been the most impressive yet. The site is set on a hill side with loads of temples and other buildings nestled among rainforest. For once it was possible to actually go inside the temples and get an idea of what they might have been like to live in. These Mayans were obviously a weird looking bunch; all the steps are huge and require almost jumping to get up, but then the roofs in the buildings are really low. We assume they must have been all leg and no torso.

After Palenque we headed down to San Cristobal, or up in terms of altitude. It's a pretty colonial town with a good crafts market and loads of cafes and other tourist stuff. It was also the site of a rebellion in 1994 by Zapatista rebels seeking to improve the the living conditions of the local indigenous peoples. The guy leading the attempted revolution, Marcos, is something of a cult hero, always seen wearing a balacalva and smoking a pipe. He's sort of the Mexican Che. Anyway the town is very nice but gets pretty cold at night because it's so high up - we actually had to wear jumpers! It's going to be so weird getting back to England...