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After saying goodbye to our GAP group, we left Lima on the 27th and flew to Panama City, where we had a 26-hour wait for our connection to Mexico. We decided to go into the city for the night and explored a little the next day. It was soo hot and humid, we didn't cope well! We visited the Panama Canal, which is 80km long and stretches all the way across Panama, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was interesting to see, but not really our cup of tea! We then wandered round the old part of the city for the afternoon, which was made up of beautiful buildings right next to derelict ones. We then caught our flight to Mexico City and arrived at our hostel around 2am.
Before going to Mexico City, lots of people had warned us about how dangerous it is and had given us really bad impressions of it, which were not reflected in our experience at all. We didn't feel unsafe once and we really liked the city, it has a great feel to it. On our first day, we met up with our friend Natalie who we travelled with from Rio to BA. She was staying in the Marriot as a birthday treat from her dad, and she was in the executive suite which meant she got free meals for her and guests, as well as full use of the pool, jacuzzi and sauna, which we made the most of... it's a hard life! After a lovely free 5* lunch we tried to find a city tour bus, but because it was a Sunday, the roads around Nat's hotel were all closed and were full of street performers and cyclists so we struggled! At the tourist information desk, however, we met a lovely, big Mexican man called Ernesto (Ernie!) who runs tours and offered to take us the various sights for a really good price. Sounds slightly dodgy, but it wasn't at all and he was quite a character, so it was a really good day. He took us to the Teotihuacan pyramids, just outside Mexico City. They were amazing, but sadly we went at a really busy time so it was full of people and quite hard to appreciate fully. He also took us to a little village where we got to try various tequilas and mezcals (the drink with the worm in it, which isn't quite as vile as tequila!) and learned that they use cactus plants for loads of things - alcohol, medicine, soap, paper, even a needle and thread! He then took us to a big cathedral before dropping us back at the Marriot, where we had a free dinner and lay on Nat's HUGE bed and watched tv for a while. The next day, we visited some markets and then wandered round the main square and the surrounding streets. The square was huge, and had the biggest flag I have ever seen! However, they were in middle of putting up Christmas decorations (which feels bizarre as it is so hot here!) which ruined the views of some of the buildings. After saying goodbye to Natalie, we headed back to our hostel where we were greeted by the craziest barman I have ever met, who spent the entire evening pouring tequila down everyone's throats and giving out free shots... Needless to say we ended up experiencing our first proper Mexican food whilst rather drunk at 3am! The next day we wandered round with some friends from the hostel, tried our first market food, and relaxed for the afternoon before heading on a small pubcrawl and then to a wrestling match! Our guide, Monica, took us to a little pub where we tried Pulque, an alcoholic drink made from a type of cactus... it is definitely an acquired taste! We then went to another bar where we got free dinner if we ordered a beer, what a good deal! We then headed to the wrestling. It was like WWF wrestling, and I'd been advised to go by several people because it's really popular in Mexico. It was hilarious, such an entertaining show! It was all very OTT, with goodies vs baddies and some hilarious costumes! Afterwards we went back to hostel and had a couple of drinks before going to bed.
The next day we spent the day on a bus to Oaxaca. The scenery on the journey was amazing - at point we drove past mountains which were literally covered in thousands of cactuses, it really felt like we were in Mexico! We arrived at our hostel and met some Australian girls who had been in our hostel in Mexico City, so we went out for dinner and drinks with them and some other Aussies they'd met... we were the variety of the group! We walked around the main square which was beautiful and very lively, as well as full of lots of pretty Christmas decorations, including hundreds of poinsettias which made me feel like I was back in my house! The next day we wandered round the city and then went to visit Monte Alban, some ruins just outside Oaxaca, with 2 of the Australian girls. The ruins were deserted which made it good for exploring, but we didn't have a guide so Clare read the Lonely Planet's description to us so we had a vague idea of the history! We headed back to the city and went for an amazing dinner (we have had soo much good food in Mexico!) and some hot chocolate (Oaxaca is famous in Mexico for it's chocolate) before heading to bed. The next day we got up early because we'd booked on a day trip to see various sights around Oaxaca. First stop was the world's widest tree... not very exciting, but it was bloody huge!! Then we visited a weaving factory where they made lots of rugs, and were shown how they were made. We then stopped at a mezcal distillery to learn how mezcal is made and got to try several flavours. All feeling slightly tipsy, we headed to Mitla to visit some more ruins. These ones were beautifully engraved and more colourful than others, but we were really hot and hungry and sadly weren't very interested in learning about them! We then went for an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet, which was so yummy. Our last stop of the day was a place called Hierve el Agua - some natural pools right on a cliff edge, which we went swimming in (bloody freezing!), with what looks like waterfalls next to it, but is actually a build-up of calcium and other minerals left from the water spilling over the edge. It was spectacular and in a beautiful setting. After a quick dip we headed back to Oaxaca and caught our nightbus to Puerto Escondido.
We spent 2 nights in Puerto Escondido, which is a beach town on the Pacific Coast. We were soo excited to get to the beach to just relax and have a break from travelling, which sounds ridiculous but all the intellectual stuff was beginning to just go over our heads! So we spent 2 days chilling out on the beach, but it was actually too warm to even sit in the sun for long. We met up with all the Australians again and had a really fun, slightly messy night out with them! It was quite sad to say goodbye to them when we all left to go in different directions, but an Australian guy and a New Zealand guy travelled with us for the next few days. We caught a bus along to Mazunte, a much smaller beach town along the coast. We stayed in a place right on the beach, it was so pretty! We spent another 2 days there, and had another messy night on tequila... seems to be the theme of Mexico! The morning after the tequila night, we went on a 3 hour boat trip around the area to go wildlife spotting. The first hour was quite boring and we only saw some pelicans and a couple of turtles. As we were beginning to all lose hope of seeing anything exciting, we came across a huge group of dolphins in sea, jumping around like crazy! There were literally hundreds of them, and they were coming so close to the boat and jumping and splashing us, I think they loved the attention! It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and definitely made the boat trip worthwhile! When we returned to land, we then caught a bus to Zipolite, another beach town, where we just spent one night before saying goodbye to the boys and catching a night bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas.
We arrived in San Cristobal at 6am, and it was FREEZING! A bit of a shock to the system after sweating at the beach for 5 days! After catching up on a bit of sleep, we wandered round the city for the day. It was a very pretty city with lots of markets, so we amused ourselves easily by walking around, especially when we got some yummy crepes! The hostel we were staying at had a bonfire, so we bought some drinks and sat around there for the evening, just chatting to everyone which was a good laugh. The following day we went on a trip to Cañon del Sumidero, a big canyon near San Cristobal. We went on a boat trip through the canyon, which thankfully was a lot warmer than San Cristobal! The scenery was unbelievable, and we saw some huuuge crocodiles. I thought they were fake, until their mouths opened and closed, then I got pretty scared! We also saw lots of birds, and a monkey swinging in the trees! On the way back from the canyon we stopped in a little town for lunch, before heading back to San Cristobal. That evening, Chris and I went for dinner and then wandered up to the big church on the hill. There was a huge festival on so the streets were packed with people and stalls and fairground rides, which gave it a great atmosphere. We then returned to the bonfire and then had an early night because we were getting a bus at 7am the next day to Palenque.
While at the bus station waiting for our bus, we met 2 girls who we spent the next 2 days with, one of which is staying at our hostel in Playa del Carmen for Christmas which is exciting! When we arrived in Palenque, we left the town, which was quite frankly a dump, and headed to a place called El Panchan, which is just outside Palenque. We got a cabin in the jungle for the evening, which was really cool and thankfully had mosquito nets (we got bitten alive in Zipolite so were worried about it happening again!). We just chilled out for the day with Emma and Lou and went for dinner at a restaurant in the jungle which had live music playing and really good food. The next day, we got up early and went to visit the ruins at Palenque. We had a guide which made it a lot more interesting than other ruins, and the ruins themselves were actually the best we've seen, perhaps because they're surrounded by amazing jungle scenery. It was soo warm on the tour, so we were glad when it was over and we headed to Misol Ha, a 30m waterfall which was beautiful (although after seeing Iguassu Falls, it wasn't overly impressive!) and refreshing. We then went to Agua Azul, a series of waterfalls and natural pools which were turquoise blue and so pretty. We cooled off by going in the water which was much-needed! Chris and I then said bye to the girls and went to Palenque to catch our night bus to Tulum, where we are now. We spent the day on the beach yesterday, and unfortunately are now rather sunburnt so are avoiding the sun today! The beach here is probably the nicest beach I have seen - white sand and turquoise sea, it's just amazing.
Leaving Tulum tomorrow to head to Cancun/Isla Mujeres, before going to Playa del Carmen on the 23rd where we're spending Christmas. Christmas will be odd and very different to what we're used to, but I'm still excited about lying on the beach on Christmas day before heading to San Francisco for New Year!
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