After the heat of puerto Escondido San cristobal was a bit of a shock. It's a beautiful colonial town set high in the mountains. Whilst mountains are very pretty etc the elevation of almost 2000 metres made for very cold nights. Unfortunately the hostel dorms were more akin to barns with doors swinging open during the night letting in freezing cold air. I had to invest in a wooly hat from a street seller to add to my night time thermals.
The day trip to palenque didn't help the temperature situation. It started at 6am in a minibus. Four painful hours later we were at agua azul, a set of beautiful waterfaals and pools. After an hour there we moved to miso-ha, a very large waterfall where you could follow a path that led behind the falls. It was pretty cool being behind a waterfall but as it should turn out waterfalls contain water which is the essence of wetness. Needless to say I got thoroughly soaked. Did I have a change if clothes?of course not!
A few minutes drive later we arrived at the highlight of the trip: the ruins of palenque. These were some amazing ruins, made even more spectacular by the torrential rain. I waded through paths covered withthree inches of water to see giant pyramids, temples, houses and a spectacular waterfall that looked like it belonged in desneyland.
The drive home was long (5 hours), cold (on a mountain) and wet (see above) but it was worth it to get into the barn and shiver myself to sleep!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Puerto Escondido
After the bus ride from hell we settled into the hostel mayflower for what was meant to be two nights. Grotty as the town was it had the most beautiful beach with excellent chill out bars. As a result the two nights turned into seven without being noticed. I could have stayed forever but managed to drag myself away eventually.
A typical day there involved getting up around eleven and hitting lizas bar on the beach as they had shades. In order to sit under their shades it was courtesy to buy a drink. This is how the one a day piña colada habit kicked off! Lizas was a great launch point for getting pummelled in the waves, surfing and bodyboarding. Sadly my strong point was getting pummelled.
There's really not much else I can say about Escondido. It felt like a proper holiday spent with great new friends at the hostel. Even now, two weeks later, I'm having to convince myself not to go back.
Monday, October 20, 2008
The bus of death - Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido
To get from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido you have two options:
1. 6 hour 10euro trip over the mountains in a hiace van
2. 11 hour 20euro trip around the mountains in a proper bus
We chose option 1.
Bad choice.
The bus had 14 seats and 8 seatbelts. Unluckily for us we could see out of the front window and thus see just how many times we cheated death. The driver seemed to be followed the mantra "we´ll get you there early or not at all" because he was hoofing it along narrow "roads" up and down the mountain.
His favourite trick was to save a few seconds by taking blind corners at 100kmph driving on the wrong side of the road. Another favourite was to overtake other vehicles with his lights off while driving in the pitch black darkness.
We seemed to have God on our side though as we had left on a Sunday and there were religious icons all over the van. For example the rear view mirror was covered with rosary beads... The speedometer has a sticker of the Virgin Mary covering all speeds from 90 - 130kmph....
We sat there feeling utterly nauseous for 6 hours of this journey from hell. The worst moment was when we overtook a truck at pace coming up to a left hand blind turn around a steep cliff. We pulled back into our side 20m before the turn, 2 seconds later a huge bus came hurtling down the side of the road we had just been on. Nauseau increased a little.
But as I keep on saying, all´s well that ends well. We made it to the bus depot to be greeted by a large shrine to the great Virgin herself. It turns out that believing strongly in theVM is much more effective than maintaining a sensible speed, driving on the right having seatbelts...
Mexico, eh?
1. 6 hour 10euro trip over the mountains in a hiace van
2. 11 hour 20euro trip around the mountains in a proper bus
We chose option 1.
Bad choice.
The bus had 14 seats and 8 seatbelts. Unluckily for us we could see out of the front window and thus see just how many times we cheated death. The driver seemed to be followed the mantra "we´ll get you there early or not at all" because he was hoofing it along narrow "roads" up and down the mountain.
His favourite trick was to save a few seconds by taking blind corners at 100kmph driving on the wrong side of the road. Another favourite was to overtake other vehicles with his lights off while driving in the pitch black darkness.
We seemed to have God on our side though as we had left on a Sunday and there were religious icons all over the van. For example the rear view mirror was covered with rosary beads... The speedometer has a sticker of the Virgin Mary covering all speeds from 90 - 130kmph....
We sat there feeling utterly nauseous for 6 hours of this journey from hell. The worst moment was when we overtook a truck at pace coming up to a left hand blind turn around a steep cliff. We pulled back into our side 20m before the turn, 2 seconds later a huge bus came hurtling down the side of the road we had just been on. Nauseau increased a little.
But as I keep on saying, all´s well that ends well. We made it to the bus depot to be greeted by a large shrine to the great Virgin herself. It turns out that believing strongly in theVM is much more effective than maintaining a sensible speed, driving on the right having seatbelts...
Mexico, eh?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Mexico City - day 3
After a solid morning of uploading photos, making phonecalls on skype ("can u hear me?!") and booking hostels I hopped on the 10p tube to the university to meet up with the UNAM Pumas ultimate frisbee team.
I got off the tube at the instructed station to find myself in the middle. Of a very busy market. Skipping past hawkers and ducking under very low electricity wires I did a good job of looking like I knew where I was going and also looking as menacing as possible, my tactic for keeping out of trouble.
I guessed the directi0n right and after half a km I entered the university. Now if you think ucd's traffic is bad you should try negociate your way through Unam. It's circled by a 6 lane dual carriageway with seemingly no place to cross. I dodged past the vintage beetles and got halfway where I asked a guy in a hi-viz jacket "donde est (insert swimming motion here)?". "ah, la piscana".... Turns out you can get away with sticking in French nouns most of the time. After another half hour wander I found the piscina, behind which was the ulti team.
Training was great craic, we suffered a little from the altitude (2250m) and the pollution (bad). I'm sure it wasn't down to lack of fitness. After 3 hours of fun ultimate in the rain (just like home) I was glad to hear that we were off for some "flavoured water". It turns out that flavoured water is actually flavored water and not beer which was upsetting at first but that emotion was soon usurped by the refreshing mandarin water and by laughing at the crazy guy who danced around us proclaiming that we should always "be happy".
Happy we were. We moved on to dans apartment with some cervezas and tequila and had a great night talking about ultimate, rude words and the world. These guys and girls were just so nice to us. It was a great reminder of how unique the ultimate community is.
I got off the tube at the instructed station to find myself in the middle. Of a very busy market. Skipping past hawkers and ducking under very low electricity wires I did a good job of looking like I knew where I was going and also looking as menacing as possible, my tactic for keeping out of trouble.
I guessed the directi0n right and after half a km I entered the university. Now if you think ucd's traffic is bad you should try negociate your way through Unam. It's circled by a 6 lane dual carriageway with seemingly no place to cross. I dodged past the vintage beetles and got halfway where I asked a guy in a hi-viz jacket "donde est (insert swimming motion here)?". "ah, la piscana".... Turns out you can get away with sticking in French nouns most of the time. After another half hour wander I found the piscina, behind which was the ulti team.
Training was great craic, we suffered a little from the altitude (2250m) and the pollution (bad). I'm sure it wasn't down to lack of fitness. After 3 hours of fun ultimate in the rain (just like home) I was glad to hear that we were off for some "flavoured water". It turns out that flavoured water is actually flavored water and not beer which was upsetting at first but that emotion was soon usurped by the refreshing mandarin water and by laughing at the crazy guy who danced around us proclaiming that we should always "be happy".
Happy we were. We moved on to dans apartment with some cervezas and tequila and had a great night talking about ultimate, rude words and the world. These guys and girls were just so nice to us. It was a great reminder of how unique the ultimate community is.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Mexico City walkabout
Mexico city 14oct 08
A classic hostel day. Kicked off by meeting new friend andree for brekkie. She'd just bumped into a previous hostel buddy the couchsurfing andy from Halifax. This chap was meant to be in india but had dry cleaned his passport and erased his visa so was stuck in the multimegalopolis that is mehico city.
Now to walk around it you'd think it was just a regular city. Its the details that get you. The slanty cathedral built on Aztec ruins, the slanty everything else also built on 2000 years if classic civilisation. What brings a wry smile is that after all that time they've come to this version of civilisation.
The periodic smell of sewerage, the dust from street excavations, the themed streets: fabricland, d.i.y.ville, pharmacyplateau, christmascity etc. The street hawkers selling a few crusty tacos from a polystyrene plate, the woman with bic blades, the kid with a palette of pritt-stick, the man holding two irons ("very good brand"). It's a city of small scale enterprise where you'll never find what you're looking for.
The scale of the chaos was most vivid from the 47th floor of the toure latinomerica. That's where you count at least five distinct skyscraper zones rising from the calming smog. It's where you see the whistleblowing traffic cop almost get knocked over four times in a minute. Its where you get a perspective on just how big this city is. It's very big, by the way.
We got a group of about 10 young hostellers together to go to the mexican wrestling (gimp masks and all) that night. Sadly after walking down the kind of streets you´re not meant to walk down at night we discovered that the usually reliable Lonely Planet (aka the LP or the Bible) had lied about the venue. We saw very nice, closed, venue and legged it back to the hostel bar for salsa lessons and beers with the lit up centro historico behind us. All´s well that ends well...
Monday, October 13, 2008
Mexico City
Left the 4star luxury of the fiesta inn, la paz, at the very un-4star time of 5am. We rode to the airport in a minivan that clearly did something wrong in its former American life that earnt it retirement in Mexico. There seem to be a lot of miscreant cars in the US as Mexico is run by cars and vans from the 80s and 90s and in the case of the taxis often long before that.
Two planes and a layover in the sparkly new Guadalajara airport (where there was a very useful shuttle bus to carry you 200m from terminal 1 to 2 - I'm sure a monorail will be put in soon...) left us in Mexico city. After the kielys found their bags we were off in a roasting taxi ride to the hostel cathedral. Let's just say that I'm glad i don't have a car here.
The hostel is right in the middle of the historical district opposite the cathedral. The place is so full of cops and military types its tempting to walk around iPod in hand, camera dangling from the neck, waving a fistful of cash, complaining loudly about the smell of sewerage. Of course that would be immensely silly so instead the evening was spent wandering the streets and taking in the safest part of an 18m person city.
Free dinner is served on the roof of the hostel overlooking the main square where in a few minutes we'll settle in for some 2 -4-1 cervezas.
Until the next time my friends....
Friday, October 10, 2008
La Paz, Baja California, Mexico
La Paz
After a 19 hour overnight bus journey we arrived into la Paz at 7am. La Paz is the main city of Baja California and home to some fine colonial stuff as well as plenty of ramshackle buildings (and people!) it was also 35C with 100% humidity.
We had the honour if staying at the pension California, our first sub $10 home since camping. There were reasons for this. The room was large and had 4 double beds, unfortunately it also had ants on the Walls, cockroaches in the sink and was made entirely from concrete with no windows!
After a well deserved nap to recover from the bus we went on walkabout. Instant sweat was inevitable and embraced... The town was quite nice with churches etc but our main aim was to find the ferry company to get out of there before the hurricane hit. The first ferry company was closed up (we later discovered it has shut down permanently) and the second ferry company didnt go where we wanted to go.
The storm was getting nearer, the sky darker. We went to food to mull the options. While there it started bucketing down with what we´d call "wet rain" back home. It was decided that we needed some luxury to ride out the storm. We booked into the 4 star fiesta inn with wireless and gym and headed there to await the hurricane.
Now the hotel was pretty much closed up with sandbags everywhere, doors taped off etc. I´ll bet they were regretting their inclusion of an outdoor reception in the designs. There was nothing open and nothing around the hotel except for a marina so we did all we could do which was to sit in our room, watch Fox News to catch up on world affairs from an even and balanced source, and plan how to get out of there. Luckily the cheap flight phenomenom has hit mexico and we could book flights to mexico city to leave in two days. This meant a day in the sunshine bythe pool lapping up pina coladas and cervezas.... This travel lark is tough...
After a 19 hour overnight bus journey we arrived into la Paz at 7am. La Paz is the main city of Baja California and home to some fine colonial stuff as well as plenty of ramshackle buildings (and people!) it was also 35C with 100% humidity.
We had the honour if staying at the pension California, our first sub $10 home since camping. There were reasons for this. The room was large and had 4 double beds, unfortunately it also had ants on the Walls, cockroaches in the sink and was made entirely from concrete with no windows!
After a well deserved nap to recover from the bus we went on walkabout. Instant sweat was inevitable and embraced... The town was quite nice with churches etc but our main aim was to find the ferry company to get out of there before the hurricane hit. The first ferry company was closed up (we later discovered it has shut down permanently) and the second ferry company didnt go where we wanted to go.
The storm was getting nearer, the sky darker. We went to food to mull the options. While there it started bucketing down with what we´d call "wet rain" back home. It was decided that we needed some luxury to ride out the storm. We booked into the 4 star fiesta inn with wireless and gym and headed there to await the hurricane.
Now the hotel was pretty much closed up with sandbags everywhere, doors taped off etc. I´ll bet they were regretting their inclusion of an outdoor reception in the designs. There was nothing open and nothing around the hotel except for a marina so we did all we could do which was to sit in our room, watch Fox News to catch up on world affairs from an even and balanced source, and plan how to get out of there. Luckily the cheap flight phenomenom has hit mexico and we could book flights to mexico city to leave in two days. This meant a day in the sunshine bythe pool lapping up pina coladas and cervezas.... This travel lark is tough...
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