Vagabond and Beyond: "No Sarah, we're not hanging out in the common area, that guy is gonna kidnapp us!"

Onwards and upwards to the large colonial town of Merida situated in the northern part of the Yucatan peninsula. After staying in quaint provincial Valladolid for a little while, moving on to Merida was like going from Craggy Island to New York, an assault on all our senses. After the initial mayhem of getting from the bus stop to our hostel amongst the beats from ghetto blasters throbbing from each shop we were finally able to adjust to the noise and lights of Merida. First thing we noticed about our new home, everyone was super friendly. Not just in a "Hi, how are ya?" way but in a "hey, let's be best friends" kind of way. There were a few reasons behind this 'let's be best friends' attitude of the locals. One, they were just really friendly and wanted you to see the best of their city, two they want to practice their English and three, they might look like they are just going about their daily business but surprise surprise they are trying to get you into their shop. One hammock selling guy was telling us anything to buy a hammock, to the extent that the world was about to end unless we bought one, now! One such lie was that his shop was closed for the next 2 days as the market would be on, needless to say it was open the whole time we were there. Despite this, on the whole people were friendly in a genuine sense.

Our hostel looks onto the main plaza so it's a great location although I'm not feeling the crowd that appear to be staying there. Might be down to the fact that one guy there has the exact same look and accent of a character who plays a Venezuelan kidnapper in the film Secuestro Express, let's just say I can be a sucker for first impressions. Note to the parents, the kidnapper was a fictional character in a film I saw and the guy we saw was probably a lovely lad who unfortunately has the look and accent of what the Latin American film industry consider a kidnapper to look and sound like. In a related note Harry Potter's twin was also hanging out in the hostel. Again there were big celebrations in the town plaza (zocalo) with dancing, music etc.; they always seem to be celebrating something in Mexico!

Next morning we leave our hostel to discover a few thousand people in the plaza while a mass is going on, apparently the relics of John Paul II are in town and people are queuing to see a wax model of him in a glass coffin. We actually see the relic leaving the church in a glass case later on without the queue of a few hours in the midday heat. We explore the anthropology museum and decide to go to an Irish pub for dinner (ranked as one of the best restaurants in town), you quickly forget how big the portions are at home. We stumble upon some sort of Mexico's got (no) talent show and stay for a good hour (hilarious stuff). We tire of Merida and its large city vibe quickly and spend our remaining time planning our escape and future plans as we have no idea where to go from here.

Eventually, we decide to follow the coastal route to Campeche and then south to Palenque where the coastal plains meet the dense jungle. When we arrived in Campeche we forgot to buy our tickets for our bus the next day to Palenque (we're advised they sell out the day before) so a couple of taxi rides later we get 2 of the last 5 tickets left. We intended to walk back to the bus station but let's just say that didn't work out too well. Campeche is a beautiful walled town which has a strong pirates of the Caribbean history (hence the walls, built to keep them out by the Spanish). Unfortunately we are only here for the night so we just tour the walls and stop off in a Cuban bar where apparently the norm is to serve triple Rum and vodka's. This might help shed some light on why we have seen a lot of AA meetings taking place since we arrived in Mexico. So on to Palenque to visit more impressive ruins and continue this hectic lifestyle....