Vagabond and Beyond

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Holy Coke!!!

As I write this post we are currently waiting to board a bus that will start a 15 hour trip to Mexico City after spending a week in the colonial town of San Cristobal de Las Casas which is set in a highland valley surrounded by forests and indigenous villages. Initially we booked in for two nights but ended up staying for 7! During our stay we visited a Mayan Medicine Museum to find a cure for Sarah’s cold, did a speed boat trip down a Canyon that was both epically beautiful and covered in rubbish at the same time, visited an indigenous town where they sacrificed chickens and coca cola was the offering of choice to the saints, played an intense version of scrabble called grabble and had a few good nights experiencing the local tipples of Mezcal and Pox.

El Hostalito, our home for the week was a hostel/bike shop run by a Spanish guy named Joaquin who planned on cycling around the world but got distracted by the town of San Cristobal after he started his journey in New York. Like most of the other travellers staying in El Hostalito the plan was for a short stay but everyone got on so well that a short stay became a weeklong one for most.

First off, was a trip to San Juan Chamula to see the religious practices of the locals and to try some Pox (ironically pronounced Posh). The village, extremely religious appears to be sponsored by coke! I still can’t fully explain the craziness of a town that strives for a simple religious indigenous life except when it comes to their favourite beverage of coca cola. The focal point of the town is the church and an odd place it is… Inside there are no seats, about 100 glass caskets with statues of their favourite saints, thousands of lit candles with different meanings placed by locals all over the ground, a floor covered in pine needles, people being rubbed with eggs by healers to cleanse the body, live chickens being sacrificed (I kid not) and of course a few dozen crates of that holy beverage coca cola! You’ll have to take my word for this as cameras are strictly prohibited in and around the church as the Tzotzil people believe cameras can steal your soul. Like at home, after church we went to the pub except when I say pub it was a long table in the back garden of someone’s house in the middle of nowhere. The owner of the house brewed his own Pox, a local drink made from sugarcane that was served in a soft drink bottle and came in too many easy to drink flavours. It is commonly used for ceremonial purposes among the Mayans and means medicine/cure. Pox was commonly used in religious ceremonies but increasingly coke has been substituted for it, something to do with the gas of the drink and the soul! Pox brings out the best stories from people, for example one character who shall remain unnamed for obvious reasons to come. To get an idea of the kind of person we are talking about; he mainly eats uncooked organic food, practices yoga, plays a hang drum, doesn’t read the news or watch TV, fond of a herbal plant or two and plans to live in a commune after his travels. Anyway, on one of his detox’s the only thing he did for 2 days was drink his own urine to purify himself or something along those lines. He was pure entertainment for our time there and not too shabby on the hang drum either. After San Juan it was back to the rooftop terrace for some more Pox and the inevitable hangover the next day.

Next up was a trip to Canyon Sumidero to see crocodiles and the natural beauty of the Chiapas region. Halfway through there is a massive area covered in plastic and wood waste where there are about 20 boats trying to clean it up 7 days a week. Except for this unusual polluted spot the river canyon was amazing. Check out the pictures below to see some of the waterfalls, wildlife etc. The photos don’t do the canyon justice but you get the idea.

It’s rained the whole week in San Cristobal, rainy season decided to hang around for another couple of weeks! Hurricane Jova is in the region and Emily and Andrew (who have been on a similar route to us) have had their bus to Guatemala cancelled twice due to landslides and heavy rains. They finally got going third time lucky and we are heading in the opposite direction back to the sun and away from the wet and cold weather. After all, escaping the Irish weather is part of the reason to go travelling. So trips to the local market and Mayan medicine museum have kept the rainy day’s ticking by. Sarah picked up a bit of a cold (most likely from the change of moving from the warm beaches to the cold mountains) so bought a ‘Vick’ like medicine from the local Mayans (it worked!) Sometimes when the rain was too heavy to leave the hostel, we watched hours of DVD’s (some truly awful films) and played grabble which I found to be too competitive and tense for these relaxing times. Check out some of the photos below of the colourful and entertaining market that we ventured out to see when the rain did stop.

One night we moved on from Pox to Mezcal. “Mezcal is tequila’s brother. Like tequila, it is distilled from the agave plant, but mezcal doesn’t have to come from blue agave, or from the tequila-producing areas of Jalisco. In other words, all tequila is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila.” Drinking the mezcal led to talks with Joaquin, the hostel owner, about a few of us doing a 5 day bike trip to a paradise beach a couple days ride away. News of hurricanes and landslides the next day kept any thoughts of a bike trip to the beach a dream best kept among the few on the terrace drinking mescal.

So Mexico City is next, and despite the media reports on its dangers we have only heard good things about the place from fellow travellers so we’re looking forward to exploring the second largest city in the world (23 million people). After Mexico City we are working our way back down the pacific coast to Oaxaca and on to Guatemala to a Spanish school where we can settle down for a while and finally unpack the bags, for a little while anyway.

San Cristobal

Animal Skin for sale

Mayan Medicine Museum

Rain- A common sight in San Cristobal


Our first drink of Pox (Posh) in San Juan Chamula

San Juan Chamula

Some Zapatista posters at the Pox house/brewery/bar

The Pox bar in San Juan Chamula - so it begins

Joaquin, the hostel owner

Some of the gang

Crocodile at Canyon Sumidero

Some bird showing off at Canyon Sumidero

Canyon Sumidero

Rubbish at Canyon Sumidero

Waterfall at Canyon Sumidero

Christmas tree waterfall at Canyon Sumidero

Under the Christmas tree waterfall at Canyon Sumidero

Monument at the dam in Canyon Sumidero

San Cristobal market

San Cristobal market - chickens, alive for now

San Cristobal market - not so lucky, sorry vegetarians!

San Cristobal market

San Cristobal market - Asleep on the job

Monday, 10 October 2011

Zapatista guerillas, sinkholes, landslides, illegal tolls; our journey to San Cristobal

Another town, another set of ruins. I thought we'd be sick of them by now (anyone reading this blog surely is!) but no, they continue to impress. And the ruins of Palenque were the best we've seen so far, a lost city built on the hills of a rainforest. It wasn't until 1840 that the ruins were discovered, well, rediscovered in modern times. I'll keep the desripction short this time as your patience for ruins diminishes more and more as I continue to post more and more ruins. Below are a few pictures of us climbing most of the temples and exploring inside a few. Deep within the main temple is a vaulted chamber containing the crypt of the ruler Pakal. In the onsite museum we saw the tomb of Pakal, the first king’s tomb to be discovered in the Mayan world. We also saw his death mask that was only pieced together in the last couple of years. All in all, a very impressive city with class artefacts from the temples.We met the English couple we have seen in about 4 places so far and we'll be seeing them again in San Cristobal before they head on to Guatemala and we head back up north towards Mexico City.

Next up, a bus trip to San Cristobal De Las Casas. The road from Palenque to San Cristobal runs close to the border with Guatemala which has had problems with Zapatista guerillas. You can read up more about the Zapatista movement on the following link http://www.zapatistarevolution.com/ but in a nutshell they were an unknown group that seized several towns in the state of Chiapas (including Ocosingo (which we stopped off in) and San Cristobal (where we were staying next)) in 1994 as they were opposed to the Mexican government and globalisation amongst other things. Their main ideology is to support the indigenous populations of Mexico along with other Marxist ideals. There has been a rise in attacks over the last few years as the government continues to bring in new roads and changes which is the primary reason behind the heavy security.

It didn't take long to realise the extent of the heavy security along this route when the first 2 hours of our journey we had an army truck with about 30 soldiers ahead of us. You would think militant guerillas who oppose tourism and are willing to kill would be our biggest concern but they were the least of our problems. Most of the route is a bendy up or downhill journey and at certain points half the road has collapsed like a sinkhole. For example we took a turn and the road just disappeared ahead of us, as in a 100 foot drop! This is not a road for speeding, so obviously not a road for the speed loving Mexicans. Sitting on the front of the bus we got the full uncensored view. Not that long in we had to stop as a digger was working on clearing what looked like a very recent landslide of some sort (picture below). Soon after this we arrived in a town where the local children would pull a rope across the road which had a banner hanging from it in order to stop traffic, when your car slows down they come out and ask for money to pass. Makes a difference from the e-flow toll at home but no less effective. We saw this in a few towns along the way, so a trip down highway 199 can get pricey. Apparently if you try to get by with a rental car, the adults come out and rob you, that's nice! The bus driver stopped about half way to buy some fruit off the local kids, probably pays to keep up the good relations along this stretch of road as most towns are Zapatista supporters. Even a few murals of militants in balaclavas similar to the murals in Belfast along the road. Despite all these hazards, safe and sound we arrived in the beautiful town of San Cristobal De Las Casas....some good stories to follow.

PS. At the end of the blog is an interactive map of where we have travelled to so far that you can have a look at if your interested.

Exploring the Temples of Palenque

Palenque

Cascades


Indiana Jones Bridge

Army Escort

Waterfalls in Palenque

Pakal's crypt

Keeping up with relations

Death mask of jade


Mexican eFlow

Giant red ants slugging away


Landslide


Bridge at waterfalls

Palenque from the ruins of the Palace

Monday, 3 October 2011

"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....