On the road again: San Cristobal to Playa del Carmen

Wow, it is hard to believe that only a week has passed since we have left our beloved San Cristobal de las Casas. To us it feels like at least a month.

Our last few days in San Cristobal were spent packing up all of the belongings we had accumulated over the month, saying final goodbyes to some awesome friends, and taking in our final moments with the town we had started to call home.




We left via bus on the morning of the 22nd March, with promises of return in years to come. We headed east towards the town of Palenque, also in the Chiapas. The road was long and windy, and we passed through countryside controlled by the Zapatista rebels.



Eventually we arrived in the town of Palenque, but to be honest it really didn't have any appeal. We caught a taxi a few kilometers out of town to stay closer to the Mayan ruins- the main attraction of the area.

We stayed in a camping site which was positioned in a jungle, it was fun to be somewhere completely new and different. During the night at about 2am we were both awakened by what I thought was a jaguar, a wild pig, or the monster from Lost... it sounded like it was right outside our door, and wouldn't give up it's screeching, roaring, snorting noises for what seemed like ages. We later found out that it was merely a howler monkey, which is not nearly as exciting as what we at first thought.

At 6am we were once again awakened, but this time by loud music being played by some local hippies. We pulled ourselves out of bed and tried to get an early start to beat the rush of tourists- we were unsuccessful.

Tour groups swarmed the Palenque ruins, so we went trooping off through the jungle looking at boring ruins that didn't grab anyone's attention (including mine). We soon conceded, joined the multitude of American teenage girls, and explored the spectacular pyramids built by the Maya. The ruins of Palenque are probably the first that have really grabbed my attention. I loved their white stone, their jungle setting, and the little stone-work formations on the top of each pyramid. I think I particularly liked the contrast of the white rocks against the green jungle canopy.



After the Palenque ruins we caught an overnight bus to Campeche. Campeche is another colonial town with cool looking buildings and more paved roads. The colours on the buildings were more pastel than the other colonial towns we were in, and it had a distinct oceanside feel to it. The colonial centre of town was surrounded by huge walls which were historically used to keep out Pirates. We stayed in Campeche for two nights.



We took the short bus trip from Campeche to Merida really early in the morning, and hired a rental car to get away from the usual tourist trail. Nyall had to quickly learn to drive on the right hand side of the road, maneuverer his way through Mexican traffic, and eventually we headed north to the Gulf Coast on the Yucatan. We found an awesome place to swim with crystal blue water, ate fresh fish for lunch in a cocina economica (budget restaurant), and headed our way east along the coast.


At about 5pm we were starting to become concerned that we hadn't found any decent accommodation options (by decent I mean under $6AUD a night), and pulled into a deserted block of land to spend the night. We have heard numerous stories about the dangers of driving at night on Mexican roads, with many cars not having headlights and people and animals walking all over the road. We decided not to take that risk, but decided to illegally sleep and light a fire on someone's property.



With the first glimpses of sunlight in the morning, we bathed in the sea, and headed off early to the Maya ruins at Chichén Itzá. This time we beat the tour groups, and enjoyed the first hour or so of Chichén Itzá to ourselves. CI's ruins were impressive, and most of all I liked the murals carved into the stones.



From Chichén Itza we drove to Tulum, had our first glimpses of the Carribbean Sea, and were once again faced with the struggle of trying to find budget accommodation. We also experienced the most amount of culture shock we have known on this trip. The Carribbean side of México is extremely commercial, and we were not prepared for it. We were immediately reminded of the Gold Coast in Australia, and were overcome with saddness that we had left the México that we had fallen in love with.

It is beautiful here, the sand is white, the beach is crystal blue, but we are homesick. We are missing our friends in San Cristobal and back home in Australia, and are extremely dissapointed that it will be many years before we return to our favorite places in México. We also gave up on finding budget accommodation, and are now booked into two nights in a place that gives us our own bathroom, a double bed and a huge cooked breakfast. Hopefully soon we will cheer up and get some energy to explore this beautiful coastline (in the words of Dan: "¡ánimo Marianna!").