We were up before the crack of dawn on Sun 28th Dec to catch the 5.30am bus from Placencia to Dangriga. In Dangriga we changed buses and immediately left for Belmopan, Belize's capital. After only a few minutes wait there we caught another bus to San Ignacio - which we weren't thrilled about seeing again. Our grand plan was get into Mexico via Guatemala and we were hoping to pick up a tourist shuttle bus in San Ignacio that would whisk us through the border crossing and take us to Flores in Guatemala either that night or the following day. We made some enquiries and whilst enjoying the culinary treats at Cafe Sol again, we decided to tough it out and take public transport all the way. So, we got a bus to the border town and then a taxi to the border itself. After completing all the border formalities we strolled into Guatemala and arranged bus travel on to Flores. We arrived there at around 3.30pm, some 10 hours after leaving Placencia. Travelling truly isn't as glamorous as some people think, especially when, after a 10 hour journey you then have to trudge around looking for a place to stay that isn't either full up or horrible. After various trials that I won't bore you with we eventually got settled in to Dona Goya 2nd hostel, which wasn't great but was good enough. Since we had stayed in Flores before we knew where we could get a good meal at least (Hotel Terrazo for awesome pasta, if you're interested)
We were out on the pavement in front of the hostel at 4.45am on Mon 29th (day 99 by the way!) waiting for our bus to Palenque in Mexico. I'm sure many of you who know me will be staggered at the amount of early mornings I have braved on this trip. Due to the absurdly early hour of this journey I slept soundly all the way to the Guatemala side of the Guatemala/Mexico border control where we were all 'processed' quickly. We then got driven to a river bank and directed towards a couple of lanchas. This is another example of how you just have to go with it when travelling. For all we knew they could have been ferrying us down river to a slow and grisly death, but a little faith goes a long way here and after a surprisingly tranquil ride we were deposited on the Mexican side of the river at the border crossing there. After satisfying Mexican immigration we hopped onto another bus and, after some tedious delays, arrived in the town of Palenque. We checked into a stark but vast room in Hostal San Miguel and then went straight out to find somewhere to eat. We ordered waaaay too much food at Las Tinajas and left feeling totally stuffed.
Day 100!!! Tuesday 30th Dec and we were up early again to go and see the Mayan ruins of Palenque. We had thought we might beat the crowds by getting there early but we were wrong. The site was already heaving by 8.15am. It was also very warm and humid so after checking out all the major temple complexes and getting plenty of photos we decided we were 'ruined out' and went back into town. We checked out of our room and went to wait for our bus to San Cristobal de las Casas. It was dark by the time we got to S-C-de-las-C so got a taxi to our first choice of hostel which was full, as we suspected it might be so close to New Year's Eve. We managed to get a dorm room at our 2nd choice and after changing into much warmer clothes (San Cristobal is chilly) we struck out in search of dinner. As we walked through town we ooooohed and aaaaahed over the gorgeous Santa Domingo church which was all lit up, showing off its amazing carved and painted frontage to glorious effect. Seriously good veggie grub to be had at Casa Del Pan if you ever find yourself passing.
New Year's Eve dawned and after dressing very hastily to avoid getting cold we went out in search of somewhere a bit plusher to stay that night as a treat to ourselves. We found a room at the very civilised and grown up Posada El Paraiso. We enjoyed a wander round San Cristobal, sampled the coffee (much stronger than other countries so far) and shopped like people possessed at the mazelike market. We recovered from all the activity with a couple of beers back at the Posada (which means something like 'inn') and started to get Happy New Year messages from people back home at about 5.30pm. That got us in the mood and we did a spot more shopping for special New Year's outfits. Bracey bought a quite marvellous cowboy shirt and I got myself a poncho. When in Rome...
We had dinner at the Posada (yummy 4 course affair) and then went for a couple of drinks at Bar Revolucion. We joined the crowds in the town square for the midnight countdown and watched fireworks being set off from a nearby hill. Large numbers of people had 3ft long sparklers, which was unnerving yet amusing. After the fireworks came the live pan pipes band and they played all the classic tunes we associate with Mexico. Next time you see us ask us to sing them to you. I guarantee you'll recognise at least 2 of them.
We felt surprisingly fresh when we woke on New Year's Day and went out for some breakfast, spotting the most gorgeous blue church on the way (check the album). Unfortunately I got a stinking migraine after breakfast and had to lie low in the hotel for most of the morning (not a hangover I promise). Once I had sufficiently recovered we hit up the artisans markets to buy gifts for the folks back home. We're definitely going to have to ditch some of our manky clothes to make room for all these pressies and souvenirs. We killed a bit of time in the afternoon, whilst waiting for our onward bus which we caught at 10.30pm that night. We had been freezing on the bus from Palenque so wrapped up super warm for this journey. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the bus this time was warm and comfortable (although it's still tricky trying to change an ileostomy bag in a teeny loo whilst the bus hurtles round hairpin bends at speed).
We arrived in Oaxaca bus station at 10am on 2nd Jan feeling less than fresh. We eventually managed to convey to the taxi driver where we wanted to stay and checked in to Hotel Lupita. Our room was 'en-suite', which turned to mean that they had bricked off one corner of the room and put a toilet and shower in it. Said loo and shower were so close together you almost had to sit on the loo to take a shower. The other down-side was the walls of the 'bathroom' didn't actually reach the ceiling so bathroom activity tended to pervade the whole bedroom. Mmmmm. We went and had breakfast on the Zocalo (town square) and enjoyed checking out the town in beautiful sunshine. We did some more shopping in amongst seeing the sights and as I still wasn't feeling right cracking after yesterday's migraine we went back to relax in our room for a while before dinner. We were disconcerted by the total lack of other customers in 'Flor de Loto', although the food was good, so no real complaints. Passed a lovely evening watching tv with beer and chocolate. Bliss.
After a euro-style breakfast on Sat 3rd (sorry, but eggs and tortillas are losing their appeal by now...) we went to look at the spectacular Santo Domingo church. The interior was almost completely covered in gold leaf, some of which was being restored to it's full shiny glory. Luverly. I hung around outside the church whilst James furtively went looking for interesting seed pods from the trees outside for my Mum who finds artistic inspiration in such things. Imagine if you will that our appetite for shopping was still not sated by this point and you'll be able to picture us prowling yet another craft market. Seriously - every country seems to present more and better retail opportunities. We sampled some mezcal that afternoon (Brace liked, I didn't, quelle surprise) and our bus tickets on to Puerto Escondido for the next day. We had a supreme feed at La Olla that night. Muy caro (that's - expensive, by Mexican standards anyway) but delicioso!
