We found our self in Mexico (and on this Central American leg of our travels if we are honest) because I wanted to learn more about the Mayan civilisation. Inconveniently for me, the Mayans were similar to the Incas in that we don’t actually know a great deal about them and most of what we do know is guesswork based on the ruins they left behind. These are based in the Yucatan peninsular region of the country.
I can’t speak for Mexico as a whole, however, all through the Yucatan the people we encountered were nice. Unusually so. You really notice. Even in Cancun which is an appalling place. After a few days there getting our plans sorted we headed for the town of Merida. Another country, another new culture and Merida is as good a place as any to get a realistic dose of the way of life of the region.
The town was pretty with nice squares – they have all day festivals on Saturdays and Sundays with street music and dancing. A good atmosphere to be amongst. The food though, sorry Mexico, is not good. You can forget Mexican food from home because the authentic stuff is dripping in fat, stodgy and accompanied with questionable cuts of meat. Where the food fails, however, the ruins pass the test. From Merida we visited Uxmal which had Pyramids and tombs and ball courts and loads of other curious features.
Back in Merida, we tested our Spanish when attempting to get a replacement phone for the one we had left on a bus... It was a comedy hour but we got a result despite our vocab shortcomings – you try saying SIM card and pay-as-you-go in Spanish. From Merida we made our way to Tulum with a stop off at some more ruins, this time at one of the newly appointed 7 wonders of the modern world: Chichen Itza.
It was busy but impressive and despite the formidable pyramid taking centre stage the highlight for me was always going to be something a bit random and, in Chichen Itza’s case, it was the platform of skulls. Around this stone platform were carvings of hundreds if not thousands of skulls. The platform itself was used for displaying the decapitated heads of enemies and sacrificed prisoners. According to the placard the platform “reflected the obvious intention of frightening neighbours and potentially rebellious subjects”. This is the sort of thing I came to Mexico to see.
Tulum is a traditional backpacker stop. There are more ruins but this time perched on the cliff edge next to white sand beaches and the turquoise Caribbean sea. In our case overshadowed by grey clouds and occasional rain. On top of this the hostel was rubbish. Chloe took particular offense the standard of the hosts jokes. Anyone who knows Sam Moore will appreciate her frustration. I think they had bed bugs too – Chloe’s face was swollen for the whole time we stayed there. On a positive note we met a German called Ralph on the last day of his travels who insisted on treating the swollen Chloe and I to a meal. Every cloud...
