Wow. What an amazing few days. When I left you last, I was about to explore San Cristobal de las Casas. It was really a beautiful little town, albeit with temperamental weather. One minute it is sunny, shiny and sweaty hot, the next minute raining and almost cold.
We didn’t do a whole lot in San Cristobal – I did a bit of work and Snuffmeister watched a fair bit of TV whilst his digestive system adapted to the Mexican way of life. We walked around the city for an hour or so, just taking in the beautiful buildings and the ever increasing number of tourists. The closer to Cancun we get, the more tourists there are. I guess that isn’t surprising, but I’ve gone from struggling to communicate with people, to almost everybody speaking English. Consequently my Spanish is at a stand still.
Unfortunately because yet again it’s been a little while since I posted, I can’t remember much from San Cristobal. Granted we didn’t do much, but all I really remember was that it was quite pretty. Sorry readers/my future walk down memory lane.
The next day we took the windiest god damn bus to Palenque. FIVE freaking hours of non-stop windiness. I’m sure at least some of my family members can sympathise with me here. Think of Falls Creek trip lasting an hour, going faster than Dad drives at the BACK of a freaking bus. Mel mel was not feeling the best. Even Snuffy didn’t like it.
When we got to Palenque we took a cab out to El Panchan, a funky traveller’s hangout 2km from the ruins of Palenque and about 5km out of Palenque town. It consists of about 5 or so accommodations a couple of restaurants and a few vendors scattered around the place. Ooh, and dogs. Lots of dogs. We were a little frightened, well, I was a little frightened, because the girl had booked the wrong place which Lonely Planet had said ‘at least they’re waterproof’. I had a great sense of foreboding, I tell you. But, as it turns out, it was quite good. The cabins we stayed in were basic, but completely doable (and as it turns out, not waterproof, but it was all right), but the surroundings were gorgeous. We were essentially smack bang in the middle of a jungle. We had certainly hit tropical, that’s for sure. We were sweating our guts out. Nights were sticky and reasonably uncomfortable, though it did cool down by the early hours of the morning enough to warrant a cuddle. But…the surroundings were beautiful. I almost felt like I was back in Malaysia.
We had dinner at the funky little restaurant Don Mucho’s, an Italian-Mexican restaurant, which was nice and served me a Banana colada. Talk about Yum. Banana and coconut, who woulda thunkit?? They add cinnamon to all their coladas too, which is surprisingly nice.
The next day we went to the ruins, which deserve a post of their own….
San Cristobal de las Casas photos
