It's a crazy world

Caye Caulker, Belize

twizz83 — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:03:00 GMT

Caribbean Style

After escaping Belize City on a water taxi, we arrived at the safe haven of Caye Caulker. Went to a Lonely Planet recommended hotel - Hotel Miramar- which was right on the beach. Room was nice and the island even nicer. All the buildings were wooden, lovely and rickety and on stilts. The internet was unbelievably expensive at 4 Bz for 18 mins (= 1 pound) We spent 7 nights here and so there would be a lot of long prose to deal with. So for ease we have split it into sections to make it easier to digest.

1. Swim Disaster

Caye Caulker was usually scorching hot and surrounded by beautiful azure sea. However, 99% of the shoreline was covered with hideous mangrove swamps (Charlie´s words - he also wanted to remove them so resorts had a nicer view.... tut tut), this made swimming difficult. We found one part of the island unaffected by biodiversity at the end where the island had been split in two in 1997 (not sure if this is correct but its an aesthetically pleasing number, so here it will stay). As we slipped into the cool water we realised there was quite a strong current and decided to swim back, but instead were washed over a sunken concrete beam covered in sharp barnacles (bastard barnacles). After a painful crossing we emerged from the water, Lisa bleeding from three places on one toe and Charlie had bloodrunning down his chest. Lisa´s fear of swimming with sharks the next day was not eased by the appearance of open wounds on her body! However both injuries turned out to be fairly superficial. Swimming off the beach was never attempted again!!

2. Diving (only by Lisa)

I decided that seen as Caye Caulker was right next to one of the most famous dive sites in the world I would have to indulge in a little underwater therapy. The Blue Hole is famous for its unique structure and the sharks that inhabit the Hole. After locating the only 2 dive schools on the island that own boats (there are about 15 non boat schools that use boat schools - I really don´t understand!). Anyway, I chose Frenchie´s. A bit reluctantly at first, for although it was the most professional, a name like Frenchie´s leads one to think its run by the French. Thankfully found out it is named after the French Angel Fish and the only French person on the trip was lovely. The Blue Hole was a 3 tank dive but only one dive was in the Blue Hole. We were the first boat there in the morning after an early meeting at 5:30am. The sharks stayed in the warmer shallows and we descended straight down to about 40m and swam through columns of stalagtites and stalagmites. Similar to an underwater cathedral. The sharks were Grey Reef Sharks and not scary at all, just amazing. Went to an island called Half Moon Caye for a wee surface interval. On here was an amazingly close colony of Frigate birds and Red Footed Boobies, which were not scared of humans at all. We were even treated to view their mating. Lovely!! On the other dives I saw eagle rays, turtles and the beautiful Nurse Sharks. Suddenly re-addicted to diving I went on a trip to Hol Chan (a 25 yr Marine Reserve), a night dive and a trip to the local reef. Met up with a group of people later on (this will e recorded in ´Quiet Night On The Town´) and went diving with them on some of the other dives. Only problem was leaving Charlie back on the island all the time - I believe he began the early stages of Cabin Fever. Soon He will be able to dive too. Hurrah.

3. Snorkel Trip

We went on a snorkel trip with a company called Raggamuffin Tours. This was Charlie´s first snorkelling experience. We had a lovely sail boat ride out to the location of our first stop. The trip soon began to fall into anarchy. Lisa got in and swam around, whilst Charlie was given a briefing. After Charlie jumped in with mask, snorkel and fins he tried to swim to join Lisa, who was watching a sleeping nurse shark. At this pont Charlie decides he does not like the feel of the fins on his feet or the feeling of snorkelling and Lisa has to carry all the equipment back to the boat. Oh Dear. We sailed to a second location and another attempt was made Charlie treid without fins. Success!!! Charlie now loves Snorkelling. The guide leads us on a tour pointing out various animals and manhandling Sharks and Stingrays (much to Lisa´s disgust and Charlie´s terror). When we swam back to the boat we realised that our snorkel group looked completely different. Turns out that we had become entangled in a different snorkelling group, much to our guide´s anger. We made it back to our group in the end and set sail for our third stop - Hol Chan Marine Reserve. We had lunch en route - Lisa´s ´vegetarian´ burger was just that - a burger bun with lettuce and a piece of processed cheese. Ha ha. The third stop began well, with us following our guide (at the back as usual) out to the coral reef. We saw loads of beautiful fish, rays and sharks. Just then Lisa spotted a most unusual fish, on closer inspection it turned out to be a child´s doll complete with pink and black striped dress. Alas, it was missing her head, legs and one arm. This caused much hysteria in the water causing both our masks to fill with water several times. Lisa then made the doll swim in a one arm front crawl style towards Charlie, with the same mask filling consequences. Meanwhile, our group and guide had swum quite a distance away, so we swam to catch up, facing a strong opposing current. When the guide realised we were some distance away he swam to us and assumed we were swimming poorly. He gave us swimming advice and tried to encourage us along, except as soon as we had made progress towards the group, one of us would think of the doll and laughter wouldoccur, setting the other one off. Mask fills, swimming stops and we drift back towards the reef. Guide getting angry again, so with salty mouths we compose ourselves for our return to boat. Made it back still giggling into our snorkels. ´Enjoyed´ the reggae cruise on the way home and observed the look of relief on the guide´s face as we left the boat.

4. The Fan Game

A new experience for both of us on our travels involves our ever increasing encounters with ceiling fans in our rooms. The aim of the game is to see how long various objects can survive before being destroyed by the rotating blades of the fan. Objects are thrown upwards from a standing postion beneath or besides the fan. The first contestants were some postcards (Mini and Fifi you will be receiving these contestants in the post, in varying states. Please do not blame the C.A. Postal Service, it was us (or at least the fan). The rescued doll also played and survived. A late entry contestant, the banana bread, suffered two fatal injuries, one from the fan blade and the second from the wall it splatted against. Even the adjudicators weren´t unscathed as rust fell from the decrepid fan into our hair and bed.

NB. It appears that some local inhabitants of Caye Caulker have now been playing this game with their own hair as contestants. Special mentions go to the ´Talking Umbrella Man´and Zeus, our delightfully arrogant raggamuffette (guide on the snorkelling trip).

5. Quiet Night On The Town

Met up with some friends, that Lisa had made on the dive trip, one evening. It started out nicely with a few drinks at a beach bar. Some people went home because they were getting bitten by mosquitos, whereas the remaining sensible people removed themselves to an indoor bar. First mistake of the evening. It was ladies night, so the girls bought the drinks for the group and received strange tokens. Charlie politely enquires to the square-headed american barmaid about them, only to be met with a reply of "There´s no need to be such an asshole about it!" and "if you don´t like it you can go somewhere else". So obviously we all laughed. Moved on to a nice cafe call Crippea (Caribbean) Cabin. We ordered rum and oranges for everyone and they arrived. However, the drink turned out to more closely resemble petrol and a lively discussion ensued. Charlie asked the waiter (who was no older than 10) to taste the toxic drink. Next the father of the child was summoned to explain what exactly was in the drinks. He pretended to take a sip and was met with calls of "DRINK IT!". When he did even he could not hide his disgust and agrees that we didn´t have to pay for the drinks. By this point there had been much stomping around and the cafe was exited quickly by all and never returned to again. This end of the island was now off limits to us. Ha ha!

Final Thought: Caye Caulker is a beautiful island, which was a delight to walk around barefoot on its white sand roads. However, all its inhabitants should be removed to make it a nice place for tourists. Jabberwoking by the locals in a language that was once english but now indecipherable at very very loud volumes and sometimes involving childer being pushed against rocking walls is not on. Removal or elecution are the only methods available.

Mark out of ten: 7.5

Books read:

The Happy Hooker - 10 out of 10

The Chocolate Cat Caper - 1 out of 10

Belize City

twizz83 — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:00:00 GMT

Belize City

Arrived late in Belize City and got a cab to an ATM since we had no Belizean currency. The first ATM rejected our cards - uh oh - but luckily the second one we tried worked OK. The hotel we had decided to stay at had been shut down so once again we relied on Lonely Planet's second choice called "The North Front Street Guest House". When we saw it we were reminded more of a seedy brothel than a hotel. Oh well. Taxi driver ripped us off again but we were too scared to argue because he was called Herman and had a fat neck. Were both tired so decided to just go to sleep. On closer inspection, our beds turned out to be ex army surplus cots that were collapsable and threatened to spring shut on us everytime we moved, like a venus fly trap.

After a somewhat disturbed, noisy, smelly and rickety night we rose early to find alternative accommodation in the City. This was also a mistake, since as soon as we stepped foot out of the door we were harrassed by everyone want to give us personal walking tours or taxis - bring back blissful lost in translation igonorance! This English speaking thing is not good, although Lisa appreciated the very young queen on all the currency. "The British Empire is not dead" she says. Crossed over the World's Only Swing Bridge (apparently) to escape everyone, only to be shooed back to the supposedly safe tourist side. Decided to visit the Tourist Village area, only to be accosted by Pasta Man's Negroid Ancestor (big yellow clown wig). Proceeded to list "10 great things Britain has done for the world" when he found out we were English, however we became restless when he had listed 16 things and still showed no signs of stopping. His one remaing yellow tooth also gave us cause for concern. As we attempted to leave he then asked us for money. On informaing him we had none on us, he directed us to an ATM! Can't blame a man for trying. Needless to say, this behaviour prompted us to leave Belize City immediately where we boarded the next water taxi leaving for a small island just off the coast called Caye Caulker.

Final Thoughts: Hideous.

Marks out of 10 = 0.

Next time... Caye Caulker.

Tulum

twizz83 — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 04:10:00 GMT

Tulum

Cabaña Fever

We arrived in Tulum on Wednesday 22nd November about 11am. From Tulum Town Centre we got a taxi (fixed price, thankfully) to the beach area which extended for about 9 miles and is covered in cabañas and resorts. We got dropped off at Lonely Planet´s recommended Don Armando´s, but name had changed and they were now triple the price quoted in LP!! Shocker! So we heaved our bags on and took a walk. We came across LP's second choice called El Mirador. This was a much more reasonable price of 10 pounds for a Cabaña. the man at reception was, in Lisa´s eyes, a Mafia suspect as he only had one arm and wore a fake. How Fabulous! The very bare cabaña consisted of a double bed, a greasy mosquito net, a rusty, wonky table and a repulsive chair. BUT its one incredibly redeeming feature was its location. Sited perfectly on the beach surrounded by palm trees but with a clear view of the Caribbean Sea, only 50m away. We could actually see the sea from our bed as the `walls` were simply wooden poles spaced chillingly apart. Not only did this let in the wind but also wildlife! We were visted by a few crabs and alerted to their dropping by when a sinister clatter was heard on the concrete floor. The cabañas are advertised as `ecologically friendly´, which meant there was no electricity. We went back into Tulum town to get supplies of food and candles, in order to survive in our hut. We went to bed excited about our first night in a cosy mosquito net reading Cynths. Unfortunately after 3 hours of uncontrolable shaking we both had had enough. We emptied our bags of all available clothing and material that might make us a little bit warmer. This meant that our sleeping bag liners no fitted as closely as a glove and there was no turning round in this hideous cocoon. Following this chilly night, a nice hot shower would have been perfect. Unfortunately these too are ´ecofriendly´. Not only were the local iguana population in residence but there was only cold water and this only came out when permanently clutching a chain! We resolved this by sharing a shower and assisting with chain holding and looking away! A good arrangement but there were a fair few strange lookslooks as we left at the same time.

The sea was lovely and warm and we spent all our time sunbathing, snacking and swimming. On one swimming expedition we had left our cabaña key wrapped up in Lisa´s sarong underneath a stone. We kept an eye on it and noticed a small kulak boy examining the wrapped up key. Lisa exited the water immediately, shouting "Disculpe, es mio!". The child looked scared and ran away. Maybe he had been reading Greek mythology and worried that the Gorgon was loose again! Another hideous incident occurred when there were big rolling waves in the sea and we tried to body surf. On one occasion this was very successful for Lisa, who also lost her bikini top in the carnage! Thankfully it was a topless beach!

Feeling a money squeeze we opted to only eat 1 meal a day. So at the restaurant we ordered the cheapest option consecutively for 2 nights. This was rice and beans with plenty of tortillas, it filled us up wonderfully.

We had to wait 3 hours to checkout as Mafia Woman didn´t turn up. When she did, the transaction was executed without salutation or smile! We were proud of the Mafia Madam. In Tulum town we discovered a paper with a Mafia headline, so maybe she had difficult ´business´ before work.

Ironically the only nice food we found in Mexico was an Italian Deli in Tulum run by an English woman and her Italian lover! The cheese and tomato sandwich was just magnificent.

Final Thoughts: Top marks for location, scenery and sunny weather but loses marks on excessive ventilation of cabañas. Mafia ownership is also a plus but no cheap food to be found. Lisa awards points for the freedom to go topless (and avoid hideous tan lines), Charlie removes points for this aspect. Both reward points for getting scorched and going brown.

Marks out of 10: 7

Next Time.......................Belize City.

Cancun

twizz83 — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 08:53:00 GMT

Chasing Ann

Arrived at Cancún in the morning following a bus journey with Ann and Ann’s friend and tried to find our hostel on foot. This was a bad idea. Spent ages wandering round in circles on Xel-Ha road, which we could never seem to get off! Eventually found it after finally resorting to a taxi. We were shown to our room – meant to be a private room with shared bathroom, turned out to be a HUGE private room (two double beds and a queen size) with a private bathroom – all for 2.50 each per night! However the cleanliness of the room was questionable and neither of us showered in the bathroom while we stayed there, since we suspected we would end up feeling even dirtier after using the shower (which had no hot water!).

Jumped on a bus and visited Cancun island where all the huge hotels and resorts are. Eventually found a beach by marching through a posh hotel lobby, only to be met by hurricane style winds when we got there! Lisa was worried that it would be like a Spanish resort, complete with permanent sun parasols and loungers. Charlie said it wouldn’t be anything like that. It was worse! English were replaced with Americans. Area is very touristy and commercial – sun lounger tried to escape by scaling halfway up a wall in the wind and nearly hitting us ha ha. Went to Senor Frogs – hideous eatery – as we needed a cerveza to numb our pain – and placed our order. Charlie decided that a large one would be nice, and instead of the expected bottles, 2-pint steins arrived ha ha! Everyone looked shocked at the two English people with the huge beers. The waiters liked to chat and make stupid jokes so we told one with poor English that we were on our honeymoon. He made rude gestures then disappeared! Oh dear. 5 minutes later the whole team of waiters turned up blowing whistles and sang us a song about a honeymoon (to the tune of happy birthday) and then made us blow out a tissue that they set on fire and gave us free shots. Not too bad. Worse was to come. They tried to smear Lisa with cream unsuccessfully, then got Charlie instead. Lisa refused to lick the cream off. Waiters looked disappointed. We escaped shortly afterwards. Returned to Cancun town on the bus. Polite bus driver announces a destination on route “this is casa maya” he said. American woman screamed in his face “IS! THIS! CASA! MAYA!”. Cue sniggering. Returned to hostel, went to local park at night and found cheap snacks.

The next day we decided to escape Cancun and went to nearby Isla Mujeres, a 30 minute boat trip away. Island more commercialised than we expected. Decided to walk to opposite end of island to see a turtle farm. Everyone else hired scooters and golf buggies. Taxi drivers shocked that we were attempting to walk anywhere at all! Lazy. Also saw a pirate’s house and a mini zoo – animals did not look happy. On another walk, who should pass us by but Ann and Ann’s friend. Charlie waved but they looked confused. Got a taxi back into the town centre of the island – by this point we had walked about 10 miles in flip flops. During the day, we managed to observe 3 falling people, much to our hilarity:

1) Workman stood on steel pipe and rolled to the floor.

2) Woman slowed to a dangerous speed on a pedal bike and promptly fell off.

3) Obnoxious American woman in 7-Eleven store who was very patronising to the cashier was reprimanded by fate when she slipped on the highly polished floor right in front of us, banging first her knee and then smacking her head into the part-open door.

Met Ann and Ann’s friend while we were waiting for our return boat. Much to our glee they were getting the same one as us. Ann is stout, harsh and dumpy, while Ann’s friend is tall and gangly and boyish. Ann’s friend is bullied by Ann, who steals all of her food.

Return to hostel. Went to a shop for a coffee and tried to hide our sunburnt faces in vain as people commented “ROJO” = RED! Beacon faces blush even more. Looking forward to leaving the next day!

Final Thoughts: Cancun is hideous. Overdeveloped, overpriced and overfed. Too many tourists – American and English! We don’t like it here very much. We want slums. Only gains points due to tourist instability and fondness for the floor.

Mark out of 10 = 2.

Next time … Tulum.

Valladolid

twizz83 — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 08:47:00 GMT

My Name is Wendy!

Arrived in Valladolid at around 8:30am, having changed buses in Merida with a short 1 hour wait from 5:30am to 6:30am and found a little restaurant so that we could orientate ourselves and eat some more snacks. Got some weird directions from asking a man in the restaurant and he spieled out a load of numbers (in spanish), which we ignored and just followed an arm direction. Then nodded and said "Si!". Needless to say we got a wee bit lost and a helpful local on a bike could tell we were looking for the hostel (The cheek of it, we look like Hilton frequenters!). Anyway we followed his directions and ignored the insult!

Albergue Del Candelaria was set next to a small park (with less grass and more concrete). We went into a dorm as they had no private rooms. It was nice and quite cheap at 80 pesos each (= 4 pounds). Next night we moved into a small double room with a teeny tiny balcony, for 50p extra a night! Perfect for quiet Cynths readings and our still early nights and even earlier mornings.

On our first day we washed our clothes in a hideous outside sink and bucket but on the plus the washing soap was free! Hung them out to dry on clothes lines that were in the shade, so they didn't dry and some were stuck with that ever present smell of damp. Now decided to support local economy and get other people to do our washing for us. In the evening we watched a local dance show on a stage in the park next to the hostel. It is amazing how a group of supposedly choreographed people can dance to completely different tempos to the music being played. Cue sniggering (with angry glares from proud parents).

<p>The next day we went to a Cenote, a cave. It was advertised as having a lovely pool to swim in. Great we thought. So we hired bikes and rode dangerously through the busy streets. Charlie's bike was rickety, squeeked and the seat was a mile high! Eventually we came across a cycle path which went all the way to the cave. We soon got brave and tackled the downhills like pros, but not quite like pros on the uphills. The cenote was a huge disappointment as it was dark, cold and full of people and black fish. Some hose cerdos got in to have a swim, so we couldn't let them beat us even if they had more insulation! We braved the water after conforting ourselves with homemade snacks. What we thought were floating leaves looked suspiciously like poo and then we noticed a huge colony of bats squeeking above our heads. Oh dear more rabies scares. Lisa combated the poo so that charlie could have a clean swim. We arrived above ground to dry off in the sun but were harrassed by a small child who repeated the only phrases she knew in english, "You promisooo, maybe later we come back, My Name Is Wendy. 10 dollar." She was wanting us to buy a picture of the cenote on a postcard but was hideously expensive at 50p so we repeated the word no at her until she went away and found more grigos to attack! Cycled home tired out and with very saddle sore bums!

Next day we awoke early to go to Chichen Itza, a famous Mayan ruin. This required us to get a second class bus (ha ha). We sat in the two front seats and were lucky to arrive alive as the suspension was a little loose and we bounced up and down, up and down in sickening swells for 45 minutes. Were promised a WOW factor by Lonely Planet but it takes more than one fairly nice building to impress us! We were not allowed to climb any of them, half were rubble pits and only one inspired us. It was a flat platform with skulls carved in four levels all the way around it. Marjacide!!!!! ha ha. It was used for the displaying of heads and sacrifices, so we ate lunch and sunbathed by it. Strange how uses have changed so dramatically. Too many guides ruining the peace with clapping and shouting, apparently demonstrating the acoustics of the ball court but really just getting on everyones nerves (Lisa wrote tits but this was modified by Charlie). One guide told us that "Seeing Chichen Itza without a guide is like watching a film without sound". We later found that a film without sound is good, especially one dubbed in Spanish. No guides for us. Walked around to find drinks in Piste and then got the bus back to Valladolid for our last night. We took a few photos and then got followed by a troop of dogs all the way back to the hostel. Spying us on our balcony, the little one managed to squeeze through a gap in the door and sniff around looking for us, much to our horror. Fortunately, the dogs weren't very loyal and followed a horse-faced woman with a billowy pea-green maxi skirt out of the hostel. We spyed an ANN look-a-like taking pictures on the pavement right in our way. We shall return to this woman in a later episode.

On the morning of our leaving we tried to get back the 100 pesos each of us had paid for the keys. A simple enough exchange one would think but made a whole lot more complex with a language barrier. Eventually with 2 mins to spare before we had to run for the bus, Spanglish saved the day and the confusion was rectified. Hurrah!

Final Thoughts: Valladolid is a nice town with an interesting notion of dancing. Nice clean hostel with cute garden, with hammocks, lizards and an outside kitchen. Shame about the ruins, they were far too popular and were not a patch on Palenque. We hate people.

Mark Out Of 10: 6

Next time..... the one you have all been waiting for..... CANCUN

Palenque, Mexico

twizz83 — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:14:00 GMT

Rakshita´s Revenge

We arrived in Palenque on the overnight bus from Mexico City at 8.30 am and, after a cup of coffee that tasted coffee-free (yes that´s coffee not caffeine), caught a ´collectivo´ (a small rickety minibus with doors that didn´t close) that took us to a small jungle area with accommodation about 4.5km out of town called El Panchan. So hot and humid and no breeze. We had read about a place called Rakshita´s – accommodation with an adjoining vegetarian restaurant. Found Rakshita´s ok and booked in but then realized restaurant was closed. Our accommodation consisted of a rickety building, and our room was on the 1st floor, accessed only by an outdoor slippery wooden staircase with no hand rail. No air con in the room so everything was sticky from the humidity, even the bed sheets! We have the place to ourselves – above us is an area for hammocks but it is deserted, and underneath us is the staff quarters. Since the vege restaurant is closed, we eat out at Don Muchos – reached from Rakshita´s by crossing a wooden bridge. Very picturesque, especially when all lit up at night. Not so nice, however, was the appearance of a huge black spider on one of the outside toilets – scary!

The next day we visited the nearby Palenque Ruins and were able to climb up all of them. Baking hot day, the sweat was dripping off us in bucketfuls! No breeze either and really humid. Nonetheless, we tackled the long steps to each and every temple. Realised halfway through the day that our decision to skip breakfast, combined with the weather conditions and losing salts and water on every step led to dizziness but we blamed the altitude of the steps and blondeness! Lisa got most excited by 18th Century Spanish graffiti not the much older mayan stuff! On the exit path we saw some really pretty waterfalls with smooth rocks. Charlie annoyed photographers by jumping up and down on the rickety wooden bridge.

Collectivos became too expensive (at 50p) so we walked the 4.5km to Palenque from El Panchan and walked back, was dark for the latter part. Always adding that little bit of danger!

Skin needed much nourishing after a day like this so Lisa opened her brand new pot of organic JASON Moisturiser. Nicely moisturized she put it away then decided to have a little bit more and the whole pot slipped out of her greasy paws and the next thing we knew globules of goo were falling from the ceiling. The pot had ricocheted off the floor spreading half the contents all around the room. After cleaning the floor a glob remained on the ceiling and threatened to descend in stalactite formation! Of course this was followed by the days first sniggering fit. We had just worried about not sniggering that day, thankfully we had our medicine!

We had read how Palenque was the wettest region in Mexico. The only rain we had felt dripped off our noses in sweat. We were treated to a demonstration of just how wet it can get as a huge tropical storm blew over us that night. We awoke to massive flashes of lightning and deafening thunder. Lisa thought that Raks***a´s was collapsing (not too unbelievable!) but it turned out to be Charlie turning over in bed. The next morning we stared out the window at the once pretty clear streams which had swollen into filthy brown rivers.

On leaving El Panchan to go to Palenque bus station we were quoted a price for a taxi at 40 pesos. So we said yes, as it was raining and we had heavy bags. They asked for a 50 peso deposit, smelling a scam but having no way out we handed it over. The taxi driver arrived and collected the money from Don Muchos. We re-confirmed that the price was 40 and climbed in. On arrival we asked for our ten, but were told that it was to cover the cost of the phone call when Don Muchos called him for us. Having no other way to get the 10 back we accepted defeat and angrily waited for the ADO bus to Merida.

Final Thought: El Panchan is a beautiful setting, although far too humid to spend any length of time at considering it had no pool. Rakshita´s, although a nice idea, will soon collapse. Lonely planet travel guides are obviously written by people with no standards. Nice ruins and fabulous to climb all over. However, greedy taxi driver marred our last night. So it loses marks here.

Mark out of 10 = 5.5

Next time… Valladolid.

Mexico City

twizz83 — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:05:00 GMT

Metro Mayhem

Hola from Mexico! We both arrived safely after a very long flight (11 hours) into Mexico City at 7pm local time (1am our time!). Got picked up at the airport by someone working for Hostel Amigo (where we were staying). Gratefully arrived at the hostel alive after some dubious driving! Crashed out as soon as we arrived in our 10 bed dorm, which we managed to get the last 2 beds. After just one night we decided to exclude other travellers from our company, and with some arranging of travel towels and blankets, turned our adjoining bunks into a secret den. Spent the next few days trawling the local markets and sampling the fayre of some street food stalls. Much to Lisa's disgust a simple order of tortillas and beans arrived covered in chicken! Other than this, all the food we had was great, and more importantly, cheap!

One of our outings led us through the slum suburbs of Mexico City. What was meant to be a 2 minute walk to the nearest metro station turned into a 2 mile trek, with us ending up at a metro station six stops south of where we were meant to be! All the stations are a long way apart! Eventually managed to buy a ticket (10p!) and found the right platform. Charlie boarded the busy train successfully, and turned round to face Lisa, only to see her peering through the door with her bag full of snacks sandwiched between the closed doors. After much frantic tugging from both sides, both parties gave up and waved each other off, with the bag of snacks travelling to the next station half inside and half outside the carriage. After Lisa had recovered from being squashed in the doors, and realising that they don't open automatically if something is caught in them, she was able to join Charlie at the next stop and disaster was averted. Both parties were crippled with sniggering fits thoughout the rest of the day at recollection of this event.

Many oddities exist in Mexico City, many eliciting the response of "WHAT'S THAT!?". Such shockers include the use of large green pan pipes as window bars in the local police station, which gained us the unwanted attention of 20 armed guards. Oops. Lisa also gained a breast injury when Charlie shouted "WHAT'S THAT!?" at a bizarre three wheeled rickety cart, causing Lisa to fail to pay attention to the road and walk straight into someone.

Final Thought: Mexico City is an overpopulated and polluted metropolis, overrun with so called ruins that more closely resemble old pits. Lack of red wine caused our premature departure (only 3 bottles to choose from in an entire off-licence!) so we had no choice but to leave. Hostel Amigo = Hostel Enemy. The only redeeming feature was the cheap Mexican food and it's ability to provide many moments of sniggering fun for us.

Marks out of 10 = 3.

Adios!

Next time... Palenque.