Chichen Itza and Cenote Blue Balls - Jan 19
On Tuesday the troop (Leif, Jan, Tom, and I) went to Chichen Itza. The bus ride took just over an hour which I foolishly tried to use for sleep. Instead of feeling refreshed, I felt startled and tired. Lesson learned. Since we paid for a full tour, with the possibility of seeing a cenote on the way back, we quickly began walking around with our guide, Santiago. If I had to put it in terms of numbers, I would say Chichen Itza is about 131 times better than Tulum. In a side-by-side comparison, I think I would have realized that Tulum kind of sucks. Not that you shouldn’t go, just that if you have to choose don’t go to the Tulum ruins. The only downside to Chichen Itza is that you’re not allowed to climb anything. Big bummer if you ask me. I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t, here’s a picture of the big guy.
On the way back, the new tour guide asked the tour group if we wanted to see a cenote. Our troop was in thorough agreement, however, the more experienced individuals in the group used their veto. That’s another potential cenote visit that we’ve been denied. Poor Jan, he hadn’t yet seen even one. Soon though. Once we got back to the hostel I convinced Claudia to go out with us on our last night in town and to try and get Chico and Riqui to come as well. We spent our down time at the hostel just relaxing and chatting, as we do. 9:30pm came around and so did Chico and Claudia. We quickly headed out to a German bar that they recommended and had a blast of a time drinking and talking. At one point the whole table helped me realize what a jerk I am and how I would never be a real Mexican. Oh well, I knew these things already. Claudia and Chico, on the other hand, you’re more than welcome to become Canadians as far as I can tell. We left the bar and walked around town, what a great night with great people. Thanks again, Claudia and Chico. We’ll miss you!
Some Cenote Relief and a Bus - Jan 20
With a full day ahead of us before we took our night bus at 10pm, the troop and Eugene, the Kiwi I’m sure I told you about earlier, headed out on our cenote tour. The tour consisted of a bus ride, motorcycle taxi, horse drawn carriage on train tracks, another motorcycle taxi, and another horse drawn carriage on train tracks. It was a weird travel day indeed. The first cenote we stopped at had the smallest entrance, barely big enough for me and my backpack. It’s completely underground and there is next to no visibility. I’ve since decided to carry my headlamp in my day bag like Jan, smarty pants.
The second cenote was much bigger, more open, and just cooler in general. Unfortunately for you, the lighting in this cenote wasn’t perfect and my flash is not strong enough to get the job done so there is no photo of this one. Just know that you can dive off the platform at the bottom of the ladder and there is also rock climbing to be had, finally. Fun fact, apparently people take bathroom breaks right there on the platform at the bottom of the ladder in this cenote. I found this out later after realizing that I had left my shirt in a small puddle. Even later I realized that my backpack had been sitting in the same puddle. Suffice it to say that I’m having a tough time getting the new scent off my backpack, the shirt is fine. Here are a few photos of people coming out of the cenote. In order, Eugene, Leif, and Jan.
The third cenote had the best lighting and the deepest water. Below is a photo of the troop, minus Jan, just before we all dove into the water simultaneously. As with the other cenotes, we got about 30 minutes to enjoy everything and head back to our horse and carriage.
After getting back into town, we found our ADO station, and bought our tickets for the 8 hour night bus to Palenque. We got some dinner with Eugene and walked around a bit, checked out, said goodbye to Eugene, who was not coming along, and got on the bus.
Night Rides and Climbable Old Things - Jan 21
The night bus was a bit less than favourable. I don’t think any of us were able to get much real sleep but we eventually made it to Palenque at 6am. We stumbled to our hostel which has a ridiculous check-in time of 2pm. So, to make the best of the situation we locked our bags up and headed out to the ruins. Mountains! Finally a little taste of home, this city has mountains. It was kind of comforting to see these things, but more so than you would expect. Anyway, the ruins are cool, you get to climb and walk pretty much everywhere that isn’t clearly dangerous. I would also rate these ruins above Tulum’s but I’m not sure about Chichen Itza. Too close to call I think.
During this visit we got a bit split up, spending a little more time looking for each other than I think any of us wanted to. We didn’t manage to find Tom so we headed for the hostel. Luckily he was sitting in the common area. We then got way too much lunch at this restaurant up the street. Since we still had time after lunch, we all found a place to relax until check-in. Once checked-in everyone but Tom took a lengthy and much needed nap. We then grabbed some food, beer, and necessities from the super market and relaxed in the common area where we met some people from England and Canada.
Since Leif, Jan, and I want to get to Baja California to meet our friends Mackenzie and Jass sooner rather than later we will be taking another night bus to Oaxaca City, Oaxaca starting at 5:30pm. This is going to be the longest bus, weighing in at 16 hours. Pray for me, readers, pray for me.