25 September 2013

Week 52 - Gyeongju, Busan, Haeinsa (South Korea)

We left our hostel in Seoul and caught the tube across town to the Express Bus Terminal where we caught the 9:18am bus to Gyeongju. The traffic was horrendous, it’s a holiday week in South Korea for Chuseok (Thanksgiving). Instead of taking 4.5 hours it took 8 hours and we were only that quick because there are bus lanes on the motorways. Still, we arrived in Gyeongju before dark and walked to the hostel we’d booked in the centre of town. We ate instant noodles for dinner and spent the evening drinking with the other backpackers on the roof of the hostel.

The next morning we had a slow start, enjoying the common area and the free breakfast before heading out to the bus stop for the short trip out of town to Bulguk-Sa. The temple, considered the crowing glory of Shilla architecture, was pretty similar to those we’d seen in Seoul but was set in a beautiful pine valley and was still in use with the smell of incense and the lotus lampshades and golden buddha statues filling every corner. Back in the carpark we caught another bus along the winding mountain road to the Seokguram Grotto. At the entrance I had a go at tolling one of the giant bells before we walked the last kilometre through the pine forest looking out for chipmunks, to the grotto. Although crazy busy because of the national holiday, it was still very impressive and more than a little magical. A huge 8th century granite buddha statue sitting inside a cave in the mountain side, surrounded by carvings of other deities and guardians. On a clear day the buddha looks out to the east sea and so is considered the protector of the country. We followed the hiking path back down to Bulguk-Sa, spotting a snake on the way, to catch a bus back into town. That evening wee popped out for food at a little Korean place and sat on cushions on the floor sharing a bowl of sizzling spicey pork ribs.

We had one more day in Gyeongju and after another relaxed start, headed out to move hostels (ours was full that night) and hire bikes to explore the town. The capital of the Shilla dynasty, Gyeongju is known as ‘the museum without walls’ and is littered with temples, tombs, pagodas and rock carvings. Our first stop was at the Tumuli Park in the centre of town. Tumuli are big grass burial mounds, the tombs of Shilla kings and nobility - a bit like the Egyptian pyramids of the temples of Tikal. Although there are lots spread throughout the town, the Park holds 23 and was worth a visit with its pockets of pine trees nestled between the grassy hillocks and peaceful music piped out over the whole park. Next we rode through the wildflower meadow and through fields of lily pads to the Wolseong Park to see the oldest astrological observatory in the Far East which was quite small and unimpressive to look at. We carried on through the parkland of the Banwolseong fortress with it’s ice storage building to the Anapji Pond. Although still pretty I bet the pleasure garden is far more attractive when all the lily’s in the ponds are in bloom. We took a slow ride back to the hostel and had a couple of hours to chill before heading back out to explore the centre of town with all it’s hundreds of shops. We stopped at a little tea shop for orange and lemon tea and incredible cookies before heading back to the hostel again. Just before 7pm we took the bikes back and stopped at another little Korean restaurant for a cheap meal before bed.

We weren’t in any hurry to leave Gyeongju the next day since our next stop, Busan was only an hour away. We had arrived at out hostel by 1pm but couldn’t check in until 3pm so popped out for lunch then sat in the common area playing pool. There was only one thing I really wanted to do in Busan and that was check out Spaland. It was amazing, apparently the largest public bath in Asia set over three floors in the world’s largest department store. Admittedly the naked bath part was a bit weird at the start (imagine a room with 6 or 7 different pools of varying heat, some with jacuzzi jets, surrounded by little tables with mirrors and showers, all experienced totally in the buff) but the 13 different, themed jjimjilbang rooms you went in in your issued PJ’s were great fun. There were rooms for everything, a room where the music vibrated through the floor, one that emitted infra-red, an ice room with fake jellyfish in a tank, then there was the outdoor foot baths and the relaxation room where you could sit in your own little pod and watch TV. I think Rhys’s favourite were the massage chairs for 20 minutes of torture. After the Spa we stopped by the humongous food court to grab a quick lunch and headed home. Strangely the bar at our hostel wasn’t serving beer on a Saturday night so we ended up watching football at ours until midnight (got to love the time diffrence) before bed.

The next day we walked to Igidae Park and spent a couple of hours following the coastal trail winding around the cliffs with little suspension bridges and views back across the city. Back on the tube and we headed to the Jagalchi fish market. We’d never seen anything like it and couldn’t even identify half of the sea creatures on sale, I mean, how many people have even heard of a ‘Sea Squirt’ nevermind know what one looks like?! We walked around for a while pointing at the squid and octopus and the giant fish on offer before choosing a little restaurant for a freshly caught and cooked fish banquet. For dinner that night we braved it in a restaurant without a picture menu and ended up with enough chicken take out to last for lunch the next day.

We woke early and caught a tube across town to the KTX terminal where we caught a fast train to Daegu. Rhys was very excited to go on a bullet train. We didn’t stay in Daegu long, just tubed across town to a bus terminal and caught a bus out to the Haeinsa Temple. The temple is one of Korea’s most significant temples and holds the Tripitaka Koreana, a series of 81,258 woodblock scriptures, over 1,000 years old and one of the largest Buddhist libraries in the world and one of the most important. 

From where the bus dropped us off it was a steep 1.2km hike, with our 20kg bags to the temple but it was worth it. The UNESCO temple is located in a pine tree valley tucked in amongst the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen since being in South Korea. We were shown to our dorms (separate male and female rooms with traditional ondol (underfloor) heating) where we chose a spot and laid out out sleeping mats. We just had time for a quick explore and a walk across the valley to the Weondangam temple with stunning views and the most intricately painted woodwork with golden highlights before dinner time. At 6:10pm, after the temple had closed to the public, it was time for the evening ceremony. It started with four monks taking it in turn to play four instruments, a dharma drum, (a huge hanging drum), a wooden fish, a cloud shaped gong and a large brahma bell, while we made our way to the main temple. We took cushions and lined up at the back of the building and before long the chanting and prostrating (full bows) started. Our Korean obviously isn’t good enough to join in with the chanting but we were prostrating along with the monks like no tomorrow, it was all very enchanting. After the ceremony we had a couple of hours before bed, I was a bit ill and turned in for the night while Rhys walked around for a while.

My alarm went off at 3am the next day in time for the ceremony at 3:17am. We dressed and took up our places, feeling a little less like intruders since we knew what to expect and what to do. After the ceremony we headed back to bed for a couple of hours before breakfast at 6:10am. Rhys headed back to bed and I wandered about for an hour admiring the beautiful buildings before I woke him up and we headed out to walk up the steep path to Baekryeonam. The little hermitage we found at the top was very tranquil and well maintained. Back at our dorms we packed up and walked back the 1.2km to the bus stop to head back into Daegu and on to Samcheok. The templestay was a really great experience even for non-Buddhists like us. Although we opted for the freestyle option - without the meditation lessons and lotus flower making and tea with a monk, we did get a taste of what it all entails and I have to say it seems like a rather nice religion, we got quite in to the bowing to Buddha and the monks as you saw them around the temple and all the other little rules. The only shame was they didn’t issue us with PJ’s.
Anapji Pond, Gyeongju.
Tumuli Park, Gyeongju.
Rhys cycling through the vegetable tunnel, Gyeongju.
View from Igidae Park, Busan.
Jagalchi fish market, Busan.
View from the main temple, Haeinsa.
The dharma drum call to prayer, Haeinsa.

18 September 2013

Week 51 - Los Angeles, Seoul (USA, South Korea)

On our second day in LA we drove to Paramount Studios where we’d booked on to the 10am tour. After we’d cleared security we were given head sets and taken to our golf buggy. It was a really good and intimate tour, it lasted 2 hours and involved driving around the plot (the only working studio left in Hollywood) stopping to hear about the history and to see inside a sound studio where they film ‘Doctors’ and to peer at the fake New York street where they film to save money on traveling all the way there. Our guide pointed out things like the medical building that’s used as a beach hut in Top Gun and told us little trade secrets like how they wrap palm trees in paper so you could think you were in Denver and spray crushed cornflakes white to look like snow or how they make sounds like someones nose being broken by snapping a celery stick wrapped in a towel or loud explosions that are actually sound clips of lots of large animals like elephants and lions all played on top of each other. Although we didn’t spot any celebrities we had a great time. After the tour we headed to the Hollywood Forever cemetery for our picnic lunch (we didn’t stay long and only saw the grave of one of the Ramones) before moving Peanut further along Melrose Avenue to spend an hour wandering around the busiest area of the street full of vintage clothes shops and tattoo parlours. That night we decided to eat in again but popped out to a Bourbon bar first for a drink and to soak up the Hollywood atmosphere. 


As our first day in LA had been beaches and the second in the city, we decided to spend the third in the mountains and drove up to the observatory in Griffiths Park. Although you couldn’t go in the building, the views were stupendous. The walk to the sign was too far for us in the heat (we didn’t see a cloud the whole time we were in LA) so instead we settled with a hike to the top of Mount Hollywood and a walk to a corner closer to the sign. The park is so arid compared to the palm tree lined streets of the city below and it was sweltering. Once back at the car park we took Peanut for a trip along Mulholland Drive, a road that winds up through the Santa Monica mountains ending somewhere near the Getty Centre. After parking at the Getty we took the tram to the centre at the top of the hill. Again, the views were incredible and after a short stop by the Impressionist wing and the sculpture garden we spent the rest of our time walking in the gardens and enjoying the panoramas and the architecture of the building itself. We left the Getty in time to beat the traffic back into Hollywood. We had decided to eat in again that night since we had the alarm set for 3:30am the following morning for our drive to the airport.

We left our house in the dark and headed off for the hour drive to the John Wayne Airport in Orange County. After fun and games trying to work out how to use the petrol station we dropped off Peanut and made it to the airport with enough time that we got shunted to an earlier flight to give us more time to make our connection in San Francisco. The first flight was painless and we made our way to the International terminal where we cleared immigration for our second flight to Seoul, South Korea. 

We arrived in Incheon, South Korea and made our way through customs to find the airport bus stop. Everything is a lot harder than in Latin America, at least I knew enough Spanish there to get by and could pronounce words, here we just have no idea and it’s taken a couple of days just to remember how to say thank you. With a little help from the guy sitting next to Rhys we got off the bus at the right stop and followed our directions to the hostel. We checked in and after showers and phone calls home it was 8:30pm, we’d been awake for 24 hours and decided to turn in for the night. 

We both had jetlag and were up stupidly early, it was the morning of our first wedding anniversary. We stayed in our room until breakfast then headed out to see some of the city. The Seoul metro is so easy to use (even if the hundreds of exits are a bit confusing) and we were at the stop for the Bukchon Hanok Village in no time. We had a quick walk around before heading to the Changdeokgung Palace, built in 1405, for the 11:30 am tour of the Secret Garden, a peaceful 78 acre area behind the palace filled with lily ponds and pavilions, ancient trees and a large library. We strolled back through the palace on our way out and headed for lunch which was an experience in itself. Since we can’t read the menus we’re relying on picture menus and just point at anything that looks interesting, when it comes out you get about 5 little dishes of various pickled vegetables and rice and even working out how you’re meant to eat it is a challenge. After lunch we headed back into the Bukchon Hanok Village, an area of Seoul with clusters of traditional Korean style homes with their patterned walls and tiled roofs, and views of the modern city in the distance. It felt really trendy, lots of handicraft workshops and galleries, coffee/tea shops and fashionable clothes stores. Korean fashion is very delicate, lots of shorts with oversized tops or pretty dresses in pastel colours, no dayglo or diamonte studs in sight. We were getting pretty tired by then and decided we’d have a quick explore of Insa-Dong before heading home. The area around Insa-Dong is a bit like Covent Garden, lots of souvenir shops, galleries, handicraft stalls and food stalls and the odd street performer. Back at the hostel we thought we’d have a quick nap before heading out for dinner. The next thing we knew it was gone midnight.

We woke early again still not having recovered from the jetlag. The plan for the day was to head to Suwon, 48km south of Seoul. After about an hour and a half on the tube we arrived and discovered a huge food court by the train station where we grabbed a quick snack and laughed at the £45 boxes of huge apples and the Spam gift packs (seriously, they love their Spam out here, you see loads of people walking around carrying their Spam gift packs, 9 or 12 tins in smart presentation boxes) before heading in to the old town. King Jeongjo, in 1794 had the idea of moving the capital from Seoul to Suwon and had fortress walls constructed around the city. The walk around the walls is about 5.7km and took us a good couple of hours with stops to admire the command posts, observation towers and entrance gates. We stopped at the archery centre on the north side of the wall and paid to have a go shooting 10 arrows, it was brilliant fun. On the western side of the wall we came across the Hyowon Bell and for 70p Rhys had a go at tolling it, it’s so loud it reverberates down the walls. On our way back to the station we dropped in at the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace within the fortress walls, built in 1700’s for the celebration of King Jeongjo’s mums 61st birthday. We had a quick wander around the market outside the walls before jumping on a bus back to the tube station. We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the hostel and only headed out briefly for dinner at the Gwangjang Market where you can find Seoul’s largest food alley with some 200 stalls. 

Still not completely over the jetlag we were up early yet again. We headed out on the tube to the Namsan Park to follow part of the Fortress Walk to see the city walls of Seoul and views over the city. We stopped to walk barefoot on the purpose built sensory circuit and to have a go on the many different exercise spots around the park, climbed thousands of steps, saw chipmunks and ended at the N-Seoul Tower. The N-Seoul Tower is perched high up above the city and all the railings at the base are covered in ‘love padlocks’. We stopped for a drink overlooking the city before heading back down to the tube. We stopped at Insa-Dong again on the way home to pick Rhys up a badge for his backpack and bumped into a girl who was learning English and had homework to find and speak to English speaking people. She walked with us from the tube to Insa-Dong and asked around to find a badge and even bought it for Rhys, she was so sweet. We stopped again for picture menu food, Rhys had a super spicey stew, before heading back to the hostel as we had lots of admin to do and things to book - South Korea gets very booked up and it’s not the easiest thing to find hostels in our price range at short notice. 

That night we’d intended to do the Lonely Planet Night Walk of Seoul. We got a bit confused leaving the tube though and ended up walking underground to the next tube station and having to get back on to go back to the start point. That wasted an hour so we were a bit later than we’d wanted to be walking around. The walk took us past the Bosingak bell pavilion and down to Cheong-gye-cheon, a restored stream that was part of a big urban renewal project with footbridges, waterfalls and sculptures leading the way to a big spiral sculpture in the Cheonggye Plaza. From there we headed past the City Hall and the Bank of Korea to the funicular to take us to the cable car for the ride back up to the N-Seoul Tower. We arrived just in time to catch the ‘Soul of Light’ show, a short music and light piece where different pictures are projected onto the shaft of the tower. We headed up in the elevator, wandered around a couple of times admiring the view, bought some ridiculously expensive penny sweets and headed back down. We walked to the Namdaemun Market where we’d intended to eat but were too tired to bother and ended up heading back to ours with a bag of prawn crackers.

Inside Paramount Studios, LA.
View of the Hollywood sign from Griffiths Park, LA.
The Getty Centre, LA.
Gatehouse of the library, Changdeokgung Palace Secret Garden, Seoul.
Archery in Suwon.
Me struggling with jetlag at the Gwangjang Market, Seoul.
'Love Locks' chained to the fences at the base of the N-Seoul Tower, Seoul.
View of Seoul at night from the N-Seoul Tower.

11 September 2013

Week 50 - Oaxaca, Mexico City, Los Angeles (Mexico, USA)

We were feeling a little fragile after the hostel party for Tim’s birthday and ended up wasting the day sleeping in the hammocks in the courtyard, watching TV, messing around online, playing with the hostel dogs and generally vegging. We only popped out long enough to pick up a Subway. We were pretty glad when the time came to get a taxi to the bus terminal so we could get on the bus, get tucked in to our sleeping bag liners, put some TV on and go to sleep. But it was a night bus so sleep was lacking, even the ADO ‘Gold’ service wasn’t as luxurious as the buses we’d used in South America and we had a terrible night sleep and arrived shattered.

We got to the hostel we’d booked into at around 7am and it was too early to check in. We dropped off our bags and headed into the centre to see if we could find a coffee shop to pass the time. Unsuccessful in our search we ended up heading back to sit in the courtyard communal area at the hostel. Around 10am we headed out again, this time we walked to the Zocalo, the main plaza to check out the cathedral and up the pedestrianised street Calle Alcala to the Inglesia de Santo Domingo, a huge ornate church with a plaza out front filled with aloe vera plants. We trundled back past some more little churches and through the Jardin de Socrates, a little square full of sorbet stalls. By then it was midday and our room was available. We jumped straight in to bed for a 2 hour siesta. It was blissful and well needed. When we woke we headed back out in to town to the Mercado Central de Abastos, an absolutely massive market crowded with locals that sold absolutely everything. We stopped at a meat stall to buy some beef that they cooked on the spot and after buying bread, salsa, spicey sauce, lycees and doughnuts we headed back to Jardin de Socrates to eat lunch overlooking the church. After lunch we stopped for the most random sorbets (I think mine was carrot and cream) before walking to the artisanal market and heading back to the hostel via the Mercado Artesanias, Mercado 20 de Noviembre and the Mercado Juarez. I left Rhys chilling at the hostel and headed back out to the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca, housed in a beautiful monastery building next to the Ingelsia de Santo Domingo. I got an English audio-guide and spent an hour and a half wandering around, admiring the building as much as the exhibits. I could have done with longer but it was closing time and the gates were being locked up and the lights turned off. 

We headed back out again for dinner that night, back to the Mercado 20 de Noviembre. We ordered a huge tostado thing with grilled meat and bean puree on, messy but tasty. We were so glad to get in to bed that night and I was asleep before Rhys even put the computer away.

The next morning I was awoken by Rhys bringing me a coffee in bed, a real treat. After a chilled morning we headed out at about 10am to the second class bus station to try to find a bus to either El Tule or to Teotitlan del Valle. It was hard work, everyone we asked pointed us somewhere else and we were about to give up when a kind, English speaking guy came up to help us, asked some questions and pointed us outside to get a collectivo. We then spent another 20 minutes walking up and down the street by the side of a chaotic market trying to find a collectivo before finally locating one, and then there were hundreds. The ride took less than 20 minutes and we arrived in El Tule. Our sole purpose of visiting was to see ‘the widest tree in the world’ it was 14m wide and over 2000 years old and dwarfed the little church standing next to it. Once we’d walked around the tree we found another collective that would take us to the junction of the highway to get to Teotitlan. From the junction we got another collectivo into the village. We were a little disappointed at how unpicturesque it was, we were imagining a lovely little traditional village but it’s a lot more concrete than that. We had a short walk around peering into some of the weaving workshops, checked out the church and wandered through the museum, which was actually quite interesting with lots of local facts about weaving and bizarrely, marriage ceremonies. We headed back to Oaxaca and grabbed lunch in the Mercado Central de Abastos. Rhys decided he’s like to visit the museum I had been to the day before so we went back before Rhys headed home while I stopped by another museum, the Museo Rufino Tamaya. This museum housed lots of pre-Hispanic artifacts but concentrates on the aesthetics of the exhibits rather than the historical aspect. That night Rhys wasn’t hungry so we only walked as far as the corner where I bought a cheesy corn on the cob from a street vendor. 

We were up early the next day for the walk to the second class bus terminal. We didn’t have to wait long until a bus came for Mexico City, nearly half the price of the ADO buses. It took 8 long hours but we arrived in the city before dark and jumped in a cab to our hotel. We’d booked a room at a place between the centre and the airport and although it was abit out of it, it was clean and had a mean sandwich shop nearby. Not realising quite how big the sandwiches were we ordered one each, they must have weighed about 1.5kgs each, 1.5kg of meat and cheese, ridiculous. 

The next day we headed out to find a bus into the centre to explore the city. In the Zocalo we were overwhelmed with the shanty town that had been set up in protest to something or other, littered with vendors selling all kinds of random things. It was hectic and meant you couldn’t get close to any of the big grand buildings in the main plaza. We headed out to follow the Lonely Planet walking tour but being a Sunday a lot of places were shut and the streets were very grey and dirty. We weren’t impressed. Every thing just needs a good clean. The highlight was a stop at the Templo Mayor. The temple is thought to be the exact spot where the Aztecs saw their symbolic eagle, perching on a cactus with a snake in its beak (the symbol of Mexico today) and for the Aztecs was literally the centre of the universe. The ruins were volcanic rock so were pretty dark but were still quite cool and there was a decent museum showing some amazing finds that were recovered from the site. After the Templo we grabbed lunch and caught a taxi back to the hotel (we had no idea where to get a bus from). We had a couple of hours of down time before we caught another taxi across town to the Arena Mexico for the Lucha Libre - Mexican wrestling. We even bought masks (and we’re keeping them for you Sean). We watched 4 of the 6 bouts, it’s not the most enthralling sport but serves for a bit of light entertainment and is just something you have to do when in Mexico.

We had a flight to catch at 9:45am on the 9th and after the cab dropped us at the wrong terminal we just had long enough to get through check in and grab a cup of coffee before we boarded. It was only a 3.5 hour flight before we arrived in Los Angeles. It then took another hour to get through customs (although these were the friendliest American customs officials we’ve ever come across) and another hour to collect our hire car - a nightmare, the rental place was chaotic and ended up being a bit of a free for all. Half hour later we were pulling into the garage of our AirBnB rental. It was perfect, a 2 bedroom house all to ourselves about a 5 minutes walk from Sunset Boulevard and 15 minutes from Graumanns Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. After a quick trip to Trader Joe’s, a supermarket everyone raves about to stock up we headed out to explore the local area. We stopped at a sports bar to try to get to grips with American football, wandered along the Walk of Fame spotting the stars in the pavement of celebrities before popping into Graumanns Chinese Theatre where there are celebrity hand prints in the cement and where all the movie premieres are held. We finished our walk at the Hollywood Roosevelt, not only the location of the first ever Oscars ceremony but the place I Stayed when I came 15 years ago with my family (Mum, sadly Charlie Chaplin wasn’t there anymore). Back at out house we cracked open a bottle of cava (we’re on holiday for 4 days before we get back to backpacking) and cooked in.

Our first day full day in LA we woke without an alarm and had a relaxed morning drinking coffee and planning the days ahead. We headed out around 10am and drove Peanut (our Chevy Sonic, a miniature car in American terms) to Venice Beach. Once we’d parked up we found a little booth hiring rollerblades on the beach front and spent an hour rocketing up the pier and along the ocean path, stopping at Muscle Beach to look out for stupidly muscular men and peeking at all the weird people who congregate in the area. After we returned the skates we got back in Peanut and moved him to another car park closer to Santa Monica beach. We ate our picnic on the sand before wandering to the pier, spotting dolphins only a couple of metres off shore on the way. We rode the ferris wheel before calling it a day and heading back to our house in West Hollywood. We had a couple of hours to chill before it was time to head out again, to the Hollywood Bowl for a classical music concert. The Bowl is amazing, an outdoor amphitheatre with great sound and views even from the cheap seats. We stayed for the first hour enjoying a bottle of wine listening to a classical pianist and the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. The experience was well worth the rushed 40 minutes it took us to walk there. On the way back to the house we stopped at Hooters on Hollywood Boulevard opposite Graumanns Chinese Theatre for all you can eat chicken wings. 
Rhys admiring the church in Jardin de Socrates, Oaxaca.
The widest tree in the world swallowing the village church in El Tule.
Inglesia de Santo Domingo, Oaxaca.
Rhys doing his Rocky pose, LA Walk of Fame.
Hollywood Boulevard, LA.
Rhys skating at Muscle Beach, Venice Beach, LA.
The Santa Monica pier, LA.
The LA Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl.

4 September 2013

Week 49 - Valladolid, Campeche, Palenque, San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico)

Another early start and we were in a combi van by 7:15am for the 45 minute drive out to Chichen Itza. We arrived just after opening time and way before the tour groups were due to turn up. Being the most visited of all the Mayan sites it’s a bit stricter than some of the other places, it’s very well kept and you can’t climb on the ruins and has undergone a lot of restoration. Although the tallest pyramid, El Castillo is actually quite small at 30m, the carvings and decoration in other areas were far more impressive than any we saw at Tikal, with a fusion of highland central Mexican and Puuc architectural styles. The Toltecs who lived there were obsessive about human sacrifice and glorification of military escapades and there are lots of skull carvings and sacrificial tables. The city was abandoned in the 14th century, no one really knows why. We had a great morning and whizzed around the site with my Kindle acting as our guide in little over 2 hours, managing to get out before the sun got too hot and before the hordes of tour buses arrived from the coast. 

Back in Valladolid we retired to our air conditioned room for lunch before heading out again for a collectivo to the nearby cenotes, Dzitnup and Samula. They were busier than the cenotes in Coba and had some funky lighting effects that ruined the ambiance a bit but were still impressive. Huge big underground caverns lit by beams of sunlight streaming through holes in the cave roofs. We had a quick swim in Dzitnup, probably the prettiest of the two with lots of roots hanging down into the pool, before heading to Samula. I stopped to take a photo as we entered the cave and managed to fumble the lens cap and drop it 10 metres into the pool below. We ended up renting goggles to recover it, thank god the water was so clear. After enjoying the cool water and Rhys enjoying his first fish pedicure, we caught a taxi back into town. Rhys chilled in the room and I headed out to visit one last cenote, Zaci, in town. A big, open cavern with green water. That night we ate in the food court by the plaza again.

Another early start and we were at the bus station for a bus to Merida where we then caught another bus on to Campeche. I left Rhys in the plaza with the bags and headed off to find accommodation. We checked in to a little place around 3pm, dropped off our bags and headed back out to spend a couple of hours exploring the town. It was so pretty, a little chocolate box colonial seaside town with pastel coloured buildings and old school lanterns and lampposts hemmed in by the remains of the city walls to the north and south. When we were there there was an exhibition of sculpture by Juan Soriano, huge bronze pigeons and pelicans along one street and there are plenty more permanent sculptures all around town. We popped in to an archaeological museum and another little museum for access to walk along the top of the wall and wandered down to the sea just to be able to say we’d seen the Gulf of Mexico. After some bargain wardrobe refreshing, we stopped back at the hostel for a rest before heading back out to see the town at dusk and to grab a bite to eat. On the way back to the hotel the rain started and we ended up running down the street and getting soaked through. 

Our bus the next morning wasn’t until 11am so we had a lay in, packed up and jumped in a taxi out to the bus terminal for a 5 hour trip to Palenque. We arrived in another torrential downpour and although the hotel wasn’t far away jumped in a cab to stay dry. After the rain stopped we headed out and ate at a little European style coffee shop.

More ruins so another early start to miss the tour groups. The Palenque ruins lie 7km out of town and we were at the gates waiting for it to open at 8am. The site more closely resembled Tikal than the sites we’d visited in the Yucatan peninsula with clusters of buildings set in the highland jungle drapped in mist with a river and waterfalls meandering through the site. The city flourished during the classic period and most of the buildings you can see date from the 7th century. Unlike Chichen Itza we were allowed to climb on most of the ruins and could even go inside one of the temples to peer into the sarcophagous. The two main buildings were the Palacio, a huge complex of rooms including a watchtower and the Templo de las Inscripciones, the highest temple in the park at 26m. The most striking thing about the site that we haven’t seen elsewhere were the intricate bas-relief stone carvings and glyphs scattered around the buildings, I realise they’ve been heavily restored but the detail really gave you an idea of how magnificent the site would have been in it’s heyday. 

After a couple of hours we were pretty much done with the ruins and after a quick whip around the museum we caught a combi back into town to the hotel to collect our bags and check out. Rather than waiting 2 hours for the bus we managed to find a combi that would take us the 2.5 hours to Ocosingo from where we changed to another combi for another 2.5 hours to get to San Cristobal. We’d booked a cheap hostel online and dropped our bags, put in our laundry and had a quick scout of the town. That night we headed out to the main pedestrianised street for pizza in the pouring rain.

San Cristobal is at an altitude of 2100m, not enough so you get out of breath but enough that it gets pretty chilly at night and it rains. The town is located in a little bowl, surrounded by mountains pocketed with little indigenous villages. It’s like being back in Guatemala (we’re actually closer to Antigua here than to Mexico City) and the streets are full of local people in their beautifully embroidered huipiles/dresses although now the colours are predominantly purples and pinks and the patterns are very floral. 

The first full day in San Cristobal I was up at 7am leaving Rhys at the hostel to watch football, to find a combi to go to San Juan Chamula. The village is a Tzotzil Maya community and on Sunday there is a big market in the plaza and all the locals come down from their villages to trade. Their dress is spectacular, not only do the women wear the embroidered huipiles but they pair them with huge shaggy black woolen skirts and the men wear tunics but in a shaggy white wool belted at the waist. Although walking around the market was a great experience with all the colours and smells, it was the church that was the highlight. The building itself inside isn’t that exceptional but the floor is covered in pine needles and combined with the incense the smell is something else. Then there are idols lining the walls and in front of each a little table covered in candles. Everyone kneels on the floor and people bring in more candles to stick to the floor, literally hundreds at a time. There was chanting and people praying aloud and spraying water on the candles to make them fizz, it was quite something. After buying some delicious lychees and grapes I headed back into town to the hostel to find Rhys and join him to watch the second half of the Spurs v Arsenal game.

That afternoon, despite the rain, we headed into town to check out the Templo de Santo Domingo, a beautiful church with an amazing stucco filigree facade and artisanal market next door, and to wander around the municipal market where we stopped for super cheap lunch. Rhys headed back to the hostel and I spent a couple more hours searching the town for cheap clothes shops to renew my wardrobe. I think between us we’ve spent about £50 and managed to buy 4 pairs of shorts, a dress, 7 t-shirts, a belt, 2 underwear sets and a bandanna, BARGAIN! That night we sat in the courtyard at our hostel enjoying a bottle of wine before heading out for gourmet burger.

We woke the next day and the sun was shining. We spent a couple of hours catching up on admin at the hostel while eating our pancake breakfast before heading into town to whizz around the sites before the rain came in again. We headed first to the Inglesia de Guadalupe, a church on a hill at one side of the town before continuing to a gate at the southern end of town and then another church on a hill in the west of town, Inglesia de San Cristobel. Next we walked back up to Templo de Santo Domingo to see it without the rain before wandering south along the pedestrianised central street to another market. After buying pillowcases, Rhys headed back to the hostel to chill and I stayed out intending to visit a museum or two only to find they were all closed on Mondays. I joined Rhys back at the hostel for a glass of wine in the courtyard before we headed out for dinner. 

I don’t think you really need so long in San Cristobal unless you’re planning on getting out to see the surrounding countryside but we’ve been pretty busy of late and it has been a real treat just to wake up in the same bed 3 nights running. We had a night bus booked for Tuesday night so had one final day to spend in town. We woke late and spent the day chilling in the hostel courtyard playing with the dogs popping out for lunch in the market. I tried to go to a couple of museums again but didn’t realise they all take like a 4 hour siesta in the middle of the day and gave up waiting around. Instead I wandered through the markets yet again and headed back to the hostel. It was Tim’s birthday, a guy who had been at the hostel for a while and he’d bought beers and wine and chicken to BBQ for everyone. After a couple of drinks we decided that it would be a good night to stick around rather than getting the night bus. The receptionist called the bus company who said if we got to the terminal in 10 minutes they’d transfer the tickets, bearing in mind we only had 30 minutes until the bus was due to leave. We jumped in a cab, told the driver the story so he drove like a loony and got us there in time. Ticket changed we headed back to join the party at our hostel and ended up having a pretty late night.

El Castillo, Chichen Itza.
La Inglesia, Chichen Itza.
Cenote Samula, Valladolid.
Juan Soriano sculpture, Campeche.
Rhys and a mural in a car park in Campeche.
The ruins at Palenque.
Market day in San Juan Chamula, San Cristobal.
Church in San Cristobal.
Rhys enjoying lunch at the Municipal Market in San Cristobal.
View to the City Gate, San Cristobal.