CANCUN!!!

Thursday 20th of July

Next day we left the hostel towards our long awaited Cancun. It is worth mentioning that this stage of the trip was the most expensive one in tolls. After passing the city of Merida, about one third of our way there, the road turns into a very well maintained highway with very little traffic. At this point we were well into the Yucatan Peninsula and heading into one of Mexico’s most beloved state, Quintana Roo. This state is famous for its gorgeous Caribbean beaches and also home of Cancun and the Riviera Maya.

We arrived at Cancun at mid afternoon, with enough time to hit the beaches before the sun went down. The strip, similar to one of the Florida Keys, also called the “zona hotelera” (hotels zone), was so different from the rest of the city that seemed almost like a different country. Every hotel chain imaginable had a splendorous building or set of buildings on the ocean front. We found out later that in average the cost for a room in one of these fancy hotels was around $200. The tourist area located along the key looked at times like a blend between Las Vegas and Daytona Beach, but nothing like Mexico. They were even more Americans walking around than Mexicans. The exuberance of the commercial zone was at times too much, and in our case it was especially disturbing. Imagine driving three thousand miles out of the US and into the heart of Mexico to end up in franchise of American commercial capitalism. Eerie. Once I hit the Outback Steakhouse and saw no trace of my fellow Hispanics the scenary started to give me goose bumps.

Regardless of the hardcore globalization, the beach still met our expectations. It was the beginning of the Mexican Caribbean shore and the mildly warm turquoise sea dominated the landscape. As the sun set we headed back into the city to find another backpacker’s hostel, which proved to be so successful the night before. Indeed we found one that a guy recommended back in Campeche. It was called the “Hostel Maya” and it cost about 100 pesos a night, 20 pesos more than the one in Campeche but as the owner of the hostel (a very nice guy) was telling us, that’s what you’d spend for a cab from the airport to the hostel. Pretty funny uh? I’ll upload a video tour of the hostel soon.

Speedbumps and sleeping at Campeche

Wedesday 19th and Thusday 20th of July

We had a very long drive from the archeological areas. The road was full of speed bumps, called “topes” in Mexico. These god forsaken obstacles are all over the place. Apparently, Mexico has a law permitting civilians to put “topes” in front of their house if they feel like it. Thy come in every size and color, some even seem disguised on purpose so you can’t see them until is too late. Add to the situation all the extra weight from luggage and stuff. The result, every time we passed through one of these the car’s bottom grinded excruciatingly every time. Multiply this by all the hundreds we’ve been through already, and that would start to explain the symphony of screeches and squeaks coming out of the rear suspension.

After a long day, Campeche seemed like a really good place. It’s a small and clean colonial town with friendly people and narrow streets at its downtown. We arrived at around 11pm without a place to sleep and not really in the mood for camping, especially after our experience in Tampico. We drove around and asked for hotels. We visited about 4 or 5 and all of them were full. Lastly, we settled to look at a hostel, like the kind you see around Europe for backpackers. We spot it a couple of times but we were uncertain to how clean or safe would one of those be. So far we were spending around $55 per night in each hotel we have stayed. Turns out this hostel, named the Monkey Hostel, was only 80 pesos a night (about $7.5) per person. It was clean, it had a laid back environment and it was filled of interesting people. You did have to share the room with 6 other people and the bathroom was also shared. They also had free internet, books, a shared space to socialize, a guitar (awesome idea!), table games, and a fantastic view... just check out the picture! It was perfectly located right on the main plaza with a great view of the park and the town chapel. Check out the video for a guided tour of the hostel by me, just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy809Gjy5Os .

Palenque Ruins

Wednesday 19th of July

Next day we said our goodbyes with Karla and her family and left for Palenque. Palenque was deeper in the inlands of Mexico. The road started to get a little rough and later we found that the area was known for having one of the most humid ecosystems. Indeed, we got plenty of 5 minute showers along the road. The archeological site was great, very well maintained and quite stunning. We spend a couple of hours there and then headed for the falls. On our way to the falls we made another stop at the Misolha falls, a pretty random stop to be honest, we just saw a sign and decided to check it out. It’s probably the most successful random stop we’ve made so far. These astonishing falls looked like some landscape taken out of a postcard. The small lake to which the fall landed was open to tourists to swim in it. Of course, we jumped right in. The water was refreshing and the view from up close was spectacular, as you can see by the picture. You can notice two small dots on the lower right corner of the picture, those are Gabriel and Erick swiming around. After an hour or so, we continued toward Agua Azul. The Agua Azul falls, which mean blue water falls, were pretty nice, but because of the weather they weren’t even close to being blue. They were more like brownish-gray. It was around 3 when we left Agua Azul. From there our next destination was Cancun. The plan was to leave Agua Azul early in the afternoon and start the trip to Cancun making our first stop in Campeche, if we managed to get there at a reasonable time. It took us longer than I expected, but around 11pm we finally got to Campeche, our first stretch towards Cancun.