Don´t tell mom I swam with crocodiles!

Spending a few days in Tulum, on the South East coast of Mexico, I was lucky enough to meet 2 great women named Fransesca and Christine while looking for a place to stay and accidentally trying to steal Francesca´s taxi. Fransesca is a caretaker for several beach houses called Los Nubes, meaning The Clouds right on the waterfront of Tulum. I spent a couple nights here, enjoying the peacefulness of this area and their great company over glasses of red wine, philisophical life discussions and delicious food next to the beautiful white sand and turquoise blue of the Carribean Sea.

Francesca is a poet from Belgium originally, who lived in Montreal for a long time before relocating to Tulum 6 or so years ago. Christina is also Canadian from Manitoba but lived in Guatemala for 2 years and then in Northern Alberta, where she had just moved from a month or so ago.

After a peaceful couple of days here, I decided to go to San Cristobal de las Casas on the advice of Francesca and took a surprisingly comfortable 17.5 hour bus ride here. San Cristobal is a small colonial style city in the state of Chiapas, which is in the South West mountains of Mexico- 818 meters or 2,625 ft above sea level.

I ended up staying in this area for 2 weeks after planning to spend only a few days. It is truely amazing! Surrounded by mountains and traditional Mayan villages it is culturally rich and nurtured by pre-Hispanic traditions and customs.

There´s a vibrant indigenous culture here along with a contrastingly modern arts and popular culture featuring great cafes, live theatre, art house cinemas and museums including a Mayan medicine one. Spanish is spoken everywhere as not too many tourists seem to have discovered it yet and many of the ones who have stay and make it their home for at least awhile, learning Spanish while they are here. Perhaps it's also only the more adventurous tourists who stray away from the beach!

During my 2 weeks here, I visited Mayan villages including San Juan Chamula, where the Maya are almost militant about preserving their traditions. Apparently, they were forced to build churches over their sacred temples as part of the European spiritual conquest.

I stolled through the local market here, visiting the temple where age-old healing rituals take place and Shamans light multi-coloured candles to assist with the healing process as well as chickens, eggs, Coca-Cola or other carbonated sodas to dispel the demons of disease. I saw one of them rubbing an unbroken egg over a child for such a purpose. Apparently they break the chicken's neck and then burn it to somehow to dispel demons from villagers but the only evidence I saw of this was a cooked chicken with one smoking wing sticking straight up out of a bowl that was being carried out of the church!

The church itself was quite mystical and dimly lit with natural light coming through the stained glass windows and open front door. Pieces of straw were also scattered across the floor in various places with the candles lit amongst it. A bit of a fire hazard I thought but they all seemed to be attended fortunately!

Contrary to mainsteam Catholicism, the Chamulans honor St. John the Baptist as their main god and Jesus Christ as his younger brother. Saints that are currently out of favor with the town are covered with cloth and placed in the back of the church! The other Saints are encased in glass along the side walls in little shrines filled with flowers and other offerings. The temple had a really strong energy inside and was fascinating although I felt a little like an intruder and definately like a tourist!

Directly outside was the Sunday market where locals were selling various food, embroidered blouses and other hand made jewellery and accessories. The villagers would continually ask you to buy from them but if you actually took the time to stop and talk with them, even as limited as my Spanish is, they were really friendly, seemingly happy to chat and no longer tried to sell me anything. Also, once I bought a bracelet from one of the little girls, I could just point out that I'd already bought one to the rest and they wouldn't ask me anymore. I even bought an ice cream for a cute little boy who wanted one.. OK, so admittedly it was for me at first but I'd only had a couple bites and he just kept pointing at it sadly so what could I do! The way he devoured it, I'm certain he enjoyed it more than I would have!

After the market and temple, the day tour I was on stopped in another indigenous village where we got to go into a home and see the colourful variety of weaving as it was being made. We also sat in the kitchen and sample fresh, homeade tortillas.. yum!

For all the Australians, the next bit of info is particularly useful... they also hung clear plastic bags full of water from the ceiling by a string, which effectively keeps the flies away as apparently they become afraid of their gigantuous reflection and find less scary homesteads!

Back in San Cristobal, I studied at a school called Jovel for a week, staying with a local family and experiencing a bit of the night life there. I even ventured to a Reggae & Ska dance party that I was given a flyer for on the street. I wasn't going to go at first as I was warned by a local guy, albeit a conservative one that it might be dangerous since it wasn't in the main area of town.

For some reason, I felt the need to go anyway since my feeling for San Cristobal is that it´s really safe and I had a good feeling about the guy handing out the flyers. Also, I didn't know anyone at this point so I felt it might be a good chance to hopefully hear good music and meet new people.

It must have been a good party in any case because stayed until around 4am! The live music was great with a saxophone, guitar, drums and vocals. It was in an open courtyard with a gate. They were selling tasty homeade fruit punch and beer for just 10 pesos or 1 dollar Aus/Cad per glass.

Occasionally, the band would take breaks and play electronic or dance music, which was also good. As soon as I'd arrived I had a really good feeling about it since everyone was smiling, seemed friendly and to be having a good time. The majority of people were a sort of hippy/Bohemian type and made up of local Mexicans, tourists, indigenous people and even a Zappatista I met, although our communication was limited due to my poor Spanish!

One of the people I met was a guy from Monterray, Mexico named Antonio who I kept in touch with. He showed me around the city a bit over the next couple days and while I was planning to leave San Cristobal to go to Guatemala, he offered to take me into the Mexican jungle for 5 days as he had some time off his work as a local doctor in San Cristobal and several neighbouring Zapatista and other aboriginal communities. He had even lived in Vancouver for a year during a high school exchange! He is a really nice guy with a fun spirit and in any case I couldn´t refuse such a great offer since I wouldn´t feel safe venturing into the jungle on my own!

So, we went first to Palenque to see the great Maya city inhabited from 300 A.C. The ruins of Palenque are on the edge of the Tumbalá mountain range. They were very atmospheric as the large structures are right in the middle of the jungle.

Next we continued on to the Maya village of Naha where we stayed under a gazebo in the jungle right on the edge of a lagoon for a couple of nights. With no roads to this particular camping spot a local villager led us about a kilometer through the jungle. The men in Naha are called Lacandones can be identified by their long white robes and long hair with a fringe.

According to a website I found, the Lacandon jungle only occupies 0.25% of Mexico's surface, however it contains 17% of Mexicos plant life, 42% of Mexico's butterflies, 32% of Mexico's birds and 30% of Mexico's mammals, which include jaguars, red macaws, tucans, howler monkeys, ocelots and tapirs. According to an article I read there are currently only 800 Lacandon indians left in Mexico as their beliefs do not allow them to mate with other types of indians.

Our guide said my head lamp made him nervous, so we stumbled along behind him in the near dark. He also said they are able to run through the jungle at night without any light! I wished I could speak Spanish better at this point because he would also stop at various places and very animatedly tell us jungle tales such as the one about how the crocodile lost his tongue!

We arrived to an open air gazebo where they'd somehow already managed to set up our tent underneath just a few meters from the lagoon. Above us was a black sky with millions of stars in a perfectly tranquil setting. To add to the atmosphere, there were lightning bugs flashing in the reeds and around the lily pads on the lagoon´s surface amongst the stars, which were reflected on the completely still lagoon.

Since Antonio was able to communicate with the locals better than me, since they speak fluent Mayan and Spanish, we got to know the Chief of the village, Kin Garcia and his family. We had brought chicken and vegetables for dinner on our first night and cooked it with the family so we could all enjoy it together. For other meals, we bought food from their little shop and cooked it in their kitchen at meal times as there are no supermarkets in the village.

Kin told us they have approximately 400 tourist visit per year as there is an ecotourism camp set up in the village. The area is protected and part of a park, which is very hard to gain access to if you are not part of these groups, made up of a number of people and quite expensive- in other words, we were very lucky to be there and the ecotourists didn't even have lagoon side camping as we did!



It came about as we just happened to meet Kin´s son at a bus stop between Palenque and Naha while looking for a connecting taxi van or colectivo as they are called in Mexico. The only bus bus, which travels to Naha had already left for the day but Kin´s son agreed to give us a ride after the other colectivo drivers had found him for us and so he also helped us to arrange accommodation through his dad.

Once set up, we swam in the lagoon, walked through the jungle and spent time with the villagers talking and playing soccer with the children over the next few days. On our last day there a loud speaker announced that school was cancelled the next day because the teacher was sick. Pretty amazing that a whole village could hear this from just one megaphone!

The only transportation out of the village leaves each night at 1am so on our last evening there we met the half a dozen people all from various parts of Europe and their 2 guides at the Ecocamp and visited with them almost until it was time to leave. They invited us to have dinner with them and one of the girls played a traditional Brazilian instrument similar to a guitar so we ate, sang and talked with them. They told us all the activities they got up to on their Ecotour, mentioning how they had gone for a canoe ride on our lagoon but were told to keep their hands in the boat and under no circumstance go in the water because of crocodiles!! I was like, umm, we've been swimming in that lagoon for the past 3 days! They were speechless and looked absolutely horrified! I felt like a ghost just by the way they were looking at me and was admittedly feeling a little let down that our friends, Kin and his family, had told us it was OK to swim there! After a bit of research, we did find out that not necessarily in that one but in some of the connected lagoons there are indeed fresh water crocodiles but they are apparently not dangerous to humans, which is why they didn´t tell us about them- true, I may not have swam there had I known and the water was sooo nice during the warm, sunny days!

Spending a night in the collectivo on the drive back, which was not so much fun as it was crowded with hard benches on the windy and bumpy dirt road allowing for little or no sleep, we spent the following day and one more night in Palenque before catching a bus back to San Cristobal. During our last day in Palenque, we visited a beautiful waterfall called Welib-ha. There were actually a number of waterfalls along a beautiful river and in one particular spot 3 next to each other that you could swim near. They were a little too powerful to swim directly underneath but ropes were attached to the river bank in various directions allowing you to hold onto them and move quite close underneath. It was transfixing to be nearly under a waterfall and staring up at it as its various sized globules of water falling directly overhead.

On the walk along the river and back to the road, we also saw howler monkeys in the trees! It is so cute watching the babies jump nimbly from branch to branch with their arms and tales swinging and grabbing as they run up and down, also checking on their sleeping mum occasionally.

After arriving back in San Cristobal, I stayed 2 more nights in order to wash my clothes, get organised and say goodbye to my beloved San Cristobal and to my new friend Antonio. It was fun traveling with him as we got along quite well and had a lot of fun being constantly amazed and enjoying the adventures of the jungle.

Back to San Cristobal, it is truly one of the nicest places I have ever been.. it's hard to describe how amazing it is. Then again, I met another tourist there briefly who asked me what the big deal is about it since they'd heard so many great things before arriving and just weren't seeing them. To each their own I guess and all the better for the rest of us if it doesn't get any more crowded!

Yesterday, the 12th of December I left for Xela Guatemala despite there being a big party in San Cristobal celebrating the feast day of the virgin lady Guadalupe, who was a patron saint. For the past 2 weeks, there has also been a torch relay of locals running through Chiapas as somehow part of this celebration. Still, I felt that it was time for me to go to Guatemala or I almost that I might just not leave at all, having been in Mexico for almost a month already and truely enjoying it so much! So, I took the 7-8 hour bus ride from San Cristobal to Xela, short for Quetzaltenango and stayed at La Casa de Argentina, where I got a private room with a queen size bed and cable television for just 30 Quetzals or US $3.60 per night!

Tonight, I am staying with a local family where I will be for a full week while I study at PLQ, which is short for Proyecto Liguistico Quetzalteco, which comes recommended by my brother Levi and another friend who has studied here. With 5 hours per day of classes for the next 5 days and 7 days staying with the family, I am hoping my Spanish will come a long way so that I can better integrate into the cultures of various places I will be travelling to next!

¡Hasta la vez próxima!

Southern Mexico

Arriving in Cancun, Mexico on 16th November, I enjoyed my first 3 nights at the Hyatt after my bid on priceline.com was accepted for $50 per night! For those who don't know, Priceline is a rather cool website that allows you to place a bid on 'mystery' rooms. You won't find out the actual hotel details until you've made a bid on your requested features (mine were 4 stars in Cancun for $50 US per night). It processes your bid and if accepted, the site tells you the hotel details after you make the bid and have already paid for it. You can usually get something for about 1/2 the normal price (so they say). It's better value for high end hotels that don't want to advertise 'discounted' prices to the general public but still want to fill the rooms.

It was great to lie in the sun around the beautiful beach and pool for a few days before starting my budget adventures. Cancun is very over the top touristy and tiring to be in the business district for very long as it's hot with local tour company reps constantly trying to sign you up for time share deals or tours. I did get sucked into one of the time share presentations on my first morning in return for a buffet breakfast, Mexican blanket, 2 t-shirts and nice bottle of tequila:).

Roberto, my presenter was luckily a great guy and had his mind more on his rocky relationship than high pressure sales tactics. Since this was the case, I got to enjoy my breakfast while hearing all the sordid details of this cruel..... yet wonderful woman of his while trying to give him good advice. The presentation ended in teary hugs as I packed up all my free gifts minus the purchase of a limited 3 years access to time shares all through South America for around $4,000 if I bought it on the spot. The renewal price will apparently go down after the first 3 years but given that I'm now unemployed, it wasn't really an option!

Next, I met up with my Canadian friend Travis who stopped in Mexico on his way to a holiday in Cuba. We rented a car for 3 days and drove it West of Cancun, inland to Mérida, which is the capital of the Yucatán territory. It has beautiful, historic buildings but is quite a busy town with lots of traffic. Arriving after dark, we parked on the street in front of the hostel, which wasn't marked with any signs but apparently did have a yellow curb that we couldn't see in the dark. This means it's a no parking area in Mexico even though there were other cars parked there too.. maybe it was no overnight parking? In any case, in the morning, the car was gone and the hotel staff gave us directions to the police station, which had information on where the car had been towed to.

Before I finish this happy tale, I have to admit that I was pretty worried at this point since I'd only heard awful stories previously about how corrupt the Mexican police are from friends who had been fined for (apparently) false traffic violations.

Unbelievably though, in our case the police just politely drew us a little map with directions to where they'd towed our little rental car on a nearby street that allowed parking and even apologised for not speaking better English! The car was fine and we were able to just drive it away without even a fine.. I'm pretty sure that would never happen in Canada or Australia!

Our next plan was to head part way back to Cancun from here as we had 2 nights left before having to return the car. This is where we had our second random act of local kindness when a local guy in a truck behind us, gestured wildly until we pulled over. We nervously did and were just securing our valuables as he pulled up next to us and asked if we were trying to go to Cancun. When we said yes, he told us he could see that we didn't trust him but reassured us that he just wanted to let us know we were on the wrong road and would drive in front of us to lead us back to the right one, which was just the next one parallel to us. So he did and with a simple wave, turned off again to be on his way. It was apparently obvious to him that most tourists driving in that direction were trying to get to Cancun and he was just going out of his way to help us. I've generally found the locals here to be very nice so far and haven't felt unsafe so far.

As we drove towards the signs pointing towards Cancun, we were feeling like luck was on our side until we somehow did turn onto the wrong highway, which left us driving towards Progreso, a little coastal town to the North, instead of East towards Cancun.

In our defense, the direction signs on the highway leaving Mérida all point the same way for towns located in opposite directions! We couldn't work out why that could be other than to guess that by taking any given exit, there would also be secondary roads that somehow changed directions to go towards these other towns. The extra confusion came when you actually did take one of these exits and there were often no signs at all- just more roads. It's either a really clever system somehow or the town planners are playing a cruel joke on all the tourists!

Fortunately for us we did end up in Progreso, which is one of the quantist little beach side towns I've been to, with most of the tourist being Mexicans, adding to that 'local' feel. There was also a parade that evening celebrating the Mexican Revolution(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Revolution).

The locals were showing off their skills such as Flamenco dancing, soccer tricks, gymnastics, playing music or a simple but cute little shuffle down the road, boosted by the cheering audience lined up on both sides of the street along the beach. It was such a nice event that clearly a lot of preparation went into. The Mexican music and general energy from the crowd also added to it.


The following day, we walked past a lighthouse in the middle of town, which some maintenance men had left the door open to so what else could we do but wander up to the top! Expecting them to confront us there and make us walk right back down the many steep & winding stairs again, we were surprised when they instead casually said 'hey' in the relaxed Mexican way and went on with their work.

We took this opportunity to enjoy the amazing views over the town and ocean, walking slowly around the top while taking landscape pictures in all directions.

We had a great view of the town's notable 7km wharf, which is shaped like a 7 and used by cargo ships to load and unload their vessels. Apparently, there used to be a passenger ferry across the ocean to Florida but due to PR problems with the Captains getting annoyed by delays loading passengers and so on, it stopped operating all together.


We had a feeling like this beautiful little town might get discovered sometime soon, especially since we heard there was soon to be oil drilling not far off the coast so we thought it would be a cool idea to come back in 10-15 years and retake the same pictures, marking the progress during this time.

Later that day we met a guy from Florida named Richard who had opened a little not-for-profit Maya art & craft store in the center of town. He told us the lighthouse is only officially open to the public for viewing on 1 day per year during which there is a long line down the block to go up & have a look! Lucky us:).

He also told us stories about how the Mexican government had planned to kill him twice (once in a machete ambush!) due to all the revolutionary work he had initiated in favour of Maya rights. His stories were pretty amazing although I'm not sure how accurate since he wasn't very secretive and was even letting us take his picture in front of the store!

After Progreso, we stopped at some Maya ruins called Dzibilchaltun and had a guided tour. The area also had a Cenote or water hole covered in tadpoles, amongst the ruins. This whole area was one the Mayans lived in before the Spanish invasion. It was a really peaceful and uncrowded area, which we chose to explore instead of the very popular but touristy ruins of Chichen Itza. The temple in this picture was built so that on a determined day of the year, a ray of the rising sun passes through the widows parallel to its facade and lights up a panel in a building behind it, which is why it is thought Mayas used it to correct their calendar. They invented the calendar in fact, which was developed on a cyclical basis between leap years(every 7th year) and according to our guide is the most accurate method of telling time.

Next, we stopped in Valladolid for the night. It is a very local town with beautiful, old and colourful buildings, which is also not too crowded. There are mostly locals living and visiting here also and not many foreigners, partly since it's not on the Caribbean sea.


I'm enjoying how all the Mexican towns have squares in the centre- a relaxed little park with views of the downtown on all sides and usually at least one cathedral. We found an amazing restaurant here, which was reasonably priced with an open air courtyard and fountain in the middle. The food was also delicious and it felt somewhat like eating in a museum. The atmosphere was amazingly peaceful, with nice music playing in the background. My profile pic for this blog was taken at a table in the restaurant.









Next, we cut across to the East coast, South of Cancun and stopped briefly in Playa del Carmen, which had an amazing white sand beach with the colour and texture of white flour. It was like a 'little Cancun' in some ways though unfortunately, with a similar touristy quality and bars or nightclubs on almost every corner.

With a brief stop to look at the beach here, we drove on South to Tulum, which is between Cancun and the Belize border. From here, Travis had to get back & returned our rental car to Cancun today in order to catch his onward flight. I've settled into the Hostal Casa, which has 6 beds per dorm room for around $7/night and all of the beds are queen size! There is just me and Aki from Japan sharing the room as tourism has been hit quite hard in Mexico this year, according to the guy who runs the hostel, due to Swine Flu.

Tomorrow or the next day I'm planning to take a bus towards Guatemala, to explore and study Spanish.

If you have any good tips or even better will also be in this area over the next few months do get in touch! Hasta luego mis amigos & amigas!