After enjoying a few days in the jungle of Palenque, we started heading north toward the city of Merida.  The distance between Palenque and Merida was vast so we decided to take a overnight stop in a town called Campeche.  On the way we were stopped at a military checkpoint and the police there had a laugh at our minimal Spanish.  While they were searching our car, one of them found our bag of lollipops and he grabbed a handful and started handing them out to his buddies there at the check point.  It was funny, that’s what they were there for anyway and he just decided to help himself!

When we finally got to Campeche, which was right near the ocean, we checked into our small hostel and then took a walk around town for a little bit to get a bite to eat.  Then we took a walk along the beach boardwalk and saw the sunset.

The next morning we woke up early and got back on the road toward Merida. This time we got stopped once more by a military checkpoint.  We had heard that there was a larger military presence in the Yucatan Peninsula so we expected to be stopped here and there.  This time they not only searched our car, they brought their drug sniffing dog into the mix to make sure we weren’t smuggling in giant bags of weed into the city.  Of course the dog didn’t find anything and the cops looked a little disappointed they didn’t bust some gringos red handed.

When we got to Merida it took us a while to find our hostel, Nomadas Hostel, because the sign was tiny and it was just a small doorway into a lobby that was very hard to see from the street.  We circled the block a few times before we finally found it.  Once we got inside we were very relieved to see a beautiful hostel with an outdoor kitchen, pool, and hammocks. There were also free salsa lessons every night in front of a big mirror too! We had plans to do a lot of things around the Merida area so we decided to stay for a few nights to make sure we could see everything we wanted to see.

The first night we just hung out since it was a bit late in the day and decided to try some authentic Yucatan cuisine at a local restaurant that got glowing reviews from the employees at the hostel for the local dishes they served.  There were some older Mayan women sitting near the windows hand making corn tortillas which we enjoyed with our dinner as well.  It was so amazingly good we ended up going back not once, but twice more while in Merida just to try other dishes!  Yeah, we splurged a bit here, but it was so good and we had never had any food like it anywhere else.  Definitely worth it.

The following day we took the car out and went to see the Uxmal ruins.  This was supposedly one of the top 10 must see sites.  When we got there we were completely surprised by the inflated ticket price.  We had never paid more than anywhere between $35-$50 pesos for entry to a ruin site, but this one wanted nearly $60 pesos AND a $120 pesos tax.  It was lame, but we coughed up the money and went anyway because we were there and couldn’t walk away from a potentially amazing site with ruins.  It was worth it.

Uxmal had some amazingly preserved ruins.  There were lots of well decorated facades and stone carvings we hadn’t seen at any other sites previously.  It also had it’s own architectural charm with more rectangular buildings with pillars and straight edged designs.  The classic square spiral motif was present here as well.  It was also very nice that it wasn’t very crowded and that there weren’t peddlers at every turn trying to sell you something for “almost free.”  Being there almost completely alone among the ancient architecture was very inspiring and magical.  Instead of crowds and souvenirs, there were tons of wild iguanas running around like they owned the place!

As I mentioned before, we saw tons of iguanas everywhere of all different sizes. I also found some actual dung beetles in the grass!  I had only ever seen them on TV, but we saw one in real life!  Here he is on top of his most prized poo-session.

After seeing Uxmal, we headed over to a cave system called Grutas de Loltún.  Apparently the Mayan retreated to these caves to hide from the Spanish during times of distress.  They would live in the caves and drink it’s small amounts of fresh water and cook their food inside.  Archeologists have also found that there were pre-Mayans who inhabbited the cave systems as well.  There are very few visual indications of this left in the cave, but we did see some hand print paintings on a cavern wall which were from these inhabitants.  Unfortunately, so many people have touched them over the years hardly anything remained of those paintings.

The entrance to the cave was set in the jungle and it was required to have a guide take you through the cave.  There was a small handful of others in our group on the tour as well.  Unfortunately, the guide was very adamant about letting everyone know that a tip is mandatory and he wanted at least $700 pesos  for the 1 hour guide through the cave system.

They wouldn’t let me bring my tripod inside to get better shots, but we didn’t let that get us down and still enjoyed the beauty the cave had in store for us.  There were also colored light systems set up inside to give it that ominous feel.

It was quite spectacular and we are glad we got to see it.  There was also a large stalactite in the center of the cave that when you hit it in certain spots it made a loud bass tone.  There were two notes you could play on the stalactite and that is where the name of the cave came from.  It sounds like “Lol-tún” when you hit it, with the “tún” being an octave higher than the “Lol” sound.

After Loltún, we headed back toward Merida but not before getting lost in one of the small towns we had to drive through to get there.  Getting lost can be frustrating with the lack of signs and street names, but we made it out and got back with plenty of time take a dip in the pool and lounge around in the hammocks before bed.

The following day we decided to go swimming in one of the many cenotes the Yucatan Peninsula had to offer.  The particular cenote we went to was located right in the middle of some Mayan ruins called Dzibilchaltún and after paying the slightly inflated entry fee we were able to get some very refreshing swimming in.  The ruins were pretty dilapidated and the vegetation surrounding the site was mostly dry and dead which made the ruins themselves seem less impressive than some of the other sites we had seen, but this spot had a beautiful swimmable cenote with lily pads and crystal clear water.  It was pretty amazing to be swimming in some cool water right in the middle of some Mayan ruins.

After all of that fun around Merida, we took one more off day to relax and do some writing and blogging before we finally headed off toward the town of Valladolid to see the famous Mayan ruins of Chichén-Itzá!

On our way into the Jungle!  We drove at a windy pace up over the mountains past Ocosingo and back down on the other side into the jungle area of Palenque.  Palenque was a small town with the typical Mexican amenities you find in towns off the main highways except this town had another road that lead straight into the jungle and the ruins of Palenque.  We read that in Palenque you sleep in the jungle and that’s exactly what we planned on doing.  We drove straight for it and hit a dead end of a road that only continued a little further to reach the ruins, but we took a left just at the end of the road into an area called El Panchan.

El Panchan was nestled right in the middle of the jungle and it had places to sleep or camp and a restaurant which was touted as one of the best in town.  We stayed at one of the accommodations called Jungle Palace and rented a small cabaña which had a bridge that crossed over a small creek (I called it the mosquito breeding ground.) Our Cabaña sat right next to the creek and had simple amenities; a bed, a table, and a back porch area where we could set up chairs to sit and listen to the jungle.

In the jungle you don’t have to worry so much about the sun beating down on your backs and making you hot, it was all about the humidity here and boy was it sweltering.  We couldn’t so much as sit and rest without being covered in sweat.  I’m sure if we stayed there long enough we would get used to it, but even the fan in our room wasn’t working well so the little relief we could have wasn’t there to help us keep cool.

One of the first things we did was rest for a bit.  Steve’s stomach was bothering him, we seem to get small bouts of stomach issues here and there from the food we eat so we decided to take it easy and hang out on our porch and relax.  We had fun watching the little fish in the creek below and listening to the birds in the jungle.  Later that night we were able to hear some monkeys and also see some jungle fireflies soaring around the high branches, it was amazing.  And luckily our room was very well protected from bugs with mosquito netting so we would rest easy at night.

The following day we woke up feeling much better and decided to get a light breakfast at the restaurant called Don Mucho’s which was conveniently situated right in the middle of the three jungle accommodation.  We had some fruit and toast and then decided to head off toward the ruins of Palenque!  We were told we could walk there from the entrance of El Panchan, which butted up right next to the entrance of the ruins, but the walk ended up being at least 3-4 km and it was very humid and hot.  We finally got there and entered the ruins on an opposite end where most people usually enter so it was nice to walk through the jungle paths with fewer tourists staggering about.

The area of the ruins we saw first were tucked right into the jungle.  It looked like something straight out of Indiana Jones for real!  And the great part about Palenque was you could climb almost all of the ruin sites unlike some of the previous areas we had seen having being blocked off.

As we continued we finally reached a large clearing where most of the giant pyramids stood.  We took lots of breaks walking around this ruin site as the heat and humidity just drained any energy we had.  We still managed to climb most of the pyramids and take in the ancient views.  We loved how this site was burried deep in the jungle.  Apparently what we saw was only about 3% of the entire city of Palanque.  The remaining 97% was all around throughout the jungle and hadn’t been excavated yet I believe mostly due to the destruction they would be causing to the ecosystems there if they did excavate.

The ruins were a beautiful site and there were also lots of small rivers and creeks running throughout the jungle which looked so enticing with the heat surrounding us.  Curse those ropped off barriers to the water and the “No Pase” signs!!

After visiting the ruins we started the grueling sweaty walk back to El Panchan.  We were hoping a truck might drive by and we could give the driver a few pesos to take us up the road in his truck bed.  A combi bus did drive by and we crammed in there with some other locals and they dropped us off right in front of El Panchan.  I don’t think I have ever enjoyed riding in a van with the windows open as much as I enjoyed it on that day.

We got back to El Panchan and sat over in Don Mucho’s again to see if we could find a man named Gabriel whom our friend Jose back in San Cristobal mentioned we should talk to about jungle tours and such.  We asked the staff at the restaurant if they knew where he was and they called him over for us.  Gabriel was the most polite and interesting person.  He enjoyed talking to us and telling us about his tours that he offered.  We were excited to hear that he was taking a tour through the jungle in about an hour so we decided to tag along.

The pictures I took in the jungle were with my camera phone and not my good camera.  I really wanted to experience the jungle without the burden of being a tourist so I left the bulky camera behind and took only the clothes on my back and a small satchel with some bug repellent and my phone for a few pictures here and there.

Gabriel was a local and he grew up in the jungle  He had visited this particular area of the jungle countless times throughout his life and gave us a great tour of the area.  He was able to show us some various plants and told us some of the Mayan myths behind their names and existence.  We even found some edible plants and flowers which were very unique and fun to try.  He always walked through the jungle barefoot and invited any of us to try it as well.  He was very concientious of his surroundings always looking and listening to the jungle and would warn us of any fire ant paths or trees with spikes so we wouldn’t step on them or hurt ourselves.  I totally took my shoes off and wandered through the jungle with my bare feet.  It made me feel like a wild woman :)

Just before entering the jungle, he brought us to his friend, a giant tree near the entrance, and asked us all to join him in asking the jungle for permission to enter.  He said the jungle understands any language and will listen to anyone who speaks to it.  He said he usually asked for permission to have the jungle keep him safe and show him all of the secrets she has to offer.  He believes the jungle is a living being and should be respected.  So we all knelt down and put our palm on the soil and spoke with the jungle asking for a safe journey throughout.

Our first stop on the jungle tour was a swimming hole and OMG was it refreshing.  It was JUST what we needed in that humid climate.  The water was crisp and cool and just perfect.  Gabriel wandered off while us and three German folks who tagged along for the tour waded in the pool and stood under the waterfalls.  Then he returned with some special clay that he found which he kept in a wide leaf and gave to us to put on our skin.  He said it was good for mosquito bites as well.  He also showed us a secret hidden spot at the pool just under the waterfall where you could duck under some rocks and enter a small cave in the water.  There was plenty of room for about two people and head room to breath and there were stalactites hanging just above your head.  It was awesome!  We each got a chance to go in there and check it out.

After swimming for a while we headed back into the jungle looking and listening for more plants and animals.  We saw lots of birds such as doves, motmots and even some tucans!  We later heard the screams of the monkeys which sounded like giant gorillas in the distance, but they were actually only tiny little things. I always wondered how those booming calls came from such tiny creatures.  We wandered through shallow pools, hopped rocks, climbed small hills and even climbed through caves!  We also found Mayan ruins that had not been excavated and that had been consumed by the jungle.  We found small pieces of ancient carved stone and holes which would lead to entrances to decrepit buildings.  THIS was the real Mayan jungle experience we were hoping for.

The sun was finally starting to wane and we needed to head back as the entire area was “closed.”  The part of the jungle near the ruins we were in was apart of the Palenque ruins and was only open between the hours of 8-6.  So we wandered back following the knowledgeable Gabriel who knew every path and secret of the jungle and found the road again after many wonderful and playful hours in the jungle.  We started hoofing it back to El Panchan as most of the vehicles that could take us back were being blocked off.  We managed to reach the museum area (which we saw earlier in the day) and a taxi was nearby so the  Germans decided to pay up and take it back.  Steve, Gabriel, and I kept walking  and eventually ran into a truck which we hopped into the back of free of charge (Gabriel knew the people inside) and got ourselves a breezy ride back to El Panchan.  We thanked Gabriel and told him we would see him later that night at Don Mucho’s!

So later we had some dinner at Don Mucho’s and a couple of beers and enjoyed some live music and watched the young and old couples dance to some Mayan/Mexican inspired music.  The restaurant was packed and everyone was having a blast.  It was fun to people watch.  We got to see Gabriel play the drums in the local band (he said he was filling in for another drummer.)  We were starting to get a little tired so we headed back to our cabaña to get some shut eye.

We were planning on staying one more day and taking advantage of some of Gabriels other tours, but that morning it was my turn to have a bit of an upset stomach.  So we decided to pack our things and head out of the jungle onward toward the city of Campeche instead.  We saw Gabriel in the morning and said our goodbyes and told him on our way back through Palenque after we travel through Central America we would stop by and stay again.

Despite the humidity and heat, Palenque was a beautiful place and the sights and sounds of the jungle were definitely something not to be missed.  It was a magical place that teemed with life and people peacefully living amonst it.  Everyone there was wonderful and gave us a real jungle experience.  Onward to Campeche!

Just dark enough to appear mysterious and obscure the contents of our car. Since you shouldn’t be driving at night visibility in the dark is not a concern. Make sure you follow state guidelines when you return home as limo tints are illegal and generally unnecessary, unless you’re a gangster.

4. Kill Switch

If someone manages to break in the car, AND disable the car alarm, the car will not be able to start unless a secret and well hidden switch is disabled. This switch cuts the connection between the ignition and the starter motor at the source preventing a would be thief from stealing the car. A well trained car thief will be on the look out for the switch, but if it’s hidden well enough the time spent searching for it makes it too risky to hang around and find it’s hiding place.

3. After Market Car Alarm

This alarm comes with a pager that alerts us with a high pitched beep if anyone bumps into the car, rocks it, opens any of the doors, or breaks a window. The range of the transmitter is about 300 feet which makes it very useful when staying at hostels or hotels. Though sometimes the car will get lonely and sound the alarm just for fun, and other times the pager will actually play us a little song! For real.

2. Disabling the Drivers Side Trunk Release

We store all our camping, cooking, and other gear in the trunk which used to be accessible from the drivers side trunk release switch. By removing the lock and turning the switch to the off position and replacing the inoperable lock a would be thief will not be able to access the trunk without the original key. We leave the car completely empty so even if they manage to break in, they will not be able to steal anything.

1. Rosary

Last but not least, we “installed” a rosary on the rear view mirror to blend in with the mostly Catholic populace of Mexico. Generally, I find anything hanging in front of the windshield obtrusive and dangerous, but so far not one foul deed has befallen our car. As an extra feature Jesus dances when we turn the sub woofer up!

After leaving San Cristobal, and on our way to Palenque, we stopped halfway in a town called Ocosingo.  The town rested in a valley between rolling hills of jungle and mountainous forest.  The town itself was quite small and quiet.  Before we found our hotel for the night we still had plenty of daylight to kill so we decided to head straight to the Toniná ruins.  These ruins were nestled about 14km outside the city on the side of a hill.  We got there and found out that the ruins were going to close in an hour and a half so we got out tickets as fast as possible, slathered on some sun screen, geared up the cameras and headed down a long cobblestone road toward the ruins.

The ruins themselves were spectacular.  They were immediately different than the ruins we had visited previously.  They were nestled between trees and sat on the side of a hill with spectacular views of the valley below.  The ruins of Toniná contained the city which eventually brought the city of Palenque to its knees by kidnapping the Palenque ruler and it is believed that he had his head lopped off in Toniná.  Toniná also has multiple underground passages and tombs.  There were also some very well preserved and excavated wall carvings from stone which were almost entirely intact!

We climbed all the way to the top of the tallest pyramid in the city and took in the amazing view for a while before descending to the main plaza below and being shooed off the premises by a security guard as it became closing time.  It was a shame we didn’t get to spend a little more time there, we didn’t get to see the underground passages, but we still had a great time climbing around and exploring.

Below are the entrances to the underground passages which we were about to explore before getting shooed away by the guard, darn!  It looks so enticing!

As we headed back to our car we also looked to see if the museum was still open, but it wasn’t.  Every ruin site we have been to so far has had an amazing museum with lots of displays with artifacts excavated from that particular site. We always try to get a peek in the museum when we visit the ruin sites.  Next time we will be sure to save at least a few hours to wander around.

After seeing the Toniná ruins, we drove back to town and found a semi-cheap hotel right near the main plaza of Ocosingo.  The hotel also had a cafe just below it so we had an easy dinner and then spent the remainder of the evening relaxing after a much needed shower.

The following day we headed out early toward Palenque.  The road was again very windy and went up and down and all around.  About 3/4 of the way to Palenque we made a quick stop off at a site we read about called Aqua Azul.  It was supposed to be a waterfall and swimming hole with clear blue waters.  When we got there and got out of the car we were hit with a blast of heat.  We were in the jungle, baby!  We walked around the entire park area at Agua Azul and got lots of pictures and video before I couldn’t take it anymore and had to test the waters.  If the temperature had been any cooler the water would have been too chilly to swim in, but it was so hot and humid that the chilled water was extremely refreshing.

I waded in the pools for a little bit to cool off and then we hit the road again on our way to Palenque!

We were very sad to finally leave Puerto Escondido, but the show must go on! Our next destination was San Cristobal de las Casas. However, since the distance from Purto Escondido to San Cristobal was so great, we had to break up our trip by stopping at Tapanatepec. This was the halfway point between the two cities so we stopped here to sleep and then move on. Tapanatepec was a modest town with a small town plaza. When we arrived it must have been rush hour for the little town as the main streets were packed with vendors, people bustling about, and mini little taxi cars and bicycles with mini truck beds on the back to get people from one place to another. We managed to find our hotel only to discover that the hotel looked in complete disrepair and must have been deserted for some time. Luckily we found another hotel that wasn’t much further away and we stayed there for the night. The Hotel also had a small cafe where we had some fruit for breakfast the following morning before heading off to San Cristobal.

The drive to San Cristobal was windy and climbed most of the way. It led us directly into the mountains and the vegetation changed from semi tropical to fir and pine trees. San Cristobal itself was a very charming city with a lovely town plaza and lots of interesting stores and shops. There were also an abundance of hipster shops, organic places to eat and buy food, and yoga studios. We saw lots of hippie hipster people wandering the streets who, I assume, made San Cristobal their home for those very reasons.

Once we found our hostel we were able to settle in and go out exploring for the evening. We ended up strolling down the pedestrian streets and seeing all the shops and vendors. We had heard that the coffee here was amazing so we decided to stop into a local cafe near the Plaza to try some of the famous coffee. It was very tasty and I would definitely recommend to anyone who goes to San Cristobal to try the coffee! After that we hit up a local wood fired pizza place and sat on a balcony tasting some delicious foods and drinks.

The following day we had some breakfast at the hostel, they cooked free breakfast every day which was really good, and headed off by car just a bit to the southeast toward Grutas de Rancho Nuevo to see our first cave of the trip! We paid 10 pesos to get into the park area which had the entrance to the cave and then 10 more pesos to enter the cave itself. The cave was pretty impressive for having a concrete railed walkway all the way through. There were lots of interesting stalagmite and stalactite formations and every once in a while you would get smacked by a drop of water from the roof of the cave. It was about 350-400km in total length and ended with a dead end before making you turn back around to exit the way you came in.

After seeing the cave, we strolled around the park area for a bit and took a look at the local artisan crafts and watched kids play in the playgrounds. The park had these two huge multi-laned slides for the kids to slide down. They were made of cement and all the kids were having trouble actually sliding down with their clothes so some of them got creative and used cardboard or flattened plastic bottles to sit on and slide down which made it much more fun for them. We also saw some parents clumsily try to slide down with their kids. Then afterwards we headed back to the hostel and decided to go out and gather a few things to make ourselves some dinner that night. We found some fruit, veggies, and meat and made a delicious beef stir fry.

While we were hanging out at the hostel we met two nice people traveling together and they mentioned that they were going to go to Chamula, a small city just outside of San Cristobal, to see some of the indigenous people of Chaipas celebrating in one of their churches. They said that there are sometimes chicken sacrifices inside the church as part of their festival and it was highly forbidden to take photos or video inside the church or of the people engaged in the festival. This was something we had to see! So we met up with our friends the next morning around 8am and walked down toward the center of town, and then some, to an area where we could catch a Mexican combi bus to Chamula.

The bus dropped us right near the church and we began wandering toward the festivities. There were giant bottle rockets being fired every so often by the locals to help ward of the evil spirits and many of the men were wearing traditional festival clothing of wool fur in either black or white which covered their back, chest, and arms. They also had cowboy hats and boots on and some of the men wore colorful ribbon outfits. The women wore long skirts made of the black wool and also wore the wool in other ways too. They usually carried big goblets with these coals burning inside them which gave off a smoke with a pleasant smell, almost like incense, but more intense. Intencense. Since It was highly frowned upon to take photos, it was hard to get some good shots of the people and the ceremonies. I really wish I could have taken photos inside the church as the atmosphere and people inside were just fascinating.

The inside of the church was full of people sitting on the ground and standing around small altars surrounded by hundreds of candles. Many of the women and their children would sit and light the candles and pray while the rays of sunlight from the stained glass windows shone through to the ground amongst the smokey interior. Some people walked around with the smoking goblets and the entire floor of the church was covered in fresh green pine needles. There were no pews, only open ground with altars on the sides. Our friend, his name was Jose by the way, mentioned that if you are seen taking photos in the church the “monkeys” will come and beat you with sticks or throw rocks at you and make you leave. The indigenous people here believe that having their picture taken takes away their soul. The “monkeys” are men dressed in the white fur and also wear ribbons and sashes. It was just so beautiful and fascinating inside I wish I could have shared it visually with the world, but I guess that just means you might have to go see it for yourself one day!

After witnessing the indigenous festival we headed back into town. We had planned on making the 6 hour drive to Palenque that day, but we wanted to see the festival in Chamula instead. We didn’t have enough daylight to make it all the way to Palenque so we decided to break the trip in half again and stop in a town called Ocosingo first before heading to Palenque. The drive from San Cristobal to Ocosingo was just as windy as ever but it was fascinating seeing the vegetation change from the mountainous firs to the tropics again. I’ll make a small post about Ocosingo on it’s own as we got to see some amazing ruins and waterfalls there! Until next time!

I already talked a little about the drive from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido and how terrible the road conditions were, but aside from the flat tire we managed to reach the hot and humid beach town of Puerto Escondido with some daylight left to figure out where we wanted to stay. One tool that helped us along towards Puerto Escondido was our newly discovered GPS capabilities on our smart phones. Gary at the hostel in Oaxaca told us you could cache the google map to places you want to go and use the satellite GPS to get road maps. How come we didn’t figure this out earlier? We thought our phones would only be able to access Google Maps with either Wifi or 3G. Well anyway we feel pretty dumb for not figuring this out sooner, but it came in very handy on our way to Puerto Escondido :)

After 6 hours or so of driving through those treacherous windy roads, we finally saw the ocean peek out in the horizon. We had originally thought of staying at a hostel right near Playa Carrizalillo which was the beach novice surfers frequent (perfect for us,) however the hostel seemed dead and just didn’t feel right so we headed back to the car to consult the book in search of another place to stay. It just so happened a familiar face wandered up the beach road near the hostel and it was our friend Christopher the Swiss whom we had briefly met in Mexico City, Oaxaca, and then now in Puerto Escondido! He mentioned he was staying at a hostel near Playa Zicatela (which was a beach for experienced surfers.) So we hopped back in the car to drive along the main boulevard near Playa Zicatela in search of a hostel with some camping.

We drove along and spotted Hostel Mondala which said they had camping so we stopped in front and peeked in to check on some prices. It wasn’t the same hostel Christopher had mentioned, but it was a hostel Gary had mentioned was really cool. They had a few shady and private spots to camp and it was only $30 pesos per person per night (that’s about $4.50 USD a night!) They told us to pay when we left as we weren’t sure how many days we wanted to stay. So we set up camp got settled, and started making friends with the others staying at the hostel. They had 5 hammocks lined up in the center of the hostel where most of the other travelers would congregate and lounge around drinking and smoking nearly every night. We had so much fun meeting new friends and hanging out at the hostel when we got there we forgot to eat dinner! The people who worked (Shout out to Michelle, Lily, and Jose!) there were very friendly and hung out with everyone as well. We were really starting to like this hostel :)

One of the first things we did was take the car to a shop to get a new tire for the car. When we got to a what looked like a reputable place, we took another look at the three remaining tires on the car and they all looked pretty rough. We decided to get a new set of shoes for the little Honda which took a good chunk of change out of our travel funds, we would probably end up getting all new tires eventually with the condition they were in. We did get a deal at the shop though which helped a bit and instead of paying for four new tires, we got one free! Then we decided to get the car washed and finally rid it of it’s finger dust writing we received from our parking pals in Cuernavaca. I really wish I had a before and after picture, I totally forgot our car was green until we got it washed!

The next day we decided to go down to Playa Carrizalillo to do some surfing. We made friends with some Aussies at the hostel and one of them tagged along with us to the beach that day, his name is Eddie. So the three of us headed down to the beach to hang out and catch some waves and have a swim. I rented a long board and hit the waves right away. Eddie and Steve stuck around on the beach having some drinks and going for a swim here and there. I spent a good 1-2 hours out in the water desperately trying to catch a wave, but the waves that day were few and far between and they tended to flatten out without breaking. It was tough to catch some waves, but I still had a blast out there. When I was done and got back on the beach I could immediately tell that I got a little fried from the sun even though I put plenty of sun screen on beforehand. So we had a few more drinks and then headed back to the hostel.

When we got back Steve and I asked the folks who worked there if it would be ok to do some painting on the blank walls they had around the hostel. They said as long as it was good they were fine with it, haha. I immediatly got an idea in my head to paint a giant vibrant rainbow mandala on one of the walls. What I ended up doing the following day was deciding against more surfing as my backside was sufficiently burnt, but instead painting a small colorful mock up mandala on some paper to show the guys at the hostel before painting it as a mural on the wall. Luckily everyone there loved it and couldn’t wait to see it on the wall. I was told that I wouldn’t be paid for the painting and I was totally fine with that, I was just feeling really creative and wanted to contribute some visual eye candy at this lovely spot in Mexico. By now we were REALLY starting to love this little beach town and the locals so much. The following day I began penciling out the mandala on the wall just between the two sinks and mirrors by the bathrooms.

It took me the better part of the first day, about 6 hours, to paint about 3/4 of the entire mural. It was so tranquil just hanging out among such great people, listening to some music in the background, and painting such vibrant colors on such a large scale. I had a blast. Doing some painting there at the hostel also gave my sun burn some time to heal up a bit before I could go out surfing again.

The following day I spent the morning finishing up the mural. It was really fun seeing the reactions of the others staying at the hostel while I was working on it and I imagine it was fun for them to see something like that become tangible in such a short time. The language barrier at the hostel didn’t seem to come into play while people sporadically stopped by to see how I was doing with the painting. There were a group of 5 Argentinian surfer dudes staying in a tent near us who didn’t speak any English and it was very difficult for us, and even the Mexicans staying there to understand the thick Argentinian accent these guys carried. It didn’t seem to get in the way when they stopped by to show their appreciation.

After I finished the mural Steve, Eddie, and I decided to hit the beach again for some more surfing and swimming. Before we left I went and bought a rash guard to protect my already burned back from more exposure and made sure to reapply sun screen multiple times throughout our stay there at Playa Carrizalillo. That Mexican sun can be a harsh mistress. We got there and I rented a long board and hit the waves. The waves were MUCH bigger today and there were lots of people surfing and body boarding. It was a little difficult to find a spot in the tiny cove to catch some waves without getting in someones way. I was out there for a good hour or so before coming in and then Steve gave it a go for a while. I then hit the waves once more after him and FINALLY caught a good wave. I had sort of half caught some waves earlier and was determined to get at least one that day and boy was it worth it! I rewarded myself with a nice cold beer on the beach after that :) We also did some snorkeling and saw lots of fish under the water near some rock formations and did plenty of swimming before heading back to the hostel to swing in the hammocks.

Here are some pics of Steve and I hitting the waves :)

We ended up staying in Puerto Escondido for about a week. We absolutely LOVED being super beach bums there and living on the cheap. There was a small tienda nearby that always had fresh fruit for sale which we ate for breakfast every day. Some mornings we treated ourselves to a granola, banana, and soy milk smoothie and some (I call them) Mexican eggs benedict at a local restaurant that quickly became our favorite place to eat. We went surfing whenever we wanted at Playa Carrizalillo and swam in the crystal clear blue waters and drank beer and smoked while swinging in hammocks with some of the most laid back and awesome company we could have asked for. We really did not want to leave at all. Unfortunately, we had an itinerary to follow to meet Steve’s mom in Belize a month from now so we had to get back on the road. It was sad to leave, we hugged and kissed everyone goodbye and said Hasta Luego to Puerto Escondido holding back the tears and headed off toward San Cristobal de las Casas to continue our adventure. I would not be surprised at all if we decided to return to Puerto Escondido on our way back and stick around bumming it on the cheap for as long as possible before heading back to the states :)

After our final night at the hotel in Cuernavaca we headed off the next morning toward Oaxaca. The drive was fine and we didn’t have any trouble finding our way even once we got into Oaxaca centro. We read great things about a particular hostel called Hostel Don Nino from our guide book and it was relatively easy to find. Another thing we read about Oaxaca was that the city was very poor and there were sometimes small protests in the main squares and plazas, but when we got there and started driving around centro and trying to find the hostel we saw the exact opposite of what we read. The city was gorgeous and there were families and children running all over Plaza Juarez near our hostel all the time. One cool thing we saw in the Plaza Juarez were tons of little kids riding those power wheels cars all over. We then spotted a guy who was renting them out for the kids to go to town with all over the plaza circling the fountains and racing each other, that was pretty neat and a great idea.

Once we got to Hostel Don Nino we were blown away at how clean and nice it was. The dorm rooms were very reasonably priced and they had some great common areas and a roof top terrace with an outdoor shared kitchen. We got our beds and met an Englishman named Gary who was sharing the room with us. After the short meet and greet we went back downstairs to ask the receptionist if we could do some of our laundry and if he knew of a great place to get some mole. Oaxaca is touted as having the best mole in Mexico so we had to give it a try. We ended up going to a little place on a street corner about a mile away from our hostel which had some amazing mole made from a special Oaxacan chocolate which is hand made in the city. It had a very rich flavor with the slightest hint of chocolate and it gave us the sensation that we were indulging in an ancient recipe handed down through the ages, which of course it was! Then back to the hostel for a nights rest before we headed out on a day trip to see the Monte Alban Mayan Ruins.

The next morning we woke up and decided to walk down toward the zocolo and catch a local bus up to the Monte Alban ruins. They left about every hour and the tickets were 100 pesos cheaper than the tour the hostel offered. We walked down to the bus station and waited for a bit while the bus got there. On the way we stumbled into a large street market that had lots of things for sale and we decided to be sure to hit the market up on the way back from our day trip. So we finally get on the bus and get our seats when the driver stands up and tells us to all get off…haha. Apparently we had to switch over to a bigger bus. The drive up to the ruins was very windy and hardly paved and there were many moments where I was sure the bus wasn’t going to be able to make the curve, but somehow it did without tumbling down the hillside on top of the houses and shacks where some of the Oaxacans lived.

We arrived at the Monte Alban ruins which were situated on the top of a very tall hill which had a 360 degree view of the city below and the farmlands opposite of the hill. Beyond that were even greater hillsides which I believe reached altitudes of 3500 meters. We got our tickets into the ruins and began giving ourselves a self guided tour of the many pyramids, tombs, and ancient stone relics from the Mayan civilization. Our first stop was the tomb area and of course Steve felt it necessary to commune with the ancient spirits of the Mayans.

We then ventured onward and found plenty of ancient wonders concealed by lush green undergrowth. We were also amazed at the amount of preserved stone carvings. One in particular displayed a wealthy family and a man depicted as a jaguar.

We climbed all the pyramids we were allowed to and I even partook in some communing with the ancients. There was also a game arena in this ancient city where the Mayans would play to the death. Apparently the arena at this particular site didn’t carry out the sacrifices toward the losing team, but other sites were dead serious about their games.

Monte Alban was a spectacular site to see. The 360 degree view on top of the hill was amazing and I can see why the Mayans chose that spot to build their city. I couldn’t help but daydream about what the city and people must have been like, a thriving civilization at the pinnacle of their greatness looking down upon the unspoiled land, planning their eternal reign. After wandering around the city we headed back toward the entrance to check out the meager museum they had. Then we hopped back on the bus back to town.

We stopped in at the market we ran into before and ended up buying some fresh french bread, lettuce, tomato, avocado, fresh Oaxacan cheese, and some chicken to make some sandwiches for dinner. Our friend Al whom we met back in Copper Canyon had mentioned that in Oaxaca you can buy toasted crickets called chapulines and we found heaps of them in the market. Steve bought a small bag full of some chili flavored chapulines so we could try them when we got back. We had a nice easy homemade dinner and some crickets for dessert. I actually didn’t try one myself cause bleh, but Steve says they taste sort of like dried shrimp…with chili…and antenna…and wings.

We hit the sack and got up early the next morning to get on the road again onto Puerto Escondido. Our roommate Gary mentioned to us at around 10am when we were about to leave that the drive took him 11 hours by bus to get from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca (he just came from there a few days before) and Steve and I thought we wouldn’t make it before dark. We then found out that the big buses take a severely longer route to get there as the buses can’t handle the highway that takes you straight there. Surely our car could make it and the drive would only take about 6 hours (according to the receptionist.) Well, we hit the road onward to Puerto Escondido and boy was that highway complete crap. Terribly windy all the way and just in horrible disrepair. It was SO bad in fact that we ended up getting a flat tire along the way! Here’s how that went down.

Just before we left Oaxaca to get to Puerto Escondido, we refueled and also put a little air in our tires. The Mexican roads really take it out of the tires. Then we started on the crazy windy road. About 3/4 of the way there we stopped off the side of the road for a pee break and I noticed that there was a faint hissssssss sound coming from the car. As I got closer I heard it coming from one of the rear tires and sure enough there was a hole right smack dab in the middle of the sidewall. The tire wasn’t flat yet but air was escaping and we knew we would need to replace the tire when we got to Puerto Escondido. We used some gorilla tape to temporarily patch it, but as we drove on the tape came off and eventually the tire went flat. So we emptied the trunk and put our spare on. We also discovered we had two spare tires with us, one regular sized spare which takes up most of the room in our trunk right now, and another donut spare under the floorboard in the trunk. We used the normal sized one, but it was a little low on air itself.

We got safely to Puerto Escondido and decided to get some new shoes for the car the following day. More on Puerto Escondido in the next post!

Steve also broke the record for longest distance traveled while in neutral on this hill which clocked in at 11.3 miles shattering the previous record of 5.4! Just thought you’d like to know :)

The next day in Mexico City we woke up and had some breakfast in the hostel, grabbed our cameras and started on the metro down to a southern part of Mexico City called Xochimilco to see some old canals that exist there. Apparently the entire area where Mexico City exists today was a giant lake, I believe at the time Mexico’s biggest lake, which existed during the Aztec empire. All that remains of the lake today are 180km of canals and water ways with floating gardens and homes which are only accessible by festively and brightly decorated gondolas. Of course there were plenty of these gondolas and there were plenty of locals waiting at the embarcaderos to give tourists rides through the canals. They offered various length trips and we opted for a 2.5 hour tour of the canals. And as you can see by the little kitty taking a leisurely bath here, the atmosphere was laid back and tranquil.

Our captain steered the boat with a long bamboo rod which he used to push us along the water by the bottom of the canals. He spoke no English but was very patient with our Spanglish and still made the effort to describe to us the history of the canals and the ancient civilizations that once dominated this area of Mexico. He spoke slowly and clearly and even though we didn’t know all of the vocabulary we were able to loosely figure out what he was saying bit by bit and it was very interesting to hear him talk about the history as we sailed softly along the water.

Of course this place wouldn’t be complete without other smaller gondolas floating around and boarding their rafts right along side the ones with the tourists and families enjoying the canals to play marriachi music, marimbas, cook food, or pedle souveniers. It is Mexico after all, there is always a chance to buy something you don’t need everywhere! We politely declined the music, food, and souvenier boarding the entire time and just enjoyed the scenery and history lectures. But of course we had to get some giant Coronas for our ride!

There was one part of the canals that would take a long time to get to, which we opted out of seeing because the price was too high, called the Island of Dolls. Apparently a little girl drowned in one of the canals and to vindicate her spirit one of the locals started dredging toys, dolls, and stuffed animals that drifted down the canals and despite their condition hung them from the many branches of trees that hugged the canal bank on a specific island. It created a very harrowing and disturbing display of remembrance and caution. We really wanted to see this island, but it was a bit pricey so we opted for the “replica” Island of Dolls which was along our main route through the canals.

We saw many beautiful homes along the canal banks and enjoyed sitting and drinking our massive beers and leaning over the front of the gondola and trailing our fingers along in the water. It was kind of romantic too,  just to be there floating along the tranquil waters. When everything was said and done we thanked our captain and gave him a little tip for the great adventure and went on our way back toward the Zocolo. We decided to have some dinner at a local restaurant that looked like it would be really tasty but ended up being sort of meh. Then we bought a small bottle of tequila and shared it back at the hostel while the movie Fight Club was on that a number of other travelers were enjoying.

The next and final day in Mexico City we grabbed our cameras and started walking out toward Alameda Central to check out the Laboratorio de Arte Alameda. We walked up and down the streets trying to follow our map to the location and walked past it twice before realising that the building we were looking for was closed and under construction. No wonder we couldn’t find it right away! Darn.

So we then took the metro again down to the Bosque de Chapultepec to see some museums and things in this giant park in the middle of the busy city. We got there and walked a ways before actually entering the park area and seeing a giant monument dedicated to the Child Heros. Then after that we spent a good couple hours exploring the Museo de Arte Moderno which had lots of fascinating pieces from lots of different artists and periods of time. The day was getting a little late and we needed to head back to get a bus from Mexico City back to Cuernavaca so we decided to leave the park after the modern art museum. Oh, and this cool mosaic tiled building was just a random cool building I found while we were walking earlier in the day.

As we were grabbing our things from the hostel, Steve was talking about how he really wanted to get his ears pierced so he could eventually have some small plugs. I said, well go ask the receptionist at the hostel if he knows of a piercing shop! Well there just so happened to be a piercing and tattoo shop just around the corner on the third floor of the building overlooking the Zocolo. We went up there and the two guys running the shop, who were very nice and spoke a little English, helped Steve pick out some small earrings to get his ears pierced with. I totally got jealous and wanted a piercing too, but I couldn’t think of one that I wanted that I didn’t already have or had before. So we both decided to get some piercings together and we only paid a total of 350 pesos (about $25 USD) for three piercings! Everything was sterile and clean so we went ahead and just did it on a whim.

We will have some updated pictures later down the road after the piercings heal a bit. Then after our adrenalin rush we hopped on the metro back to the South City Bus Station and found our bus back to Cuernavaca. We arrived before dark and went to go get our room in the same Hotel Iberia before going to the parking garage to get our car which was still safely there. This time the guy who was running the parking there spoke perfect English and helped us get our car out. It wasn’t until we parked it back at the hotel that we realised the parking tenants had a little fun with all the dirt on our car and wrote some funny stuff all over it in English no less. It said “Wash me white boy” and “Dirty Mexicans” and “I won’t get a wash until I return to the motherland of US of A” haha! We decided we would finally wash the car later to get the rubbish off of it. We thought having English finger writing in the dust would make it more of a target for something.

All in all we are glad we went into Mexico City and saw a little of what it had to offer. One could spend months going all over the city and seeing all the towns and buildings and the uniqueness it has to offer, but perhaps on another trip we will enjoy some of the other sights there. Next stop is Oaxaca!

The bus ride from Cuernavaca to Mexico City was a lot of fun and it was nice to have someone else drive for a while. We enjoyed the view out the windows and listened to music with our headphones. As we were nearing Mexico City I noticed a very thick layer of smog everywhere. You could barely see a few miles into the distance it was so thick. I had read that the pollution in the 21 million population Mexico City was pretty bad, but apparently in recent years they have started to take more environmental measures to reduce pollution. One thing I read was that they only let certain cars with certain license plate numbers to drive on certain days. Based on what I could see it didn’t look like it was helping much.

We finally arrived in the South City Bus Station which was right next to the metro station. The metro system in Mexico City is super easy and we were able to get to the Zocolo on our own no problem. Each line has its own color and each stop has a name as well as a symbol representing the stop. And all the stations have the name and symbol all over so you know exactly which stop you are at.

The metro is easy to use, but it is jam packed all the time. When the train stops people flood on and off as fast as possible. Sometimes people get pushed around and trip and fall. The drivers sound the alarm for the doors closing so quickly and we have seen many people get nearly stuck in the doors. Some people’s bags get caught in the closing doors and they have to pull their bags in. THEN there are the constant barrage of people walking up and down the train yelling at everyone that they have this and that for sale. Apparently this is illegal so they get on discreetly with a backpack of stuff, then bust out headphones, lollipops, bandages, books, anything to try and sell to the riders on the metro. Some of them even hook up speakers in their backpacks and they get on the train and then blast music which plays samples of various songs and they hold up pirated copies of cd’s for sale for the songs they are playing through their backpack. There are networks of these people everywhere trying to peddle anything they can all the time. At first we were like “Really?” and then we got used to it.

Once we finally got to the Zocolo, or the “eagle stop” (the symbol for the Zocolo stop was an eagle…see how easy that can be?) we got out and the Cathedral was staring us right in the face…as well as hundreds of sidewalk vendors and merchants selling pirated movies and music. Sometimes you see blankets with clearly printed out and burned dvd movies and then you will see a couple kids rush to pick the blanket up and fold up with the movies inside while a federal police vehicle drives by. It is like a cat and mouse game with the pirates and police here.

We found our hostel which was called Mexico City Hostel and checked in for a few nights into a large bunk dorm room. This is the first really big hostel we have been to so far during our travels. There were lots of people from all over staying here and we had plenty of roommates through out our stay. We still had plenty of daylight left in the day so as we were settling in we decided to go out and explore the Zocolo for the afternoon. While we were in the hostel regrouping our plans and route through the city it just started raining really hard out of no where. Then came the flashes and booms of thunder and lightning, but a little storm wasn’t going to stop us. We grabbed out rain coats and we hit the streets.

Our first stop was a huge pawn shop one block away from our hostel. We peeked inside the large building and most of the shops had jewelry and that was it. There was one small area that had some artwork and sculptures, but the rest was jewelry, mostly gold. We were hoping for some weird and crazy stuff but oh well. After that we headed to the cathedral. Everyone was stuck inside and waiting for the rain to stop. We must have looked like the crazy people going in and out through the rain from building to building. The cathedral was much like the ones we had seen before and offered a bit of sanctuary from the rain.

Then we headed toward the Supreme Court of Justice building which was supposed to have dozens of huge murals painted inside. We got there and asked the front desk if we could see the murals and they wanted some collateral in the form of ID’s but we left all of our ID’s and passports back at the hostel. No use carrying those around if you don’t need them right? Well we did, but luckily the guy at the desk had us write our names down on a piece of paper and let us go through anyway. We had a blast walking through the Supreme Court building…where in America could you just wander into a government building like that and just wander around looking at things? There were murals from many different artists old and new. One mural which really stuck out to us was by Rafael Cauduro. It depicted some very graphic political themes and it also incorporated minor demolition to the walls with bricks and crumbling plaster which was apart of the paintings. The entire mural spiraled all the way up 4 stories of one of 4 corner staircases in the building. It was amazing, but unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me. Here is a link to his website with some imagery of the mural. http://www.cauduro.com/obra/murales/SCJ/scj.html

After the Supreme Court of Justice building we came outside and noticed the rain had stopped. We stopped into a restaurant and had a light dinner and then headed back in to the hostel to check some emails and have some beers before bed. Some other travelers were watching a chick flick on the TV and Steve and I did some computer stuff and watched hockey. Right before bed I got this shot of the street outside the window of our room in the hostel right near the Zocolo.

The next morning we woke up and had some free breakfast at the hostel consisting of eggs, toast, fruit, and coffee. We ate quickly because we heard that there was a tour going from the hostel to the Teotihuacán ruins today and we wanted to see them. Our first Mayan ruins! So at 9am we were ready to go. We thought we were just going straight to the ruins but the tour had some other interesting stops for us to see. First we stopped at some ruins that were right in the heart of Mexico city itself. We remembered reading about these ruins in our book. Apparently over the years Mexico City was built and little did anyone know that there was an ancient Mayan city sitting right underneath them. It wasn’t until the 1980′s that the city discovered the ruins and started excavating. It was wild to see such ancient ruins amidst this huge bustling city.

Right behind these ruins was an old church and we got to walk through it for a little bit before heading off to the Teotihuacán ruins themselves. The lighting in the church was very blue and I got a few interesting shots in there.

It took us about 45 minutes or so to get to the Teotihuacán ruins, but right before we got there we stopped to do a quick tour of an obsidian carving and mezcal tasting shop. They showed us how they made the mezcal in the agave plants and the many uses of the plant itself from papers to needle and thread to alcohol! We got to try three different kinds of mezcal, one was from cactus and was very sweet, one was a mezcal with an almond flavor and was also very sweet, and the last was a more traditional smokey flavored strong type. They were all very good and I think the almond was my favorite. They also gave each person a little sombrero made from the fibers of the agave plant as a little gift and a young boy went around pinning the sombraros on everyone’s shirts while we tasted mezcal.

Then they showed us the various symbolic meanings of the obsidian carved statues and masks they had in their shop. They were all very ornate and beautiful. Some of the obsidian had a gold shimmer inside of them. We thought all of the souvenirs were very nice, but we asked the owner if they had just some raw un-carved obsidian we could buy. The little boy brought us out to a small rock pile in the back of the shop and let us poke around and we found a few pieces we liked. I was going to buy a small ornate cat carved out of obsidian for 200 pesos and they threw in the raw obsidian chunks for free!

After the obsidian tour we finally got to go see the ruins which would contain two major temples, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun. The entire city there was huge. The first thing we noticed was that the place was littered with pan handlers trying to sell you tons of souvenirs and jewelry. Everywhere you turned they wanted to show you something for “nearly free.” It kind of took away from the sacred experience we hoped for, but we sort of got used to it. There was one thing unique to the souvenirs here we hadn’t seen, or heard, before. We kept hearing these big cat calls which turned out to be these clay jaguar calls that the pan handlers were trying to sell. We totally bought one because they sound awesome and we want to freak out our cats when we get home! It was kind of cool to hear jaguar calls every so often while walking around the ruins. There were also clay flutes being played as well which sort of added to the experience a bit.

So we entered the city and wandered over to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and discovered some remains of ancient serpent heads and figures of royalty with their supposedly jade jewlery around their eyes and through thier ears.

We then walked a long distance through the areas where markets were held and advanced water preservation methods were practiced. Then to the side of the main road we got to look into one of the homes which was excavated. All of the doorways and entryways were very low to the ground as the Mayan people were much shorter than most people today. In the home there were clear signs of plumbing systems through the walls and even a shower! It was quite amazing to see.

Then we continued onward toward the Sun and Moon Pyramids. The Pyramid of the Sun was the biggest pyramid there in the city. The stairway up to the top was strenuous, but totally worth it. The stairs themselves were very large and at least 2 feet high each. Once we got to the top the view was breathtaking. Pictures can’t really capture the vastness of this entire ancient city.

After enjoying the views from the Pyramid of the Sun we were led to a cafe near the obsidian shop outside of the main Mayan city area for some lunch. Unfortunately, Steve and I only had enough money for one meal. It was a buffet and $100 pesos per person, which was kind of steep, but we remembered we brought some cookies along with us in our pack so we grabbed those and our tour guide snuck us some bananas and we headed back to the pyramids to look around some more. The guide wanted us to be back to the bus by 4:30 so we had some free time to explore around and see the Pyramid of the Moon. Before we went back to the pyramids we went into a really great museum on the outskirts of the city. The museum had lots of unique and rare artifacts that were excavated at the site. They also had a huge diorama of the city itself and what it probably looked like in its glory days… also, skeletons!

We finally got back on the bus and headed back toward Mexico City. We had one more stop before we got dropped back off at the hostels. We went to the Basilica and visited this important catholic site which was supposedly the most important miracle related religious site in the world, next to the Vatican of course. The story goes that there was this guy named Juan Diego who claimed to have had a vision of the virgin Mary and she told Juan to build a shrine built in her honor. So Juan told the bishop and he didn’t believe him. Then Juan had another vision and the virgin Mary then told him to put a bunch of flower petals in his cloak and then carry them to the bishop. When the bishop opened the cloak the cloak had the image of the virgin Mary imprinted on the cloak and then he believed Juan so they built the shrine.

Sounds ridiculous if you ask me. We went to see the supposed actual cloak that had the imprint of Mary on it. Those flower petals must have had an art degree to be able to depict the virgin Mary as well as they did. So people from all over the world come here and crawl on their hands and knees to worship this depiction of the virgin Mary. You can go into the church/shrine and ride a small conveyor belt (yes, a conveyor belt people mover type thing that they have in airports) and slowly glide by and look up at this framed image of the virgin Mary (I guess they framed the cloak? It doesn’t really look like a cloak to me at all.) It was kind of funny to us because of it’s ridiculousness…but to each their own. The inside of the church looked really neat and had these honeycomb like lights at the ceiling though! And the windows were very beautiful.

So then after another hour of sitting in Mexico City traffic we finally made it back to the hostel. We were pretty tired from the days outing, but decided to go grab a bite to eat at a cafe and then came back in and had a few beers while we hung out on the computer and watched another chick flick someone had on with a stupid ending, I think it was called Spanglish (haha, appropriate for our trip.) Then we hit the sack for our next outing! I’ll continue our Mexico City adventures in the next post!

After Guanajuato it was a half day drive to Morelia. When we arrived there with our car we were pleasantly surprised at how easy this city was to navigate through because it had freaking street signs!! We found a cute little hostel called Tequila Sunrise and got all of our things situated there. We slept in a 4 bunk room by ourselves for two nights. I was still fairly exhausted and feeling pretty empty from my previous food mishap so instead of hitting the streets and looking at the town right away, we decided to get some dinner first and then take it easy at the hostel that night.

We walked to a place that the owner of the hostel recommended which made wood fire pizzas. It was a nice change of pace from the traditional Mexican food we had been enjoying up until that point. I had a salad to ease back into heavier foods, but Steve ordered a pizza that came with diced up hot dog on it. One of the hazards of not knowing most words in Spanish. We walked by the cathedral on the way back and we went inside to check it out. Another church, but they are all very unique in their decor. And this particular cathedral took about 100 years to build from 1640-1744 which meant it had architectural elements from classical Herreresque bases, baroque midsections, and neoclassical tops. I wish I remembered more of the subtle visual differences from my art history classes in college, but as we examined the building from the exterior it was easy to tell that there were numerous styles of architecture all over.

Then after dinner we went back to the hostel. I also read in the guidebook that on Saturdays the cathedral lights up and there are fireworks in the main plaza in town. We checked which day it was (we tend to lose track hehe) and found out it was Saturday! So we made an effort to go back out to the town center and get some pictures of the cathedral all lit up. When we got there the streets were blocked off and littered with people waiting to see the spectacle. It had a huge build up and countdown but the actual lighting was a little anti-climactic. It was still very beautiful though.

After that we went back to the hostel for the last time that night and were invited upstairs on to the roof to join the hostel owner and his local friends for some drinks. It was fun just being around lots of Spanish speaking individuals who were all about our age or older. We learned a little more Spanish up there and fortunately some of them spoke a little English so it was possible for us to have some more in depth conversations.

The next day we woke up and decided to sit down for a few hours and do some more in depth planning of our near future trip into Cuernavaca and Mexico City. By mid afternoon we were hungry so we headed over to a restaurant which was famous for some bean soup. It ended up being fairly fancy and pricey, but it was absolutely delicious. The traditional Michoacán bean soup was as good as we heard. So we splurged there a bit and then walked around town a bit more before retiring for the evening.

The next day we were going to head to Cuernavaca, but before we left Morelia we decided to stop by the Morelia Zoo on the way out. It was actually a really nice zoo with a pretty decent variety of animals to see. One thing I noticed right away was that some of the habitats were very accessible. For example you could have stuck your hands and fingers through the fencing or gates of some of the cages and for some of the smaller animals like the meerkats, the only thing stopping you from jumping in and hanging out with them was a short 3.5-4 foot wall which you could walk right up to and bend into. It was cool because you could get closer to the animals for pictures, but I couldn’t help but think of how many “incidents” the zoo must have had up to that point with reckless children or stupid adults getting too close and getting hurt. There was a hyena cage and you could literally pet their wet noses through the chain link fence if you were brave/stupid enough.

We walked around the zoo for a good couple hours before we finally left for Cuernavaca. According to my map and Google Maps it should have only taken us 3 or 4 hours to get there from Morelia. We were driving along and once we got to the area on our map where Cuernavaca SHOULD have been, we started to get frustrated. We passed through a toll and asked the gentleman there if he could direct us to Cuernavaca. Apparently we had to keep going at least another 100km from where we were on a completely different highway. What the hell map! The location of Cuernavaca on my map was off by at least 50km and on an entirely different highway! So onward we went south toward Taxco and then back up toward Cuernavaca. We saw a spectacular view of a large canyon off the side of the road and we pulled off to take a few pictures.

It wasn’t until we passed Taxco that we finally saw signs for Cuernavaca, and at this point the sun was starting to set fast. Steve was driving and we were both trying to decide if we should just stop and stay in a hotel along the way as we still had 70km to go. We always read over and over and heard from other travelers to “Never drive at night in Mexico.” Steve assured me and himself that he would get us safely to our hotel in Cuernavaca even if we had to drive in the dark for a short amount of time. We were skeptical but decided to push onward.

The first thing we noticed was that there are no street lights anywhere on any of the roads in Mexico, unless you are in a city, but sometimes even then they are few and far between. We finally reached the outer city limits of Cuernavaca driving along through the main street. After 15 minutes Steve saw some lights go on behind the car and someone on a loud speaker spoke something in Spanish so we pulled over and I got our licenses and registration ready. The gentleman who was in the vehicle came over and was very cheerful and said something along the lines of us not needing to pull over. He wasn’t a police officer, but a tourist security guy…what? Either way, he was very polite and said flashing the lights didn’t mean we needed to pull over, but just to get out of his way, haha. So he asked us where we were going and we said Cuernavaca and he pointed us in the right direction (which was the way we were going.) He bid us safe travels and we were back on the road.

We finally made it into Cuernavaca and it was a little late. Most everything was closed up including the hotel we tried to get into to sleep for the night. The door was closed tight and knocking or ringing the bell had no effect. We were just about to leave when we saw a couple walk up to the door and stop so I jumped back out of the car and asked if the hotel was still open. Just as that happened a smallish younger gentleman peered out of the door to let the couple in and I tried asking him if he had any rooms available. He did, but for double what the book had indicated. He also told me that they didn’t have any parking, which the book also said they had. I threw my arms up and said thanks and went back to the car to check the book for an alternative hotel. We did end up finding one which was supposedly about the same price and had parking.

As we drove through the one way streets to find the hotel we were once more stopped by some federal police. This time they were legit. They were in a huge white truck and there were about 3-4 of these guys with assault rifles and everything. We were pulled us over and they all got out and looked the car up and down. I noticed they checked the plates immediately and then one of them came over to Steve’s window and said in Spanish our lights were off. Steve face palmed and wholeheartedly apologized for forgetting to turn the lights off. We asked the officer if he understood English and he said no. Great.

Well, we could sort of get what he was saying anyway, and he told us the infraction for driving without lights was $1000 pesos. Wow…So then he sort of said something along the lines of him writing us a ticket for $1000 pesos. But then he just stood there looking at us waiting for us to say something. So I said in Spanglish “Ok, please write us the ticket” He said something back to us that we didn’t understand. Then I asked where we needed to pay the ticket and he said that we needed to pay it at something called the Office of Transportation? So I then again told him to write us the ticket and said we would go to the office tomorrow and pay the fine and then Steve asked him to write down the directions to the office for us.

At this point we started to put some pieces together about this encounter. The officer started to smile and sort of chuckle at us. He leaned in closer near the window and said something quietly to us. We didn’t understand, but I kept repeating “please write the ticket and we will go pay it at the transportation office” and he kept getting lightheartedly frustrated and repeating himself as well. Since we didn’t know what he was saying I sort of gathered that maybe he was trying to get us to bribe him so he would let us go. We kept telling him we didn’t understand.

I then tried telling him that we were lost and looking for Hotel Iberia. He said he knew where it was and we could follow him there and we said thanks. But then he just kept standing there waiting for us to do something…waiting for us to give him money. We told him we didn’t have any money on us (which was a lie, I had just recently hidden our cash in the glove compartment when we got out of the car to use the bathroom at a gas station earlier that day.) We said all we had was a card. Then his eyes got wide and he said a few more things to us in Spanish and we said we didn’t understand so he sort of gave up and told us to follow him. He led us straight to a bank with an ATM. Whaaat! He expected us to get money out of the ATM to give to him and he wouldn’t write us a freakin’ ticket! I wanted some written proof of an infraction and I had read online never to give a police officer money. We loosely told him (lied to him) that all we had was a credit card and it wouldn’t work in the ATM. At this point his demeanor started to turn a little sour as he got increasingly frustrated with us. His police pals were in the back of the truck murmuring things to him as well. He told us to follow him once more.

So we followed and they led us straight to Hotel Iberia. Thank goodness. He got out to talk to us one more time and I think he said that if we get caught driving with the lights off at night we would have our licenses taken away. We said thank you, and they sped off obviously frustrated with us. Steve and I looked at each other and just sighed together in great relief. We just got ourselves out of a $1000 “ticket” with the federal police! We played stupid and tried to explain we wanted the ticket in writing to pay at the office and they got fed up and left us alone. I read about these exact experiences with other foreign drivers online before our trip and one way to get out of the situation was to play stupid (while being polite) and they will usually just give up and be on their way. I think the police probably saw our plates and took advantage of the situation to try and get some extra cash out of us. But all things considered, we should not have been driving at night in the first place and forgotten to turn the lights on. Steve felt like a bonehead, but we were just glad the situation was over.

We finally got into the hotel and took some much needed showers. We then went down to the reception to ask the owner if we were allowed to leave our car parked at the hotel for 4 days while we bused into Mexico City, then return and stay another night at the hotel. He said that he wouldn’t be able to let us do that, but he said there were lots of public parking with gates down the street. So we decided the next day we would go find a secure lot to leave our car, but of course we would have to pay.

The next morning we walked down the street to get some breakfast at a little cafe and then we went to the Robert Brady House which was recommended to us by our friend Richard. It was a house that was turned into a museum which used to belong to a man named Robert Brady who was a renowned collector of antiquities. He traveled the world and collected art, sculpture, furniture, and everything in between from many places and filled his home very elaborate and beautifully with the things he found. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take photos in the house, I think they saw how big my camera was and freaked out, but you can visit the website to see some photos at http://www.bradymuseum.org/aboutus.htm I loved this house, everything was laid out so neatly and it looked as though Robert Brady really appreciated the things that he collected and loved to show them off in an elegant and tasteful manner. His last will and testament stated that his home be left exactly the way he left it so people could enjoy it as much as he did.

After the Robert Brady House we found a parking lot that had some secure gates and we asked to leave the car there until Friday while we were in Mexico City. One of the gentleman there spoke fairly good English so he understood what we were asking. He said it was Ok and gave us a flat rate for 4 days and 3 nights of $420 pesos. Not too bad I suppose. Then after we secured the car a boy came up and asked if we wanted the car washed while we were gone. The car is totally filthy and has dirt all over it, but I declined because the paintings on the side of the car (which I need to catch up on, it’s hard to find shade and a safe place to paint the car) would wash off. I need to seal the paint first. (Remember this for a future post!) Anyway we declined the offer and headed off to the bus station to get a ticket to Mexico City which was about 1.5 hours away. On to Mexico City!