What's Next? 53 Mexico 2012

Wed., Mar. 21, 2012 at 6:35 p.m.

The bus was 45 minutes late leaving San Cristobal. It is a small station but the security is almost like that of an airport.  There is a separate section for paid passengers with a security guard present.  When I went out on the bus platform to walk around and enjoy some fresh air he and later another guard wanted to know what the hell I was doing out there so I had to explain to them that since I´m going to be sitting on the bus for more than five hours it would be nice to get a little exercise and fresh air.  Fortunately they understood.  The ride was long and the road winding and in places stomach-churning.  The scenery reminded me a lot of BC with the mountains and the pine forests.  We also passed by some very poor looking hovels and from time to time saw native people trying to offer us their wares from the street.  We stopped for a break at Ocosingo, a town midway and being lower in elevation it was like stepping into a sauna it was so hot.  Then as we continued onward towards Palenque the landscape changed and we drove through some of the lushest tropical rain forest I´ve ever seen.  Even the palm trees had ferns growing on them.  We rolled into Palenque just after five.  My room is nice and air-conditioned which is a good thing because it is very hot here, in the 30´s.  But my hotel it turns out is not quite the cheap date I had been hoping for.  Guests have to pay at another hotel nearbyin the same chain to use the internet here.  Quite cheap by Canadian standards, just over two bucks an hour, but more than twice what you pay in Chiapas and in the hotel there it is free.  Then there was the complicated business of getting access and the young man made it even worse and when I yelled at him after wasting twenty minutes or longer he left so they finally found a young woman who actually knew what she was doing and now I´m on. I just took a walk into downtown Palenque.  I looks nice, with open space and clean and well maintained buildings.  There is some sort of festival going on involving childhood development and there was a parade of several colourful floats and music with brightly constumed children and up on the plaza a young woman l I think still in high school was giving a speech on behalf of Focus on the Family against abortion to a fairly large audience.  I might have said something about the pro-life proestoors who hang out on Broadway and Commercial, all of them dowdy sad and not very bright looking and the beautiful young woman walking by who shouted ¨My body.  My choice.  My right. YES!!!¨ Then I came across another procession of several costumed and masked men wearing colorful sarapes and strange fuzzy looking helmets that looked almost like blond afro wigs and several young women garbed in bright floral print dresses with voluminous skirts dancing and twirling.  The were all shaking maracacas, and someone was playing a snare drum and someone else a piccolo and they were chanting. I am just going to go for something to eat at the other hotel restaurant and I´m hoping they are kind to vegetarians.  The Red Cross doctor I saw the other day has advised me against eating salads because they could have been rinsed with contaminated water, so wish me luck.  Tomorrow I am going to see the Mayan ruins

Thu., Mar. 22, 2012 at 4:16 p.m.

I finally made it to the archeological site.  It is astounding.  It is said to be a modest sized sight compared to Tikal and some in Yucatan but to me it is huge.  Access to the biggest pyramid is closed right now but there are others with punishingly steep stairs and in most cases I declined from climbing them because I´m still recovering from my health issues Monday though I am feeling better.  The palace, which has a four storey tower (no access) has many chambers and interior galleries that I explored, all the inner rooms have the same triangular vaulted roof.  It is very cool inside since everything here is made of stone and one immediately sees the wisdom of building with stone in the hot tropics.  There is wide open grassy space everywhere making walking and strolling pleasant.  It is hard to imagine how the people lived here well over a thousand years ago but they did.  It also staggers the imagination to think what it would be like to meet someone from that era and place.  Given that the Maya were a rigidly hierarchical society ruled by a powerful priesthood that practiced human sacrifice and had an amazingly detailed knowledge of astronomy and astrology and where no one was valued as an individual but only for the role they played in society, one can scarcely imagine what we would talk about. The site extends into the jungle where structures are still being excavated.  The tropical forest here is lush, dense, tangled, steamy and fragrant and there are some paths that go in among the trees.  Tomorrow I am returning for another look and also for a guided tour through the surrounding jungle.  Apparently no one is allowed to venture there solo because of the danger of getting lost.  It still is hot here and humid but not as bad as yesterday. Outside of the gates of the site there are of course a lot of vendours, many of them quite aggresive.  I walked down to the museum which is about a kilometre away because there is a cafe and I wanted to sit somewhere for a cold drink.  However by the time I arrived I realized I was too tired to return to the site after more than two hours of wandering among the ruins so I took a cab back into town. The town Palenque according to one of my drivers has a population of around thirty-seven thousand people, most of whom are descendants of the Maya, so although they are all thoroughly Mexicanized and intermarried the tradition or at least the bloodline still goes on. Following a rest in my hotel room I went out to explore the town of Palenque a bit.  It doesn´t have really a lot to commend itself and it is pretty clear from all the hotels and the presence of tourists that the Mayan ruins have made this place very much a one industry town.  I took a walk out past the city limits and walked among farms and chickens then back to the main square where they have set up a dj in the middle playing music and around forty easels and canvases for children and young people to paint. Once again, on my first full day, someone approached me to ask me if he could shine my shoes and once again I had to explain that because they are runners made of fabric they cannot be shined.  This is exactly what happened on my first day in San Cristobal and in Mexico City.  What is going on here? I have found a very reasonable internet cafe not too far from my hotel where I am paying less than half what I would at the hotel. I´m not having a lot of luck finding a restaurant that accommodates vegetarians.  The hotel restaurant I dined in last night has only one meatless option on the menu, a rather insipid spaghetti, but I´m here for only two more nights so I think I can make the best of it.  Travel is hard on vegetarians because not a lot of places are able or willing to accommodate our dietary needs. I´ve fortunately done okay in San Cristrobal and in Mexico City.  My other complaint about Mexico is the water is undrinkable. Today on my way to the internet cafe I walked by a small pharmacy where the pharmacist was announcing his services over a loud speaker with salsa music accompaniment.  Only in Mexico. I did have one small accident while climbing the steps to the town square.  I tripped and fell and slightly twisted my ankle but I landed okay and there is now nothing wrong with my ankle.  I really have to walk carefully in these places because as I have mentioned in the past the pavement is often uneven and I am easily distracted by all the novel sights around me.