Palenque, jungle ruins

 Arriving very early on yet another overnight bus, we, the only gringos on board having been awoken twice by border control guards with big guns and few words, the town of Palenque, in the state of Chiapas, was already bustling.  It's an unprepossessing place and people are busy, and very used to, and quite dismissive of tourists, who usually just zip through from the bus station to the hostels and hotels near the jungle ruins, where they stay for just one or two nights.  It was a bit of a shock after Isla Holbox.

Still, we had visited Palenque's beautiful ruins during our holiday in Mexico 12 years ago and were keen to experience them again.  We, like most, stayed for 2 nights, in a place recommended by several other travellers: Maya Bell.  'Maya Bell Trayler Park' (sic) read the sign; it's a group of cabanas, tents and a couple of smarter buildings and a small restaurant, in a glorious jungle setting. Our cabana was detached, rustic and right on the edge of the jungle.  Jungle sounds abounded, even in the daytime, and, very soon after our early morning arrival we heard what we'd remembered from years ago, the primal, eerie and incredibly loud calling of howler monkeys.  They sounded very close by, though we couldn't see them.  We did see, rooting around in the undergrowth, what looked like a giant red guinea pig, which a member of staff told us was a jungle pig.  We also found the complete skin of a small, but long, azure blue snake, which was later hauled away by a lizard from the front of our cabana.  It sure ain't Kansas!

The view from our cabana

The Mayan ruins at Palenque were stunning when we visited them the next day.  Arriving early, we were lucky to be virtually alone for a while.

 

We delighted in cooling off in the swimming pool for hours after visiting the ruins and climbing the hundreds of steps.  The pool must be one of the most scenic we have ever swum in.

                                     

Next stop..... Oaxaca

La isla bonita: Isla Holbox

So, onward from Merida, on the overnight bus.  There is only a second class service which travels overnight to Chiquila, the feeder town for Isla Holbox, so, at 11.30pm, we boarded the less than luxurious, but still completely passable vehicle for the 7 hour journey.  At least there are no televisions on second class!  Again, it was freezing due to the aircon, so we donned fleeces and scarves and covered ourselves with the rather fetching plastic primary coloured ponchos we had bought in a downpour in Tulum and which had caused much hilarity with locals we'd met thus far!  

Brrrr!

 Something funny?!

After a most uncomfortable, almost sleepless night, we found ourselves at 5.30am boarding the very smart ferry (there are 2 rival companies providing this service - presumably it is mobbed in high season) to Isla Holbox, with a few local early starters and some other bleary eyed travellers.  

Arriving at around 6am and walking the few 'blocks' from the ferry terminal, along the compacted white sand roads, the island was obviously paradisical, palm trees, palapas (little palm fringed shops and cafes) and some low key hotels and guest houses.  We headed for the beach, where I collapsed on the white powdery sand and Alan paddled in the warm turquoise sea, almost stepping on a manta ray!  Oh bliss.  Golf carts are the main form of transport on the island: there are just a couple of cars and trucks.  Several golf cart 'taxi' drivers starting their day looked at us in surprise, wishing us 'buenas dias' neverthelesss.

Amongst that baggage is a sleeping Anna (not a morning person)

After checking in to our little casa privada con cocina, a little round house with kitchen and a great little bedroom in the eaves, set in the grounds of a hostel, Ida y Vuelta, we set off to explore the island and to buy some provisions.   Isla Holbox is amazing; really cool and relaxed, with very friendly people and absolutely stunningly beautiful. The sea is an unfeasible colour, and so warm, it would be rude not to swim in it several times a day, so we dutifully obliged.

The idea was that we enjoyed 3 days' swimming, reading and exploring before the whale shark trip on Sunday. However, the weather had other ideas.... we did indeed spend 2 fantastic days wandering along the 7km sand bank to the mangroves (it became clear why our landlady in Merida said that we would love walking on the sea!) and glimpsing the rose pink flamingos metres away.  

Occasionally stopping off for a beer in the pricey hotels on the beach, advertising 'romantic packets' and where very tame iguanas basked on the rocks before us, striking louche poses, much to our amusement and that of the friendly waiters, who obviously appreciated them.  As did a fish eagle, which we saw chowing down on one hapless chap - amazing to witness, though grisly, and the sea around the raptor turned pink as it bathed itself after lunch.  

However, on the Friday evening, strolling along the beach, hoping to see luminescence, (which , we were told, occurs in the sea off Isla Holbox when there is no moon), the sky lit up with forked lightning and the next day dawned with rain of biblical quanities and force, which hammered down for 2 whole days, flooding the streets and everywhere else.  No chance of whale shark trips when the weather is stormy, as the plankton are way down deep in the sea, so, therefore, are the whale sharks and not visible.  Plus the minor consideration of very choppy seas!  The storm brought a power cable down and we were without electricity or water for 2 days.  We felt so sorry for the people who had come for the weekend, including a group of schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 11, who were celebrating the end of term.  They had a great time, though, delighting in bathing in big coloured plastic crates and generally running amok.  Their teachers looked less relaxed!  The rain brought out various creatures in search of lurve..... the cacophony emanating from hundreds of amorous frogs was deafening and big blue crabs scuttled in every direction, the lusty males brandishing huge claws at us as we walked by.  

We ventured out every now and again, clad in our trusty ponchos (oh yes, they caused some light relief here too), wading thigh deep through the hot white rivers that had been roads, to take photos and buy food and beer.  Cooking by petzel was interesting.  

Sometimes you have to improvise:

Eggs Benedict a la Holbox in the dark:

2 fresh eggs

1 fresh lime (preferably from the tree in the garden.....just sayin')

1 avocado

1 onion

1 tomato

1 bottle salad cream

2 slices bread (anything except tortillas, in this case stuff they call bread, made from cotton wool)

Toast the bread

Poach the eggs

Chop the avocado, onion and tomato and gently fry in something oily until brown and soft

Squeeze half the juice of the lime into 3 dessertspoons of salad cream and stir

Cut 6 thin slices from the other half of the lime and from a tomato

Put the poached eggs onto the toast

Plop some of the salad cream/lime mixture onto the eggs

Add some of the tomato salsa on the side and squeeze some lime juice over

Arrange the lime and tomato slices on the plate in an attractive fan shape

Enjoy!  (you have to try this)

Leon, the hostel's cat, kept us company (and himself dry) for 2 days and nights (then disappeared when the rain stopped)

The electricity was out for 2 days until the local government electrician was bribed with a crate of beer to come to work on his day off!

Every evening, as requested, we waded to the grocery shop where the whale shark trip company was located, to enquire whether the trip would take place the following day.  Every evening we were asked to come back, as the main man was not there and would be back later, when no-one knew.  So, after dozens of trips to the shop, we were finally told that Wednesday would be good, but not a dead cert.  Finally, we went out four days after we'd originally planned, on Thursday, though the upside was that we spent more time on the lovely island of Isla Holbox, getting to know the staff and other campers in the hostel and generally relaxing.  After all, slow travel is what we wanted this time around!

Thursday dawned fair, the harbour master gave the all clear and we set off at 7.30am with 6 other hopefuls on a small motor boat, which sped out to sea for around 2 hours at a rate of knots.  Unfortunately, loads of other tourists' trips had been delayed due to the weather, so the waters were inundated with small boats 'lanchas' all searching for the elusive gentle giants.  Consequently, when the call eventually came over the radar that a whale shark was in the vicinity, they all hurtled to the site. There is a rule that only 2 people enter the water to swim with them at one time, so as not to distress them.  Lanchas came from as far as Cancun and Playa del Carmen and we counted 52 boats.  We were dismayed that some captains flouted the rule and allowed 6 people to enter the water at a time.  The rest of us waited in line for hours, waiting our turn to dive in.  I have never ever been seasick in my life, but all that bobbing, in crazy heat....... wow, did I feel nauseous.  Alan has a cast iron stomach and was fine.  It was, at last, our turn and we jumped in together at the captain's shout 'AHORA!' (Now!') and we flailed in the given direction and, as instructed, aimed for the head!  She was enormous and absolutely beautiful and so elegant.  Alan found himself level with her mouth and thanked his lucky stars that they only eat plankton!  We tried to keep up with her as she glided away, orange spots on her head and back so clearly visible.  The captain and his mate said that she was quite small at 7 metres.... 7 metres!!  We were speechless and elated climbing back into the boat and were lucky enough to swim briefly a second time later in the day with a young one, who was incredibly fast.  Aside from the wonderful whale sharks we saw tens of amazing, huge manta rays, who seemed to enjoy teasing us by swimming under the boat and disappearing, also a few turtles and dolphins.  On the way back to the island we stopped off for lunch and a swim off a smaller island where flamingos hang out and catfish scrounge around the boat.  We also saw a couple of mating prehistoric horseshoe crabs, or 'cucarachas del mar' (sea cockroaches) and lots of pelicans.  What a day!

Unfortunately we did not take this photo, but just shown here to give an idea of what we saw - told you they were big!

We were sad to leave Isla Holbox the following day, on the 5am ferry back to the mainland, then a 6 hour bus journey back to Merida, where Montezuma wreaked his revenge on me (I didn't quite make it into the cubicle in the bus station toilets - oh woe), but again Alan's guts remained completely unscathed.  Lucky pig.  While I was attempting to cover my tracks in the sanitarios, Alan was so concerned that he took this photo:

                               

Ho ho, how I laughed

Next, another overnight bus, to Palenque for the stunning jungle ruins.........

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