With a blend of busy cities and empty beaches, colonial architecture and pre-Spanish ruins, hispanic culture and US brands, Mexico is a country full of contrast. The only place in the world where a single step (and a four hour queue) can take you from the third world into the first, it's little wonder this is a fast developing and rapidly changing country - in fact prices rise by the day (and mood) here!
Life's a beach...... or so we hoped. We arrived in Mexico after an exhausting day which started at 6am with a US$60 charge to 'use' Lima's basic airport; climaxed in Miami when we changed planes and also had to clear immigration & customs, leave the airport, re-enter through the same door and go back through the immigration; and ended in Cancun where we made the mistake of asking 'tourist information' for details on Tulum buses ...
...2 hours later and we were finally on our way to Cancun having missed the last Tulum bus and been signed up for a timeshare sales pitch the next morning - we must've been tired! Though we obviously slept well as we not only learnt several new ways to say no but also got them to reimburse our airport bus ($10), pay for our Tulum taxi ($100), buy us lunch ($35) and give us a day trip to the Cenotes & Chichen Itza ($130) - we even managed to squeeze a bottle of tequila out of them too, not bad for 2.5 hours of our time!
When we eventually arrived in Tulum it was a little confusing with 3 distinct parts spread over 5kms: the town - a waystation straddling eitherside of a main road; the beach - the longest in the Carribbean and dotted with sea front, sand-floored cabanas; and the ruins - a small but picturesque site perched on 15m high cliffs. We decided to stay in town having done sand-floored cabanas in Fiji (they really aren't as cool as they sound), plus town looked a bit livelier - something we were to later regret after inadvertantly booking into a hotel nestled between two clubs (one of which only really got going around 2am).
Tulum was a great base to explore the area's, erm, beaches though, with visits to: Playa del Carmen - once a small fishing village it's now one of the world's fastest growing cities and, as such, is overpriced and overcrowded (though it does have a great atmosphere and a really nice beaches); Puntas Soliman - described as the coast's best kept secret (shhh, don't tell anyone), these 2 secluded bays were a real find with their calm waters, deserted beaches and a lovely seafood restaurant where you can sunbathe on double mattresses, laze in hammocks, kayak or snorkel in return for ordering lunch (what a hardship); Xel-ha - 'the world's largest natural aquarium' with lagoons, caves and colourful fish, pretty but hugely overpriced; and Tulum of course!
The merry month of Maya...However,
''this is not a holiday'' (Steve's voice) so we also did lots of educational and historical sightseeing:
Chichen Itza - the most famous and most visited Maya site (a claim certainly lived up to while we were there). Whilst definitely impressive with a huge pyramid (which you can't climb after someone fell off the top last year), ball courts, pillared palaces and stone carvings depicting human sacrifice, we perhaps shouldn't have visited so soon after Machu Picchu as it was hard not to draw comparison and be a little disappointed...
... until we arrived in
Palenque with it's hauntingly beautiful jungle setting covered in morning mist. The screeching insects (who for a change respected our repellent), roaring howler monkeys and overall vista from the towerering ruins made it even more atmospheric. ''Strongly linked to the lost cities of Guatemala, Palenque has its own distinctive style with a unique towered palace, pyramid tomb and'' several other buildings we couldn't hear the guide describe (a backpacking tip - why waste money on a guide when you can hear everyone elses?).
Palenque town wasn't quite as enticing however, so we snuck into a 4* hotel to use their pool (another backpacking tip) before catching the next bus out.
The pre-Aztec ruling city of
Teotihuacan about an hour from the capital may not be the most impressive site but, at 23 sq km, it is one of the largest. Flanked by the Piramides del Sol and de la Luna (the former standing at 70m with base dimensions exactly the same size as the largest in Egypt), the site is huge and you could easily lose yourself for the day. Unfortunately we only had a couple of hours so had to race around - not recommended when climbing steep, daunting pyramids!
After a race to get here before it closed, the pre-hispanic
Tula was a bit of a disappointment as it was so small - you can walk around the whole place in about 30 minutes so hardly worth the 4 hour roundtrip to get there! Still, the five stepped pyramid of the Templo de Tlahuizcal Pantecuhtli (Morning Star to us Brits) with giant basalt warriors did go some way to making the trip worthwhile though!
Mexico Cities...A cool place where white washed walls and red tiled roofs give off a provincial charm,
San Cristobal de las Cosas was known as the evil city in the 16th Century because of the excessive exploitation exercised by the Spanish inquisitors. These days it's a laid back arty place where you can spend days (which we did), hanging out in cafes and soaking up the atmosphere.
Sprawling across a huge valley,
Oaxaca's colour, folklore and fiestas make it a must do on our gringo trail, especially when Ali heard it was also famous for its handicrafts and jewellery. Unfortunately the increase in tourism's made everything a bit pricey for us backpackers - even with our expert bartering skills. Still, it is a really nice place to explore, relax and try some local cuisine - luckily for us our visit coincided with the Humanitas Festival of indigenous culture, crafts, music and food: Mole - a spicy sauce made from 25 different types of chile and chocolate and served with chicken and hand-made maize tortillas; Tamales - stuffed sweet or savoury cornmeal dumplings steamed in banana leaves; Horchata - rice milk flavoured with fruit or cinammon; seasoned Grasshoppers; marinated Iguana; and baked Armadillo (guess which we wimped out of trying).
Tucked away in a narrow ravine,
Guanajuato is a fantastic riot of colour emerging from the surrounding hills. A UNESCO World Heritage Zone, the city is fiercely protective of its image with no neon signs or new buildings allowed, underground roads ensuring traffic free cobbled streets - streets so narrow neighbours exchange kisses across the balconies (and kids happily telling stories of star crossed lovers - for a fee of course), black caped students serenading and brass bands playing in the plazas. Easily our favourite city in both Central and South America.
Crammed with over 20 million people and said to receive 1,000 immigrants per day,
the leaning city of Mexico is one of the world's most densely populated and heavily polluted cities. However, despite a certain seediness, it was nowhere near as intimidating as we'd been led to believe. It was actually really vibrant and full of surprises, especially the old churches, buildings and whole streets leaning at impossible angles due to subsidence (it's built in the middle of a lake so the place is literally sinking!).
Arriving by bus,of course, we headed to the historic centre in one of the city's infamous green and white beetle taxis where we stumbled upon a really nice hotel just off the main square (Zocalo) for $20 per night - result! Unpacked and settled in, we went for a wander around the Zocalo (2nd biggest city square in the world after Red Square) just in time to see the bizarre and complex nightly lowering and removal of the flag - perhaps they're worried someone might steal it off that 100m high pole?! The giant flag strikes a magnificent picture though, set amidst the huge leaning Cathedral, the National Palace complete with Diego Rivera murals, and the uncovered ruins of the Templo Mayor (the whole square was built over the ceremonial centre of the ruling Aztec city of Tenochtitlan by the conquering Spaniards).
However, all this sightseeing was wearing us out so we decided to head out to the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco. Billed as one of the most memorable experiences of Mexico and claiming to have a carnival like atmosphere, the idea is to get ferried around miles of canals in a colourful boat whilst being serenaded by Marriachi bands and harangued by women selling food, drinks, fruit and flowers from tiny canoes ...
... however what the guide books fail to mention is that this only happens at weekends - a real pain when you go on a Monday and the place is deserted!
Going loco down in Acapulco...We weren't planning to be cheesy but it turns out The Four Tops were right and everything about Acapulco sends you crazy: from the taxi driver who refused to stop the car until we'd paid double the fare; the not so 'executive' bus who gave us breakfast - croissants and dioarrhea tablets; the 4* beachside hotel whose cost was halved to £25 per night ... if you booked it at the bus station (ensuring another taxi back to where you started); the local buses covered in graffiti and blaring with music whose drivers race each other and shout obsenities at tour groups; the restaurants who leave water on the table then charge you extortionate amounts if you drink it; to the constant haranging by hawkers on the beach - there's no need to go shopping here as everything comes to you!
All that aside, Acapulco is fantastic and as different as you can get from the Carribbean coast - the beaches may not be as idyllic and the sea may not be as beautiful but there's just something about the place. Maybe it's the endless, empty beaches (most people either sleep off their hangovers or go on boat trips); maybe it's the smiley, happy people; maybe it's the cliff divers (Acapulco's famed clavadistas who plunge 35ft into a tight, rocky channel timing each leap to coincide with an incoming wave - if they get it wrong there's not enough water to stop them hitting the bottom); or maybe it's just that it's Acapulco - whatever, you just can't help but like it here.
Do you know the way to San Jose?We do - first you head to Guadalajara, Mexico's 2nd and most Mexican city. Don't stay too kong though as the centre's really compact and there's not much to do. Instead catch a plane (cheaper and about 33 hours quicker than the bus/ferry combo) to La Paz - no we didn't go back to Bolivia this one's in Baja California - where you spend a few days chilling on the surrounding beaches, swimming in impossibly clear sea and watching amazing sunsets from the seafront malecon. From here you 'live it up' at the Hotel California in the pleasant, arty town of Todos Santos - well not quite 'live up' as the place is a ghost town after 8pm and not really at the Hotel California as it's $200 per night! Finally you catch a bus to Los Cabos and you're there - San Jose del Cabo! An old fashioned and pretty town set amidst the beautiful capes of the region - a definite favourite of ours. In fact the whole region was - we'll be back!
Ba(ja) humbugWe had wanted to end our tour of Mexico by driving from Baja Sur through to the US border but were scuppered by the car hire companies who wanted around $1000 as a drop-off fee! So seeing as the best attractions are only accessible by car we decided to give it a miss and stay on the beach a bit longer before heading to Tijuana - a quintessential border town with every vice that implies and our gateway to the final leg of our trip - the US of A!
Diego Rivero murals at the Presidential Palace
Aztec city of Teotihuacan
Beach fruitmarket
well, there used to be back in the 60's when Todos Santos only had two cars!
