Adios Mexico!

Yesterday, we crossed the border from Mexico into Belize. About half a kilometre before crossing, a state police officer motioned us to the side of the road. As I rolled down my window I thought to myself "well this is it, two trouble-free months in Mexico, and I am going to be hit up for bribe money within sight of the border". You know what happened? Same thing that happens every time we have dealt with the police or military in Mexico...nothing. They professionally and efficiently checked our papers, did a quick search for drugs or weapons, and sent us on our way with a "buen viaje".

After the dire warnings we got from many people north of the border, we had a very enjoyable and incident free few months driving through this country. And it's not like we stuck to tourist areas either, we drove through hundreds of towns and cities, and many states. In fact we avoided most popular tourist areas, and stayed well away from resorts!

We met some amazing people, and experienced some true Mexican hospitality. Thanks to all of you, and thanks for bearing with us butchering your language.

Here is our final route for anyone curious. I would encourage any of you who are scared of travelling in Mexico to get in your car and head south to see what Mexico is really like.

A week in Florida

Last week we were in St Augustine, Florida, for Laura and Zac's wedding (Laura is Kellie's cousin for those not in the know). It was a beautiful wedding, and it was great getting to see the whole Benner clan. We had a few late nights playing cards. 

St Augustine is an historic town, the oldest in America in fact. It was "discovered" by spaniard Ponce de Leon in 1513. He was looking for the fabled fountain of youth, and reckoned he found it here. The town was strategically important to the Spanish while european powers fought over the new world. They built a couple of forts to protect their colony against their rivals, and marauding pirates. Arr!

Check out our favourite Floridian band JJ Grey & Mofro sing about their beloved state:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXYaESFUgoQ

Yucatan Peninsula

We are in Florida to see Kellie's cousin get married this weekend, back to Mexico next week. Before we left, we had to kill a little time on the Yucatan Peninsula. Yep it's a pretty rough life we lead. The west coast of the Yucatan is home of the Meso-American reef, the second largest reef system in the world. We stayed at the newly opened Cenote El Encanto resort, run by our new mate Nick. It has a large cenote, with a huge underwater cave system. It is also next to a jungle/wetland that I am informed contains tucans, spoonbills, parrots, monkeys, tapirs, crocodiles, turtles, flamingoes and fucking jaguars. 


We caught up with Torrey's mate Pete and his friend Kat, who helped us celebrate Torrey's birthday with a pinata, cake, beers and tequila. Great celebration!

Chichen Itza, chicken pizza

We visited one of the seven wonders of the world, the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. They were fantastic, but there are a half dozen other ruins in Mexico that could arguably be on the seven wonders list too (see posts about Teotihuacan, Monte Alban and Palenque for starters). Chichen Itza has an observatory, well preserved pyramids, and a huge ball-game court. The Maya, and many other indigenous groups in central america, played a ball-game where opposing teams try and get a ball through a stone hoop with their hips. The winning team got the honor of being sacrificed. Maybe the ICC should trial this system for the Cricket World Cup. I would then start supporting Australia.

Chichen Itza cost about four times the admission price of all the other ruins we've been to, and you can't go up or inside any of the buildings as they receive so many visitors per year that it would cause too much damage. It was cool, but overall, due to the high admission cost, crowds, and limited access, Chichen Itza was probably the least cool of all the archeological sites we have seen.

Pirates of the Caribbean

The coastal colonial town of Campeche was raided so many times by British and Dutch pirates that the Spanish built a giant wall around it for protection. The city is on the Gulf side of the Yucatan peninsula and is a UNESCO Heritage site. Parts of the wall are still there, and you can walk along them and look down into the well preserved city centre. It is a very cool town. Incidentally, my favourite book about pirates is Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck - check it out if you want to learn about Welshman Captain Henry Morgan's antics in the Caribbean. In Campeche we camped at the home of a lovely old lady named Anita, who refused to accept payment for our stay. More of that amazing Mexican hospitality.

Campeche town

Coastal Campeche

We were also treated to a bizarre and very Mexican sound & light show in the zocalo (town square) - here is just a few minutes of it (the whole thing was about 40 minutes long, which covered the history of the region, and then into these dancing skeletons):

The Temple of Doom

Lots to see in the state of Chiapas if you are ever in the neighborhood- lots of waterfalls, cool towns like San Cristobal, and of course the fantastic ruins of Palenque. These ruins rise out of the dense jungle, many yet to be uncovered. They are the first we have been to where you can actually go inside tunnels and caverns and pretend you are Indiana Jones. It was basically like being inside the Temple of Doom, but without seeing people's hearts get ripped out.

We also had a pack of feral mountain kids try to stop us and demand money. They need to build better roadblocks next time they try to stop the Gladiator.

San Cristobal, a lovely colonial city set high in the Chiapas hills. Kellie with Gatito, an awesome little cat that adopted us while we were there and even slept in the van with us for two nights.

Agua Azul, which was not so azul due to the heavy rain. Usually the pools are 

bright turquoise and make good swimming.

 

Palenque, a Mayan city that was occupied from about 200 BC to 800 AD. These were the coolest ruins we've been to yet, because you can go up and inside some of the temples,

 and the setting and buildings are beautiful.

The waterfall at Misol Ha, 30 meters (about 100 feet) tall. It was cool, but we've both been to lots of tall waterfalls so we weren't overly impressed. The coolest part is that there is a cave behind the waterfall that you can walk into and see the full power of the falls. That's why we're all wet!

A post about the coast

We are heading back inland after a lazy couple of weeks on the Oaxaca coast. 

We spent xmas and new years at a beach called Zipolite. This is a beautiful beach with consistent surf...it is also a nude beach and hangout for French ravers. These fiends didn't appear to sleep for a week - it must be due to their healthy diet of techno and cocaine.

We spent a couple days surfing at Punta Zicatela near Puerto Escondito a.k.a the "Mexican Pipeline". The waves are mellow this time of year, as the summer south swells bring the real heavy surf.

Finally we spent a couple nights at this beach near Rio Seco. It is a lovely area, but we got the Gladiator stuck in soft sand twice, and got worked over by a sand storm. 

The beach gets thousands of turtles laying eggs in winter. These turtles are protected by the Marines, video here (will not work in email version of blog, so visit website if you would like to see any videos from this blog):