Feb 2007

Well, the island of women was not as angst-ridden as we expected, we actually had quite a decent time. Yes, there were more tourists. Yes, the prices were generally (and generously) more expensive. However, the beach contained some of the finest sand (and THAT don't cost a thing), the supermarket prices were virtually the same as the mainland (aside from the produce, which still did not compare to the costs at home), and we met an older couple from British Columbia with whom we could compare stories and share like-minded opinions of the other, more southern tourists. Also, we found a decent hotel room with a balcony for 250 pesos a night, which although was more expensive than we have become used to, was not that expensive.

The first full day we were there, after we discovered the hotel room and moved our gear from the dirty Urban Hostel to our new pad at the Suemi (the innkeeper was a very sweet woman and the place had a festive bubblegum pink interior and no hot water, which was not much of a big deal in the humidity. We found a location where you could buy a half rotisseri chicken for 40 pesos, Jay gorged, and then we headed to the beach and roasted ourselves. This time we prepared with the s-cream, though, and didn't burn at all! I was quite proud of myself.

Later on in the evening we went to the grocery store, and since Kahlua is made in Mexico, a 40 goes for about 11$ CDN, so Jay and I split on it, along with some pastries for breakfast, ice cream, bananas, watermelon, milk and bologna. We returned to our room and made milk/Kahlua/ice cream drinks and watched in amusement as a festively dressed procession of Holbox dancers stopped directly under our balcony for the shopkeepers across the street and performed for 15 minutes! It was explained to me that they were there for the celebration of Isla Holbox' carnaval, which is an island not too far away.

I slept very quickly that evening, which was a good thing because Jay had set up a snorkelling tour with the innkeeper's brother, who worked with the Fishermen's co-op for the next morning. We were given snorkle gear and they took us in the morning to an area near the lighthouse where they threw some bait to attract a slew of colourful fish who flickered and surrounded us, making us feel like we were swimming in Fish, not water. Afterwards, we went near a reef and again found ourselves covered in sparkling, multicoloured bodies. We were not impressed with a dutch girl on our tour who stood on the rocks, one should never even touch the reefs and she was extremely insensitive to the ecology. Thirdly, we passed by an area where people pay hundreds of dollars to swim with and manhandle dolphins penned in a large seaside enclosure. I would love to swim with dolphins who are in open waters, but not under those conditions. Lastly, they took us to a restaurant and while they made some amazing barbequed mackerel with pesto spaghetti and salad, we snuck off to the Turtle sanctuary next door and saw all sorts of turtles, who are raised there until they are large enough to survive in the wild without being eaten by a bird or a shark. We didn't realize we had to pay to enter though, and since we didn't have any money on hand we left soon after. All in all, though, we had a great day.

However, Jay is getting a little tired of travelling, but we decided that we would still pop into Belize and Guatemala for 2 weeks, head back up to San Cristobal, and fly out of Tuxtla Guiterrez. So, this blog will continue for a little while longer.

We left that afternoon for Tulum, but mistakenly my bikini did not. We checked in at the Weary Travellers hostel and met the 15th Israeli backpacker, which puts them at 2nd place for region representers (after Germany). We also met an American girl and an Italian, and we discovered an interesting thing about any American traveller that sets them apart from all the other nations: When asked about their homeland, most tourists will say "Argentina" or "Canada" or "Israel". Americans will say "New Hampshire" or "Washington State" or "Atlanta". It's as though they assume everybody knows about the whole geography of their country. Jay and I have plans next time they mention "Georgia" or "Rhode Island" to reply "Wow, all the way from Europe, eh?", just because. We think it'll be funny.

Anyway, at the hostel our new Israeli friend taught us a fantastic new card game called Yaniv. We're very excited to teach it to everybody back home, it's super fun!

The next day I discovered my bikini folly and so rather than beating the crowds to Xel-Ha, I had to wait until 10am for the bathing suit shop to open in Tulum and buy a sexy but expensive new suit. Luckily I like it better than the old one, and it's an Argentinean original! So, we made it to Xel-Ha by 11:30.

Xel-Ha is the opening of one of the underground rivers in the peninsula, and I believe the curators thought it was so beautiful when they discovered it that they knew they'd be able to sell its use at a high price to rich tourists staying at expensive resorts nearby. So, they charge unbelievably high prices (60 US!) but that includes free buffet food, free alcoholic drinks, inner tube use, other natural activities that would be free elsewhere such as snorkleing and cave exploration and hammock swinging, and is thriving with more people than the fishies, although there were a lot of fishes. However, with all that being said, we had a great time and snorkled for hours, and Jay's parents visited the place last year and it was neat to know we were in the very same location. Plus, it was quite clean, and stress free (except when we got lost from each other for an hour). We stayed an extra night at the hostel, and then left this morning for Belize.

I will begin the belize entry in the next post, but the internet cafe is closing! As was our Mexican Journey. Adios for now,

Love Tess

Hey everyone,

Well, nothing is going to top last weeks post but the entries must go on...

So after the wonderful time in Palenque, we headed north to Campeche. I wasn´t expecting much out of this town as I was qutie ready to head to a beach town and this wasn´t it. Although it is situated right on the coast, it has no beaches, only long walkways. But as we got off the bus and found our way to the Centro Tess reminded me that the center of town is a Unesco World Heritage site. Good reason for it, the center of town is still within the original city walls (much like Quebec City), the stone streets are spotlessly clean, old fashioned lamps line the sidewalks, the building are all brightly painted and multi colored and the Zocalo (city center square) was beautiful and pleasant to sit in.

So we found a hostel that was right around the corner from the Zocalo that included breakfast in the price. The restaurant next door was owned by the hostel and the food was so good and soo fairly priced we ate their everyday

We didn´t stay long in Campeche, because we wanted to hit the beach in Celestun, but the highlight of our time there was the Carnaval. We happened to travel there at the exact time of their Carnaval parade. It was a three hour parade with floats and performers and what seemed like the entire city out along the coastline. I only managed two hours of watching the parade go by before I had to head back, but it was fun while we were there and the music lasted until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day we headed off to Celestun. A super tiny beach front town where everything seemed laid back and chill. We managed to snag a perfect room in one of the hotels directly on the beach for faily cheap. $18 per night for a decent room with a perfect ocean view and a balcony with the beach right outside the door.

Our first day there we walked down the costline and came across what looked to be a very expensive mini resort. Complete with a topless sunbather We ended up using their palapas and streched out under the sun, drinking Don Julio Margaritas for about 7 hours. The sun burn sucked but it was quite a relaxing day. The water of the Gulf is a gorgeous green shade and relatively easy to swim in. When the sun is beating down, the waters make a perfectly refreshing way to cool down.

After soaking in too much sun that first day, we opted for a nice boat trip around the entire peninsula. <Tess interjects - We thought that we would be able to get a better deal at the river than at the beach because I had a conversation on the bus with a nice local schoolteacher who instructed us to not pay more than 120 pesos. Unfortunately, the get up at the riverfront was an official Mexico CULTUR group and they charged 500 for one hour! As we stood perplexed and frustrated on the bridge overlooking the river, a man pulled up on his moped and after some negotiation informed us his friends ran a tour from the sea and he could ask them if we could go on the tour for 120 pesos, which we gladly accepted! We hopped on his moped and he took us down to the beach, where we climbed on a lancha and took off!> It took a couple of hours and we got to see the Flamingos up close, a petrified forest, and mangroves (basically, trees growing above the water in what looked like a super wicked swamp where fresh and salt water meet. Alligators supposedly live there but unfortunately we didn´t get to see them.

<Tess interjects: The next day Jay decided to go for a walk to the end of the beach a couple of kilometers away, and I took the opportunity to chill on the beach again for the morning, after going on the internet. After I had had my fill of the sun, I saw the same guy who took us on his moped and while chatting with him Jay showed up. The guy, Daniel, offered to take us to his friend's house for some shark meat and then to Real de Salinas, a colonial ruins site (not as old as the mayan ruins, but still 300 years old!). We popped on his moped again and went to his buddy's, where we sampled true mexican style eating, using tortillas as cutlery, grace before eating, and the most amazing shark stew! After thanking his buddies, we went through the nature reserve to Real de Salinas, which featured corrals, an overgrown church, and other colonial buildings. The area was originally built to house the mayans who were hired to mine the salt in the area. After a while they all moved to Celestun, and the area became a ghost town. When we returned to town we chilled in our hotel for a while, and then met up with Daniel again and he prepared for us some Poc Chuc style fish, grilled whole on top of glowing hot coals. We peeled back the skin and the meat slipped right off the bones, it was so amazing! We thanked him for his hospitality and returned to our oceanfront hotel, a steal with a balcony for 18 dollars a night!>

So we spent three full days there, and as normal, we found a perfect place for food. I think I ordered pizza everynight that we were there. It was impossible not to for the price. An extra large pizza was less than five bucks!!! They made for the best breakfasts I´ve had yet

So now, we have arrived in Piste, just outside Chichen Itza. It´s still debatable whether or not we are actually going to go see the ruins or go to see the underground caves the are nearby. Either way it should be fun tomorrow and since the comming weeks are going to be spent on the Caribbean coast it should be awesome.

<Tess interjects: so, we ended up not going to Chichen Itza. Jay was tired and so I let him sleep in, and instead I got up earlier and decided to visit some nearby grutas', which is a cavern, and cenotes, which are underground freshwater pools. I went to the taxis in the zocalo and inquired as to the price to visit 2 particular locations, Balancanche, and Ik Kil. The taxi driver stunned me with a return price of 200 pesos, and even after he lowered it to 150 I bid him adieu and hopped across the street to wait for a bus. I had brought the camera and made Jay and myself tunafish sandwiches (Jay eats tuna now, thanks Uncle Bob!), and within 10 minutes a bus came by. I asked him to drop me off at the furthest stop, Balancanche at 7km, and for 5(!) pesos I was there. Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow fewer than 2 people into the caves at a time because of the cost of running the light show and the tour guide, and I was the only one there! Not too concerned (although resigned to waiting, this was 10am), I strolled the gardens surrounding the cave, ate my tuna sandwich, admired a passing iguana, and chatted with the workers. Finally, at 11, some American tourists came by and I joined them on the trip in.

Balankanche was very, very cool, or I should say it was neat but extremely humid and hot, which I found strange for a cave. The cavern continued for over 500 meters and had impressive stalagmites and stalagtites, original mayan pottery offerings, and a muffled voice through the speakers giving a historical account of 'his people' in perfect English. I thoughroughly enjoyed it, especially the water near the end that we couldn't believe was water until we tossed a pebble into it, I have never seen water so clear in my life. After I said goodbye to the Americans, I walked to the main road towards Ik Kil and an elderly taxi driver pulled up and offered to take me there for another 5 pesos. I relented and climbed in, paid the entrance fee to Ik Kil, and thanked the driver and left.

Ik Kil reminded me of another location prop from a movie. A large azure circle of 40m deep water beckoning from a large hole in the ground. stairs, tree roots and gentle waterfalls descended to the little cutout of paradise, and lucky for me I had arrived just as the large tour bus left, leaving me alone again! This time, however, there was no problem of electricity to stop me, as the sun filtered in the hole and provided unbelievably heavenly light. I got into my bathing suit and jumped into the cool, fresh water, which was definately welcome after the stifling heat of the cave. Little black catfish swam lazily in the water too, and it was possible to get close enough to them to touch them before they darted away. I chilled and swam for about half an hour before I got out of the water and dried off, again at the perfect timing as a tour bus had just pulled up! I splurged on a tourist priced ice cream bar and headed back for the main road, just as another bus came by and picked me up to take me back to town for another 5 pesos! So there, expensive taxi, I got there and back for 10% of your price!

I met up with Jay back in town, he had been lazy and chilled and took his time setting everything up, and he enjoyed his morning a lot too. We went to a chicken stand, where Jay bought half a roasted chicken with veggies and rice, tortillas and a pepsi for 25 pesos, and we caught a colectivo to Valladolid a half hour later. In Valladolid we got on a second class bus to Cancun, and we were there by 6:30. After a taxi to the dock and a water taxi later, we were in Tourist friendly Isla Mujeres, unable to find a place to sleep (everything was fully booked). We finally found a dive of a hostel (the Urban Hostel) for 80 pesos each, and this morning we resolved to move and upgrade for a hotel, which is more than we're used to at 250 pesos per night but at least it's private and has its own bathroom. We saw the beach this morning, it looks unbelievable! However, the prices here are astronomical, we are a little tourist shocked by all the Americans and the English that is everywhere (it's actually not comforting at all, we much prefer the more chill mexican haunts now.). Most of the people we see around us, even those running the stores, are all white and English speaking, and the prices here are not much cheaper than at home. It's a drag when you have to go to 3 different restaurants before you find eggs for less than 50 pesos. To think we just left a place where a 12 inch pizza cost 45 pesos! In any case, I think we won't be staying here too long, although that beach looked very enticing, and apparently the snorkeling here is unreal. I guess we'll just have to see if it makes up for the hustle and bustle on the shore!>

Until later (not as much later!), Tess and Jay

Hooooooo boy! This is going to be quite the entry!

I will need to begin the story at the airport in Mexico City, the beginning of our second leg of the trip. Here we thought we´d arrive quite early in San Cristobal de Las Casas, but it turned out that our flight was an hour late (a wheel replacement), and it was dark when we arrived in Tuxtla Guiterrez. We met a nice man, Bill, on our flight and upon arrival I asked him if we wanted to split a cab to Tuxtla. In fact he was driving, and gave us a ride himself into town. He was extremely nice, and we had a great conversation where we learned about the Zapatista rebels, and his orphanage that he and his wife created in a small Chiapan coastal town. We parted ways in Tuxtla and Jay and I set off to find a bus to San Cristobal. We caught a taxi who dropped us off at a colectivo station, and 35 pesos and an hour later we were in San Cristobal.

As soon as we arrived, and after walking for five minutes towards the downtown core we happened upon a guy who said he had a hostel in town with rooms for 100 pesos. He offered to pay our cab fare there and we agreed, and the place was great. La Casa di Gladys, it was adorned with paper lanterns and paintings and plants and had a kitchen, free internet and a common movie area. Our room for the first two nights was cramped but decorated with all sorts of neat things, and the third night we moved to a slightly larger but more bare room.

San Cristobal was absolutely lovely. Of course, the streets were charming and reminiscent of the other colonial styled towns we had encountered, but the true beauty lay in the costumes and faces of the indigenas people who walked the streets within. Colourful huipiles and fuzzy black skirts, the girls and children were at times pervasive, walking into the restaurants and trying to sell you nylon woven belts and bracelets until the waiters told them repeatedly to leave. However, I understand that if they had more money this would not be a problem whatsoever and they wouldn´t resort to this kind of pushiness.

The first day we were there I went straight to the artisan market and had my first true SHOPPING SPREE!!! YAY!!! I bought sweaters, skirts, dolls, baskets, and Jay and I split on an unbelievable red woven tapestry, which must have taken a week to work on and cost us a whole 800 pesos (thats about 85 dollars canadian). I went way over budget, but I had so much fun doing it! A girl has GOT to shop, you know.

On February 12 Jay and I signed up to go for a horseback ride tour of the nearby indigenas town of Chamula. We arrived on the back of a pickup truck to the horse stables, where we were outfitted with extremely uncomfortable wooden saddles and dog-sized horses. Our guide wasn´t interested in giving the backpackers (there was an international crew of young Germans, French, Canadians and Japanese) a nice, relaxing stroll through the hillsides. Oh no, he forced us into a continuous (and painfully uncomfortable) trot for most of the trip, causing bruising on multiple parts of my legs. We made the most of it, however, and in some parts we really had a fantastic time as we were able to get the horses to gallop in certain stretches which was not only more comfortable but SO MUCH FUN! By noon we were at the town of Chamula, and given an hour to investigate before we were set to return.

Chamula is a small indigenas village that was unlike any town I´ve ever seen in my life. Firstly, upon entry near the town we passed farm plots that seemed to have missed the industrial revolution completely. Small, orderly hand-toiled rows of corn and watermelons and Chayote, a root native to Chiapas. We saw women leading herds of sheep, men breaking the soil with large awls, and cutting the corn with skythes. It was unbelievable. Finally, we entered the town itself and saw evidence of tourism in the storefronts leading up to the downtown Zocalo, which was home to the Chamulan Church. We were impressed with the festive green decorations lining the pretty white church, but were not allowed access unless we paid the tourist office across the street. We bought the tickets, showed the man at the front, and walked in.

You will never, ever, see a church like this unless you come to Chamula. No pews, no priest, no giant cross. The floor was devoid of seats and was littered in pine boughs, and families in fuzzy black skirts and vests sat in various spots on the floor and had laid thousands of lit candles all over the church floor and tables. In front of each family between them and the candles were bottles of coke, fanta, and other carbonated beverage (which we learned they drank so they would burp, as burping released bad air and cleaned their soul). A procession of musicians played slow accordians and guitar), and beside a couple of families sat bound chickens. Jay and I witnessed the sacrifice of one of the chickens, and were in awe the entire time. What a strange, magical area. Apparently the priest had been expelled a long time earlier, and the last catholic mass was held in the 50´s, and bishops are only allowed into the church once a month to perform baptismal services. We left feeling very fortunate.

We stayed another half day in San Cristobal, and took the bus to Palenque later on in the afternoon. After what seemed like forever, we were in the town of Palenque, and caught a taxi to El Panchan, a complex near the ruin site that is rumoured (according to the Let´s Go guide) to be legendary amongst backpackers. Indeed, it´s a very, VERY cool complex, and we have a cabaña right across the street from the main site with a big overhead fan (well needed in the heat and humidity here), and alongsite a beautiful stream for only 120 pesos a night! We found out from the guy who runs the place that they have 7 hour tours to three waterfall sites for 135 pesos, and we thought that would be great so we signed up for yesterday. Plus, we decided it would be a great backdrop on Valentines day. Awww.... how romantic. Back at the Cabaña we explored the wilderness that is their outdoor washrooms, counting geckos and getting scared by big spiders until we had our fill and crashed in our beds.

The next morning we were in a van by 9am and heading towards Misol-Ha, the first of three water areas. We were surprised to see Erick, one of the Frenchmen that we met on our horseback ride to Chamula. Later on we would realize how much of a tourist trail we were on as we encountered not just one or two but MANY of the backpackers we had met in San Cristobal. According to the guidebooks we are on the Ruta Maya, which for us ends in Palenque as we are going north into the Yucatan rather than into Guatemala. Anyway, onwards to Misol-Ha!

Misol-Ha was the site of an absolutely breathtaking large waterfall, which they gave us half an hour to revel in. Jay and Erick got into their bathing suits and dived into the water, swimming beneath the fall and meeting me on the other side, which I would have tried to do as well except for the fact that I didn´t feel like rushing with my clothes off and on only to swim for 10 minutes. It was gorgeous, though, and had a cave in the back where you could walk behind the waterfall. Cooooool.

The second area we went to was Agua Clara, which had no waterfalls but did have a beautiful calm river with bright turquoise waters and many little indigenas children selling tiny little bananas. It also included a rickety suspension bridged that swung dangerously and would not meet up to any Canadian standards. We enjoyed this place too for a half hour before we hopped back in the van and drove to Agua Azul, or Blue Water in English.

Agua Azul, the name we´ll never forget. Here we were allowed 3 hours to frolic, and we certainly did! Agua Azul is the home of hundreds upon hundreds of stunning teal waterfalls against sandy cliffsides, and in contrast with the robin´s egg blue sky appeared no less magnificent than as though we were in a movie. We swam in an out and amongst the falls, found more, browsed souvenir stands, and enjoyed what was turning out to be the most perfect day ever.

As we sat on the edge of one of the falls I turned over to Jay and said "You know, here I am, sitting underneath a thousand falls, blue sky everywhere, in the middle of the rainforest with my boyfriend. This day could not get any better."

And it did. Five minutes later, after receiving many nervous smiles and the loudest silence ever between us, Jay turned to face me and asked for my hand in marriage. I burst into tears and of course, I said yes!

I think I have never smiled for so long on a long ride back. We celebrated with our new French friends (Erick and his Quebec friend and her son Manu) and had a great dinner of Pizza and tortellini at Don Muchos in the complex. We wanted to get to bed early but realized we had to call our parents, and there were no telephones in the complex. We splurged on a taxi into town, found a payphone, and broke the news to firstly my parents (Jay had to ask permission, Mom replies with "Holy Shit! That's Great!!!" and of course they said of course) and then to Jay's, who were overjoyed as well (I hope!). We taxied back to the Cabañas and had a great sleep.

This morning we woke up EARLY, and hoofed it to the ruins of Palenque, supposedly the most romantic ruins in all of Mexico. Set in amongst the rainforest and detailed with some of the most important inscriptions of all the sites, it certainly captivated us. We entered through the back side thinking that we had escaped paying an entrance fee, but were 'caught' by a bored looking guy who didn't seem to care too much and walked us to the front to pay the 45 pesos each entrance fee, which wasnt such a big deal. The ruins themselves are out of this world, white pyramids jutting out of a green floor embraced by the wild and surrounded by lizards and smothered by humidity. I certainly needed a lot of water as even without the sun the heat was almost unbearable. We spent the entire morning and early afternoon exploring, climbing and admiring the artship and the majesty that it was and was it used to be. We took a colectivo back to town to have lunch, and buy our bus ticket out of here. Along the way we became unsure of whether to continue as we have been on the itinerary, or to go somewhere else. We (Jay) still don´t know where we want to go next, so we´ll let you know next post where we ended up!

Hasta Luego,

Tess

OK, so I didn't get a chance to finish the blog post that I started in Mexico City so I'll finish it now. But first, an update...we are now on the second leg of the Mexico part of our trip. We have entirely cleared out of the desert and are now as close as we can get to Guatemala without actually going there...Soon enough though. Anyways, we have now visited 18 different cities throughout Mexico and are running a smidge over bugdget with todays rather large and extraordinary purchases. Apparently $30 per day does not work so well within Mexico itself. I'm still mighty confident that $30 will be more then enough when we actually reach Central America. But o well, we have been eating well, seeing and experiencing great things and having a wonderful time. I'm not even getting swindled by the vendors or artists in the markets...well, not too much at least...umm I think.

So, back to the tale. After our journey to get the camera fixed we had a dinner invitation to attend. Stephanie (from way back in San Ignacio) and Jonathan her boyfriend, asked us over for Fondu. (See picture below) She gave us great directions, but since Mexico is so damn big it took us over an hour to get over there. We had an awesome time having a nice meal, drinking a bit too much wine and talking up a storm. Stephanie is heading back to Germany in April to finish her last year of school and Jonathan is a budding stock broker. A junior broker if im not mistaken. So cool! Great people and hopefully we will see them both again.

So the next day was Teotihuancan. The giant pyramids just outside Mexico City. The most interesting thing we learned about the Teotihuacan was that it wasn't the Aztecs or Mayans that built it. As far as we could find out, the Aztecs that inhabited the area and used Tenochitlan as their main city actually used this site soley for ceremonial purposes as they believe that the people who built it were gods. So even the ancient civilization of the Aztecs were unware of the even more ancient civilization that built it. The fortunate thing for this site was that when the Spanish came through, they were unaware of Teotihuacan and the site was saved from destruction. So anyways, we managed to arrive their at a fairly decent time as there weren't that many people their. Or at least not nearly as many as we had expected. I only spotted three old age tour groups and one elementary school field trip. Not bad. So as you enter the Teotihuacan ground the first area is an enclosed courtyard that seems about a kilometer square, and is surrounded by mini flat top pyramids. This area as we found out was basically an exclusive members only area back in ancient times. The area would have been used for political and administrative purposes only and the common class was not allow to enter. At the back of this area was a small pyramid that was currently being reconstructed. It was amazing to see how much destruction and degredation occurs over time and how much restoration must sometimes be done. The bottom half of the pyramid was almost completely restored with the most amazing works of giant sculptures that adorn the entire front face. And in direct contrast, the top half was almost entirely eroded away. It will be truly amazing to return when this part has been completely restored.

On to the main attractions...two giant step pyramids. Admist both pyramids was a massive ancient city carefully laid out and with a purpose to each area. The first pyramid we visited was the Sun Pyramid. The name for this one is apparently now in dispute, as new evidence of worship towards water or the water gods has been uncovered. This one I believe was also the bigger of the two, I could be wrong but it seemed a much longer climb then the second one. I could just be me though. The nice thing about these step pyramids is that they have outer terraces that ring around the entire structure...hence step pyramid. The beauty of this is that their is no real need to get to the top fast in order to enjoy the experience. There were so many people at the peak but the most enjoyable time was just sitting on the edge of one of the lower terraces and gazing towards the city and the Moon Pyramid. Simply an awesome sight! Although being directly at the top point was cool From up above ground we were able to see a ton of interesting mounds that surrounded the grounds and we realized that the majority of the city is still underground and unexcavated. It is a shame really that this is no longer a priority of the government or the whomever has control over the site. It doesn't take anything away from the experience though and actually makes it interesting to use your imagination to try to invision how big this place really was!

So on to the Moon Pyramid. After about twenty minutes of walking straight to it, we finally got to the steps. As I said, this site is massive and definetly take an entire day to properly explore it. The beauty of this one is the absolutely unmatched view. Their is no better spot to gaze at the ancient city then from the steps of this massive structure. (You can see the picture below) We even saw a woman meditating off to the side on one of the terraces. Maybe I'll start reading my Buddism book and look into trying that at the next ruins we visit

So this day was absolutley awesome but utterly exhausting at the same time! It was about 30 degrees outside and we were climbing steps all day. lol! So after visiting our first ancient ruins, both of us can't wait to see more. Good thing this phase is the ancient ruin phase.

Hopefully this gives some insight to our day at Teotihuacan. Im probably missing a bunch of good stuff like the amazing Indian Food restuarant that we tracked down that evenig. But I'm pretty sure Tess will catch you up on that and anything else that I missed with her next post. By the way, were in San Cristobal de Las Casas right now, just incase you were wondering.

Until next time,

Jay

Hello people,

Well first things first, our camera is up and running. I'll be posting some pictures Mexico City later on tonight after we arrive in San Cristobal. Ok, I'll start at the beginning, after the Butterflies.

So we arrived in Mexico City with Cliff on Wednesday afternoon. He was such a nice guy and were going to send him a postcard that will hopefully be waiting for him by the time he arrives home. Anyways, after he showed us the best located hostel in town we parted ways. This hostel is a Hostelling International one, so although it costs a bit more, you know its going to be a wicked place. Its got five floors and were on the top. The rooms all open into a huge courtyard that you can see all the way to the bottom and right close to our room is the rooftop patio. Since were staying right behind the monster Cathedral in the middle of downtown, the view is just spectacular. And we get a birds eye view of the crazy Mexican drivers. Good god...they are nuts. Driving here is still on my list of things to do in my life time tough

Our first night here we didn't do much. It took us about 2 hours to do our laundry here and the rest of the evening was spent watching a soccer game. Since the bottom of the hostel is a bar, it was pumpin with people and everyone cheering for the Mexicans. It was Mexico vs USA. It was so fun to watch with a big crowd, but the Mexicans lost 2-0.

The next day was the journey to find a camera. And since we started at about 10:00 and didn't finish until well after 4:00, it was quite the journey. An epic...or...quest, if you will. Since our camera was broken and junk was rattling around inside of it, we had pretty much resigned ourselves to shipping the thing back home and buying a new one here. So we started at the small local stores, and found nothing. We then went to the bigger mall and there we found a nice Panasonic with a 10X zoom. Not as good as ours and definitely didn't look as cool, but it would do the trick, since we needed something with good zoom and we weren't about to buy the same camera that we already had. So after about 3 hours of debating and looking around, we were just about to purchase it when we realized that the week long gaurantee that they offer does not include a refund...only an exchange...we werent about to do that incase we found a better one later on that day. So we went back to the hostel and used the internet to find authorized Canon dealers and we came across an address for THE CANON CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS which happened to be located somewhere in Mexico City. Little did we know that it would be located about 2 hours away...still in Mexico City...haha.

So anyways, we got off the Metro somewhere near the adress and started walking in the direction of where we thought it might be. As we were walking along, we looked up at the haze that is the Mexico City sky and out of the fog appeared a sign that said "CANON"...which happened to be anchored to a 30 story office building a couple of kilometers away. Anyways, when we finally reached it we walked inside and were about to head up to the top floors where the Canon Offices were, but then to our right was a little shop that looked like it might be a repair shop. the first guy couldn't help us much and insisted that it would take about a week to have a look at our camera, but he went and got another guy from the back who just looked like a really nice, kinda shorter, tech guy. He said the earliest that they could even look at it would be Monday of next week. But then.... he heard me talk to Tess in english and sure enough...he spoke english. So we explained the whole story of the camera and our trip to him and he finally said. "Let me look at it, and perhaps I could at least tell you whats wrong with it. Come back in an hour." So we went across the street to MacDonalds and planned out our next day. By the way MacDonalds is freeky weird here. Same prices as back home and same look, but inside were only super tall Mexicans in suits and business attire...some even having meetings. Very odd. Anyways we went back to the shop after an hour and the tech guy came walking out, asked us for our batteries, then turned on the camera. Appearantly it was a blown fuse and a loose screw. Tess and I were practically jumping up and down in excitement and he didn't even charge us a thing. We thanked him about as muchas we could and then he ran to the back before we could get a picture of him So were going to send a hand written letter to that office thanking the tech guy for what he did for us.

And now our Camera is back.

Im almost out of internet time here, so I think I'm going to post another entry later tonight when we arrive in San Cristobal. We went to Teotihuacan yesterday...so plenty to talk about and plenty of pictures to come!!!}}

Asta La Veista...Baby

Jay

Jay´s being nice to me, usually we switch up the writing per post but I felt rather disappointed that I only had about ten minutes to write my previous post so I´m allowed to do this one too!

Anyway, my finger crossing paid off, as we have had possibly the best luck these last two days! Firstly, after writing my previous post on Patzcuaro I ran back to the hotel Valmen (where we´d been staying), and Cliff and Jay were there, chatting and waiting. I quickly packed and we set out to look for the combi that would take us to the central bus station. I called out to one across the street "Estacion de autobus?" and he nodded Si! Si! and we popped into the back of the van and he sped off, in the opposite direction of the bus station.

Finally he stopped the combi, nowhere near the bus station, but right in front of a bus, and let us out. Taxi drivers were yelling at us from across the street "Morelia! Morelia!" but the bus was going there too and for 30 pesos (about 3 dollars) we were off in a 2nd class bus, which may not be as posh but is still pretty comfortable for everybody except Jay, who has not been doing too well motion - sickness wise (we´ve loaded up on the Pepto).

Anyway, an hour later we were in Morelia, the Capitol of Michoacan. I went to the ticket counter, as I guess I´m the official translator for the tour, and as luck would have it there was a bus headed for Zitacuaro (closer to the butterflies) leaving in 15 minutes. Perfecto! So, we were on the bus for Zitacuaro, 3 hours away.

At this moment I should mention the difference between the Michoacan scenery and the landscape of the rest of the country thus far. Drastically different! Whereas Baja was spectacular cliffs and amazing Saguaro cacti and every other imaginable cacti, and Jalisco had Agave farms everywhere, and Guanajuato state had rolling hills and farmland throughout, Michoacan is all about the trees. It feels reminiscent of British Columbia, full of mountains and pine and spruce, although the houses look *slightly* different. I sat transfixed and feeling pretty comfortable in the lush surroundings. We´re definately out of the North.

Finally, we made it to Zitacuaro, which seemed pretty enough, but I had heard from the Lonely Planet message boards that the place to go was a little silver mining town north of Zitacuaro called Angangueo, which was not even listed in our guide, but I threw caution to the wind and asked for the next bus there. Again! 5 minutes later, we were sitting on the back of an old yellow school b us with broken windows full of Mexicans, and the bumpiest ride later we were there. And boy, this little town is PURDY, but COLD!!! We are about 3000 meters above sea level, and my fingers are numbing as I write, added to the fact that all Mexican buildings are made of concrete so they basically act as cold conductors. Everybody here has a winter Jacket.

We also had nervous spirits upon arrival as the locals mentioned that it snowed a couple of days before. Great. So, we found a hotel with a queen sized bed for 150 pesos (in this hotel they charge per bed, not per room, so if we used the twin in the same room it would have been an additional 100 pesos), but it had a nice hot shower and they fed us breakfast this morning (nescafe with hot milk and a pan dulce with strawberry jam). Luckily for us they had thick wool blankets on top so we were warm as soon as we dove under the covers. Before we did so, however, we found a fantastic restaurant in the downtown (which consists of two competing cathedrals, a snack shop, a taco stand and 2 competing restaurants) where we were served a generous bowl of fresh guacamole, pasta soup and while the men had beef soup I had a great chicken mole, which was less chocolate and more bbq than the one I had in San Miguel. Cliff, our St. Louis retired travelling companion, insisted on footing the bill, and we got him back today. He´s a great guy who has travelled all over Mexico and Central America, and we´re really enjoying his company.

Well, it was raining in the day, raining in the evening, and we crossed our fingers for the morning. We woke up this morning and didn´t want to get out of the warm bed, but sailor´s delight - not a darn cloud in the sky! Hallelujah!!!

In fact, it was the best luck and the absolute best day to go see the butterflies. We didn´t go to the most popular spot, El Rosario, as the man in the tourist office explained another spot, Chinqua, was less busy, affected by logging, and closer to reach by Taxi. In any case, we found a cab that would take us there and back for 250 pesos, and when we got there we paid the entrance fee and received our guide, a nice girl named Patricia. We waited for Jay to buy some Quesadillas for lunch, and by 11:45 we were off for the butterflies.

It took us about 1 1/2 hours through mud, snow patches and dirt path to reach the site of the butterflies, and the altitude at that level (which must have been at least another 1000 meters or so) made Jay and I quite lightheaded for the duration of the journey. It was worth it though, as we arrived to the most incredible sight and amazing views.

Imagine: On a slope with valleys, hills, faraway towns and little wispy puffs of clowd in the distance, surrounded by spruce and firs, and the sun shines down and the trees, sky and forest floor awash in orange and floating palm-sized butterflies, awkwardly floating in the air, landing on your clothes, weighing down the branching, glimmering in the sunlight. We soaked it in for almost an hour, revelling in the beauty and the magic of it all. Aside from the occasional jet sound there was no other human noises, birds chirped and you couldn´t believe a sight was like this. And all this without our Canon! We were thankful that Uncle Bob lent us the 35mm, and I hope the pictures turn out because it was truly, truly amazing.

We returned to the town in the best of moods, had spicy tacos and tasty ice cream, and hung out on the steps of the church and chatted with other travellers who walked by. A young couple from Germany, Maizel and Corinna, who had taken the same rickety bus from Zitacuaro to Angangueo as us, joined us for dinner at the same place as we had the night before, only this night the only item on the menu was Chicken Adobo, which was tasty but considerably spicier than what you make, Mom. We all shared stories and chatted for a couple of hours, this international crew, before we swapped contact information and agreed it was far too cold to continue to talk.

We rushed back to the hotels and Jay and I hopped across the street to this internet cafe, where I write now. Tomorrow we head to the big City. Mexico City. We will buy or repair a new or our camera, and plan our trip to Teotihicuan, and have new tales to tell.

Until then, Love Tess

Well, I might keep this as a short entry since I need to leave in 10 minutes or so.

Anyway, we left for Patzcuaro in Michoacan state 2 days ago, and Jay immediately wasn´t impressed with the town upon entering. Coming from the gorgeous towns of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato though, this is quite understandeable, although Patzcuaro we have discovered is beautiful in its own right. All the buildings in the town are painted white on the top half and a muddy red on the bottom half, and I thought this would be a good place to stay because it is reknowned for its artesanias and indigenous crafts. Well, we didn´t see too many differences in craft quality between here and anywhere else we visited, and were turned off by the busy traffic and congestion.

We carried our backpacks all over town at first trying to find a relatively inexpensive hotel. All the prices in our Let´s Go guide were wrong, and all the hotels apparently raised their prices by at least 100 pesos in each place, save the very last one on our list for 240. Luckily we felt fortunate in finding the place, as it had perhaps the best shower in our entire trip! So, we spent Saturday in our room, with takeout pizza and watching movies and eating in Bed.

Yesterday morning we woke up and caught a cambio (it´s a 'bus', but actually a converted minivan) to the Lake, and a peaceful lancha ride later we were on the island of Janitzio, which apparently was supposed to have the best prices on crafts and we discovered hosted an enormous monument. The weather picked up slightly as well, with sun breaking through the spitting rain. As we arrived to the island we witnessed a show with traditionally dressed fishermen using butterfly nets in a circle. It was quite a spectable, but obviously planned for the ferry as they finished the show and boated over to collect tips! This set the stage for Janitzio, as it became apparent that the only crafts we would find there would be cheap knick knacks and tourist items, nothing worthwhile.

The trip to the island was worthwhile, however, as the sun came out for much of the day, and we walked up to the giant statue, ate ice cream bars in the sun, walked along the edge of the lake, and enjoyed the water and the weather. A perfect way to spend an afternoon.

We returned to the mainland, and went to the craft stands at a nearby plaza where we indeed found some fantastic wooden masks at great prices (22 dollars for 10 of them!), and met a man who we had walked by on numerous occassions throughout the day. A 2 hour conversation and my dinner later, the sun had gone down and it began to rain, and our retired friend Cliff and us parted ways, although we´ll be meeting him again in about 10 minutes as he was too headed to the butterflies today as well, so we´re teaming up. My only concern: It hailed hard last night, and although the butterflies are 5 hours by bus away, I hope they didn´t receive the nasty weather too!

Crossing our fingers,

Tess

Hola people. So right now were in Guanajuato. I should actually update the travel map because we´ve switched our plans a little. On the advice of Tess´ Uncle Bob we headed to Guanajuato. The capital city of the state...what a great recommedation. Anyways, before getting to that, I should start with our final day in San Miguel. Tess and I split off for the day and got a chance to explore the city on our own. Good move...I was getting sick of looking for skirts San Miguel is such a beautiful city and its just fun to walk through and explore the endless streets of artisan shops. The only downside to it was that for us, everything we wanted to buy was just too damn expensive. In about 10 years I´ll be comming back for revenge and I´ll buy that 300 year old door. Until then, I´ll just have to wait and maybe buy a house to put the door in would be a good first step, lol. Anyways, that night we ended up trying to ship a bunch of things home but we forgot our passports in the villa (why you need a passport to ship a package, I just don´t know) and thanks to some smooth talking by Bob the shipping lady sent the package off the next day...fewf. Dinner was also great that night. We ordered pizza and drank an entire jug of margaritas. Great time. And thank you Bob for making this week of our trip so great. We honestly can´t thank you enough and we are so fortunate to have been able to spend that time with you.

So on too Guanajuato. This is definitely a place that both Tess and could live. Next to San Miguel it´s the most comfortable city for us by far and that may have something to do with the fact that it is a University Town. The University centers the city and for a capital it only has about 125,000 people and they all seem to be young students. The city itself reminds us of Quebec City, with narrow little streets, old buildings, plazas and monuments everywhere. The city itself is built into a deep valley, so the view from anywhere on the outskirts is absolutley phenominal. Tess and I walked up to a giant momument yesterday that overlooks the city, and there we sat for about an hour playing chess. This monument was about 50 feet tall and of a Guanajuato hero who single handedy breached a Spaniard stronghold by carrying a giant stone slab on his back to protect him from the barrage of arrows, which then allowed the Mexicans to storm the place and expell the Spaniards. Cool stuff. And there are monuments like this everywhere in this city. We didn´t know how long we were going to stay here but as it turns out, we have spent two full days exploring all the cool sites and museums and for today, we are just going to take it easy and enjoy the atmosphere of this place. Teaching here is not out of the question by the way

So far we have got to explore three different musuems/exhibits. First of which was Diego Rivera house. He was an enormously famous artist that lived here in Guanajuato. They converted his old house into a giant tribute to his art work. So imagine four floors of wall to wall paintings. Although I think the coolest part of the place was an additional tribute section to another famous artist...Salvador Dali. Two floors full of only original work from Dali. This guy is by far my favorite artist. Some stuff gets pretty wierd though. The next was that Don Quijote museum. So this mansion of a place had works from Mexico´s most famous artists portraying their rendition of Don Quite and his sidekick Sancho. Very cool place and now I have to read the novel. All I know is that Don Quijote´s character was a one of a crazy skinny nobleman on a quest against windmills. Sounds exciting I know...haha. Maybe one day. But the next musuem takes the cake for the creepiest of all time. It was a mummy museum. So basically it had people in it that were buried about a hundred years ago but do to the area that they were burried and the gases present, they all mummified. Anyways, needless to say, I could forget everything I saw in there and be completely happy. The next cool adventure was to Calle de la Beso. The Alley of Kiss. It´s a super narrow street with only about 3 feet that seperates the buildings on both sides. It is said that two people can lean out their respective windows and be so close that they can kiss. Also it is said that if you visit this alley, you must kiss on the third step or face years of bad luck. So amongst a crowd of people me and Tess ventured forth and even got someone to take a picture of us on the steps. It was very cool

Anyways, I´m pretty sure I covered everything and now im off to one of the many plaza´s to simply read a book and write in my journal. Tomorrow were heading to a town that I can´t spell, so I´ll leave that for the next post By the way Chad, the journal´s were a perfect gift. I´m on track to have the entire thing full by about the end of the trip.

Asta Luego,

Jay