This was the first time I have entered a country by boat, as I chartered from San Pedro, Belize to Chetumal, México. It's a port right where a river flows into the ocean, so the water went from those beautiful Caribbean blues to Mississippi mud brown... welcome to Mexico! (I came to find out later that there's a $26 entrance fee to Mexico if you don't enter by plane, which was frustrating paying at the end of it all). A bus then took me straight to Tulum, the place I had googled the most in looking forward to this trip.
It was by the far the most touristy place I had been to, yet. There were more gringos with corona, sol or tecate shirts than I had ever seen, quite the change from the jungle & the deeply-nestled ruins of Tikal. It definitely had a special feeling to it, though, as the surreal setting on the beach cliff added an extra element of uniqueness. So many of the buildings looked random, as well, and I couldn't seem to connect the placement of the structures to each other and their surroundings. I would have gotten a tour & had someone explain this all, but it was 5 times the $6 entrance fee. I opted to read about it, but, it really didn't help!
The beach was absolutely gorgeous and I'm glad I was able to make use of my underwater camera again. There were plenty of iguanas, some of the measuring 3 feet, that were basking or bobbing their head up & down at me as I tried to take their foto. One of them (the black one) let me get within a few feet for his foto. He was either sick or just likes humans!
From Tulum I headed northwest across the peninsula to Mérida, the capital & home to my roommate, Tomás. There are now 1 million people in Mérida and only 1 more million in the rest of the peninsula. I stayed right in the center at the Grande Plaza, or Zócalo, and spent two of the days walking for more than 5 hours. Even with that amount of time, I wasn't able to cover much of the metropolitan map! The architecture was all colonial towards the center, with some modern structures thrown in here and there. The colors of some of the buildings reminded me of parts of Casco Antiguo in Panama City or San Juan, Puerto Rico. Just as well, there were soooo many churches, lending me foto opportunities around every corner.
Tomás and his wife Beatriz met me the first night for a little while, and then later were able to take me around the entire city. There were a few places that screamed "America!" to me, with wal-marts, big malls & burger kings. I know it is inevitable for those things to reach places that are trying to "modernize", but I hate seeing it. We drove through some cool areas which were more Mayan and the people lived in their simple cinderblock homes. There were many parks with cool art and fountains, really adding to the tranquil feeling of the town. Mérida was really peaceful and had a great vibe. I felt self the whole time, although I was in a car with two Mexicans & probably wouldn't have liked to been walking around an area or two we drove through. Thanks for driving me around, guys!!!
The next bus was to Chichen Itza, basically in the middle of the whole peninsula. Although buying the tickets is a fairly annoying process (i.e. buy one ticket here, another one there, have different people check them, paying 5x what Mexicans pay, checking backs in an annoying area, etc...), the second I turned the corner into the site, the prominence of the main pyramid astonished me.
The site was well manicured and one could see why it was the area's #1 tourist attraction. There were tours in 7 different languages occurring simultaneously, the groups of people moving like herds of guided sheep across the fields.... I was happy to be on my own, once again.Although the ruins were all roped off, it was still amazing to see how well-preserved everything was. The glyphs & images of the Plaza of 1000 Columns were so visible that one could read the stories they were telling.
The Juego de Pelota at Chichen Itza is the biggest in Mesoamerica, but unfortunately it was under repairs. I tried to sneak a pic, but it was impossible! At the end of one of the trails was a huge hole in the earth that must have measured 100 meters across. It reminded me of the cave divers on Planet Earth and how they would dive so far that they would swim from freshwater to saltwater. It was the water source for the Mayans around Chichen Itza. It was so big, and actually really scary!!
In the same day I visited Chichen Itza, I bussed to Cancún, marking the end of my journey. I basically used it as a place to relax & recover, as I was still a little sick and not quite tan enough :-) Some of the hotels had some cool snorkling that I was able to take advantage of.
I also came across some great tacos, cool graffiti & stores with sweet Day of the Dead stuff! As I said, I wasn't really in the exploring mode, though, as Cancún is very Spring Breakish & I was already done when I got there.
Central America has been my most culturally diverse, taxing, beautiful & rewarding journey so far. There is so much to see & it is filled with many wonderful people to meet. Even being the blue-eyed gringo, showing respect & knowing my place really did help with my interpersonal relations. Sure, there have been some political turmoil & corruption throughout the region, but when it comes down to it, people are people. You have to meet them & make your own fair assessment of the situation, as they did when they met me. All in all, this area of the world rubs me the right way!!!
It was by the far the most touristy place I had been to, yet. There were more gringos with corona, sol or tecate shirts than I had ever seen, quite the change from the jungle & the deeply-nestled ruins of Tikal. It definitely had a special feeling to it, though, as the surreal setting on the beach cliff added an extra element of uniqueness. So many of the buildings looked random, as well, and I couldn't seem to connect the placement of the structures to each other and their surroundings. I would have gotten a tour & had someone explain this all, but it was 5 times the $6 entrance fee. I opted to read about it, but, it really didn't help!
The beach was absolutely gorgeous and I'm glad I was able to make use of my underwater camera again. There were plenty of iguanas, some of the measuring 3 feet, that were basking or bobbing their head up & down at me as I tried to take their foto. One of them (the black one) let me get within a few feet for his foto. He was either sick or just likes humans!
From Tulum I headed northwest across the peninsula to Mérida, the capital & home to my roommate, Tomás. There are now 1 million people in Mérida and only 1 more million in the rest of the peninsula. I stayed right in the center at the Grande Plaza, or Zócalo, and spent two of the days walking for more than 5 hours. Even with that amount of time, I wasn't able to cover much of the metropolitan map! The architecture was all colonial towards the center, with some modern structures thrown in here and there. The colors of some of the buildings reminded me of parts of Casco Antiguo in Panama City or San Juan, Puerto Rico. Just as well, there were soooo many churches, lending me foto opportunities around every corner.
Tomás and his wife Beatriz met me the first night for a little while, and then later were able to take me around the entire city. There were a few places that screamed "America!" to me, with wal-marts, big malls & burger kings. I know it is inevitable for those things to reach places that are trying to "modernize", but I hate seeing it. We drove through some cool areas which were more Mayan and the people lived in their simple cinderblock homes. There were many parks with cool art and fountains, really adding to the tranquil feeling of the town. Mérida was really peaceful and had a great vibe. I felt self the whole time, although I was in a car with two Mexicans & probably wouldn't have liked to been walking around an area or two we drove through. Thanks for driving me around, guys!!!
The next bus was to Chichen Itza, basically in the middle of the whole peninsula. Although buying the tickets is a fairly annoying process (i.e. buy one ticket here, another one there, have different people check them, paying 5x what Mexicans pay, checking backs in an annoying area, etc...), the second I turned the corner into the site, the prominence of the main pyramid astonished me.
The site was well manicured and one could see why it was the area's #1 tourist attraction. There were tours in 7 different languages occurring simultaneously, the groups of people moving like herds of guided sheep across the fields.... I was happy to be on my own, once again.Although the ruins were all roped off, it was still amazing to see how well-preserved everything was. The glyphs & images of the Plaza of 1000 Columns were so visible that one could read the stories they were telling.
The Juego de Pelota at Chichen Itza is the biggest in Mesoamerica, but unfortunately it was under repairs. I tried to sneak a pic, but it was impossible! At the end of one of the trails was a huge hole in the earth that must have measured 100 meters across. It reminded me of the cave divers on Planet Earth and how they would dive so far that they would swim from freshwater to saltwater. It was the water source for the Mayans around Chichen Itza. It was so big, and actually really scary!!
In the same day I visited Chichen Itza, I bussed to Cancún, marking the end of my journey. I basically used it as a place to relax & recover, as I was still a little sick and not quite tan enough :-) Some of the hotels had some cool snorkling that I was able to take advantage of.
I also came across some great tacos, cool graffiti & stores with sweet Day of the Dead stuff! As I said, I wasn't really in the exploring mode, though, as Cancún is very Spring Breakish & I was already done when I got there.
Central America has been my most culturally diverse, taxing, beautiful & rewarding journey so far. There is so much to see & it is filled with many wonderful people to meet. Even being the blue-eyed gringo, showing respect & knowing my place really did help with my interpersonal relations. Sure, there have been some political turmoil & corruption throughout the region, but when it comes down to it, people are people. You have to meet them & make your own fair assessment of the situation, as they did when they met me. All in all, this area of the world rubs me the right way!!!
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