The Caribbean; the end

Sian Ka´an Biosphere Reserve, the Caribbean
Originally uploaded by Carrie & Eddie.

Ah, the Caribbean. The sea bluer than blue, the water crystal clear, the sand soft and white, the palm trees a-swaying - with one week left in Mexico, we´ve finally found somewhere we want to spend a month. We got our first glimpse with a trip to Tulum and yes, you´ve guessed it, more ruins. We were beginning to wonder why we were still doing it to ourselves when we spotted a beach just behind the ruins, and plunged straight into the sea. Yes, that´s right, the Caribbean Sea. We spent the rest of the day on an absolutely idyllic, almost deserted, long, soft, curving stretch of beach, occassionally tearing our eyes away from the view to read a litte, but frankly not for very long. We did drag ourselves away long enough to visit Sian Ka´an Biosphere Reserve, a national park type area with fresh- and salt-water lakes and mangrove-lined rivers and lots of wildlife, including crocodiles, which the tour guide told us about right before telling us we were getting out of the boat, into the water, and floating down the river for an hour. I will admit I was very, very scared, but then afterwards, just a tad disappointed at not seeing any crocodiles. After Tulum we headed up to Playa del Carmen for the last few days of our holiday, but we don´t like it much, especially having come from the paradise beach we were on yesterday, ít´s very busy and built-up here. So we are going to go back to Tulum for our last day, and spending the final day of our six month jolly in a little piece of heaven.

Flamingoes, more ruins and at last, a nightlife

Hammock time
Originally uploaded by Carrie & Eddie.

Mexico is hotting up. Not only are we now firmly ensconced in the tropics (in the Yucatan peninsula, the bit on the east that sticks out and up) but we have finally found a nightlife, not quite the Bacardi advert salsa club we were hoping for, but infinitely better than the last few towns we visited, where if we were lucky there might be another three people in the bar.

We stayed in Merida, a major Mexican city and no great shakes during the day, but it really comes alive at night. There are unbelievable street performers at every turn who leave you in wide-mouthed awe, and bands playing outside every restaurant for the diners filling the tables out on the street and in the gardens. People seem to congregate near the particularly good bands and just start dancing in the street, mostly salsa; these people can really dance! After dinner one night we headed to a salsa club which the guide book said caters to an older crowd till about 10pm then the younger people start pouring in. We got there at 11.30pm and could only assume that if the guide book was correct, the older crowd must have been in their 80s, because we were the youngest in there by at least 20 years. Eventually a few people around our own age arrived, and not longer after the dancefloor was filled with amazingly talented couples effortlessly salsa-ing away. The atmosphere there was fantastic, with the waiters shimmying across the dance floor as they went from one table to another. It was incredible to watch, which we did from a safe distance, reluctant to make fools of ourselves among the Mexicans who, it seems, can salsa before they can walk.

We went to a national park one day where there is a flamingo colony, they are just so pink and pretty and yes, I am just so girly. We followed them around for a while then spent a few hours on the national park's beach, on the Gulf of Mexico. The next day we went to see some more ruins, which is now getting pretty dull, and even went to a sound and light show in the evening which wasn't as tacky as expected but was all in Spanish, and it was raining, so it's not up there as a highlight. But there was a tropical lightning storm at the same time and being outside in the dark by the ruins gave us some amazing views of the fork lightning cutting across the sky, which was a show in itself.

Ruins and waterfalls

Agua Azul
Originally uploaded by Carrie & Eddie.

Next stop was Palenque, a mere five hours away but one of the hardest five hour bus journeys we've done. The roads were incredibly windy which didn't deter the driver from driving full speed and seeing how strong the brakes were on each corner. We came off a bit green to be greeted by, for the first time in the holiday, a wall of heat and humidity which almost finished us off. Palenque is in the middle of the jungle with very little happening but we filled the next two days doing some tours.

The first day we went to Agua Azul and Agua Clara which mean Blue and Clear Waters respectively. We felt Brown and Murky Waters would have been a better description but were glad of anything to cool us down. The second day we went to the Mayan ruins near the town. This time the tour description was exactly right - they were definitely ruins but being a thousand years old and in the middle of a jungle they were still very impressive.

Next stop is the coast and the heat has pursuaded us to upgrade our trip slightly. AC all the way from here on in!

Eddie entirely comfortable horseriding

Eddie entirely comfortable horseriding
Originally uploaded by Carrie & Eddie.

The travel sickness tablets Carrie bought knocked us both out for the entire 12 hour bus journey which was great, but another 12 hours later we were still zombies and incapable of thought or movement. This however set us up perfectly for San Cristobal de las Casas, a sleepy little town in the mountains. Here everthing happens mañana, mañana.

We spent three days wandering around the town and trying to find somewhere that was open later than 10pm. In addition we went to a Mayan town, San Juan de Chamula (which has the enticing meaning - dead mule) which was in the middle of a three day festival. This was a bit mad as fireworks were going off everywhere, people were launching rockets from their hands around us while children were chasing blokes wearing costumes consisting mainly of bangers and catherine wheels. The whole fiesta was fuelled by a liquor called posh which is supposed to clean the body of all bad spirits. At 95% proof it seemed to do the trick for most people. The focus of the celebrations were around the church, a unique blend of Mayan and Christian beliefs, where the two religions are so perfectly intertwined that nobody knows from which religion the various customs originated. The church was like nothing we had ever seen, the floor covered in pine needles and candles, models of saints everywhere, and people wearing bright and colourful traditional dress. No photos are allowed there so you'll have to take our word for it. With the festival going on though, it was fairly chaotic, with people sitting all over the floor either praying or in a posh-coma. I managed to get there and back on horseback which I am still paying the price for.

We also met up with my old mate Sergio and his new wife Anna which deserves little more mention than this as typically he turned up three days late, but it was still lovely to see them both.

Monte Alban

Monte Alban
Originally uploaded by Carrie & Eddie.

Well it didn't get off to the most promising start. Eddie arrived in Oaxaca burning with a fever and spent the next few days making many, many, many trips to el baño. Eventually it became painfully apparent that a trip to the doctor was in order. He diagnosed food poisoning and suggested an injection, which we declined on the grounds that there was no soap in the doctor's surgery, and there were cockroaches running around. But a few (oral) antibiotics later and Eddie was on fine form again and heartily making up for lost taco time.

The Spanish language school was - well, a little too much like school. We had homework and everything. For the first day it was a novelty, but it soon began to impinge on our holiday past-time of choice, doing nothing. Added to that, five days isn't enough time to learn much of any substance so we asked if we could focus on conversation, only to find this meant we had to make small talk, in Spanish, for about 15 hours. Still, we did so remarkably well and can now use tenses and the like, and despite my whinging, being able to hold a grammatically correct conversation after just a few days of lessons is very rewarding.

We were staying with a family for the duration of our course, to give us opportunity to 'practice our Spanish'. In reality, the opportunities it presented were 1) a lot of time for Eddie to gaze longingly at the very attractive daughter, and 2) a lot of time for us to sit and pretend to listen and understand while the mother talked. And talked. And talked. But she made Eddie chicken soup while he was ill, and that made up for everything.

We did get to see a bit of Oaxaca and its surroundings, after Eddie's confinement to the bathroom was over, such as the ruins pictured here. And also worth mentioning, we travelled an hour to see a very big tree. Sounds odd, but a tree with a trunk of 53m circumference (that's the length of two swimming pools, not one but two) and a similar height is quite a sight to see. But six days is a long time to stay in one place, and even though moving on meant a 12 hour overnight bus journey, we were more than ready to head towards our next stop, San Cristobal de las Casas.