North & Central America Trip - Oaxaca, San Cristobal, Palenque & Playa del Carmen
Hola otra vez (that’s “hi once again”) and welcome to installment two of our travels through Mexico.
Our last installment left us in Oaxaca, where on our last day we did a`cultural tour’. Sounds trite, but we visited a boutique Mezcal factory, which is a traditionally produced tequila made only in Oaxaca. We tried all of their 20 varieties.
We also went to see petrified waterfalls, where 50-metre high waterfalls had slowly turned to carbon.
We have some freaking amazing photos, but we don`t have a card reader with us so can`t upload them… yet-
I just drank some of the Mezcal and feel GREAT!
Claire is forcing me to tell you all about the delicious `soup`I had in Oaxaca. I ordered tortilla soup. They brought up my napkin, a basket of bread, and then a soup bowl filled with red stuff. I started chowing down on it, thinking `this is quite spicy and not that tasty’.
Then my soup arrived. I’d been eating the hot sauce. Mexican food is awesome!
We left scenic, colonial Oaxaca, en route to scenic, colonial San Cristobal to learn Spanish. It was an intense week, with both of us doing homework until ten at night. We hadn’t worked so hard since… work! And was it effective?
The overall experience certainly was. We did a home stay with an (upper?) middleclass Mexican family, who had live-in home help, and an amazing host mother who runs cooking and salsa dancing lessons at the language school. We ate eggs for breakfast, but a different type each day. Eggs in salsa with fried tortillas is my favorite.
Staying with a family for a week gave us a bit more insight into the Mexican way of life. The whole family works together both early in the morning and late at night. In the middle of the day, everyone gets together for a big meal. Claire was fascinated by the order the food came, it was the males first, then the guests, then other females, and finally the hostess. Wouldn´t be the first time.
Our host Mum chatted with us each morning (after establishing at length that even though we weren’t married, that one bedroom would be fine for us). I think this helped our Spanish the most. The school was pretty good, but spent too much time on useless grammar (despite us telling them not to).
We did find time to go to a local restaurant / bar called El Gato Gordo (the fat cat) which was excellent. The first night we went for a late lunch, and one of the waiters was trying to play ‘wish you were here’ by Pink Floyd on the guitar. We got chatting, and four hours later we were singing, drinking, and being offered dope.
We politely declined, but did stick around to hear a local singer kick our some Buene Vista Social Club, and a soulfull song to Chiapas, the local region. We returned again a week later after we finished our study to listen to a six piece latin jazz / blues band, who were amazing! They covered Jimi Hendrix to Miles Davis and took ten minute solos better than most you’d hear in Wellington.
Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico. The indigenous population is second class here. There are five-year-old boys/girls hopping around restaurants at 11pm trying to sell you candy, or shine your shoes. The two girls (14 and 17) who work in our host family are also indigenous, and have no interest in going to school. They are, however, riveted to the mexican soaps, which are like ‘days of our lives’ on steroids.
After our second visit to El Gato Gordo, I was feeling a bit worse for wear. Was it the 1-litre bottles of beer, or the genuine Cuban cigar?
But the last thing I felt like was a 5 1/2 hour legendarily windy bus trip into Palenque.
Claire was fine, and tried to look sympathetic, while finding it all quite funny. `You should bring a bag’ she told me, ‘as even people with good stomachs throw up on this trip’. Somehow I survived, but were not sure if everybody did. While passing through a small indigenous village, the bus driver ran over a dog. I thought he was going to stop, but then we heard a sharp ‘yelp!’ from below.
Brutal.
Palenque is a shithole.
Our hostel smelled like pee. Contrary to the website, there was no free breakfast. However we were there to do one thing only — go to the ruins. They were as awesome as Palanque is crappy.
Completely encased in jungle, the pyramids and town square the serviced 70,000 people are still in great order. We scrambled over them in 99% humidity 35 degree heat. I tried some rock climbing up one wall but got grief from the security guards.
We saw metre long lizards!
I also saw my first tropical fish in their natural environment, swimming in the rapids above a Craig Potton-style waterfall. I think I want to get a waterfall when I finally buy a house, so much better than a 50L fish tank.
And now we`ve rocked into Playa del Carmen, which is a baby Cancun resort town, but nicer. We spent yesterday and today lazing in armchairs in front of the beach. The water here is so warm and clear.
Loving it! I snorkeled a bit, and saw a school of 70cm fish.
Tomorrow we’re off to a beach where you can snorkel with turtles for free!
We’re getting in before it appears in the lonely planet and they put up highrises… So excited.
See you soon!
Jose y Clara
