Angel de la Independencia with a typical taxi in front!The end of my trip is now drawing to a close, and Mexico has been a great place to end up. Overall this country definitely feels higher up on the development scale then other parts of Latin America, making it slightly more comfortable to be in, from buses to toilets, and on top of that I'm visiting friends I met when studying in Valencia which is great. The food here is great, nothing like Mexican food back home and very spicy. Actually, this has to be the spice centre of the world, maybe more so than India. You go to eat what looks like a tasty strawberry courtesy sweet in a shop, only to discover its hot chilly flavour and burns your mouth out!
I started off heading from Cancun to Tulum, a slightly cheaper and calmer place on the Mexican carribean coast... It was a really great place to start off... There are some Mayan ruins there set right on the sea front, which is one of the most beautiful sea fronts I have seen, and the ruin paradisiac beach mix creates quite a picture.
Moving on, I stopped at Chitchen Itza, one of the main Mayan ruin sites, which involves a huge pyramid surrounded by all sorts of other buildings including an observatory, and also insane amounts of people, not to mention a sun hot enough to make you melt. My favorite part was when the place cleared out just before closing, and a fresh breeze cooled things down, so that you could really soak up how impressive the ruins are.
The next stop was Merida, a town I found extremely nice to be in, with a pretty colonial centre, some nice churches and I got to see the intensity of Mexican political campaigning. We're not talking about the odd speach here and there, this is a full blown excuse for a party, with trucks driving round blaring out music with people dancing on top, stages set up in the main square with comedians and musicians entertaining the crowds. What a way to get the people involved.
The main highlights around there was Uxmal, another important set of Mayan ruins which include a huge pyramid, and that was an interesting day because hitchhiking back I got picked up by a French tour group which gave me another perspective on tourism in the area. I guess out of all the mass tourism places I have been, I felt like the Yucatan peninsula really had managed to keep a lot of its charm, the people didn't just see you as a sack of money like in so many other places. I also made it to the cenotes, caves formed by the undergroudn rivers of the Yucatan peninsula which you can swim and jump in, the water is a beautiful turquoise colour lit up by holes in the roof.
My next stop was to meet Jonch in Villahermosa, a pleasant town with zero tourists enroute to Mexico City. The last time we had seen each other was two years ago having a good time at the San Fermines in Pamplona, so it was impressive to see the change, when he picked me up in his smart company car and took me to his huge office... It was food for thought on how things are going to change for me, but it was mainly great to catch up after so much time.
We flew together to Mexico City, to spend the weekend in Cuernavaca nearby, where we met up with Juan Pablo, another ex-Valencia student and also the family and respective girlfriends... It was a tough weekend partying and enjoying the jacuzzi!!! Back in Mexico City, I was definitely pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a monster city like Sao Paolo, and although it is a monster, I still felt the areas, obviously privileged, that I was seeing were full of greenery and had a good atmosphere to them, although traffic definitely seemed atrocious! I was staying with Juan Pablo, but also got to meet up with Luis and Silvia who were also in Valencia. Now I'm in Guadalajara after a brief stop in Toluca where I caught up with Barbara, and should be heading camping later on today to some beaches on the Pacific nearby... Sorry for all the names, but I hope other people from Valencia will enjoy the pics of what our friends are doing two years down the line...
It's going to be great to get back, and apart from family and friends I'm dying for some food from home, a pain au chocolat, a croissant aux amandes, a pizza from the Tratoria, an escalope Normande, some proper pasta with real basil... Yum yum!
Isla de Mujeres from above
Tulum ruins
What a beach!
Chitchen Itza
Mayan sculpture
The Observatory
The pyramid at Uxmal
Faces on the corner!
Iguanas everywhere!
Overgrown ruins
Mayan King
Azulejos
Vivir es un placer
Hacienda factory
Huge hacienda interior
The French tour group
Old machines for making material from cactus
Future vaqueros
Old house
Small town square
Election rally
Onto the balconies
Party truck
Getting some Agua de Jamaica
Old VW Beetle land
The evening election party
Tacos
Yucatan restaurant
Young people campaigning for some friends who were arrested and locked up without trial during a George Bush visit in March
Buying fabric
Peddling my bicycle taxi
The first Cenote
Horse powered train...
The splash after a 12m jump
Climbing up some roots
The last Cenote
The rickety rails
Hitching a ride with some American students
The Merida Cathedral
Virgen de Guadalupe
Mayan sculpture
Not a bad house in Merida
Streets of Merida
Hammocks in Merida
Its a good day for this man, his wife and his two kids if he sells two a day at 10US each
Merida by night
Quick snack
Chilaquiles
Peacock
Kids in uniform
Turtle pond
Crocs and turtles
School outing
Villahermosa laguna
Young students
The modern side to Villahermosa, you can feel the US is close!
Jonch at work
An incredible all you can eat seafood restaurant
Hunger strike against voting fraud in Villahermosa
Villahermosa town hall
Typical Mexican food
The beggar and the bride
Villahermosa Cathedral
Volcano from the sky
The Aztec stadium
Breakfast
A tough day travelling
A night out in Cuernavaca!
An architect's house!
Totti and his mammoth taco!
The tragic side to football
La Condesa
Old house
Mexico City taxi
The Zocalo
Art gallery
Mexico City Cathedral
Snake at the Templo Mayor
Healers in the Zocalo
Colonial building
Gardeners outside the Museo de Bellas Artes
Marc wouldn't mind a pair of these
Appreciating a work of art
Alameda central
Memorial
Chess
Edificio de los Pantalones
Dove advert!
Auditorio Nacional
A bit of Pro Evo
Looking at of Juan Pablo's flat
More Chilaquiles
Metepec town square
La Tlanchana
One of Metepec's many churches
Metepec fortress
Lunch with Barbara and her Mum
