Dogs & World Wonders

Valladolid! Now there are two things we wanted to do in Valladolid the first was obviously visit Chichen Itza, and the second was visit a cenote (see-note-tay). We had one day to achieve this and thankfully we did with ease. It would’ve been nice to visit some more cenotes and do some of the other things there was to do in Valladolid but oh well. We spent our extra day in Merida and now we had to make up for it.

These gambling machines were everywhere in Valladolid. To the point where there were shops full of them. 

So Valladolid, it was a quick one hour bus ride there which was breezy. When we got there we checked into our hostel which for some reason came with two double beds though I’m pretty sure we booked for two not four but eh, our bags now has their own bed to sit on. After getting ourselves sorted we ventured out to find some lunch and see a bit of Valladolid. The zoca square we lovely, we found a place to eat straight up and just sat down and ordered ourselves some well deserved tacos. There were also so many stray dogs for us to pat and scratch and sneakily feed under the table before the poor restaurant staff would try and shoo them away for the thousandth time.

We’d met some New Zealand girls on a tour in Oaxaca who said that they’d bought dog food and had been feeding it to all the dogs. When I mentioned we should do something similar Callum thought it was a great idea and was amazed that we hadn’t thought of it before (clearly he hadn’t been listening when the New Zealand girls mentioned the idea). So after lunch we traipsed around the tourist trap shops that seem to encircle the square in search of dog food. We sound some dog biscuits being sold in a dollar store and bought ourselves a bag. We then set out to find the doggo’s we’d been petting.

This is the one that remembered us

We probably fed about four or five, some in better shape then others. What’s really surprisingly lovely about Mexico is beyond the odd snappy dog all the stray dogs have been so gentle. Which is so different from visiting other places where the stray dogs are just mean and you don’t pet them unless you want to loose some fingers. But the majority we’ve met have been happy doggos down on their luck.

We spent the rest of the day feeding dogs, going back to the room to have a small rest, and then venturing out in the evening to look for dinner (couldn’t really find anywhere inspiring to eat so we ended up back in the same restaurant). And thus ended our first half a day in Valladolid.

The next morning we woke up with a mission: find a laundromat and get out clothes cleaned. We used one in San Cristobal and whilst we did bring stuff to do it ourselves these places charged by the kilo, and not much, and we just had to drop it off and pick it up, easy. Finding one though wasn’t so easy as we ended up traipsing around what felt like half the city looking for one. We did find though a health food store where we bought some snacks to get us through the day, and a chocolate store selling homemade chocolates and cold chocolate drinks. We’d progressed from hot chocolate to cold chocolate, which was delicious as the day was toasty.  We also found a restaurant where we planned to have dinner that night.

After the laundromat we made our way to the bus station, all thankfully a few blocks from each other. I’d googled it the night before and there were collectivos that would bring us to Chichen Itza apparently parked out behind the bus station. We almost at the bus station when we found them, or rather they found us. You can’t really miss the collectivos as they’re trying to fill up the cars as quickly as possible before they leave so someone will come up and ask you where you’re headed. Then they’ll either bundle you in or direct you in the direction of the one you’re looking for. So into the collectivo we went. It was full of locals and two other tourists who would’ve looked more at home at Burning Man rather then a collectivo in Mexico. Turns out they were from Australia and the couple was very nice but more on them later.

So it was a 30/40 minute ride to Chichen Itza online it had said the collectivo would only cost $35 pesos but the guy wanted to charge us $70 per person. Unfortunately for him he didn’t have change for a $500 and we only had $70 on us in smaller notes. Not $140 so he took the $70 and called us even. So there’s an unintentional tip if you’re traveling, pretend (or do as we did) to only have the amount you want to pay and only have big notes otherwise. To be honest it’ll probably work most of the time as despite their inflated currency no one really seems to have change. Almost every place we’ve been when we’ve paid with big notes for small-ish purchases people have had to run down the street to other shops to get change. So boom, not a Traveling Tip Learnt the Hard Way, but a Traveling Tip Learnt Unintentionally.

Since I’m full of advice today here’s another tip if you’re bringing in a camera to Chichen Itza (say my innocent and beloved go pro) put it in a bag (say Callums backpack) otherwise they will charge you $45pesos on top of the $215 entrance fee for the pleasure of bringing in your own camera to take photos with. I’m still very mad about that.

Now Chichen Itza recently named a wonder of the world and to be honest I’m kind of curious as to why. We didn’t have a guide for this so maybe it’s in the history of the place but Teotihuacan was far more impressive and the Palenque ruins is far bigger (only 2% uncovered!). Maybe I’m being biased though as I was disappointed that we couldn’t walk on/around Chichen Itza like we could everywhere else. The stand out ruin though was the ball court (no good photos I’m afraid as there was a huge blob of touring tourists standing in the middle the whole time we were there). I’m so curious as to how they played the game (and did you know, as we learnt from our guide in the Palenque ruins, the winner was the one who got sacrificed?). As far as I’m aware it was teams of 5 and you could only use your elbows and hips. I bet it would be an intense game to watch, probably much better to watch in person then say a basketball game with ridiculous sound effects (if that reference went over your head, where have you been? Go check out the posts from LA).

Chichen Itza was also full of people trying to sell their stuff. Or whoever’s stuff it was as one stall was much the same as the next. The favourite catch phrase seemed to be “almost free” or “one dollar”. The currency here in the Peninsula seemed to cater to American Tourists as a lot of places seemed to take pesos or USD. Which was sort of annoying as we had the pesos to AUS dollar down, we didn’t really need another currency thrown in there. Surely the Americans will survive some currency calculation.

We got lost in Chichen Itza amongst the crisscrossed paths that led to the odd ruin. Paths that were filled with eagle eyed boisterous hawkers. It was a little exhausting being battered by voices and merchandise from all sides. We eventually found our way out through and decided it was time to try and make it to the cenote the collectivo passed on the way in. We weren’t sure where the collectivos picked up from so we ended up asking a taxi their price and then splitting the trip with two other people who wanted to go to the same place. Two people who were none other then the Burning Man couple from the bus. That’s how we know they’re Australian, and planning to keep traveling to many more months.

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

The cenote was called Ik Kil and it was awesome. I’m sure there are others that are less touristy, or not as busy, but it was close to Chichen Itza and a cool experience regardless. We got there around 3, it closed at 5:30 and started clearing out around 3:30/4. The cenote itself was deep in the ground, had to climb down many a slippery step to get to it. The water was also 50m deep (so don’t drop the GoPro) and full of catfish. Callum did spend a good half an hour trying to catch a catfish (he almost managed to catch one of the baby ones, almost). There was rope in the water that you could cling to when you got tired which was ingenious otherwise the whole thing would’ve been exhausting. There are also very modern lockers, bathrooms, change rooms, and showers you can use. Far more touristy it felt then our waterfalls in Palenque but what can you do.

After that we devoured our snacks, caught the last bus at 5 back to Valladolid (and who was also waiting for said bus but our Australian taxi companions), and went our to dinner near the laundromat.

We ended the evening with another round of stray dog feeding – one of the dogs even remembered Callum and literally bounced around him whilst he got the dog food ready to put down. It was adorable and well worth the minimal cost of the dog food.

Then it bucketed down with rain and we had to make a dash for the hostel. And so ended our first and last full day in Valladolid. We achieved everything we wanted to and slept soundly in a nice bed after a warm shower. Unfortunately one of our last warm showers on our Mexico adventure, but we didn’t know that yet.

All For Now

Rachel Connolly

Jungle Ruins

Palenque was our next stop after San Cristobal. We also took our longest bus ride thus far to get there. It was roughly an 8 hour bus ride which wasn’t too unpleasant, but I was definitely happy to get off. Although I did get off and was immediately welcomed to Palenque by a giant ant attack. I thought it was the zipper of the jacket I was holding pinching at me until I lifted the jacket and found a giant ant attacking my arm. Blood was even drawn, welcome to Palenque indeed. When we got out of the bus station we also seemed to enter into the middle of some kind of very loud Christmas themed parade, I think? Was definitely an unexpected welcome.

San Cristobal had a chilly nip to the air and cold nights. Palenque was the opposite. It was hot, sweaty, and humid. Not the worst humidity but you felt sticky after being outside for more then half a minute. In the Lonely Planet book we have it suggests staying in a number of bungalows on the outskirts of town. Despite our best attempts we couldn’t contact the more budget end bungalows that were suggested. I think they’ve either gone out of business or have just given up on the internet (which is fair, the service and internet in Palenque is terrible). So we ended up getting somewhere “in town”. Or rather on the edge of town amongst little drips of the jungle and other hotels.

We were staying at a hostel called Taxkin Hostel but it was a hostel that wanted very much to be a hotel – which they basically were. It was the most expensive place we’d stayed and one that sadly didn’t have free breakfast, and the free wifi was only in the reception. And just a heads up to fellow travellers the prices on their website are in US dollars. I have to admit I was kind of upset over the lack of a free breakfast. The assortment of fruit that’s usually served had been my nod at health. But whatever we made do (they did have a restaurant and bar attached so it’s not like it was a struggle to find food).

On our first full day we decided to head out to the Palenque Ruins. We were determined to do it ourselves sans-tour and sans-guide. Many people offered, as soon as we had gotten off of the bus the night before two flyers from two different tour companies had been given to us. We went into town found one of the Collectivos to take us (another ubiquitous white van) that had ruinas scrawled on the front. We originally thought the collectivos would have some kind of HQ where we bought passage but nope. You just get into the van that’s going to the ruins (or somewhere along the way as they drop off) and then you pay when you get there.

So after that mini adventure we were dropped off by the ruins. We paid for a little wrist band entrance thing into the wildlife park that the ruins were situated in. Then we had to pay for entrance into the ruins themselves. The wristbands were around $32 pesos, and the ticket to get into the ruins was $35 pesos. So not too bad but annoying you have to pay for both. We then started making our way through the hawkers to the entrance for the ruins when Callum heard someone yelling about maps. So we made a small detour to buy a map and somehow ended up with a guide.

So there went the plan of DIY-ing the ruins. But to be honest the guide was good, I would’ve had no idea what we were looking if he hadn’t been there to explain. Now Palenque has a huge amount of ruins in its national park of which only 2% had been cleaned. The rest were buried amongst the jungle, unexcavated for jungle conservation purposes. The 2% that had been cleaned away consisted of a palace, three tombs, three temples, and a few other walls that used to be buildings that we didn’t look at so I don’t know what they were for. The ruins we were at were 100% Mayan ruins, and didn’t you know Mayan apparently is taken from maze, which means corn. The Mayans were all vegetarian their diet mostly consisting of corn, beans, and other vegetarian deliciousness. They also didn’t have a very long life expectancy (not related to their diet) but the pyramid tomb that had been uncovered was the resting place for a great king who had ruled for 69 years. Each step in the pyramid was for how many years he’d ruled, so It was quite tall with 69 steps. The inside was also hollow, although we couldn’t go inside, or climb up.

We also saw the palace which, for those art and architecture nerds out there, has Islamic arches in it. Which basically means that the arches were pointed at the top meaning they could be built higher then other arches. The same kind of arch that is used in Gothic cathedrals in Europe, one that (from my rusty art history memory) I’m pretty sure only came to Europe after they’d discovered the arch in Islam during the crusades. So interesting to find it here in a Mayan palace. Mostly though the arches consisted of the classic Mayan arch, which was two walls, a sloped ceiling bringing them together then it was flat across the top and apparently had wooden beams to keep it all stable and lasting.

What is also really cool about the whole thing is that pack animals and wheels were introduced to Mexico by the Spanish. So all these towering buildings I’ve been talking about and showing pictures of have been put together by hand. The rocks brought from sometimes hours and hours away on the backs of people (usually slaves). Which is crazy to think about how much manpower that would’ve taken. Speaking of slaves as I said earlier there were three tombs. One for the king, the second for the Red Queen, and the third for all their slaves, who were all killed when the royalty died so they could serve them in the afterlife. Which, from a modern 21^st century view is rather depressing. The slaves couldn’t even escape in death.

The other positive to the guide is that we spent an hour at the ruins and then an hour doing a small walk (trek? It felt more like a trek) through the jungle. A trek which was cordoned off to the public so I guess the guide was worth it. The trek took us past so many crumbling temples that were half hidden under the jungle. Ones we wouldn’t notice until the guide would stop (let us catch up) and say “and now you’re standing in a temple” and we’d look around and suddenly see the dilapidated walls and windows hidden under the vines and leaves. We also saw a number of trees and plants that he told us the properties of. Ones to help with upset tummies, ones to keep away mosquitos. Vines we could (and did) swing off like we were Tarzan. He showed us parts of the aqueducts that the Mayans had built for their city that had housed 60,000 people at its peak. A city that they’d abandoned and whose ruins we were walking through. All up it was an awesome experience and one I would definitely recommend.

After our tour we wandered around the ruins a bit more then made our way down the slope their on following a waterfall and a winding path to the museum that sat at the bottom of the hill. By now we were both hot and sweaty so we didn’t go into the museum we just caught a collectivo back to the main area of Palenque. We ended up heading back to the hostel where we had dinner and went to sleep. Another end to an interesting day of adventuring.

That’s All Folks!

Rachel

The Lost People: A History Lesson

So yesterday was just a day of travel as we attempt to get ourselves to Oaxaca (wa-ha-ka). We succeeded and are now we are about to start our first day. But I’m here to chat about not yesterday but the day before. Having such a great time at the luche libre “tour” we decided to sign up for another tour that the hostel ran (or rather that they hooked up with). We took the Teotihuacan tour which was led by a lovely man called George.

According to George he was a University lecturer in Mexico City and did that most of the time and tour guided some of the time. He was an opened minded man and you could tell that by the way he spoke. I’m a bit of a history lover so I adored the tour and I adored his enthusiasm for history, and for correcting our beliefs about history and Mexican culture. If you’re not a history nerd you might want to give this post a miss.

Fore: Aztec ruin, Mid: Spanish church, Back: Mexican homes

There were a few stops on the tour. The first place he brought us to was a small ruin in the middle of the city. He brought us there as it was the meeting place of time and culture. In front of us lay the ruins of a prominent Aztec marketplace, beyond that was a Spanish built church, and all around us sat high rise homes of modern day Mexican citizens. The history of it, in his very condensed and simplified version, went something like this.

A long time ago the Spanish arrived in South America. They came into South America and told the native people living there that they had one choice. One choice that they had to make then and there. It was the only condition of their continued survival. If they said no, the Spanish would kill them all. The condition was that because their gods were a blight on the Spaniards God they had to renounce their faith and start worshipping the Spaniards one true God. This, according to our friend George, is what really started to set South American countries/cultures up as we know them today. In Mexico they decided to accept the rule of the Spaniards and gave up their gods. This resulted in Mexico have an incredibly large native population, even today. And why in some other South American countries the native population is not so large and people look so different.

Myself in role of faithful girlfriend/personal photographer

I don’t want to try and write down the exact statistics he gave up because I can’t really remember them very well. But it was around 70% – 80% native blood is still prevalent in Mexico today. Mexico is also, apparently, the third most culturally diverse nation in the world, under India, and China. George portrayed it as a blessing that so much native blood from way back when had survived till today. But he didn’t gloss over how terrible it would’ve been to have to give up their faith and convert to Catholicism.

Now what is really interesting was that the Spanish, in order to enforce this new rule of law, told the natives at the time to tear down their temples, shrines, and marketplaces, and with those stones build the new churches, cathedrals, and places of worship. Where we stood, in the meeting place of all three times and cultures, was previously a bustling and alive marketplace for the Aztecs. They’d built the church that stood there with the stones from this place. Which goes to show how impressive their building must’ve been as there weren’t a small amount of ruins left. This is also why a lot of big places of worship in Mexico today, the Basilica of Our Lady Guadalupe, the Metropolitan Cathedral, all sit next to ancient Aztec ruins.

Temple of the Sun, as seen from Temple of the Moon

That was our brief and very condensed version of a small part of the Spanish invasion and what has made Mexico City, Mexico City. After that we were off to Teotihuacan. Now Teotihuacan is a really interesting place. It was at one point an ancient city. There are two temples there, the Temple of the Sun, and the Temple of the Moon. The Temple of the Sun is apparently the third tallest pyramid in the world. The first was in Egypt, and the second in Peru. What is interesting though is that no one knows who built the city. It wasn’t the Aztecs, who found it and named it Teotihuacan, meaning City of the Gods, or Birthplace of the Gods. Whatever the place was originally called is apparently completely lost in time. People just built this giant city, which was apparently the sixth largest city in the world at the time. And then later they abandoned it.

There are apparently many theories as to why this mysterious civilisation abandoned the city. George’s theory and apparently the anthropological community at large theory was that the people destroyed the land around it making it unliveable. This theory came about from years of study (in a team George was apparently a part of) from anthropologists and geologists alike. In a nutshell what they think happened is this; all these ruins we see today used to be very brightly painted. All the Aztecs ruins used to have a huge amount of colour on them and there’s evidence that whoever built Teotihuacan did the same. This paint was painted onto the rocks after they’d been treated with some kind of paste. The paste, I can’t remember if it was to heat it up, or to put in it, but it required a lot of trees. The land around Teotihuacan was very dry and arid, from what I could tell but apparently it used to be more like a rainforest. So they think the people cut down too many trees, the land couldn’t replenish itself, and over the years it eventually eroded away and the land became uninhabitable forcing the mysterious civilisation to abandon the city.

The Temple of the Sun, they think, was only used for ceremonial purposes because unlike Egyptian temples which have rooms inside the Temple of the Sun is solid. There is one underground tunnel that they assume is sacred (as they built a temple on top of it) but they don’t know what it was used for. The Temple of the Moon is a burial place, presumable from those sacrificed to the Gods.

 

All the steps

 

The Temple of the Sun we could walk up the steps. It’s 71.17 meters tall (according to Wikipedia) and has a lot of steps. I know this because Callum decided he had to get to the top. So we both trekked it up there (with me maybe taking a few small breaks along the way for breathers and photography stops). The Temple of the Moon you could only get partway up, but was still too many steps. The Temple of the Sun is much taller but the two temples looked about the same height because the Temples were built on an incline. The whole thing was fascinating and the temples were amazing. Teotihuacan is a fascinating place and I’m so glad we got to visit it.

 

This Basilica looks like it’s about to fall on you because of the sinking city problem Mexico City has. It’s slowly being restored, slowly.

 

It was a long hot day out ending in lunch and visiting the Basilica of Our Lady Guadalupe where we spent most of the time petting stray dogs who were all thankfully friendly. Then we got back to the hostel collapsed when we should’ve packed, watched some Lord of the Rings, we’re on to the Two Towers, and fell asleep.

It’s sad leaving Mexico City behind, there’s so much that I still want to do and see. But it’s time for the next segment of the adventure.

 

Over and out

Rachel