Oaxaca, Chapas, Chetumal, Yucatan, Quintana Roo: 15.-30.11.2009

On the way to San Christobal de las Casas we took a little detour to Mitla, here is a Maya site in the middle of town. We almost missed it since it looks completely different than expected. Also in Chiapa de Corzo we took a break for the spectacles Canyon in the Parque National Canon del Sumidero, before we reached our target in the evening.

Oaxaca was already a wonderful town, but San Christobal was even better. Together with the Mayas in their colorful clothing we strolled through narrow alleys and over the plazas. We visited also the market, where the Maya of the surrounding villages sell their goods. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately we do not have space left in Nisto, otherwise the stands would probably be empty now.

We also wanted to visit the villages in the mountains and learn something about the culture and the way of living of today’s Mayas. For that we decided to join a guided tour, because here we hoped for more information. And we got it; our guide grew up in the area himself and spoke from experience. On one side the people from San Juan Chemula are very open. On the other side they like to be by themselves. In the past, as many others, they had to fight for their freedom. And what the Spanish couldn’t finish, the Americans are still trying to achieve today: to convert them to another religion. In this town, with altogether 80’000 inhabitants (only a fifth lives actually in town) it is the biggest subgroup of the Tzotzil, are very unique religious practices still operated. For example in the church we could attend a sacrifice of a chicken (twisted neck, no blood), but what very few people actually know is that this belongs to a medical treatment of a shaman (And who hasn’t have a chicken soup, while having the flu). Also the ‘sacrifice’ of coke goes back to an old Mayan tradition, while in the early times fermented black corn was used to burp the illness out, these days the black juice with the red label is used. We also were allowed to visit the home of a spiritual leader and witness the daily ritual, worshiping saints. On the negative side there is also the alcohol problem, that we saw further north in indigenous groups. But compared to there here the young do not feel like they have to move to the western civilization, they prefer to stay and live in the community where they have been born. We could continue like this for a while, but that would be too much. We enjoyed the day and hope for these people that they can life as the like for their time being. As for a perfect finish of the day we had the greatest Tamale (A typical poor man’s meal with corn and normally chicken boiled in a corn leaf) for dinner ever, before we retreated for a last cold night of the mountain region.

The next day’s belonged to the ruins. Via Palenque with a side trip to the Agua Azul Falls, we went to Labna, Kabah, Uxmal and Chichen Itza. Every “pile of stone” has its own special thing, but for us it was Palenque we liked the best. The ruins lie in the middle of Jungle. And if you are early enough you can hear the howling of the howler monkeys in the treetops. Here you are still allowed to climb onto most of the temples and crawl through passages below them. Besides that, the mass of tourist where still on a bearable amount.

Thereafter it was time for the beach again. Tulum was the name of the town. As soon as we arrived we were looking for a place to stay, while doing so we ‘picked up by’ Angie and Phil who are traveling since about 5 years. They took us to ‘their’ beach, where we have been neighbors for the next 5 days. Thanks for getting us there. The Riviera Maya is not only known for its ruins, but also for the Cenotes that are famous for great cavern and cave diving. Some of these Caverns are in adventurous places, and while we only jumped 3m on the first day, the second it was five already, but there our equipment enjoyed the luxury of being slowly lowered on a rope. For our effort we got highly rewarded with amazing caverns, great visibility and wonderful decoration all below the water level. That wasn’t all, we have heard that it is the season for the bull sharks up in Playa del Carmen, of course soon thereafter Nisto was on the way into the Tourist Capital of the Yucatan, and we have been diving with the supposing most dangerous species of sharks and enjoyed being surrounded by them.

The last day belonged to the Maya Ruins again. Often did Sonja rave about the ruins at the beach of Tulum, unfortunately it was a big disappointment. Seven year ago on Sonja’s first visit one was almost by himself and you could explore every corner by yourself, these days there are masses of tourists and like in Chichén Itza everything is fenced of so the masses don’t destroy the last remains. Even to the beach is now a wooden bridge. It seems like they figured that there is quite some money to earn.

However not everyone tries to make the money in a friendly way. On a Pemex gas station one really tried to cheat on us. While Markus filled Nisto with water on one side, Sonja was paying for the fuel for 1’201 Peso on the other with three 500 Peso bills. But Sonja could not look as quickly as the good man had only one five hundred bill and two fifty bills in his hands, and was talking something about the right amount. On that, Sonja’s few scraps on Spanish got stuck and she was only speaking in English, in return was only something we did not understand. After Markus check everything again, we just came from the back and knew what cash we had, Sonja found her Spanish again and said: “Policia”. And like in a miracle, the man talked to us in broken English that he only wanted to have one peso for easier change! We gave it to him and it all was solved.

The next day brought us to Chetumal were we prepared for our next border crossing into Belize. How we managed to cross you can read in our next report.

Till soon

Sonja & Markus

Here it goes to the pictures…

Here it goes to the underwater pictures…