Vagabondette

Ride ‘em Cowgirls

After finally having a good night sleep, Lisa and I were ready to go explore.  Katinka had heard about horse back trips to the neighboring village of San Juan de Chamula which is best known for it’s church which is sprinkeled with pine needles and the congregation drinks Pepsi and sacrifices chickens to keep the gods happy. After a bit of comparison shopping we found an outfit that would take us on a 4-5 hour excursion for 100 MXN (@ $8) each.

We met our guide at a restaurant on Real Guadalupe and we followed here to the collectivo which dropped us off at the farm.  They got the horses saddled up and, after all doing a shot of some local liquor (really bad!) we headed out into the hills surrounding San Cris.

The ride was beautiful, through forest and flatlands, passing through farms and small villages.  It was an interesting way to get a closer look at how some of the natives live.  One of the more interesting sites was when we passed the local laundrymat.  All of the local women were out with the kids washing the clothes and eachother in the stream.  It was definitely a world apart from how I’m used to living.

After about 2 hours of riding (on wooden saddles) we finally reached Chamula where we were given an hour to explore.  We visited the tourist office to buy our tickets (20 MXN) and then headed to the Church.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it.  The inside of the church is fairly plain, but the walls are lined with statues of different saints and there are hundreds of candles all over the place that people had lit during their prayers.

Because we were there just a few days before Semana Santa (Easter) they were working on preparing the idols that they carry through the city during the parade.  It was interesting to look around, but I think that it was not what we would normally have seen during a visit.  A friend visited 2 weeks later and during his trip he was able to watch a sacrifice being performed for a boy that was sick.

I don’t have any pictures from the inside of the church because taking pictures is strictly forbidden and the locals have been known to damage your camera (or your person) if you get caught.

After exploring the church for a bit, we wandered the local market and relaxed with an ice cream before heading back to the horses for the ride home.

The ride home was harder than the ride out because by this time I was beyond sore.  I haven’t ridden in years and trotting with a wooden saddle just isn’t comfortable.  I didn’t know it then, but I wouldn’t end up walking right again for about 4 days.

Back at the farm we said goodbye to our horses, played with some puppies, and played voyeur to the wonders of nature (some turkeys were mating) before grabbing the collectivo back to town.

It was worth it though and I’d recommend the horse trek as a different way to see some of the countryside and one of the local attractions.

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Campeche, Mexico - A Little Pastel Paradise

The early morning streets of Campeche, Mexico

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A small city located on the Gulf of Mexico, Campeche looks like someone dumped a large bucket of rainbow sherbet over the town. In the central area, each building is painted a different color ranging from purple to yellow with everything in between. It makes for a very beautiful view as you wander the narrow, winding streets.

We stayed only one night so didn’t get to explore too much but I’d like to come back at some point when it’s cooler and see a bit more of the town. The main square, as with most, is surrounded by shops/restaurants on three sides and a church on the other. There is a stage in the middle of the main square where live music is performed and on the night we were there, a lot of people had gathered to listen and sample some of the cakes from the street vendors. With the lit up church and the light-draped trees, the main square is beautiful at night.

Just a few feet from the main square are some remains of the old fortress walls (they encircle much of the central area and in some spots you can walk along the top to get a better view of the city) and a series of fountains which were lit up in the evening and displaying different colors and water formations.

Sunrise in Campeche, Mexico

I didn’t get much sleep that night (see my review of the Monkey Hostel to find out why), so for the first time in a long time I sat up and watched the sun rise and the city come to life. I’d forgotten how peaceful a sunrise can be and enjoyed watching the color spread in the sky behind the cathedral. To further take advantage of the quiet (and cool) morning I decided to get my wandering in early and proceeded to get lost among the windy, pastel colored streets.

The buildings in the central area are beautiful. They each have something that makes them unique. Whether it’s the color, or the shape of the roofline, or the carvings over the doors and windows, or the texture of the walls, they each have something to show that it’s different from its neighbors.

There seems to be a lot of rehabilitation going on in the city which is nice to see. I came across one whole section of street which was several blocks long which was pretty much all under construction. I couldn’t tell if it was both external and internal but it was nice to see things being repaired. It fits with what I was told about the government paying to repaint the city with its unique colors each year.

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Visiting Uxmal, Mexico

The ruins at Uxmal, Mexico

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It’s surprising to me that Uxmal isn’t more well known.  I assume that’s because it’s not really within day-trip range of the big resorts in Play and Cancun.  Instead, most people who visit the Yucatan head to Chichen Itza and miss this little gem.

I headed to Uxmal on a steamy Sunday with a group of friends.  Since there were 5 of us we decided to rent a car and split expenses which made the cost just about the same as that of the bus but much more convenient.

We set out early in order to beat the crowds and the heat which was fine for the driver but rough on the rest of us who’d spent  the night before exploring some local Merida night life.  After heading to sleep at 3 am, getting up at 6:30 was a bit of a struggle.  But up and out we got and not having to walk to the bus station was a treat.

Uxmal is an easy 1.5-2.5 hour drive from Merida and is located close to several other lesser-known ruin sites which, for those who want to kill many birds with one stone, might make having a car make even more sense.

We arrived relatively early, before the big crowds from the city tour groups showed.  Since it was Sunday and therefore free for Mexico residents, in the beginning most of the people we saw were local families which made a nice change from the typical group of garishly dressed, loud-spoken tour groups from the big resorts.

When we entered we decided to go to the left, rather than the right which was a great decision because we were going against the tide of the tour groups.  This gave us a bit of time to explore in relative solitude which was nice.  However, if you like to try to stalk the guides and gain some free info, that wouldn’t really work for you.

Detailed carvings at Uxmal, Mexico

One of the things that really struck me about Uxmal was the detail involved in most of the buildings.  I’m not sure if I just didn’t notice it at the other ruins, it didn’t exist or it had been worn away, but in any case, the amount of detail that you can see at Uxmal was very impressive.

The site itself is pretty spread out and you have to do some off-path wandering to get to some of the ruins.  You can no longer climb the main pyramid, but there are other ruins that are on hills or that you can climb which will give you very nice views of the whole site (in spite of the nasty hotel that peeks through the trees and mars the view a bit.

It took us about 2 hours to make our way through the whole site by which time we were very hot and ready for some food and drinks.  As is typical, the food at the site was expensive and the restaurants in the surrounding hotels were also a bit pricey.  So we headed back on the road to a small roadside place we’d seen about 10 minutes before we entered the site.  We were the only visitors but the food was good, plentiful and cheap so it was well worth a stop.  if you’re taking the bus, you can exit/enter it right there if you’d like to stop.

There are several hotels in the area but for budget travelers your best bet is to stay in Merida and do a day trip.  Many people visit Uxmal on the way to/from Campeche.

Celestun, Mexico

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In my time in Merida I’ve managed to make it out to Celestun twice which is surprising as there are probably other towns in the area with much more to offer. The second trip was with one of the other hostel residents just for a few hours to get out of the Merida heat and spend some time at the shore, but on the first trip I actually saw some stuff.

My first trip to Celestun I took with some local friends and a visitor from the US. We hopped the bus at the Noreste station pretty early in the morning so we could make it out there before the heat of the day started. One of our group had done some advance research and discovered that to see the flamingos – the main attraction in Celestun – we had two tour options. The first option is to get off at the bridge. This is the main leaving point for the boat tours to see the birds. The other option is to go all the way into Celestun and catch a boat at the beach.

From what we’d learned the boats at the beach cost about 50 MXN more but the trip was an hour longer and took you along the coastline into the Golf of Mexico for a bit so we decided to go that route. For those who want to get off at the bridge, the bus will stop for you and you just cross the street and walk down the hill a bit. You can catch a bus going back in the same spot.

The town of Celestun is pretty small and non-descript. It has a string of small hotels and restaurants along the beach but the beach itself is not that nice (lots of bits of shell in the sand making it rough) and the water is silty. As soon as we exited the bus we started being approached by people wanting to take on tours to see the birds. We made our way past them and directly to the beach were there were boats waiting.

Birds in Celestun, Mexico

One of the biggest disadvantage of going to the beach boats is that the boat ride is a fixed price so the fewer people you have the more expensive it is per person and since there are fewer people going to that location it can make it challenging to fill the boat. After a bit of negotiation with the driver and a bit of luck in finding an Italian couple who also wanted to go we were able to get our tour for 170 MXN for each of us (6 people).

The boat ride was uneventful if pretty. We saw a lot of wildlife, particularly birds such as pelicans, herons, gulls and others I can’t identify and it would be a great place for someone who is interested in birding to go for a visit. We also saw an alligator sleeping on one of the bridge supports which was kind of fun but made me glad I didn’t swim with the others.

When you reach the flocks of flamingos one of the first things you notice is the noise. The cries the birds make are loud and sad and at first you wonder what it is, then you notice the sea of pink spread out in front of you. There are hundreds and hundreds of flamingos just standing in the river feeding and during the high season, there can be thousands.

The boats stay a ways away from the birds (and please don’t urge them to go closer) but you can still get some great pictures and have fun watching how the birds interact. It was interesting to see them fly because their wings have white and black feathers in addition to the pink that you expect to see.

After a bit of a lesson about flamingos, most of which I didn’t understand because it was in Spanish (I think the guides at the bridge will know more languages in case that’s an issue) we continued our trip. After leaving the flamingos we headed back towards the mouth of the river. Our driver scared the hell out of us when he headed at full speed towards what we through was the shore but what turned out to be a canal through the mangroves that line the river.

Mangrove Swamp in Celestun, Mexico

Riding through the mangroves was an interesting experience. They completely surround you and it’s like you’re moving through the center of a tree. You can see flashes of light when you look up but it’s gloomy and a little haunted looking at water level. Tracing the roots of the trees was interesting though and the knots that nature can form would stump anyone.

After a trip through the mangroves our boat headed to a natural freshwater spring where we were given a chance to swim. The water was bright blue and shaded in a little cove and it was amazingly clear, particularly compared to the river that it joined with. While I didn’t swim, the others said the water was cool and refreshing so I wish I’d had my suit to take advantage of it.

From the swimming hole the tour moves on to a “petrified forest”. I wasn’t sure what to expect but what it is is an area where all of the vegetation had died out and is only now just starting to grow back. From what I understood from the guide, the area was once flooded by the sea and the salt from the water killed off all of the trees and other plants. I’m assuming this was caused by a hurricane and it must have been a long time ago because most of the trees are rotting away. It was a very stark landscape of brown mud and bleached white wood with the occasional splash of new green. It was very different from the bright blue of the Gulf of Mexico which you could see through the bushes.

We had lunch after the tour at one of several restaurants on the beach. None of us were impressed with our meals so I would not recommend the Boyo restaurant. Instead, three restaurants to the left (as you stand with your back to the sea) there is another restaurant where I ate on my 2^nd visit which was much better.

We had about 45 minutes before the return bus came and we wandered a bit but there was nothing much going on in the town so we just relaxed in the park until it was time to leave.

I would probably not visit Celestun again but I do recommend that others go see the flamingos and if you like hanging out on the beach it can make for a nice afternoon, just remember that the beaches here are not as nice as those on the Caribbean side of the coast.