MEXICO D.F. - MEXICO

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GUANAJUATO - MEXICO

PUEBLA - MEXICO

After a longer than expected stay in Jalapa, I finally made it to Puebla and enjoyed a few days exploring this colonial city which just happened to be celebrating its 475th birthday at the time of my visit. Despite there not being a whole lot to do in the city I still enjoyed wandering around the city centre and exploring some of the regions further afield such as the city of Cholula.

What most impressed me about Puebla was the range of architectural styles incorporated into the buildings around the city centre. In addition, the city contained many, many impressive cathedrals and churches. The interior decor of these buildings was absolutely incredible, the majority containing equisite wood carvings and a plethora of gold-leafing. The city of Cholula also contained a large number of interesting churches, almost all of which had been constructed by the spanish in an effort to convert the Mexican natives to Catholosism. In fact, I was told by a number of locals in the city that Cortes vowed to contruct 365 churches in Cholula as a result of public rejection of Catholosism. (As it turned out only about 40 were built, unfortunately but not coincidently the sites for each being immediately on top of archaelogical sites sacred to the native people).

Given that my visit coincided with both the weekend and local celebrations in the city, I found there were plenty of opportunities to go out. On my first night out I met some great locals and enjoyed hanging out with them for the remainder of the night. The following night I also attended birthday celebrations (Gaby) which was also lots of fun.

VERRACRUZ STATE - MEXICO

A late night departure from Campeche was followed by another sleepless night in the bus and an early morning arrival to the city Villahermosa in the state of Tabasco. Despite contemplating staying here for a few hours to check out 33 Olmec heads which had been placed in a park not far from the bus station (the only attraction in the city) I eventually decided to continue my travels and spent another 6 hours on buses before I finally arrived in Catemaco, a small town on the edge of a large lake in Verracruz state.

I found every place I visited in Verracruz state to be very hot, Catemaco being no exception. Despite a quite positive review of the town in my travel guide, the town didn`t offer a great deal and after having a quick walk around parts of the city and the lake, I found a nice spot to relax and read a little of my book. Whilst being a nice spot to just chill out for 1 day I decided to move on the following morning as there really was very little to see and do.

My next destination was the capital of Verracuz state, ´Verracuz´. As Pedro, a spanish traveller I met in Jalapa so aptly put it, if Catemaco is hot then Verracruz is like a ........... oven. (You fill in the blank!). Thankfully I managed to score an air-conditioned room and escaped much of the heat by arriving to the city in the late afternoon. That evening I wandered around parts of the city centre and along the coastline and whilst there were some nice areas and plenty of people to observe, there was once again a limited range of things to see and do. As such, I decided once again to stay only a single night and didn´t even bother to check out the citys nightlife, despite it being a Friday...

Thankfully the small town of Jalapa (my next destination after Verracruz) provided somewhat of a break from the monotony of locations I visited in Verracruz state. Apart from being a little cooler than the rest of the state (because of its elevation) there were a number of interesting places to visit, both in and around the city including a very impressive museum of anthropology (apparently the second best in Mexico) and also a nice waterfall about 30 minutes outside the city. Unfortunately, the lack of recent rainfal meant the waterfall was not nearly as impressive as it appeared in many photos taken a little later in the year but still it was worth the trip.

Jalapa also provided my first opportunity in some weeks to get out and enjoy some `Mexican nightlife` as most of the locations I had visited in the Yucutan Peninsula and Chiapas had been quite dull on this front. On my first night in the city, I ventured out with a few other travellers staying at the hostel and after grabbing a few beers at a quiet but trendy bar closeby, we walked to a club and spent a few hours there making some new local aquaintences and enjoying a few more beers. It was quite an enjoyable night and we met some friendly and crazy students who were studying in Jalapa. The music... well it was the normal rubbish, but I wasn`t expecting anything different.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to enjoy some more of the student nightlife, Pedro and myself ventured out on the following (Sunday) night and undertook a fair hike to get to a supposedly excellent club only open on Thursdays and Sundays. What people neglected to explain was that the club was dedicated completely to Salsa and as such we were both thoroughly dissapointed and decided to leave after only an hour despite forking out quite a hefty entrance fee.

Following the weekend I decided to stay in Jalapa a few days longer than I had originally intended, mainly because I was in no real hurry to be anywhere else and because I enjoyed hanging out with a few people (Marcella, Mario, Paula) I had met during my first night out. During the remainder of my time in the city I had more of a look around but basically just relaxed. Whilst definately not the most interesting of destinations, Jalapa provided a pleasant change in scenery and climate and was definately worth the visit.

Photos 1&2: Lakeside shots in Catemaco.
Photo 3: Verracruz harbour by night.
Photos 4&5: Olmec heads exhibited at the museum of anthropology in Jalapa.
Photos 6&7: Xico waterfall, not far from Jalapa.
Photo 8: Salsa lessons with Marcella.
Photos 9-12: Night out with Marcella, Mario and their friends.

PENINSULA YUCUTAN - MEXICO

Still suffering considerable damage after my food related problems in Palenque, I dragged my weary body off to Cancun on another pretty rough overnight (second class) bus. Traversing the incredibly windy road (along the same lines as the Gillies highway) it appeared the bus driver rated himself somewhat as a bit of a rally driver and I found that I was constantly smashing my head up against the window. Still, I arrived safe and sound in Cancun and managed to find a hostel without too much trouble. I spent my only full day in Cancun, just chilling out and sorting out a few things before heading down to the famous ´Zona Hotellera´ where the literally thousands of massive resort hotels were situated on the white sandy beaches of the Carribean.

The beaches I must admit were very nice, especially the turquoise colour generated through a combination of the white sand and blue water. It was somewhat surprising to realise that the sand was in fact quite different to that in Australia in that it had been formed (I imagine) from the continual erosion of limestone (prevalent in the area) and therefore was much more coarse than anything I had seen previously. Also, it was nice to marvel at the sheer size of the hotels located along the beach... there must have been hundreds of them ! All in all however, the location wasn´t anything that special and only worth a short look really.

On my second day in Cancun I travelled by boat to the nearby Isla Mujeres, which again presented some lovely beaches but was really too touristy for my liking. After walking around parts of the island for a few hours and being hassled by every man and his dog, asking if I wanted to go snorkelling or hire a moped, bike, golf cart or whatever else, I eventually found a nice place to just chill out on the beach and get some nice photos. However, after a short while the ridiculous heat once again forced me to get out of the sun and so I returned to Cancun and took a bus to Tulum, further south along the coast.

Tulum was quite an interesting place. Firstly, it is the only location in Mexico in which there are Mayan ruins located on the coast. The combination of the beautiful turquoise ocean, white sandy beaches and archaeological ruins certainly set up an amazing location and I made sure to get many really great photos whilst I was there. After visiting the ruins on the morning of my first day in Tulum, I spent a little time relaxing on the beach before just having a bit of a look around the town (there wasn´t very much to see) and just playing cards and generally relaxing with a few of the other guys at the hostel.

My second day was equally as relaxed, for after a morning adventure walking the ´20 minutes´ (which turned out to be an hour) to one of the local cenotes, we just took an afternoon nap and once again played some cards. The cenotes were very interesting, not only because of how they were formed (because the geology of the Yucutan peninsula is primarily limestone, there is essentially no surface water and as such all water ends up in underground waterways linked through cave and cenote systems) but also because of just how clean the water was. In some places it was incredible to see that the cenotes were up to 15 metres deep and yet the bottom was still easily visible. It would have been amazing to engage in some snorkelling or better still, diving in some of these cenotes, but swimming around in the crystal clear water was still very enjoyable.

My last destination in the Yucutan Peninsula was the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, which I visited as a day trip on my way to Merida. Although not quite as spectacular as the ruins in Palenque, the Chichen Itza site was still very interesting and despite the heat in the middle of the day, I really enjoyed wandering around and exploring various buildings scattered over a large area. Apart from the very imposing pyramid located in the main ´plaza´ area, the various temples, 1000 columns and other smaller pyramids all provided opportunities to take some impressive photos.

I think that the Yucutan Peninsula has thus far provided me with some of the most interesting travel experiences and destinations of my time in Mexico. I really enjoyed hanging out with various travellers, playing football with the locals in Tulum and visiting some amazingly beautiful beaches and great archaeological ruins. This is one area of the country that I would definately recommend to any visitor making their way to Mexico.

Photos 1&2: Massive hotels in ´Zona Hotellera´ in Cancun.
Photos 3-6: Various photos from Isla Mujeres.
Photos 7-11: Coastline and Mayan ruins in Tulum.
Photos 12&13: Cenotes just outside Tulum.
Photos 14-: Archaeological site of Chichen Itza.