Note: This is a condensed version of the pictures I took with some added narrative. The rest of the pics can be viewed in the album The Trip 2013 - Oaxaca to Chichen Itza. Each picture can be clicked to see a larger version and comment / like
The next stop after leaving Mexico city was the town of Oaxaca. This town has a much different feel to the rest of the destinations we have visited so far. Gone is the dusty desert, instead it has been replaced by lush tree covered hills.
The first day there we spent some time exploring the city checking out the local grub
The following day we took a tour around the local Aztec ruins at Monte Alban
We saw the court where they used to play a ball game. Apparently the looser (or winner) would then be decapitated and have his heart offered to the gods.
I decided that I needed to test the gravity in the region, see if it was any stronger:
On the way out we saw a broken rainbow
That afternoon we went for some traditional Mexican BBQ in the market.
I was dubious at first after looking at the flies buzzing around the racks of raw meat:
Once it gets nuked on the bbq and served with jalepenos salsa and tortillas however it tasted great
Next up was a small city called San Cristóbal de las Casas
There our guide Suzanne taught us how to drink Mescal
Mescal is derived from the Agave plant, the same plant as Tequila but a different variety. Worms that live in the plants are often included in the bottle. If your glass ends up with the worm then everyone has to buy you drinks all night:
The stuff can also be phenomenally cheap. I found this stuff in the super market, almost half a litre for 35p!!
The next day we drove (and I strove not to puke) the windy road to Palenque. Along the way we stopped at the beautiful Agua Azul (blue water) waterfalls:
We were taken on a guided tour around the myriad of falls before given the opportunity to take a dip:
As usual I got a little exited around the water and went scampering off up the falls without telling anyone where I was going. Whoops!
Palenque the following day was excellent.
What I found fascinating about this vast Mayan city is that barely 1% of it has been uncovered and explored by Archaeologists. The vast majority of it is still buried under dense jungle. It makes you wonder what other wonders are waiting to be discovered just a few meteres away.
Our guide for the whole thing was a cute little Mexican named Viktor who claimed to have guided the president of Germany and Margret Thatcher's daughter around the ruins over his 30 years there
Victor had some strange opinions on things. He believed that everything the Archaeologists had discovered was false and only he knew the true history of the place. He told us how he believed that Palenque had been visited and invaded by many different peoples over its history such as the Chinese, Greeks and Egyptians. He claimed that Tutankhamun himself visited the site. He bases this belief on a statue found at the site that he believes bears a similarity to the Egyptian emperor:
Regardless I had a good time running up and down the ruins and generally messing about.
The following day we found ourselfs at a small town called Meridia. We spent just a single night at this small colonial town. We didnt do a whole lot, though our hotel did have an inside jungle..
.. and apparently it had a possum somewhere ..
The next day we hit the very wet Chicken Pizza (Chichen Itza)
Despite the rain we tried to keep spirits up in front of one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world
We were all kind of wet and miserable after Chicken Pizza but all was not lost as we knew that the next stop on our adventure was going to be the sun, sand and fiesta at Playa del Carma!
