Porto Progreso

Today a nature tour my hostel offered lead me to Porto Progreso in the north of Mérida,a small city of fishers. We explored the most beautiful places around and got to discover beautiful flamingos and mangoves and even a cenote.

The female flamingos live in different areas than the male flamingos, but they both live in some kind of shallow lakes near the coast. Only in February the male flamingos come to the females to mate. In the picture there are some male ones. In the same area you can also find crocodiles and alligators but you better not go looking for them.

To get to the cenote, we had to ride a boat through small canals in some kind of wood, which was quite adventurous. The boats did not even have motors, just some guys pushing the boat through the canals with a long pole of wood.

The cenote, which is basically a source of fresh water from underground rivers, hold beautifully clear water at a temperature so low that it was really refreshing to swim. There were also some pretty big fishes inside that swam very close to you if you did not move too much.

After that, we went to the beach for lunch (the restaurant offered lots of different ways to eat fish) and afterwards we could swim in the Golf of Mexico. But to tell the truth, the water was so warm it felt more like a bath tub than the ocean. But the beach was almost white, which offered beautiful views.

Then we were introduced to the treasure the Mayans were protecting for their wealth: the salt lakes. In this kind of lakes, for some reason, lots of salt is produced nearly all the time. There are just water (from the rain or the sea) and the sun heating up the water needed for the chemical reaction. The water in this lakes is so salty you will completely float if you lie down in the water, just like in the Dead Sea. Also, the water is very good for your skin. You just need to make sure it is not too hot before getting in.

Mérida

Today I arrived to Mérida after an overnight bustrip of 13 hours that endet up to be 15 hours. But for some reason I haven't figured out yet I did not get travel-sick at all so for the first time while doing an overnight bustrip I could really catch some sleep and arrived in Mérida without feeling completely wasted.

When I decided to do some sightseeing at noon I quickly had to realise that it's nearly impossible to just walk around and enjoy the city that time of the day. So I tried again in the evening and this time I was successful - that is also the reason why some of the photos might appear a little bit dark.

Mérida is rather different than San Cristobál. First, it is way hotter in Mérida. While in San Cristobál people are selling gloves on the street you can't even buy any jackets in Mérida anywhere. Also, San Cristobál is more traditional than Mérida. You won't find many people here that wear traditional garments. Therefore, traditional handmade stuff and souveniers are more expensive while casual clothes are way cheaper here in Mérida. Shirts are about 3 to 8 euros and pants are about 8 to 15 euros and they really look great. I already thought of renewing all my clothes over here, but unfortunately both my budged and the space of my backpack won't allow it.

Just like in every other mexican city, all the shops are open until at least 10 in the evening, which is quite refreshing, because like I wrote before, just walking along the streets before 7 in the evening is nearly impossible for someone who is not used to that temperatures like me without getting a sunstroke. But that does not mean that it gets colder in the night. Right now the time is 10 p.m., I am sitting outside and still longing for more ice-cold water which I would really love to pour over my head rather than drinking it. But I am sure I will get used to the heat since i will be staying in this climate zone for almost two weeks.

This picture was taken from directly in front of the hostel - it is located pretty central at the zocalo, the center of every city. The hostel is quite luxurious in comparison to the hostels I experienced earlier. There is a water supplier with both ice-cold and very hot water available for free, also the beds are not bunk beds but single beds (which is great because bunk beds always cause bumps on my head) and the water pressure of the shower is rather strong. Also I heard that the breakfast is excellent - I am looking forward to experiencing it tomorrow.

Palenque

Palenque was a mayan city that was inhabited between about 200 b.c. and 800 a.d. and was absorbed by the jungle afterwards. It was discovered accidential in 1773, but by now only an estimated area of less than 10 percent of the whole city had been explored, the rest, which might be about thousand buildings, is still covered by the jungle.

Like in Monte Albán, the most buildings of the archeologic site of Palenque are temples. I really need to figure out where all the people of the city lived back then. Palenque has a palace, where the kings and the king family lived. These palace also has a tower, which was probably used as an observatory tower, and lots of patios to light up the rooms around the patios. I really like the style of their buildings, especially the palace. In the following picture you can see the palace on the right side.

The building on the opposite of the palace is the temple of inscriptions, which is the most popular one and also has a small corridor with wand paintings that leads to a chamber tomb. The king that was buried there, Pakal, designed the temple (his son built it) and is now the best known king of Palenque. The building is the biggest one in Palenque, but unfortunately we were not allowed to go on top of it.

La Naturaleza de Chiapas

In the last few days I saw a lot of amazing stuff which I am going to summarize in one big post about the beautiful nature in the state of Chiapas.

First, i visited el Chiflón, a river with some waterfalls down the hill. We had two hours there and for some reason I really felt the urge to go on top of it. There were only stairs all the way up, and altought I have no idea how high i climbed, I can tell for sure it was way higher than the castle hill in Graz. Also, it took me about an hour to get on top. But the sight was beautiful and everytime i got near the waterfalls it felt like it was raining.

After that, we visited the lakes of Montebello, that are very close to the Guatemalean border. The water is clear as crystal and very warm. But I always thought: "We have that too in Austria. Why don't anyone organizes tours for tourists into the Salzkammergut?"

On the following day, I visited the cascades de agua azul ( = waterfalls of blue water), and I can only convince that the water is totally blue. I have never seen water in that colour before and I really didn't want to leave this place anymore. There was also the possibility to swim and the water was really cool and refreshing. Since I liked this place the most you get two photos of it :)

Then we visited Misol-Há, a waterfall like out of nowhere into a pool of water. All in all, there are plenty of waterfalls in Chiapas.

Later in Palenque, a place that gets its own post, I caught a little piece of nature hanging around on a tree.

And last but not least today I visited the canon the sumido, a canyon with rock hillsides on both sides that are about 1000 meters high. These protected area is part of a big natural park, therefore we could watch lots of birds, and also this guy that was just chilling in the sun.

Things I miss in Mexico

A friend told me that she gets jealous when reading my blog, so I decided to write a little bit about the downsides of Mexico and the things I don't like. Therefore, I made a list of things I miss here in Mexico:

- My bed
I can nearly sleep anywhere if I am just tired enough, but after some time of travelling you really start appreciating a room where nobody else talks, goes in and out whenever they like, bed and bedclothes you are used to and a bathroom inside so you don't need to put your shoes on to go there.

- Cats
There are dogs everywhere! I really like dogs but cats are just better and when there are that much dogs I just need as much cats to keep my balance. Until now I have seen about two cats in Mexico. It feals like a world without cats which can't be good.

- Cooking
I do enjoy eating out in a restaurant but not all the time. Also, when I am cooking for myself, I can prepare everything just as I like it best. And I really miss my spaghetti bolognese I normally eat about once or twice a week.

- Reading
Besides of my travel guide I didn't take any books with me which is very unusual. For normal I even take a book with me when I am going to Upper Austria just for 3 days. I don't know if I ever spent that much time without reading a single book. But this one is not that bad since I am very busy discovering beautiful places here in Mexico.

- People I know
Sometimes you just have some mini-issue you want to talk about or you see something you like. Then you need someone who knows you and knows why you are telling him this. Most of the time I really enjoy travelling alone because of all the people I meet and already met but sometimes communication is just easier with people you know.

- Speed Traps
It may sound strange but I really miss the radars on the street in Austria. Over here to control the speed they use speed bumps about every kilometer and they are really horrible. The car/bus has to slow down to about 10 km/h to pass the bump on the street and it still gives everyone in the car/bus a quick shake. Combined with some streets over here that are definitely not in the best condition, you sometimes feel more like riding a boat than riding a bus. And I do get seasick on boats.

- Trains
Since riding a bus is sometimes a quite adventurous experience for people like me who get sick when traveling too long or the bus shakes too much, I really started to appreciate the trains in Europe. In a train I just can chill out, read a book or sleep without needing to concentrate on not getting sick all the time (which I can't do on a car or bus).

- My shower
The shower in Puerto Escondido had no thermostat, so the motto was "you take what you get", which was pretty warm all the day and a little bit colder in the night, but still not cold enough for a refreshing cold shower. Here in San Cristobal they do have thermostats, but the water pressure is about as much as the pressure of a gentle rain. Sometimes I feel like the hot water doesn't even reach my feet.

- Drinkable water out of the tap
Nobody in Mexico drinks the water out of the tap because it just isn't healthy. This means you always have to think about buying some water somewhere before going anywhere. You always have to pay for it. Also, you collect lots of plastic bottles and have to look for some dustbin to throw them away. I will definitely not pay for bottled water anymore in Austria. We should really appreciate our clean water way more.

- Getting up late
I really love sleeping late and I do it everytime it's possible. But since I arrived in Mexico, the latest I got up was half past 8, which is not exactly my definition of sleeping late. Most of the time there was some reason I had to get up, like a tour or spanish school, but in Puerto Escondido I had the chance to get up later but it was way too hot to sleep after 8 a.m.

Zinocantán & San Juan Chamula

Today I visited the native villages Zinocantán and San Juan Chamula very close to San Cristóbal de las Casas. There they only speak spanish as a second language, their first language is their native language, which is spoken by all the natives in the region. There also exist books and grammar in this local language. They are catholics, but their believes are influenced by the native believes they once had. In both villages it was forbidden to take pictures inside the church.

In Zinocantán we first visited the church. All the locals around there were wearing the purple traditional garments. At the moment, they are purple but it changes with the fashion. Therefore, Zinocantán is also the fashion capital of the region. Besides of fashion, the people there are known for their flowers. So the altar in the church was filled with beautiful flowers. Also, there were lots of animal figures standing around the saints, that, in their believes, represent a part of your soul which is the soul of an animal. It is a little bit like a totem as it is known in canada (for more information about totems, watch brother bear).

(This picture shows how the inside of the church almost looked like.)

After that, we got to a local market where we could taste local spirituos beverages that are known there as "medicine". They showed us how they make their clothes and we could have a selfmade taco filled with beans, cheese and salsa as a snack.

After that we visited the church of San Juan Chamula, which was quite impressive too. There, the traditional garments are black woolskirts, because it is the coldest village in the region and it rains quite often. Therefore, the skirts keep them warm and dry. Inside the church, the floor was filled with dried grass and there were lots of statues of saints with tables in front of them. On the tables, there were lots of candles and in front of some tables there were people lighting up candles and praying. We were told they are healers preying for the healing of other people. If they only light up white candles, it is a small disease, and if there are lots of colorful candles, the disease is very complicated. Some of them even brought chicken or eggs, because in their believes, if they move a chicken (or egg) above the sick person, the chicken absorbes the disease. Therefore, it is no longer good and while preying for the sick person it gets sacrified in the church by breaking its neck. It was quite a mixture of catolic believes as we know it and their traditional believes they had before.

San Cristóbal de las Casas

After I got sick in Puerto Escondido, I had to stay in bed for at least a day (which was even hotter than outside). But I was lucky, when I got into the bus yesterday evening for a 13 hour trip my relationship to the toilet was not that close anymore and by now I don't feel sick anymore.

So I arrived at San Cristóbal de las Casas today in the morning. The city is really adorable! It is in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas at 2300 meters above sea level in Chiapas, a State of Mexico close to the guatemalan border with lots of jungle. My travel guide also told me that lots of dropouts of the industry nations live here and I completely understand them. The weather is really nice, about 25 degrees every day, the nature around is marvellous (by now I only saw it on postcards but I will tell you about it) and the city is really cute.

It isn't that big, you can walk everywhere in at least 30 minutes, but you find everything you might be looking for somewhere in the city. The houses are beautiful and there are no big streets anywhere close to the center. If you look around you just see tops of the mountains around you that remember you of the altitude of the city. Despite the altitude, the city is not located on a hillside but on a plateau, so you don't have that mountain feeling when walking around. Also, I really like the smell of the cathedral Santa Domingo (a little bit like candle wax and wood).

The city was founded in 1528 and was capital city of Chiapas for a long time. It got its name from the bishop of Chiapas at the time of founding, Fray Bartolome de las Casas, who was one of the first to support the indians against exploitation of the spanish crown.