San Cristóbal and Palenque

I arrived into San Cristóbal on the night bus from Oaxaca. It wasn't much fun, night buses never are. I remember this one particularly for an annoying little kid who insisted on playing with his star wars toy all night. A star wars toy which when touched made a whoosh sound like a light-saber being swung round. I was so annoyed but no one else seemed particular put out, which I thought was strange.

San Cristóbal is known in Mexico as the place the Zapatista's took control of for a few days. They have been in a state of war against the Mexican government ever since but San Cristóbal has since calmed down. Although you can't walk two blocks without seeing their red star flag or a t-shirt with Subcomandante Marcos' face printed on the front. With that the town attracts a lot of backpacker hippies who ramble about town pulling their 2 foot dreadlocks behind them. I'm not really sure what the locals think of them, but one defining memory is of this guy playing a digerido to an audience of 5 year olds all pointing and laughing. That I think about sums up their presence in town.

Sunday, my second day in town happened to coincide with Easter Sunday, and the culmination of Semana Santa which is the biggest of all holidays across Latin America. There was a parade through town consisting of many different floats all promoting different themes. It was fantastic to watch and started off with girls dressed up as fairies waving at the crowds and kids from the local schools marching through with theeir drums and trumpets. The funny thing was that as the parade went through it got seedier and seedier until the last couple of floats where literally just girls on the back of pickup trucks dancing in bikinis. These last few floats were all sponsored by either Coca Cola or Sol (local beer) and made for a truly amazing contrast from the first few very family orientated traditional floats. Only in Mexico it seems could that kind of thing happen.

A few days later I made the trip down to Palenque, a small town close to the Guatemalan boarder known only for the ruins the town is named after. The first thing you really notice as you get off the bus is the unrelenting heat and humidity. It really was unbearable. Coming from San Cristóbal you drop about 6,000 ft and it makes all the difference. The ruins themselves are fantastic, probably the best I've seen so far. The setting is the real selling point here as you really are in the heart of the jungle. The heat though, unfortunately really takes it's toll and after about 10 minutes you are dripping with sweat (and this is 8.30am before the sun as really come out!). With that to deal with you can really only last a couple of hours.

I decided that I'd had enough of Palenque what with it's ridiculous climate so I decided to make the trip north to Campeche on the coast of the Yucatan peninsular. On my first day which is today, it was 40°C !!! Argghhh