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Mexico is our 9th country so far and we have arrived in a month of celebration. Mexico won its independence from Spain on the 16th of September in 1810, so in true Latin American style the whole place is celebrating ?for the whole month…flags and fiestas…dancing and fireworks…drinking and eating?Oh well, nothing for it but to join in!

The Yucatan 1st - 5th September 2004

Chetumal

Crossing over the border into Mexico we arrived in the town of Chetumal. The threat of hurricanes, namely Francis and latterly Ivan, looked to have justified our decision not to hug the coast line and to see the regions ruins instead.

Again Zoe had visited this town 8 years ago and coincidently we found ourselves in the same hotel she had occupied. The main reason for visiting here was the Mayan museum which we visited the next morning before heading to Tulum.

Mexican food is hot?well some of it ?and I made the mistake of putting a little too much of the innocent looking tomato salsa on a tortilla only to give myself a burnt mouth and a large bill for water. The beer however is cold and cheap, recognizing names from the supermarket shelves such as Sol and Corona, we can merrily waste a whole day for 70p a bottle, only slightly more than water. In deed we have had to put a pact in place to ensure that only every other day is spent in bars and that we actually go and see some of the sites on offer!

Tulum

Tulum is one such site, spectacular not from the ruins but from the location as it sits above the Caribbean sea. As the pelicans glide over the coastline and Iguanas hide in the temples, Jurassic Park comes to mind with Pterodactyls and dinosaurs. Obviously in those days you didn’t have the bus loads of American Tourists arriving from Cancun to spoil the peace but the influence of the largest resort in Mexico is felt at only a couple of hours away. Cancun is to the Caribbean what Benidorm is the Mediterranean. Large hotels, specializing in American food, western music and demanding dollars (not pesos) from it’s paying guests. Not that Cancun is a bad place but Mexico has so much more to offer than a 2-week package holiday and it’s hard to believe that many of the Cancun-Set get to see it. (Are we starting to sound like Backpack snobs!)

Tulum also offers the opportunity to Scuba dive in Cenotes (Fresh water lime sink holes). Not being able to dive because of my ear, Zoe sympathetically took full advantage and organized herself a trip to dive the Grand Centote. In my capacity of Chief Sulker, I managed to find some ear plugs and hired a snorkel to fulfill the position of Surface Support i.e. I moped around for 45 minutes while she dived one of the most spectacular fresh water sites in the world. With visibility of over 100 meters I took a few pictures and topped up my tan. Try Cenotes ?Hidden Worlds Web Site for a better look ?the water is so clear it’s hard to believe that it is there!

Chitchen Itza

Chitchen Itza Ruins or to be more accurate Piste, gave us chance to see England draw against Austria and settle for a relaxing day before getting up to see the ruin at dawn. Equally amazing as the other Mayan sites, if not as big. The sites of the ruins are thousands of years old and have been developed by many civilizations ?the Mayan’s being the last. Being ruined out we headed for the capital of Yucatan, Merida.

Merida 5th-8th September 2004

This is where the Spanish set up camp when they invaded and it has the colonial feel about it that mirrors Havana, Cuba. In Mexico there are 2 rates for hotels, high and low season. High season is 3 weeks in August and public holidays and low season is everything else. So staying at the Hotel Aragon we managed to get their prices down by 40% (as we’ve been doing all along) and stay comfortably in a place for the same price as a shared hostel room. ( I leave the bargaining to the blond one as she has a talent for this kind of thing).

We arrived during a festival in the main square with dancing, street sellers and the locals milling around soaking up the atmosphere. As we had hit a reasonable size city, Zoe took off shopping and I explored the local Zoo before catching a film. Crafts are a major part of the area and with a bit of bargaining I bought myself a Hammock (one of the local craft specialties). I’ll be using it until we get to NZ and then after that if you ever come to visit me in London, then you know what you’ll be sleeping in!

San Cristobal 9th-12th September 2004

An overnight bus journey (thought we’d seen the last of them in South America) landed us the pretty town of San Cristobal. A quiet town at altitude that makes the weather less stifling and more like a fresh spring day. The local craft market is manned by people who live in the “Belt of Misery? 20,000 were expelled from the city to the belt, after missionaries converted them to protestants in the 1970s. The situation represents a social time bomb for San Cristobal as without work, schooling and basic amenities these people are living in poverty in the shadows of a well off tourist town. Indeed in 1994, the local Zapatista Rebels (indigenous peasants) took over San Cristobal to demand the ending of the poverty they live in. Seen as terrorists by the Mexican Army, they are seen as freedom fighters by the indigenous Mayans, and they are represented in the crafts. Rather than dolls wearing local dress, in this market you buy masked dolls carrying AK47s. Diplomatic efforts by the latest government have been watered down leaving a bad taste in the mouth of locals who want rights to their land. It may all surface again, possible in the near future.

I guess we spoke to soon as trip around town on Saturday landed us in the middle of a riot. Our Spanish determined that police had raided a local electrical store to seize illegally imported goods. The local youths, annoyed at the fact that wide screen televisions were no longer available on the black market decided to loot the store and set up flaming street blocks. A police helicopter circled above and a few running battles with local police resulted in the riot police, guns and all, being called in to secure the area. Like a scene out of the film ‘My Beautiful Launderette? we were caught in the middle, hiding in shops and alleys looking for a way out. No such luck as walking round the long way as there is a single road in and out of the town, over a bridge, and we were on the wrong side. Once the road blocks were alight we made a calculated run for escape followed by a jump into a taxi to the central square where other tourists wondered peacefully around unaware of the chaos at the edge limits of the town.

It’s easier to judge than understand but as well as visiting the cultural sites and eating the food of a country, it’s also important to know the poverty these people live in and the amenities we take for granted, are out of reach to many. The situation on the streets showed that when the opportunity to buy some cheap electrical goods is removed from the poorest in the community, they may feel there is little option but to demonstrate violently.

The purpose of out trip to the edges of town was otherwise successful and the Maya Medicine Development Center. It explains the beliefs of the indigenous people. Click for their website Mayan Medicine Centre . Not pills and formulas but Mayan use prayer, candles, incense, bones and herbs. There are 5 specialties which are:

?Pulse Reading

?Midwives

?Herbalists

?Prayer specialists

?Bone specialists

Seeing this work in practice, i.e. passing a chicken over a woman in labour to bring health to the baby, demonstrates how these practices have been passed down over centuries and people still live by tradition ways. A shop at the end of the museum allows you to buy samples of the herbalist medicine and all being well, if it works, Zoe will never suffer a headache again and I will have a full head of hair in the morning. (Wayne, I’ve sent you 3 buckets of the stuff!)

Next day there is no such luck with the hair, yet shampooing my head with a mixture of Pelican shite and grass cuttings must be doing some good if only to the profits of the Mayan Medicine Center. Zoe hasn't mentioned the word 'Headache' so you never know! A trip down the Canon Del Sumidero, gave us the chance to see wild crocodiles, birds, bats and waterfalls ending in the Chicoasen Hydroelectric Dam.

Puerto Escondido 13th ?17th September 2004

Another overnight bus journey (and one more to come to get to Mexico City at the end of the week) we arrived in a small surfing community made famous by an Italian gangster film of the same name (nope, I haven’t seen it either). Founded by surfers before the roads reached here there is a swell named the Mexican Pipe that draws them from all over the world to catch that ‘big one? Not having the hair, waistline or skill to join in surfing crowd, we have based ourselves at Rockaway Cabins, that together with a pool is costing us a princely 4.50 each per night for a bit of R and R before we hit the City of Mexico.

Mexcio City 18th-23rd September 2004

To be honest I think we both thought we wouldn´t like Mexico City but it´s has turned out to be fantastic. It is busy, noisy, and polluted but for all the right reasons. The architecture is amazing and culturally the city is amougnst the best we`ve been to. The food is out of this world and the buzz of the place is addictive.

The city is split into 9 Zones and with 22 million people (the biggest City in the world) it is not possible to see everything but the first night we spent in Zona Rosa, a trendy downtown area where beers are 4 times the price we´d paid in other parts of Mexico. Trendy shopping centres and Starbucks hides the poverty.

For the rest of the time we moved to a youth hostel next to the National Palace (like living at No 12 Downing Street) the seat of Government in Mexico. The Independence day celebrations were continuing in the capital and the whole of thecentre had turned into a big concert. However, I´d got wind of a football match taking place at the Aztec Stadium (the only stadium to host 2 world cup finals in 1970 and 1986), the biggest stadium in the world holding 115,000 people. Club America (home team) were playing Monterry and although not full the atmosphere was superb. CA won 1-0, which pleased the locals.

The next morning we took advantage of the Hostels free walking tour around the centre of Zona Historical, learning all about the history and gaining access to the significant buildings, before watching the flag ceremony in the main square.

We wanted to make our last few days in Latin America special so at the Bellas de Artes Palace we decided to celebrate this part of the journey with a trip to the ballet Don Quixote ?amazingly well done and the ticket prices about a 10th of that in London.

Mexico City has been so much more than we expected and the last of our Latin America stops. We move onto LA and our fluent spanish will have no use, we will be able to flush toilet paper down the pan once more and prices will exceed our budget... Oh well only for 2 weeks.