So the last stage of the journey was a 3 hour trip from Tulum to Chetumal, followed by another 2 hour trip to Xpujil. Unfortunately the 3 hour trip morphed into an 8 hour trip due to an on going teacher's strike which includes road blocks of all major roads. The alternative route, through rural villages, was very interesting and I very much enjoyed 8 hours spent looking out the window watching the world go by. Slightly less enjoyable was when it started to pour down, and it turned out that the bus had a leaky roof. Consequentially I arrived in Chetumal after the last bus to Xpujil had left, closely resembling a drowned rat! The final leg of the journey, which I embarked upon the following day, was much less eventful. Xpujil is a long way from anywhere and it felt that way, as the road made its way along a progressively less populated and more tree-lined road. My first impressions of Xpujil were that it resembled the sort of frontier town that you would expect to see in a cowboy film set in the wild west. The main heart of the town is a long street that runs along the length of the main road. That is not to say the town doesn't have it's charms; the surrounding landscape is of course a plus, as is the very friendly and laidback atmosphere which the town abounds in.
I was met from the bus by the local project coordinator, Noe. The first place he took me too was a town called Zoh Laguna, a very interesting place about which I will talk a lot more about in forthcoming posts. After a very nice lunch where I discovered that people in Calakmul like their food almost as spicy as I do, we continued on to my new home: the small village (or Ejido as they are known here) of Valentin. My first impression was that the place has more chickens than people - which is lovely until they wake you up at 4 in the morning with their cockle doodle do-ing! Home for me here is a room in a community centre built by the Ejidos. It includes my own bathroom, which is a very welcome luxury I was not expecting! The place is painted in cheerful colours and has a lovely covered porch which contains possibly the most comfortable deck chair I've ever had the good luck to sit on.
So in synthesis - a very encouraging beginning to my time here!
Monday 25 November 2013
Sunday 17 November 2013
the journey begins...
Hello Mexico!
I arrived on October 30th, just in time for the famous day of the dead celebrations that I've heard so much about. The images of sugar skulls and two days of remembering and celebrating dead loved ones are well known around the world so I was very much looking forward to seeing it for myself. I arrived in Tulum after a 20 hour journey, so my affinity with the living dead was even higher than usual. Two days to enjoy the celebrations before heading down south to begin my English teaching in Calakmul - seemed like the perfect plan! I emerged after a 12 hour sleep into the dazzling sunshine in Tulum. What a beautiful place - the perfect place to begin 6 months in Mexico. To any one thinking of travelling to visit Mexico, I recommend you visit this laidback town, only a couple of hours down Mexico's Caribbean coastline from Cancun. The beach itself is worth the visit - miles of perfect white sand looking out onto the cleanest, bluest sea I've ever had the good fortune to come across. I kicked off my first day in Mexico with a Mexican breakfast in a restaurant right on the beach. Scrambled eggs with refried beans, tortillas, guacamole, and rice - definitely makes a change from the usual bowl of cereal but I think I could get used to it! After a day enjoying a sunshine - especially considering I'd just escaped the rainiest Autumn I can remember in England - I got together with a few other people from my hostal to go out in the town and see a bit of the day of the dead celebrations.
Unfortunately, it turns out that day of the dead isn't celebrated in Tulum in the way that I had expected - instead the evening was much more similar to the Halloween festivities that I'm used to seeing in England. Groups of kids dressed in a range of costumes sang songs to passersby asking for sweets. Including the scariest Chuckie I've ever had the misfortune to come across! As I found out later, the day of the dead celebrations that most people associate with Mexico are mostly located in states like oaxaca and Chiapas. However, the town's ice-cream parlour did a one-off pumpkin flavoured ice cream to mark the day which I can highly recommend.
Despite this slight disappointment, I had a wonderful couple of days in Tulum, the highlight of which was visiting the Mayan ruins which are situated on a ridiculously picturesque cliff overlooking the sea. They may not be Mexico's biggest or most structurally impressive Mayan buildings - but they are utterly captivating and I really came away with the sense of what it might have been like to live there when the town was in it's prime. The site was also crawling with huge iguanas - it's a truly disconcerting experience to stand looking at an ancient old building, only to see some of it suddenly walk off!
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, so Saturday saw me at the bus station on my way down south. Next stop - Calakmul!
I arrived on October 30th, just in time for the famous day of the dead celebrations that I've heard so much about. The images of sugar skulls and two days of remembering and celebrating dead loved ones are well known around the world so I was very much looking forward to seeing it for myself. I arrived in Tulum after a 20 hour journey, so my affinity with the living dead was even higher than usual. Two days to enjoy the celebrations before heading down south to begin my English teaching in Calakmul - seemed like the perfect plan! I emerged after a 12 hour sleep into the dazzling sunshine in Tulum. What a beautiful place - the perfect place to begin 6 months in Mexico. To any one thinking of travelling to visit Mexico, I recommend you visit this laidback town, only a couple of hours down Mexico's Caribbean coastline from Cancun. The beach itself is worth the visit - miles of perfect white sand looking out onto the cleanest, bluest sea I've ever had the good fortune to come across. I kicked off my first day in Mexico with a Mexican breakfast in a restaurant right on the beach. Scrambled eggs with refried beans, tortillas, guacamole, and rice - definitely makes a change from the usual bowl of cereal but I think I could get used to it! After a day enjoying a sunshine - especially considering I'd just escaped the rainiest Autumn I can remember in England - I got together with a few other people from my hostal to go out in the town and see a bit of the day of the dead celebrations.
Unfortunately, it turns out that day of the dead isn't celebrated in Tulum in the way that I had expected - instead the evening was much more similar to the Halloween festivities that I'm used to seeing in England. Groups of kids dressed in a range of costumes sang songs to passersby asking for sweets. Including the scariest Chuckie I've ever had the misfortune to come across! As I found out later, the day of the dead celebrations that most people associate with Mexico are mostly located in states like oaxaca and Chiapas. However, the town's ice-cream parlour did a one-off pumpkin flavoured ice cream to mark the day which I can highly recommend.
Despite this slight disappointment, I had a wonderful couple of days in Tulum, the highlight of which was visiting the Mayan ruins which are situated on a ridiculously picturesque cliff overlooking the sea. They may not be Mexico's biggest or most structurally impressive Mayan buildings - but they are utterly captivating and I really came away with the sense of what it might have been like to live there when the town was in it's prime. The site was also crawling with huge iguanas - it's a truly disconcerting experience to stand looking at an ancient old building, only to see some of it suddenly walk off!
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, so Saturday saw me at the bus station on my way down south. Next stop - Calakmul!
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