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You are here: Home / Archives for Pastimes

Palenque… are there monkeys here?

April 16, 2009 By Jillian

After the disappointment of Monte Alban, the ruins at Palenque were a dream come true. They were exactly the type of ruins I was expecting.  Jungle, pyramids, monkeys, the whole nine yards.

We had spent the last few nights in San Cristobal (about 5 hours from Palenque by bus) and although there were tons of tours (about 300 pesos each) to Palenque, they were all day trips with about 2 hours at the ruins.   2 hours at my first mayan ruins in the jungle?  Clearly not enough time.  We left our stuff at the hostel and set out with an overnight bag to Palenque.   The trip from San Cristobal to Palenque travels right through Zapatista terrority, the indigenous army that started a revolution in 1994.  Still unresolved, the violence has for the most part died down although the political conflict continues with the occasional violent outbreaks. A number of small indigenous autonomous zones exist in Chiapas, ruled exclusively by the Zapatistas without any Mexican government involvement.  Since we’d be traveling through these areas we took heed and decided for safety it would be best to travel during the day. There are still infrequent reports of bus robberies, etc… on this route at night.   The five hour journey was incredible. Where the north of Mexico was dry and desert, Chiapas is fresh alpine highlands, cloud forests and indigenous villages mixed with lush rain forests comprising ancient Mayan lands.  Constantly twisting and turning on the road, we saw signs demarcating the Zapatista autonomous zones.  Sorry, we weren’t willing to hop off the bus, so no pictures.

Arriving in Palenque we hopped on a collectivo to the jungle to find out cabana for the night.  We stayed at a small group of cabanas nestled in a meadow not more than 3km from the actual ruins. It was my first time in the jungle (one of many firsts on the trip!) and although Danny thought nothing of it, the best part of our stay there was the howler monkey we saw on the way to dinner. (Didn’t get a picture though, besides its huevos were hanging out and who wants to see that anyhow!)  My first night in the jungle and my first monkey in the wild. 🙂

We made a beeline for the ruins when they opened the next morning and spent four hours wandering through pyramids, temples, and looking at the glyphs. At the top of one pyramid we heard this awful screeching noise that sounded like a pack of hungry lions on the hunt. Excitedly Danny said, those are howler monkeys and headed for the jungle. Following somewhat skeptically behind him [Editor’s Note from Danny – Jill actually thought the sounds were from speakers to help create atmosphere- is this disney world?] the howling grew louder and louder. Each time I asked again, are you sure those are monkey’s? The screeching was constant and as we made our way up the path following their noises we were joined by other people also looking for the monkeys.  It was my favorite part of the ruins.  In all different languages people kept yelling “Do you see them?” and as we climbed higher up the mountain.  It was thick jungle and the soil was loose so by the time we decided to turn around (monkey’s still unseen) we were covered in dirt, but beaming from ear to ear.  No monkey’s this time, but we know they exist in Palenque!

Brushing ourselves off to look presentable enough to join the other tourists,  we continued to explore the ruins.  Climbing the pyramids one by one was a feat in and of itself.  Seriously.  We are in good shape and by the time we reached the top of the third one our chests were heaving.  Some of the pyramids seem to have hundreds of stairs, so by the time you reach the top you just want to sit and collapse.  But you can’t, because its HOT.  Really hot.  It is a jungle out there. 🙂

Although the major pyramids and groups of ruins are completely excavated and tower several stories above the ground, we enjoyed the small residential buildings the most. Almost completely consumed by the jungle, these ruins are less visited and seem not to be restored or preserved in any way. We were able to crawl through tunnels, visit inner chambers and even see a subterranean burial chamber (did I mention it was pitch black in there?) under a home. It was a pretty cool experience and although the pyramids are impressive, the smaller ruins were by far more of the “ancient jungle ruin” experience I was looking for. I’m sure in a few months I’ll think nothing of ancient mayan ruins towering in the jungle or monkey’s in trees, but it really was a “discovery channel” moment climbing under the homes and through the jungle looking for monkeys.

Filed Under: History & Culture, Mexico Tagged With: chiapas, palenque, ruins

Grasshoppers? Oaxaca!

April 12, 2009 By Jillian

Molé, Chocolate and Grasshoppers. When our bus pulled in at 5am the station was abuzz with travelers, but once we left the station the roads were dark and quiet. We made our way downtown stopping for our first Oaxacan hot chocolate (it was yummy!) and prayed that the hostel would let us check in at such an early hour. We were in luck and spent the next two hours warm in our bed catching up on much needed sleep. What awaited us when we awoke was not the same sleepy Oaxaca we walked through two hours before but a city very much alive with color, noise and movement.

Oaxaca is a big tourist destination, our first since Baja, and we were a little surprised at the number of gringos wandering around. We knew we were in trouble when the restaurants had menus in English, and lets just say when the bill came we found that we had eaten the most expensive eggs and beans on the planet. Nevertheless, Oaxaca was a site to see. We wandered through the city, taking in the markets (if there is ANY DVD you want – in theaters or out on DVD – it’s in Oaxaca), and the energy that is in Oaxaca. No matter what time you were there (except maybe at 6am, but even then there were people out), the main square or Zocalo, had a carnival like atmosphere. Candy sellers, balloon sellers, ice cream vendors, shoe shiners, musicians, clowns, mimes and florists wandered the Zocalo day and night selling their wares or performing for the crowd. To say it was a shock after being in completely non touristy areas is an understatement. We had clearly entered the tourist circuit and were unprepared. After being in quiet cities and towns without gringos, the carnival atmosphere and nightly cultural performances sponsored by the state really made us feel overwhelmed. We spent hours in the Zocalo just trying to take it all in, and just when we thought we’d gotten a grasp of the place a new musician or a new vendor would come by. It was a whirlwind of a place.

Outside the city we took a day trip to ancient Zapotec capital, Monte Alban (white mountain), our first ruins in Mexico. Pretty much deserted on the day we were there, Monte Alaban is perched on a hill overlooking Oaxaca. The “two” lane road leading up the mountain is barely passable by two sedans let alone tour buses so we said a prayer when we made it to the top. I’ve only been to the ruins at Tulum (yes, it was a spring break trip to Playa del Carmen, yes we’ll leave it there) and I’d never even heard of Monte Alaban so I was a meso-american neophyte to say the least. Monte Alban was not at all what I was expecting, it sits atop a hill where the land is clear of almost all vegetation. The ruins are closed for security and preservation purposes, so we weren’t able to climb through any tunnels nor up several of the towers. Needless to say, we were uninspired by the ruins and headed back down the mountain before our allotted time.

Travelers along the way raved about the hot chocolate, the molé and of course mentioned whether they’d tried the insects or not. Yes, insects. Oaxacan cuisine is known for these three things and as adventurous travelers we had to try all three. The hot chocolate was easy, no big surprise there. Different than the swiss miss in the US, hot chocolate in Oaxaca has a spicy cinnamon taste to it and can be made with either water or milk.  Either way it was yummy and we bought a block of the cinnamon chocolate just to munch on. 🙂

The molé on the other hand was questionable, made from chocolate and spices, it tasted more like chocolatey barbeque sauce to us than a chocolate molé.  Molé is a bit like bbq sauce actually, every town or village has its own molé recipe and secret ingredients.  We had molé negro, but there are numerous types of molé available in Oaxaca. The sauce we had would hardly pass the first round at a bbq contest in Texas and though not exactly what we were expecting, it went down easy.

The third specialty was the hardest. We spent our days wandering the markets looking for chapulines (grasshoppers) in tacos or quesedillas or cooked in anything. Turns out that you pretty much have to eat them alone. I know, had I stopped to think about it before we bought them it would have turned my stomach.. Like everything though, I thought about it after the grasshopper was already in my mouth. This being Mexico, and the delicacy being insects, we purchased the smallest amount we could (about 50 grams) and made sure they were the kind covered in chili powder. I’ll let the video speak for itself, but I will say they were salty and tasted mostly like chili. Hopefully some of you have tried chapulines. Please don’t tell me I’m the only one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNPSP1qFQyU

After the adventures of the chipolines, we decided a real adventure was in the cards. We rented mountain bikes through Zona Bici and a guide and headed to the hills surrounding Oaxaca. Although the tour was a complete disappointment in almost every aspect (price, experience, guide, location, etc.) getting out and stretching our legs on the bikes was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city. Thankfully after banging myself up in Jalapa’s whitewater, Oaxaca was injury free and in that sense uneventful!

Not surprisingly although definitely not on account of the insects, we both fell slightly ill in Oaxaca. It’s bound to happen sometime right? After the bike tour the most we could muster up to do was to sit in a french cafe using the wifi all afternoon. Overall Oaxaca was an assault to our senses. Unlike any other place we’ve been to in Mexico, we wandered through Oaxaca enthralled by the sites, colors and sounds, but ready to go once our time was up. It definitely wasn’t our favorite place in Mexico, but it was well worth the trip.

Filed Under: Food, History & Culture, Mexico Tagged With: biking, oaxaca, ruins, tours

Kayak Huasteca

April 1, 2009 By Jillian

We used Kayak Huasteca for our trip down the waterfalls of the Rio Micos. I think the best part about kayaking with Kayak Huasteca was simply how flexible they were. With only a day or two of notice we were not only able to join them on the river but were also supplied with all gear and three guides for our group of four. I had heard a great deal about kayaking the waterfalls of Mexico long before I entered the country and could not allow myself to miss it. Aaron, Marjie, and Tomato (Alex) showed our group a fantastic time.

For starters, my wife and I consider ourselves to be intermediate kayakers. [ad#final-review-ad]I shared this with Aaron when working out some details in advance and he told me that the water was low enough that even non-kayakers would be able to handle the water with some minor instruction. I was shocked that he would be willing to take a couple of newbies over waterfalls but after seeing the falls and having such a wonderful time I would have been disappointed if he hadn´t included our inexperienced friends. Instead of it being just my wife and I, two of our backpacker friends were able to join and had the time of their lives.
On the river, the guides took the time to show the newbies how to perform a wet exit (eject from the boat when submerged) and call for help while submerged. The whole time I felt that they really respected the ability of individual group members, never did they push or cajole our inexperienced friends to do anything they did not want to do or were uncomfortable doing.

Once that was taken care of we hit our first fall and were able to run it as many times as we wanted. Where possible the trio of guides took movies (on our own camera) as we went over the falls, gave us a push when we needed it, and told us the easiest way to climb back up to do it over and over again. They also had their own camera to take pictures for us.
In the end we had an absolutely great time while I can say this had more to do with the fact we were running waterfalls than anything else, it was the attitudes of our guides that really made the day. Had they been indifferent or inflexible our group would have been cut in half, the run much much faster, and without all the extra fluff (paddling behind the curtain into caves, jumping over falls, repeating falls backwards, etc) that can really make things memorable. Thank you Kayak Huasteca!

Email: [email protected]

Filed Under: History & Culture, Mexico, Operators, Reviews, Whitewater Tagged With: tours, whitewater kayaking

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