Last Few Days in Mexico

Our second day in Bacalar was probably my favourite day of the whole trip. I got to sleep in a little bit and the hotel offered breakfast so I got to enjoy some corn flakes and juice instead of my usual suit case poptart before we ventured out for our activity.

A small pickup truck arrived to the hotel around nine and transported our group of 16 to our starting point in two trips. A few people were beyond excited to ride in the back of the truck so I hopped in the cab because that was something I remember doing quite a lot as a kid so the novelty wore off long ago. I was in the first group so had some time to wait at the docks while waiting for the rest of the group. There were a few guys sitting in some ratty little tin fishing boats and some pontoon boats sitting empty so I was a bit worried about what I had gotten myself into. Thankfully the guys were in the crappy boats just so they could move them out of the way and once the rest of the group arrived we loaded onto two pontoon boats to start our 3 hour tour of the lagoon. It was clear no one in the group knew my last name because not a single Gilligan joke was made.

We cruised along the shoreline for a short while before stopping for our first swim break. I have never seen such clear blue water in my whole life. The water was a bit cold but still enjoyable. We splashed around for a while before people started to get restless. Someone said that we needed a water game to play and I suggested Marco Polo but it fell on deaf ears and we ended up playing tag. It got pretty intense but was super entertaining if you were no where near the person that was it. By the time we were all winded the captain blew his whistle and we all climbed back onto the boat. 

As we cruised along we saw several mangroves as well as some cenotes. These cenotes were very different from the ones we swam in the other day and as far as I could tell the only thing differentiating them from the lagoon was a sudden drop off. Someone drowned in one of the cenotes recently so we weren’t able to swim in any of them but I was okay with that. We continued the morning making a few more stops to swim. I had reached my swimming quota by the end of the first stop so opted to longe on the swim platform of the boat and work on my tan while most of the group swam. This may have been a bad idea because it turns out I did a really terrible job applying sunscreen and ended up with a very splotchy sun burn.

When the tour finished a group of us made our way to a restaurant overlooking the lagoon for lunch. As usual the food took forever but this time I didn’t really seem to mind. I was feeling relaxed and had no sense of urgency to squeeze anything else into the day so I was content to wait. After eating lunch I shared a taxi back to the hotel with a few other from the group and spent the rest of the day relaxing. I felt guilty about it at first but eventually convinced myself I deserved to relax, I was on holidays after all.

The next day we were supposed to take a public bus back to Playa del Carmen but instead we all pitched in a few dollars to make our last day an epic adventure. Shortly after breakfast we climbed into the van and made our way to Tulum. We explored the ruins for about an hour. We didn’t have a guide for the ruins so I didn’t really learn anything but enjoyed wandering around and taking it all in. The ruins in Tulum are right on the ocean so there were some pretty spectacular views along the way.

The next stop on our bonus adventure was for lunch. We stopped at a roadside taco stand that our tour guide swore was amazing. I had no desire to eat tacos but I was starving and didn’t have any other options. We all lined up and paid the cashier then Mani helped us tell the staff what we wanted in our tacos. I told him I wanted the blandest chicken available and he said that none of the options were bland. I saw some pork that looked like the pork from the buffet and I asked if it was the same and was told no. In the end I chose the green chicken. They asked if I wanted rice in my tacos and looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if they could put it on the side but thankfully they humoured me. Once the rice and meat were on the plate they handed the tray to you and then you could add other toppings. I was going for bland so I didn’t add anything at all. I ate one taco and it was absolutely disgusting. I was so hungry that I was willing to eat the other two but when I picked up the second one I found that the juices had leaked out and turned the tortillas completely soggy and if I had put it in my mouth I would have gagged for sure so I passed on the rest of the tacos. I was thankful I asked for the rice on the side however because the restaurant only served tacos they didn’t have cutlery and I had to eat the rice with my fingers. I’m sure I looked super sexy.

Our final bonus stop was at another cenote. This cenote was different than the others we had visited as it was level with the ground and not in a cave. There were some small cave like feature and there were still some tree roots dangling down. It was also much busier than the other cenotes we visited but the fact that it was a Saturday might have had something to do with that. The water was super cold but once you were in it for a bit you got used to it. It probably would have been warmer in the sun but I had applied sunscreen as though we would be in a cave and didn’t want to add to my splotchy sun burn. I also tried to avoid the edges as there were a lot of fish that nibbled at your feet and I learned in Cambodia that I do not enjoy that feeling so kept my distance.

Once everyone had had their fill of swimming we made our way to our hotel in Playa del Carmen with a few hours of free time before our dinner. I wandered around the tourist area a little bit and wished I had more free time to explore. You hear a lot of scary stuff about Playa del Carmen but it seemed like a pretty cool place. I also managed to pick up some real vanilla and I can’t wait to use it!

I had originally hoped to bail on dinner to go to Xplor Fuego but I couldn’t make it work. I think that is probably for the best though because the community charity we visited that strives to add art to the community and that meant we got to see a lot of cool graffiti. The founder of the charity toured us around the neighbourhood showing us the art and telling us about how bring art to the community has helped the community to flourish and how they help educate and feed local children. After the tour we received our preordered meals before being given one last sales pitch to donate to the operation.

When we got back to the hotel most of the group went out for farewell drinks but I was peopled out and jus went back to the room. I felt a little bad afterwards that I hadn’t said bye to anyone at all but got over it fairly quickly. Instead I had the most magical show ever. Okay maybe not ever but it was easily the most magical shower I had during my time in Mexico. It was a great way to end the trip.

Well I guess that's it for now. I have a few things planned for this year but I should be back at some point in 2020. See you then.

Bus Journeys and Jungle Adventures

I’m a bit behind on updating so this might be a long entry, if you don’t have the patience to read the whole thing I completely understand.

Tuesday was a relatively uneventful day as it was a long travel day. We took a public bus from Merida to Palenque which took about 9 hours. The bus was pretty comfortable and I was able to sleep for a bit which was great because I didn’t sleep much the night before. We boarded the bus around 8:30 and when we stopped at another station shortly after 1:00 I asked our guide Mani if we were about half way there. He told me ‘no’ and I questioned him. He asked me if I wanted to hear the truth or if I just wanted him to tell me what I wanted to hear. I told him I wanted the truth and he told me that it was a 9 hour journey and we still had a long way to go and that we wouldn’t get there until about 5:00. So by my math that means we were roughly half way there but he insisted we were not.

Our hotel in Palenque was a bit nicer than the last two but still didn’t have an elevator and our room was on the third floor so I was kicking myself once again for using a backpack instead of a suit case. The stairs are never all in the same spot either because who wants one flight of stairs that goes directly from the bottom floor to the top floor anyway? It’s much more fun to design your hotel like a labyrinth with no signs indicating where the next flight of stairs might be hiding. Also randomly putt a room 401 on the second floor just to throw people off is also a fantastic idea to keep people on their toes. All of the hotels we have stayed at so far only give you one key for the room even if there are two people in the room. This is especially fun if those two people don’t know each other and have different plans for the day. I expressed my frustration to my roommate and she said she thinks it is a security measure. I disagree because when we left the hotel we would leave the key at the front desk incase we didn’t both come back at the same time and when you came back you would ask for the key for your room and they wouldn’t even ask your name let alone your room number. It’s definitely not a security measure…I think they’re just cheap.

In Mexico families actually gather for Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve so shortly after we arrived at the hotel the rest of the group left for Christmas dinner at a restaurant in the jungle. I opted to stay behind because the meal was a 4 course fixed menu that cost roughly $40 before adding any drinks or tips and I probably only would have eaten half of one of the dishes and not touched the others so it didn’t seem worth it. I did have a bit of FOMO but my FOWM (fear of wasting money) won out and I decided not to join the group. I tried to find dinner closer to the hotel but unfortunately most of the places I visited also had set holiday menus for the night and if they didn’t they didn’t have any food I would eat. I ended up alone in my room eating a marble cake I bought at a gas station and watching youtube videos. Aside from not have a real meal all day it was actually a pretty nice evening.

I’m glad I had a chance to relax because yesterday was action packed from start to finish. I signed up for both of the optional activities offered and I feel they were both marketed incorrectly. The morning activity was described as a ‘jungle walk’. That sounds like a fun way to start my morning. An hour and a half in a national park should be a breeze, a brisk walk on groomed trails I can totally do that. Unfortunately while the “walk” was in a national park it was nothing like I imagined. As far as I’m concerned if you need to maintain three points of contact at any given time that activity is no longer called walking. We scrambled up hills, traversed multiple rivers, climbed up a waterfall, and spent two and a half hours worried that death was right around the corner. We saw parts of ruins, most of which had been grown over by the jungle but I honestly didn’t absorb a single thing the guide said because every time we stopped for him to talk I was trying to catch my breath and be thankful that for the next few minutes I didn’t have to think about what treacherous terrain was ahead. Don’t get me wrong the jungle was beautiful but I am in terrible shape and probably would not have signed up for the activity if it had been advertised as a treacherous jungle expedition rather than a walk.

Since there is no rest for the wicked as soon as the jungle walk ended we were straight into the next activity, visiting the Mayan ruins of Palenque. Salvador the same man who took us through the jungle also guided us through the Palenque ruins. He seemed like a pretty knowledgeable guy but once again I did not absorb anything. We had no time to recover from the jungle “walk”, no time to use the bathrooms, and we were climbing up ruins with steps that were all about a foot tall. Ooo I lied a few things stuck. The sarcophagus of a woman covered in red sediment and jade was found in one of the temples. She was known as the Red Queen. They also found the tomb of a former leader who they think was 80 when he died (super impressive for that time period) who was holding a cube and a bowl and had a jaguar mask made of jade covering his face. Drawings that were found have also lead anthropologists to believe that he had 5 wives and 50 kids. Sister Wives Mayan Edition.

After the guide took us through the main part of the ruins we had some free time to explore some more ruins on top of a giant hill. By this point my knee was starting to swell so as much as I wanted to see those ruins up close and check out the view from the top of the hill but in the end I think I made the right choice. In order to get back to our van we still had to walk for about another 30 minutes and that walked involved a lot of those giant steps. The walk did also take us past a few waterfalls which were quite beautiful and made me feel less guilty about stopping to rest for a few minutes. Man I really need to start exercising when I get home.

For lunch we went to the same restaurant that the group went to for dinner the night before. They all said they had a good time and they had food on their regular menu that I would actually eat so I was optimistic it would be a good time.  I don’t know if their service the night before was a fluke or if they were short staffed because it was Christmas but it was not a good time. It took an hour and a half just to get my coke. Other people in our group had completely finished their meals by then. Two hours went by before I actually got my pasta and it was mediocre. It was nice to sit and relax for a bit but I would have appreciated my drink after I ordered it.

Because lunch took so long we had to rush back to the hotel and change for our next activity - swimming in Roberto Barrios waterfalls. We were way behind schedule so the nature of this activity may have changed a bit since we were racing sunset but it was not at all what I expected. I knew there would be options to jump off of and slide down the waterfalls but I also thought there would be opportunities to swim in water beneath the waterfalls. I also that there would be life jackets since there were life jackets at the cenotes which had little to no current. There were no life jackets and no opportunity to swim unless you jumped off falls. I can swim but I have no endurance. Like at all. The swim to shore after the first jump was pretty lengthy and I didn’t want to risk it and it ended up being the easiest swim of all. I ended up paying $40 to walk barefoot through the muddy jungle in the dark while being eaten alive by ants. I also fell trying to watch the people who were participating and have a huge bruise on my ass now. I also almost died twice as we were walking because you had to walk over a waterfall on muddy board that was about 18 inches wide and slippery as hell. The board was directly over a waterfall and had I slipped I almost certainly would have gone over with drowned or broken my neck. Either way I would have been leaving in a body bag.

Had I known the activity was going to go down this way I probably would have stayed at the hotel but then I would have missed out on one of the highlights of the trip. David, one of the guys on the trip celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday and in order to celebrate in true Mexican fashion we bought him a piñata. The village that the waterfalls are in is  a pretty impoverished area so Mani suggested we have David’s birthday party in their neighbourhood and we had them hit the piñata and we also brought a cake and bought some other toys. The kids were so excited. They thoroughly enjoyed the piñata and all dove like jackals every time even a single piece of candy fell out. As soon as they done with the piñata two of the younger kids left to go home. I stopped them on their way and gave them each some pay-doh. They both screamed with delight and I almost cried. We continued to give out toys and hang out with the kids for about half an hour and it was easily the best part of my day.

Today we loaded up the van and started the journey to Bacalar. The trip took about 7 hours and was mostly uneventful. Mostly. About ten minutes after our first bathroom break I was hit with a very sudden urge to use the bathroom. Number 2. I couldn’t ask to stop again so I just held it and prayed. One thing I had noticed about Mexico that became incredible more prevalent while I was trying not to shit my pants is that Mexico loves speed bumps! Driving on the highway? Better not go to fast let’s just throw in the odd speed bump here and there. Struggling to make it up a steep, winding hill? You better believe there is a speed bump around every bend. Making your way through a small town? You guessed it speed bumps. Yes that’s right, plural. About every 200 meters. Nearing a tourist attraction? Speed bump, speed bump, speed bump. After about an hour had passed I asked  if we could please stop at the next bathroom. Wanna know how far away that was? About another hour! It was also a pay toilet which I usually refuse to use out of principle but I didn’t even care. Take all my money just let me unclench! 

Once we arrived in Bacalar we dropped our bags in the hotel then made our way into town. I’m still feeling pretty beat after yesterday’s shenanigans so after I ate lunch I wandered around for a little bit then made my way back to the hotel. Now I’m just relaxing, I some how managed to get my own room so I’m just chilling and watching movies. Tomorrow we head out on the lagoon and I’m really looking forward to it. 

I feel like the overall tone of this entry was a bit negative which was not my intention at all. I’m having a great time and I’m sorry for being such a negative Nelly! I will try to be more positive in my next post. 

Merida, Cenotes, and Other Adventures

It took well over an hour to get yesterday’s entry to post because the internet here is so terrible. At some point I got frustrated and gave up and decided to go have a shower Boy was that an adventure! I wish the internet was better so I could post a picture of our spacious bathroom but alas I will just describe it. It is so small that you have to turn sideways to get through the door and past the sink to the toilet which is pretty much touching the sink. About two inches away from the toilet is the shower curtain for the tiny shower. Having all of this room comes in really handy when you’re sharing a room with a stranger and need to get dressed/changed in the bathroom but that’s not the point of this story. The faucets are labeled ‘F’ and ‘C’ and in my head I think froid is cold and chaud is hot in french so the Spanish must be similar I’ve got this. I turn on the shower and take a step back to avoid the spray until I can make sure it’s the right temperature but this shower head is bananas it starts spraying in about 16 different directions. There is no avoiding this water and I’m feeling confident that my clothes are now soaked despite the shower curtain. I’m also freezing. Maybe I was wrong. I think fuego means hot so I turn off the c faucet and turn the f faucet all the way on. Ice. Ok that obviously didn’t work lets try the opposite. Ice. There is no way I’m washing my hair in this frigid water so I quickly rinse my body and give up. Thankfully my clothes and towel were pretty much the only things in the bathroom that didn’t get soaked so things could have been worse. Why does showering in other countries have to be so difficult? I’m really hoping for better luck at the hotel we’re staying at tomorrow but I think it is a lodge in the middle of the jungle so I don’t have high hopes. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

After the failed shower attempt and finally getting my blog entry to post it was finally time to meet up with the group for family dinner. We went to a cute restaurant called Coyote Maya. The rain had cleared so we sat in their back room that has a retractable roof and we had the place to ourselves. Once again everyone was trying new and exciting things and I ordered the fettuccini alfredo. The pasta was not cooked all the way through and it was lukewarm but I guess that’s what you get when you order Italian food in Mexico. We left for dinner at 7:30 and at 10:00 people were still eating their desserts which was super frustrating. A bunch of us ended up leaving the group early and I came back to the hotel and went to bed. 

This morning we got up early and piled into the van for our trip to the cenotes. At this point I’m thinking ‘I just paid $60 to go swimming, I don’t know what the hell I was thinking’ and driver is playing spanish dance music really loudly at 8am and I’m wishing I had picked a different activity.

The drive was a little over an hour and despite the fact that my motion sickness has progressively been getting worse I figured an hour isn’t that long and I could handle it. About 15 minutes in it became clear that I could not in fact handle it. I took a gravol and it seemed to take forever to start working. I was starting to worry that maybe it wasn’t motion sickness and it was actually Montezuma's revenge but thankfully that wasn’t the case.

We stopped along the way in the parking lot of a church that was built next to an indigenous site. Apparently this is something that settlers liked to do and sometimes even destroyed the indigenous sites and built churches in their place. I think the main reason we made this stop though was so Mani could pick up a watermelon. We also passed a traditional haceinda. Before today I thought a hacienda was a guest house because I thought that’s what Gina from Real Housewives of Orange County moved into when she and her husband separated but apparently I’m mistaken because it’s actually a farm. The haciendas in this area were used to grow a crop that I can’t remember the name of but it looks like an aloe vera plant and was used to make rope once upon a time. They were owned by rich people who had slaves do their manual labour for them. Our guide told us they weren’t technically slaves because they were free to leave any time they wanted but if they did no one else would hire them and they would eventually starve to death. I’m pretty sure that’s a slave. He also told us that the indigenous people used to grow this crop before they were forced out of their territory by the colonizers. 

After the motion sickness scare and the history lesson we finally arrived at our destination. Before we arrived we were given the option of taking a horse carriage or a bicycle to the cenotes. I just paid $60 to go swimming so you better believe I’m not putting in anymore work than I have to to get where I’m going so I picked the horse option. I was expecting a horse with a carriage that holds 2 to 4 people like the ones you would find in Central Park in New York, the Blackpool Promenade, or even here in Merida but that is not at all what it was. Instead it was a wooden platform that was on wheels that fit a train track that 6 people plus the driver sat on and hung on to a piece of rope for dear life while this tiny little horse pulled us down the track in protest. I’m not describing this well and will try to post a picture later but it was definitely a unique experience.

The horses brought us to the first of three cenotes. We reached a cave with a tree growing directly above the opening and made our way down the wooden steps while ducking under the rock formations. I guess this would be a good time to explain what a cenote is. There is a lot of limestone in Mexico and overtime the rain has eroded the limestone creating underground rivers. So basically a cenote is a swimming hole inside a cave. As soon as we made it far enough into that first cave to see the waterI was no longer upset about spending so much money just to go swimming. The water was so clear and so blue and the were stalactites and trees roots coming down from the ceiling. There was a platform in the middle where we were able to leave our bags and I took a slow lap around it and felt refreshed. Before long we were off to our second cenote just a few meters away. The second cenote was even more impressive than the first. The cave itself was more interesting and the water was deeper so you could jump off the platform and into the water. I was too busy thinking about keeping my life jacket from choking me out when I jumped in that I wasn’t thinking about anything else and ended up doing a pin drop and went way deeper than I anticipated and ended up with a nose full of water. Next time, if there is a next time, I’ll be sure to do a cannon ball instead. Once we were finished at the second cenote we had a watermelon break before head to the third. The third cenote was different from the first two as it was completely open at the top. It was also much much deeper than the first two. Knowing that our adventure was coming to an end I think we ended up spending the most time at this cenote. 

We eventually all made our way out of the cave and caught are horse buggy train track thingy back to our starting point where we had lunch then made our way back to Merida. Shortly after returning we departed for our orientation walk that was cancelled due to weather yesterday. We started by going to the house of the person who founded the city only to find that it was closed. We then went to City Hall which must be the old one that was turned into a museum because it certainly doesn’t look like any municipal office I’ve been in. Because our first stop was a bust Mani decided to take us to the local market. I was originally super on board with this plan because I love local markets but take a busy mall on Christmas Eve and multiply that by about a thousand times and that’s how crowded the walk to the market was. There were so many people everywhere and Mani was weaving in between them making it difficult for a group of 16 people to keep track of him but some how we managed to make it work. I kept having flash backs of losing my group in Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia and was practically glued to Mani making sure that didn’t happen again. We did a quick walk through the market so he could show us how meet is sold in the market. It is hung on hooks or left in trays in the room that had to be at least 90 degrees. Absolutely disgusting. From there we made our way back to the town square and ended the walk.

We didn’t really get to explore City Hall when we were there so I went back to check it out on my own. There was a lot of art work hanging all around the building and at first I thought it was cool but eventually it started to remind me of the really inappropriate artwork hanging in Pawnee City Hall in ‘Parks and Recreation’. As soon as I saw a picture of settlers torturing the indigenous people I was done. I understand that we need to learn from history but proudly displaying that scene in your City Hall seemed super inappropriate to me.

I wandered around the square a little bit then made my way back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. Most of the group is going out for street meat at 7:30 but I won’t be joining them. Partly because I don’t want to be up until the end of time, partly because I don’t want to deal with huge crowds of people again, but mostly because I don’t think I will find anything I like. Don’t get me wrong street meat can be great but I’m just not into the cuisine here.

Tomorrow we have a 10 hour bus ride to Palenque so I might not update because there might not be anything to report but watch this space.

I'm Baaaack! And I'm in Mexico!

Guess who’s back. Back Again. Jenna’s Back. Tell a friend.

If you followed my blog previously I’m sorry for the super long hiatus and not finishing telling the story about my African adventures. I fell into a pretty deep depression when I moved back to Canada and updating the blog fell off of my list of things to do. I’m still struggling with depression but finally reached out for help last year and am doing better. I’m currently in Mexico for a mini adventure so I thought I’d give this a shot again. I can’t promise the writing will be any good or that I’ll update every day but something is better than nothing right?

Driving on the 400 gives me anxiety at the best of times, doing it in the dark in the winter is just a recipe for disaster so I took a bus to the airport. Well technically I took 4 buses and got very little sleep but it was fairly stress free and I didn’t have a seat partner on any of the busses so I’ll chalk that up as a win.

The flight went pretty smooth but my luggage took forever to make its way on to the belt and I was starting to panic that my bag got left in Toronto. I was also worried that because I was taking so long to get out of the airport my prearranged shuttle was going to leave without me. Thankfully neither of those things happened and both me and my luggage made it to Playa del Carmen safely yesterday afternoon. 

I met my roommate Dina as soon as I arrived and it’s a good thing I did because there was only one key to our shared hotel room. The three storey hotel didn’t have an elevator so I had to carry my suitcase (of course I decided to use a suitcase instead of backpack for the first time ever) up a flight of tiled stairs, which were outside and it had been raining. I’m still amazed I survived the trip up the stairs.

I convinced Dina to venture out with me to find food and we made our way to a 50’s diner around the corner. We were meeting with the rest of the group for dinner in a couple of hours so I just ordered fries and a drink. The drink I ordered was called orangeade and I thought I was going to get something resembling a Fanta. Boy was I wrong! I got the pulpiest fresh squeezed orange juice ever to grace this earth. It was like 95% pulp and 5% juice. I was not impresses. I also saw the server lick his hand while making a milkshake and continue working. Needless to say I won’t be returning to that restaurant when we go back to Play del Carmen at the end of the trip.

After eating we went back to the hotel and I had a short nap before meeting up with group for a briefing on our trip. Our very attractive guide (I will try to post a snap a picture before the tour is over)  Manfredo (Mani) broke down how we would be spending the next several days then invited us all to join him for dinner. We walked a few minutes to a local restaurant where everyone but me ordered traditional Mexican dishes. I expect this will be a trend for the remainder of the trip.

After dinner it was back to the hotel and into bed to get ready for today’s big adventures. We loaded up the van fairly early and made our way to Chichen Itza. The ruin site was far more expansive than I imagined it to be and we spent serval hours exploring and learning about the Mayans. I’m not going to lie our guide was super long winded and I remember very little of what he told us. One thing I do remember is that the water God is named Chaahk and the Mayans believed he lived at the bottom of the cenote on their grounds. This particular group relied on the farming of corn in order to survive and would make sacrifices to Chaahk to ensure they would get enough rain to grow a successful crop. The human sacrifices volunteered to be sacrificed and spent their whole lives preparing for this duty where they would be drugged, dehydrated in a sauna, weighted down, and then drowned.. There was another group of people who would make sacrifices to the sun God and they seemed much more violent. They would capture warriors, rip their hearts out of their chests and then set the hearts on fire while they were still beating. Sounds like a pretty good way to go right?

Although I don’t remember many specifics, I remember thinking there were a lot of similarities between the way settlers treated they Mayans and the way they treated the Indigenous community in Canada. When the settlers came the brought small pox which ended up killing a lot of Mayans. Around this time there were also droughts and famines. This lead many of the Mayans to believe that their Gods had abandoned them and in order to survive they must convert to the settlers ways and that is how christianity came to Mexico. I have been participating in meetings with some Indigenous leaders recently at work so I found this really fascinating.

Ooo maybe I absorbed more than I thought because now I’m remembering more about the sun God. He is a serpent but when the night falls he must face many demons so when the night comes he transforms into a jaguar able to defeat anything that comes his way and then when it is time for the sun to rise he transforms into a bird. He is referred to as the feathered serpent or Quetzalcoatl and was depicted in many forms throughout the ruins.

After what felt like the longest tour ever we finally left the ruins to carry on with our day. We went to a buffet for lunch and I was a bit worried I was going to starve to death but I managed to find something to eat. I ate a lot of rice but I also tried a real Mexican dish called chicharron de something something. Okay so maybe that’s not the official name but I can’t remember what it is and my google search wasn’t very fruitful. It was pork marinated in oranges and something else. I only had a tiny piece but guess what…I didn’t die! If it isn’t a buffet I probably wouldn’t have tried it but I did and I’m proud of myself. Others in the group scoffed at my plate but I thought it was impressive I didn’t just load up on pasta salad. Someone even said the said the pasta salad was sweet so I bet they used Miracle Whip and that’s one of my four basic food groups!

Once everyone had finished eating we loaded back into the van and drove another 3 hours to Merida. We are supposed to be on an orientation walk of the city but it is raining cats and dogs so it got postponed until tomorrow afternoon. I don’t have much desire to wander around in the rain so now I’m just relaxing until we meet up for dinner at 7:30. Fingers crossed there is something on the menu I can eat!

I had planned on adding pictures to this post but the internet here is absolutely terrible...I can't even get the upload screen to load so unfortunately you'll have to use your imagination. If I remember I will try to add pictures if our next hotel has better wifi. 

Safari Adventures: Chobe National Park

Day five of the safari was our first and last chance to sleep in during the 11 day tour so I was pretty upset when I woke up at 2am needing to pee. I tried to go back to sleep but the thundering of the waterfalls really wasn’t helping me to resist the urge to pee and the screaming monkeys at 5am weren't exactly creating a relaxing environment either.

When it was time to wake up for realsies the lovely Jo-Jo whipped up a nice hot breakfast complete with scrambled eggs and a giant bowl of bacon (Emma’s favourite thing ever). There was also cereal and bread but who wants that when you can have bacon? Especially since the cereal options were Corn Flakes and Rice Crispies, not good cereals like Corn Pops or even Honey Nut Cheerios.

Once we had all eaten we packed up the van and hit the road. It was a short drive to the Botswana border which was a much faster border crossing than when we came into Zimbabwe. It only took a few minutes to process all of our passports but we were still there long enough to check out all the ebola propaganda they had posted. One of the signs listed symptoms (symptoms was spelt wrong on the sign and I desperately wanted to take a picture but border officials tend to frown upon that sort of thing) and one of the symptoms listed was “bleeding from the eyes”. If you are bleeding from the eyes and haven’t felt the need to seek medical attention you deserve to die. Maybe that’s a bit harsh but really how could you not know that something is seriously wrong at that point?

Shortly after crossing the border we arrived at Thebe River Safari Lodge where we set up camp. Lunch was cold sandwiches which I wolfed down as quickly as possible and made my way to the pool to cool off because it was roughly a million degrees. I was just starting to cool off when one of the other girls came to the pool and told us that we had to move to a different camp site so a group of 40 rich snobs could have our site. I’m not sure if they thought that a group of that size wouldn’t need to make a booking or if someone at the office messed up but I was not happy about this situation. 

By the time we had finished moving our camp it was almost time for our game drive so installing of returning to the glorious pool I had to change in to dry clothes and go back to sweating my ass off. This was not my day because things continued to fall apart as the day went on.

we all piled into the safari vehicle and drove down the road for what felt like ages to get to the gates of Chobe National Park. Once inside the park we saw a number of animals but they were all at a distance and I hadn’t managed to find a reasonably priced zoom lens in Zimbabwe so my pictures all suck. I had heard great things about Chobe but I think the way to see it is on the water rather than on the land. Most of the animals were hanging out in or near the water and we were stuck on land, and were not allowed to go off road so even the animals on land were often far away.

Our driver was a bit of a maniac and was driving incredibly fast for an area with so much h wildlife, not to mention the fact that none of the roads are paved. The vehicle was also quite loud so he was likely scaring away animals which is the exact opposite of the goal when on a game drive. His great speed caused my hat to fly off my head. I felt it lift up and tried to grab it but apparently my catlike reflexes aren’t quite what they used to be and my hat was gone. a short while later it started to bucket down rain and as I struggled to put on my sweater my sunglasses fell off my face and slid out the side of the vehicle. I yelled “stop” but the driver kept on going. We turned around and went back to get them (much to the dismay of the rest of the group) only to find they had been run over by the truck behind us. I briefly worked at a sporting goods store during my time in Lake Louise and while I was there a rep from Oakley came and talked to us about their product and I remembered him telling us that they could survive being run over. My glasses were in three pieces when they were picked up off the dirt road but I was able to piece them back together so the legend really was true! Unfortunately one of the lenses was scratched so badly the glasses were unwearable but I was still impressed.

Things were getting pretty chaotic around this point. The rain kept coming down harder and harder and we were all completely soaked. Luckily our driver had collected all of our cameras and put them in cab before it really started coming down so no one’s camera’s were damaged but our spirits had been shattered. Within minutes we went from roasting to freezing and our drive ended up being cut short due to the inclement weather. On our way out of the park we saw several other groups, all of which had been given ponchos and looked dry and warm. Some of the other groups even took pictures of us looking like drowned rats while the laughed. Assholes.

Most of us had left bathing suits and towels out to dry on our tents so there was a collective sigh of relief when we returned to camp and found it hadn’t rained there. I was so happy to be able to dry off and change into some warm clothes. I had originally planned on jumping straight back into the pool upon our return to camp but hanging out in the bar seemed like a better option at that point.

We sat around a table and chatted at the bar while we waited for dinner. We had a braii for dinner and it was much better than the one I had in Cape Town. I did steer clear of the sausages for fear that they would taste like a bathroom air-freshener but everything I tried was fantastic. The steaks must have come from dinosaurs because each steak was the size of a single cow. My favourite part was probably the corn on the cob, coated in delicious melted butter mmmmmmmmmmm. 

We finished the night hanging out around the campfire. Some of the girls made smores and pretty much everyone drove Jo-Jo crazy while they chatted during his briefing on what would be happening the following day. He looked like he was going to snap at one point but after 5 whole days stuck with 13 girls you couldn’t really blame him.

After Jo-Jo’s briefing I made my way to the tent and called it a night so in an attempt to keep this post from turning into a novel like the last one I will end this entry here. Check back soon for more safari adventures. 

Safari Adventures: Victoria Falls Fun

Day three of the safari started at the ridiculous hour of 4am and I don’t think anybody was too excited about that. Our goal was to make it to the Zimbabwe border around opening time to try and beat the queues and we succeeded in that mission so that kind of made the early morning worth it.

Canada must have done something to piss off Zimbabwe once upon a time because while most nationalities only have to pay $30 for an entry visa Canadians need to pay $75! There is a loophole though, if you get a visa for both Zimbabwe and Zambia it’s only $50 and South Africa has recently lifted their yellow fever restrictions for travellers who have visited Zambia so I was able to take advantage of that bargain. We all paid for our visas then waited about half an hour for them to be processed before continuing on our merry way.

We arrived at our campsite in Victoria Falls a short time later and set up camp. Jo-Jo busted out the cereal and some bread so we could have some breakfast (a million hours after we woke up) and a man who worked at the campground then came and told us about all the different activities available to participate in during our time there. Waiting for everyone to book and pay for their activities was a long and painful process that probably took about two hours.

Shortly after noon we all set off to see the falls. Victoria Falls borders Zimbabwe and Zambia, and is more than twice the size of Niagara Falls in both width and height. The falls were spectacular but unlike Niagara Falls there is no viewpoint where you can take in the entire falls at one time. We walked to several different viewpoints getting more and more wet as the afternoon wore on.  We also encountered several monkeys during our journey and some of the girls were taking pictures of them I felt like they may have been getting too close which was confirmed when a monkey bared his teeth and hissed at Emma and we both almost crapped our pants. We tried to avoid the monkeys during the rest of the walk but were unable to avoid the mist from the falls, which was basically a torrential downpour by the end of our walk. We were completely drenched and joked about having a wet t-shirt contest but really the cool water was probably a blessing in disguise because it was sweltering hot that day.

Once we had taken in the falls we made our way to the bridge where Gayle bungee jumped, Sarah did the bridge swing, and I did the bridge slide (basically a zip-line). The jump was much higher than the one I did in New Zealand so there was no way in hell I was going anywhere near the bungee or the swing (you still jump straight down but you are tethered at the waist so instead of bouncing up and down you swing back and forth) but the slide seemed like a fun alternative. I got incredibly nervous as I was being hooked up but as soon as I was over the edge of the cliff the fear vanished and I just tried to enjoy the ride and the view.

After finishing my slide I watched Gayle jump then started walking to Zambia. While other people on the bus had gotten the visa that allowed them to go to Zambia no one else in our group had so while they were finishing up their activities I needed to make my way across the border so I wouldn’t have any problems when trying to get back into Botswana. The walk from the bridge to the border post was probably only about a kilometre but I was wearing flip flops and had already walked a fair distance in them that afternoon so my legs were killing me and the walk dragged on forever. I finally made it though and had the most awkward border crossing ever as I essentially just walked in a circle around the border. This silly act saved me $25 though, and the bridge slide is technically in Zambia so it’s not like I didn’t do anything while in Zambia, I just did it in a part that didn’t require a stamp in my passport.

I made my way back to the bridge just as Gayle and Sarah were finishing purchasing their videos so my timing really couldn’t have been better. I learned that some of the girls had called Jo-Jo to come pick us up at the Zimbabwe border post. This was the best news ever as my legs were killing me and the walk back to the campsite would have taken roughly 40 minutes. We still had to walk from the bridge to the Zimbabwe border post which was again about a kilometre but still so much better than having to walk the whole way.

Back at camp we all changed and got ready for our sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. We had all packed way too much into our afternoon and didn’t find time to grab lunch so we had been awake for roughly twelve hours and only had a bowl of cereal to eat. The cruise promised canapés so we were all pretty excited about the prospect of food. The cruise also had an open bar and most of the girls were pretty stoked about that. I enjoyed a can of coke and a cold chicken wing and wished dinnertime would hurry up and arrive. Despite being hungry the cruise was pretty amazing. I got to see my first hippo and couldn’t stop smiling about it. We also saw a crocodile and a stunning sunset.

We made our way back to the campsite after the cruise and Jo-Jo whipped us up a lovely dinner. It was probably the most excited I have been about food in a long time. With food in my tummy I was smiling from ear to ear as I reflected on the day but little did I know Jo-Jo had a surprise up his sleeve. Just after we finished eating dinner a group of Zulu dancers showed up to preform just for us. They sang and danced, and busted out some of the craziest high kicks I have ever seen in my life. It was an incredible way to end the day.

I was up before the sun again the following day and made my way to reception where I waited to be picked up for my first activity of the day, walking with lions. My shuttle was more than half an hour late and I was starting to think they had forgotten me but eventually a bus pulled into the parking lot to whisk me away. The bus arrived at the “rehabilitation centre” (they have been open for 20 years and have not yet rehabilitated a single animal) and we were split into small groups. I got put into a group with 5 other young women and we set off to meet our lions. We spent an hour or two hanging out with two lion cubs that were about 11 months old and then about 20 minutes with a two lions who were slightly older. It was a pretty incredible experience, a little terrifying at times, but incredible nonetheless.

We were served breakfast after we finished playing with the lions then transported back to our accommodation. Back at camp I bumped into the English girls (Emma, Kat, Jenny, and Amy) and chatted with them for a bit before making my way to the pool with Amy and Kat. The pool was cloudy and had a lot of stuff floating in the water so I was reluctant to get in even though I was melting but next to the pool was a kiddie pool that looked much cleaner so we decided that was the place for us. The kiddie pool was fantastic because we were able to just sit in it and chat and stay cool at the same time.

For lunch we met up with Emma and Jenny and the five us made our way to town in search of food. We ended up at a place that had pizza, chicken, a bakery, and an ice-cream place. It looked like it was going to be fast food but we all waited quite a while for our food and just as long for change. If you ever travel to Zimbabwe take US dollars with you and take small bills. No one in Zimbabwe ever has change!

After lunch the girls had to head to their next activity but I still had some time to kill so I decided to look for a zoom lens for my camera. During the game drive at the rhino sanctuary it quickly became apparent that my 18-55mm lens just wasn’t going to cut it but shopping opportunities while on safari are pretty rare. It took me a while but I finally managed to find a store that carried Canon accessories but was shocked to find that they wanted more than twice what I would pay for the same thing in Canada. I was not willing to pay an arm and a leg for a new lens so I left empty handed and slightly disappointed.

I wandered around town a little while longer and before I knew it the time had come for my next activity so I made my way back to reception at the campsite and waited to be picked up. Thankfully this shuttle was on time so the activity started out stress free but it didn’t end that way.

The drive to the game reserve took forever and it was down a long bumpy and windy dirt road so I was super excited to get off the bus and on to my elephant! I rode elephants twice while I was in Asia but African elephants are different so I decided I wanted to ride one of them as well. This was probably a waste of money because it was essentially the same thing. I was hoping to have an elephant to myself but we had to ride in pairs so I got partnered up with a French guy named Julian, as we were the only solo travellers. During the ride we saw zebras and impalas and took in some beautiful scenery. We stopped to take some pictures along the way and our guide had me feed the elephant during this time and I may have freaked out just a little bit. Elephant’s trunks just feel so weird! Towards the end of the ride I got pooped on by a bird which I thought was meant to be good luck but now I'm not so sure.

At the end of the ride the guides had our elephant’s kneel down and had us sit on their leg and feed them for some pictures. The problem with this was that you were sat inches away from the elephant’s mouth and it was terrifying. The pictures of me are hilarious, I look like I'm trying my hardest not to cry or scream.  Julian said he was scared as well but he didn’t look nearly as horrified as I did.

Most of the people in our group had only signed up for the elephant ride so they made their way inside for some snacks before heading back into town but myself and a retired couple from Milton, Ontario jumped into a game drive vehicle and set off on part two of our adventure. This game drive was pretty incredible. We saw a black rhino minutes into the drive and then saw two more rhinos a little while later. They got quite close to the vehicle as well so I was feeling a bit better about my decision not to buy the crazy expensive lens.  We also saw buffalo, elephants (wild ones, not the ones we just rode), impalas, a hippo, and several different kinds of birds. We also heard a lion but weren’t able to track it down. I know this all sounds incredible and it was but I was starting to stress as we kept driving and driving. I was told I would be back at camp by 6:30 and we were going for a group dinner at 7:00 so as the sun started to set and we kept driving away from where we started I was worried that I was either making the rest of the group starve while they waited for me or I was missing out on our group dinner at an African restaurant. Both of these options sucked.

I finally arrived back at the campsite at 8:30, two whole hours later than the time I was told so I figured there was no way the group had waited for me. Luckily our lovely guide Jo-Jo had taken all the girls to the restaurant then went back to camp to wait for me. He said he was starting to worry about me and I really don’t blame him. I had been MIA for two hours. He took me to the restaurant and everyone cheered that I was still alive. The girls had all ordered but hadn’t received their food yet so I didn’t feel super bad about holding them up and I also didn’t feel like I had missed out so things turned out okay in the end.