Day 8 - Oaxaca


cactuses everywhere 
monte alban temple

wide view on top of the mountain

close to heaven

nice flowers
Now here is a nice city where you want to spend a couple of days and that is just what we did. Oaxaca is an old colonial town, but it has Maya origins too - hence the Monte Alban Temple on top of a mountain overlooking the city. This is quite an unique setting and we had fun to explore it. Oaxaca is fun to explore as well with lots of churches, fun museums (post stamp museum!), smiling people and great food and wine.
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Day 7 - a boat ride in a magnificant canyon




Our next stop Tuxtla Gutiérrez,  is a working (coffee) city so why come here? For a boat trip in the Sumidero Canyon. The river flows between 800 meter high straight walls with crocodiles vultures, monkeys and awesome views!  
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Day 6 - two waterfalls and San Christobal de las Casas

On the road
behind the misol ha waterfall 

Mexican Oranges tast great, specially when fresh pressed

at the aqua azul waterfall

the aqua azul cascade is really really blue

san christobal de las casas

VW beetle - the national car, still
The road from Palenque to San Christobal is very windy and adventurous - some parts of the roads have completely disappeared  during the rain season. It offers great views though and has very high mountains. We visited two waterfalls misol ha (where you can walk behind the waterfall) and the aqua azul cascades which are strikingly blue if you are lucky - which we were.
Next to cows there is a strange phenomenon here people/children try to stop you with a rope over the road to sell bananas and such. The solution: buy bananas at the first "stop" and show them at each “roadblock” - they taste great as well.  The Mexicans have also other ways to let you drive slower: every mile or so there is a  “topes”, road bumps sometimes huge and you really want to pass those very slowly.
San Christobal itself is a tourist joint. All of a sudden we found ourselves in a situation were everywhere people try to sell you something - which is not great stuff.  The Domingo church is somewhat special, with gold paint and an ancient feeling. The rest of the city just ok - but nothing overly special. There are much more interesting colonial cities in latin america.
Our hotel (Bo) however was fun and had a very special design  and an oases in the bustling city. 
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Day 5 - a ride along the Costa Verde and a further temple in the jungle

Lunch somewhere at the Costa Verde

Palenque Temple

Palenque Mosaic

Palenque Temple Complex
From Campeche we followed the Costa Verde and it is really true: the ocean here is jade green and very pretty. 
Far hidden in the jungle on a couple of hills you will find the Palenque temple complex. Again the difference with the other temples couldn't be greater. Luckily our hotel is very close by (maybe we have chosen our hotels for location?!) Being in the midst of the Mexican jungle however things are very warm though. Luckily the hotel has airco. Here too very nice and friendly people - as we have met everywhere here in Mexico. 
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Day 4 - one more temple and Campeche

edzna temple

campeche street

nothing special lunch

sunlight in campeche

swimming pool in hotel
Via the temple complex of Edzna, yes the Mayas were very busy: there are hundreds of temples here in Mexico. We try only to pick the most interesting ones. And yes what we have seen so far they are all very different in style. OK some have some same kind of buildings like a palace or a soccer field, but in style, set up and feeling they are very different indeed. Edzna was no exception in the fact that we were the only tourists around this time of year. Which makes things so more relaxing and special.   
Campeche is a (Unesco certified) colonial walled city. It has very bright colours, which reminded me of Miami beach - but just a bit friendlier. The new sea front is not so great however. But overall this town has great character. The cathedral  is one of the oldest in south america and calle 59 is very nice. The strikingly blue sky and the bright sun and colours of the houses make it a special place.
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Day 3 - Uxmal, a very different temple

merida 
merida city hall

merida street

 iguana with uxmal temple.JPG

men from space
Via the old colonial town of Merida we drove to the Uxmal temple complex, where we have booked a hotel on the premises, which is very nice. Again when we walk around we are the only ones.  Well that is with the usual lizards and  iguanas. Again we climbed right to the top which gave a terrific view of the surroundings. A dip in the cold pool and a dinner with a sun set view of the temple - it is getting a bit boring isn't it?
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Day 2 - some more temples and climbing...

lizard

climbing the Coba temple

chitchen itzal sun temple

chitchen itza

sunny day at chitchen itza

on top of the temple

biking in Coba

We follow our journey through Yucatan by biking through the jungle and  and climbing up the Coba temple. The Mayas had a pretty good feeling about beautiful spots! Next Chichen Itza - wow this is a huge pyramid! and luckily there are not a lot of people around. We are lucky to come half February: the weather is great, no rain and almost no tourists. We stay right next to the complex in a pretty lodge so we can dive in the pool after a sweaty expedition. With great food and Mexican wine we end our day.
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Day 1 - we start at the beach, one of the best.

cabin on the beach 
tulum temple

tulum face

on the beach doing...nothing!

beach

sunrise in tulum
So we now arrived via Cancun in Tulum, which is a much nicer place just south along the coast. We are staying in a cabin on the beach with tropical warm sea water and pure white power sand beach. Hanging in your hammock it feels like paradise and hey!: this IS paradise and only day 2 of our trip.
After dinner on the beach we had a terrific full moonrise and the following morning early a sunrise which must be surely one of the best in the world. No wonder the mayas had a temple right here on the beach... Very tempted to stay here for ever, but we have places to go to.
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Houston in one day

We are on our way to Mexico and stayed the night in Houston, actually just outside the George Bush Airport in a Springhills Suite - which was very convenient. We will be back in a couple of weeks to see the town in more detail. This control center at the airport was fun already.
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Listing on a Desert Island

One of the best things of long flights is that you are able to really listen to longer programing again without any distraction (that is except when the crew comes along with something to nibble or drink). One of my favorite past times at 10.000 feet is listening to the podcasts of DID with Kristy Young. Always interesting guests and the best feature: because of rights reasons the audio clips of the discs themselves is limited to 30 seconds or so. That way you get the idea without the whole stuff.  This is probably the very best way to listen to DID :-)
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Still going strong...

Our Rimowas suitcases are really battered of all the traveling all around the world during the last years - but they are still going strong (in all sense of the words). It actually seems that the more used they are - the better they look.
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hmmm...


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Gaston is how much years old already?

So I am gathering all kind of reading and listening stuff to take with me in my iPad for the vacation and long flights. Because Gaston is already 57 years old it is time to re-reading his adventures. Luckily there are enough CBR files to get and to read in as a e-comic.
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True Detective Series

Just downloaded the first couple of episodes of this new HBO series "True Detective" which everyone advises me to watch. I guess we have to wait till after our Mexico vacation. The storyline and actors though look very promising.
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This week 8 years ago

Now a major opera in Madrid:
Monday, February 06, 2006

Broke back mountain en de waarheid.

Vanaf vandaag in een enkele bisocoop: Broke back Mountain. Wij zagen hem vandaag al op de PC en hij is geweldig...uh....lang en saai. Toen ed weer wakker schrok kwamen we tot de conclusie: Het is een echte hollywood homo (lees: probleem) film. Als je homo bent leef je ongelukkig en ga je snel dood. Gelukkig zitten er leuke beelden in - zie boven. :-))
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