April 16, 2018
I had things to do, so left the house reasonably early to go
in search of breakfast. I decided I
wanted to enjoy the view of the turquoise water, so opted to eat at the Puerto Morleos Yacht Club, which is actually just a restaurant with a dock in front of it. I ate breakfast outside on the
veranda, overlooking the pier. I ordered
scrambled eggs and bacon, which came mixed together as is common in
Mexico. Most Mexican bacon is sliced so
thinly that it cooks up into almost nothing and is virtually impossible to
remove from the pan intact. Chopping it
up and scrambling it in cures this problem.
There had to have been at least three eggs and, with bread, juice,
coffee, and fruit, I couldn’t eat all of it.
 |
| Hobbit House |
 |
| Puerto Morelos Yacht Club |
After breakfast, I went for a walk to find out where the
taxis congregated and determine if my choice of restaurant for dinner was going
to be open on a Monday. It was, so I
completed my circuit of Puerto Morelos and went back to my lodging to practice
the guitar. Across the street from the
restaurant was a house that looked as if it had been designed by Gaudi for a
hobbit. With the weekend over, Puerto
Morelos was a ghost town.
 |
| John Gray's Kitchen |
I spent a productive day practicing and completing another
blog post. I wanted to be sure to go out
for dinner before dusk when the jejenes came out. My friend had recommended John Gray’s Kitchen
and I wanted to try it. The tables sat
in a pleasant garden in front of the house.
The patio was covered in pavers, which kept down the bugs. The menu was an eclectic mix. I opted for the special, which was roasted
breast of duck served over green beans and mashed sweet potatoes. While there was a couple there when I
arrived, they soon left and I was the only diner. I was visited by a young boy from the neighborhood while I waited
for my food and he sang me a song.
The duck was delicious, crispy on the outside and moist
within. The sweet potatoes were a
treat. The green beans, however, were
cooked to death. The prices made John
Gray’s Kitchen a special occasion destination, but they didn’t try to gouge
their customers on the drink prices and they made a decent margarita. The service was friendly and attentive.
After dinner, I stopped for an ice cream and then went back
to my place to pack and watch Netflix. I
wanted to go to bed early, but ended up staying up late, anyway. Fortunately, I looked at my ticket to Merida
and realized that the bus left at 11:00 from Cancun, not Puerto Morelos. I would have to leave an hour earlier to get
there in time.
April 17, 2018
I got up at 7:00 so as to have time to eat a leisurely
breakfast, pack, and still be able to leave by 9:00. Despite my fears, they did not pour concrete
in front of the house just before I left, although they had just poured a
gutter at the corner and looked like they were working in my direction. The sandy mess in front of the house had
dried somewhat and I was able to remove my luggage without sinking up to my
knees. I was somewhat sorry to pull the
door shut behind me and leave. I could
have spent more time in Puerto Morelos.
I lugged my bags the block and a half to where the taxis were forced to wait,
cursing Volaris’ size restrictions on luggage that had required me to leave my
wheeled bag behind in La Cruz. Finding a
taxi was easy and he drove me back to the bus station for another 30
pesos. There was no one in the ticket
office to sell me a ticket to Cancun, so I hoped I could pay on the bus. I waited a while, wondering where all the
buses were. There had been buses every
five or ten minutes when I left Playa del Carmen, but I didn’t see a single one
and it was commute time. I did see a lot
of combis and I was tempted to grab one but didn’t because they were all
crowded and I had a lot of luggage.
Finally, a mini bus approached with the ADO bus line logo on its
windscreen. I verified that it was going
to the bus station in Cancun and then climbed aboard after stowing my luggage
in the rear. I never determined if it
was actually operated by ADO or just served their terminal. I rather think it was the latter, since they
generally operated just like any other combi, stopping wherever passengers
waited by the side of the road or wanted to get off. It was comfortable, clean, and got me to the
bus station for 25 pesos, which was less that the rate for Mexicans advertised
in the bus station. I couldn’t
complain. Once again, I bemoaned the
economic factors that make combis impractical in the USA. They worked beautifully where labor was cheap
and lawsuits uncommon.
 |
| The ADO Station in Cancun |
The bus station in Cancun was a large and bustling
place. I arrived an hour early, so sat
watching the people. There were a lot of
backpackers headed south towards Tulum.
None of them seemed to be going my way.
My bus didn’t appear until about five minutes before it was due to
depart, but there weren’t a lot of passengers, so we got away on time. The ADO bus was not nearly as luxurious as the Primera Plus ones, but it was clean and modern. It didn’t have leg rests or individual TV
screens, but it also lacked the barrier between the driver and the passengers,
which made my view from the front row much nicer and kept the temperature comfortable. They did play movies to entertain us. Unfortunately, they didn’t provide us with
drinks and snacks, so I had to make do with the dry pound cake I had bought at
the Oxxo the day before. Mexican
pastries are almost universally dry and tasteless. I always found this mysterious in a land where
everything else was sweet beyond belief.
The ride to Merida took four hours. We trundled along a narrow highway through
the scrubby jungle, seeing civilization only at the toll stations and when we
entered the outskirts of Merida. We made
no intervening stops. The bus station
was grubbier than the one in Cancun, but I managed to buy a ticket for my next
leg to Palenque and find a taxi without any trouble. It wasn’t far to my hotel in the historic
center.
 |
| The Hotel Colon |
I had booked a room in the Hotel Colon.
Thirty years before, when I had first visited
Merida, my mother and I had stayed at the Casa del Balaam.
I had tried to book a room there first but
found it too expensive.
Figuring one
old, colonial hotel might be just like another, I booked a room around the
corner at the Hotel Colon, which looked lovely from the outside and charged
about 25% as much.
The hotel was
somewhat of a disappointment.
The
outside was grand enough, but the lobby was a bit shabby, although lovely in an
antique fashion.
The rooms were shabbier
still, although an effort had been made to modernize the bathrooms.
The linens were fresh and new, but the tile
was worn and the furniture couldn’t have been newer than the 1950s.
It had been painted once the finish wore off,
but that paint was chipped and peeling.
The bathroom was tiny, without an inch of counter on which to place
toiletries or so much as a hook on which to hang a towel.
For some reason, towel racks are a rarity in
Mexico and Central America.
On the plus
side, the beds were comfortable, the vanity made a reasonable desk, the WiFi
signal was strong, and there was working air conditioning.
For $21 a night in a great location, I
couldn’t quibble.
The staff was
friendly, there were no bugs, and breakfast was included.
 |
| Cathedral Square in Merida |
Not having eaten anything but dry poundcake all day, I went
out to find food as soon as I got settled.
I wandered around the neighborhood, trying to orient myself from
memory.
Merida was the very first city I
had visited in Mexico and I remember having been startled at how ancient and
European it seemed.
Now, it just seemed
like another colonial Mexican city, not as grand as Guadalajara, but bigger
than most.
It also seemed very
empty.
The historical center was geared
towards tourists and the tourist season was over.
Many of the restaurants were closed.
I walked down to the Cathedral square and
looked for the café where my mother and I had often eaten on my last
visit.
I couldn’t find it, so I stopped
into a restaurant that had at least a few patrons.
 |
| Merida Cathedral |
I ordered a Caesar salad with grilled chicken and a beer and
relaxed. Midway through my meal, I noticed
another single American looking woman enter the restaurant and sit down at a
nearby table. I waited until she had
ordered a drink and then invited her to sit with me. It turned out that she was in town to visit
her daughter who was participating in a program called Up with People (or Viva la
Gente) where young people traveled the world, performing community service, and
presenting shows with a theme of worldwide peace and unity. The group was putting on a show in Merida
that evening and the woman, whose name was Noelle, invited me to join her. Not having anything more interesting to do
that evening, I agreed to go along.
The theater was just around the corner from my hotel and we
went there as soon as we had finished dinner.
It was a grand old theater and I always found it interesting to see the
insides of old, colonial buildings.
It
reminded me very much of theaters I had attended in Russia and Italy, with
seats on the main floor and several floors of boxes all around the sides.
Up with People was being sponsored by the
local Rotary Club and most of the audience were Rotarians and members of the
families hosting the participants.
Up
with People is a secular organization and has been in existence since the late
1960s.
I was told that they used to
perform at the Superbowl halftime shows before they became such commercial
enterprises.
 |
| The Cast of Up With People |
There must have been a hundred cast members hailing from
nineteen different countries. Their
levels of talent varied as much as their appearances, but they were all young
and energetic and seemed to be having a great time. Some of them were very good singers and
dancers. Their songs were mostly in
English, but there were a few in Spanish and Spanish subtitles were projected
on a screen behind the stage during the English language ones. They sang about peace and unity, taking care
of the planet, and making the world a safe place for women. The show was entertaining and the sentiments
uplifting. It was inspiring to see all
those sincere, young people and left me feeling a little bit more positive
about the future of the world. It was
nice to see someone working to counteract nationalism and greed. I was nearly moved to tears several times.
I left after the show and made my way back to the
hotel. I wrote for a little while but
was having trouble keeping my eyes open.
I watched an hour of Netflix and was asleep before 11:00.
April 18, 2018
Having gone to sleep early the night before, I was awake by
6:30.
I dozed for an hour longer and
then got up.
The antique French doors to
my balcony did little to keep out the city noise.
I had been given a ticket for breakfast the
night before but couldn’t find it anywhere.
I had been trying to juggle three remotes, three bags, the ticket, WiFi
password, and my room key.
I figured I
must have dropped it somewhere along the way to my room.
I considered begging for a replacement, but I
only had one day to spend in Merida and I wanted to locate the café where my
mother and I had eaten years before.
I
went out and surveyed the neighborhood.
I started from Casa del Balaam, knowing that the place had been in a
square within a block of the hotel.
I
eventually found it, but it had been converted into a steak house and was
closed for the season.
Disappointed, I
decided the next best option was to eat in the restaurant in Casa del Balaam
itself, Bistrola 57.
 |
| Casa del Balaam |
I ordered French toast with bacon and was pleasantly
surprised to find it moist and topped with cinnamon, raisins, and
strawberries.
I don’t like maple syrup and find unsalted butter disgusting, so was always happy when a pleasant alternative
presented itself.
My waiter was polite
and efficient and kept my coffee cup filled.
I relaxed and enjoyed my breakfast.
After breakfast, I decided to see what tour options might be
available that afternoon. I had already
been to Uxmal and Chichen Itza and, while there were a few other options
available during the tourist season, none of them were running on weekdays in
late April.
The neighborhood was filled
with shops selling embroidered blouses and I stopped into a few of them. I would have bought one, but the prices were
double what I would pay in Bucerias, so I abandoned the idea. I did, however, pay an outrageous price for a
new hat. It was a little nicer than the
one I had left on the bus to Guadalajara, but not worth five times as
much. Still, I didn’t want to burn my
forehead again while walking around the ruins at Palenque, so I coughed up the
250 pesos. I bought a couple of snacks
to tide me over in case I didn’t get a chance to eat during the eight-hour bus
ride to Palenque and then returned to my room to write and practice the guitar.
 |
| Outdoor Cafe in the Santa Lucia Neighborhood of Merida |
I stayed in my room, reading, writing, and practicing until
6:00 when I got hungry.
It was still hot
outside, but at least the sun was no longer beating straight down.
I walked over to the square where my mother
and I had eaten and had a glass of wine and a wonderful goat cheese, sun dried
tomato and basil pizza.
It was a lovely
setting in the Santa Lucia neighborhood which had originally been constructed
to house African slaves back in the sixteenth century.
It’s been gentrified a bit since then.
I strolled around a bit after dinner and had a long talk
with a tour operator. He warned me that
the mosquitoes were very bad in Palenque and suggested that I visit the Mayan
cooperative (across the street from my hotel) to buy a hammock to ward them
off. Apparently, sisal has mosquito
repellent properties. I did visit the
coop and talked to one of the shamans who worked there but left without being
convinced to buy either a hammock or any amber jewelry, both of which I already
had in abundance. Merida was beautiful,
but I had forgotten what it was like to be an obvious tourist to be preyed on
by every business owner in town.
Thankfully, the foreigners in La Cruz are considered to be part of the
community and are treated with more respect.
I was glad to go back to my room and spend the rest of the evening
watching Netflix.
April 19, 2018
 |
| The ADO Terminal in Merida |
I got up early and had checked out and called a taxi by 7:30.
My bus left at 8:30 and I got to the station in time to buy a coffee and a
sandwich for the bus ride.
The ADO
terminal had free WiFi and the bus had it occasionally.
 |
| The Highway to Champoton |
 |
| The Bay of Campeche at Champoton |
The first leg of the journey, to Campeche, took two and a half
hours.
We drove on a new, free highway
through the scrubby jungle.
Much of the
forest along the roadway had been burned, most likely on purpose. Campeche
appeared to be a big, modern city from what I could see from the highway.
We drove on a toll road for an hour or so
after Campeche.
I was curious the see
the Bay of Campeche, but we didn’t reach the coast until near the city of
Champoton.
Champoton seemed to be the
local beach resort, although it was little developed.
There wasn’t much beach, but the water was
that Caribbean blue and very clear.
The only boats I saw were a few pangas in Champoton.
 |
| Campeche Countryside |
We left the toll road and turned inland at Champoton to head
for Escarcega.
The highway there was
narrower and not as modern.
The state of
Campeche was hillier than Yucatan and greener.
We stopped briefly at Escarcega to discharge passengers and then
continued on across a narrow neck of the state of Tabasco and into Chiapas at
El Zapata.
The road got much narrower after El Zapata and the land
became much greener and more agricultural.
Everything was very lush. We saw
why when it began to rain. I began to
regret having left my raincoat in La Cruz.
It seemed the rainy season had arrived in Southern Mexico, at
least. I stopped reading and looked out
the window as we entered the Palenque area, eventually spotting my hotel by the
side of the road.
 |
| My Room at the Hotel Ciudad Real |
The city of Palenque was small but bustling and seemed to
offer anything one might need.
I stopped
worrying that I would have trouble finding an ATM.
Two tour operators approached me with
brochures on my way to the taxi stand.
Forty pesos got me delivered to my hotel, the Hotel Ciudad Real.
 |
| View of the Hotel Grounds from the Restaurant |
The hotel was large and sprawling, with beautiful grounds, a
lovely pool, bar, and restaurant. It
seemed like I was the only person there.
While $45/night was more than I usually spend, it was a steal for this
place. My room was large, clean, and
comfortable. There was even a counter in
the bathroom and there were towel racks!
The WiFi worked in the room. The
only thing I might have asked for was an electrical outlet near the bed to
charge my phone. A spacious work area
offset this lack to some degree.
After a nine-hour bus ride, I was hungry. I started to go to dinner and then realized
that the bell man had run off with my key.
Not wanting to lock myself out of the room, I was forced to tackle the
task most feared by speakers of foreign languages everywhere… making a phone
call. I called the front desk and
managed to explain the situation without difficulty. A sheepish bell man soon appeared to return
my key.
I ate dinner at the hotel restaurant. At first, I wasn’t
sure it was open because there was nobody there. Then I noticed that a few tables were
set. The restaurant was outdoors on a
tree-shaded deck, overlooking the pool area.
Strings of white lights illuminated the area after the sun set. I had a couple of tiny margaritas and some
very nice steak fajitas, served with both tortillas and moist, tasty
bread. I was hungry enough to eat all of
it. I sat there for some time, enjoying
the atmosphere, until it started to rain.
Unfortunately, the credit card machine was not working, so I had to use
part of my dwindling supply of cash.
I spent the remainder of the evening playing games on my
phone and writing. Before I went to
dinner, I emailed one of the tour companies to try to make a reservation for
the following day, but I never heard back from them. Traveling during the off season was starting
to annoy me. Another deluge hit after I
returned to my room. Creepy jungle birds
were squawking in the forest. It was a
stark contrast to the city noise of the night before.
April 20, 2018
Having failed to make tour reservations the night before, I
got up at 6:30 so as to make it to the tour companies before it was too late to
book anything for the same day. I walked
the kilometer or so into town, looking for the tour company I had tried to
email the night before, since they appeared to have the best prices. The map they had given me seemed to indicate
that their office was on the far side of the highway and I saw one of their
vans parked over there, so I crossed the road.
I couldn’t find their office, but I found another tour company that was
open. In Palenque, Tulum Tours seemed to
have the best prices and Kim Tours, where I booked mine, was probably the most
expensive. Their vans were a little
nicer, but not worth an extra 145 pesos in my opinion. Still, the fellow in the office was friendly
and I was able to relax after booking a tour to the waterfalls at Roberto
Barrios for that afternoon and another to the ruins and two other waterfalls
for the following day.
Perhaps the best part about Kim Tours was the breakfast spot
next door where I got extremely nice bacon and eggs for 40 pesos. They only had café de olla (regular coffee
brewed with cinnamon and sometimes sugar), but they served it with warm milk
and I enjoyed relaxing there while I ate and drank my coffee.
 |
| Downtown Palenque |
My next mission was to visit the bus station and buy a
ticket for the airport shuttle to Villahermosa on Sunday.
I was happy to discover that ADO actually
went straight to the airport, so I would not need to transfer to a taxi to get
there.
Some of the tour companies went
there, too, but I did not compare prices.
Most of the tour companies also offered the option of ending their tours
in San Cristobal for those who were continuing in that direction.
As it turned out, all the tours met at a
convenience store at the end of the day to put the passengers bound for San
Cristobal into a single van.
After breakfast, I took a walk through downtown
Palenque. It seemed to be market day and
the streets were very crowded with vendors, shoppers, and trucks. I found an ATM and got some cash. I saw no other tourists downtown and didn’t
get hassled. There were lots of restaurants
and it might have been fun to go back there for dinner if I hadn’t been by
myself. The town was bigger than I
expected. I needed toothpaste, so I
eventually worked my way along a side street and back out to the highway via
the street where the Chedraui was located.
I purchased my toothpaste and a cold drink at the Chedraui and then
returned to my hotel to practice the guitar until it was time to go on my tour.
The driver picked me up at noon and we drove around
Palenque, collecting other passengers.
There seemed to be a collection of hostels outside of town and we picked
up a number of young people there. One
of the reasons I had decided to go with a tour instead of figuring out how to
take a combi to Roberto Barrios by myself was that I was hoping for some
company. Unfortunately, everyone else in
the group was under thirty and traveling with a companion. Once we collected everyone, we drove for an
hour or so up into the mountains. The
scenery was very lush and green. Nature
is really the attraction in this part of Chiapas, so it was sad to see the
highway littered with hundreds of plastic bottles. It would have taken a dump truck to collect
them all.
Our driver let us off at Roberto Barrios, which appeared to
be a private park.
There were a restaurant
and some restrooms and may have been camping allowed, although no one was
camping when we arrived.
The upper level
was grassy and planted with young mango trees that would one day shade the
place but weren’t yet large enough to offer much shelter.
It was very hot in the sun and somewhat
steamy.
From the number of rivers and
waterfalls in Chiapas, it was easy to surmise that it rained frequently.
 |
| Upper Waterfalls at Roberto Barrios |
The river at Roberto Barrios drops over several ledges,
forming a series of cascades with clear green pools below them.
Lines crisscrossed the pools so that one
could pull oneself across if swimming was too frightening, although the current
wasn’t very strong.
The water was quite
clear and the setting lovely.
Most of
our group stopped to swim at the first pool but I continued on down several
more levels until I reached the end of the path.
We had three hours to spend there and I
wasn’t sure what I was going to do with myself.
 |
| Cascade to Lower Level at Roberto Barrios |
 |
| Second Level of Waterfalls at Roberto Barrios |
I explored the park and took pictures for the first
hour.
Then I changed into my bathing
suit and swam in the upper pool.
The
water was cool, but not freezing, and felt refreshing.
After my swim, it was nice to sit on a log in
the shade and read for a bit while I dried off.
There was a slight warm breeze and the air felt soft and gentle.
Once I stopped dripping, I climbed back up to
the restaurant and ate lunch in the shade of the restaurant.
It was very pleasant to sit there, sipping a
cold beer.
I got so relaxed that I slept
for two hours after they dropped me off at my hotel.
I completely skipped dinner and might have
slept all night if a friend hadn’t started texting me about my upcoming trip to
La Paz at the end of May.
As it was, I
roused myself sufficiently to practice the guitar for half an hour and write
about my day.
April 21, 2018
I got up very early so as to be able to eat breakfast before
my tour left at 8:00. The restaurant was
all set up to serve breakfast, but they must have done it the night before
because there wasn’t a soul around.
The van came for me at 8:00 and I was dismayed to see that I
was the only passenger. One of the joys
of traveling alone is meeting new people, but that didn’t work so well in low
season when the few people I met were all traveling with partners and spoke
other languages. While I can carry on a
conversation in Spanish, most people don’t expect that from me, so they usually
ignore me (except in Colombia where they are just so curious that they try,
anyway. I love Colombians!)
The driver took me the short distance to the archaeological
site, paid my entrance fees (one for the national park and one for the site)
and left me with instructions to meet him at noon under a giant tree in the
museum parking lot. The tour guides at
the ruins have a monopoly, so none of the “tours” offered in Palenque actually
provide anything more than transportation.
A resourceful person could save money and time by just taking combis to
places. Unless you really like swimming
or drinking beer in palapas, you probably don’t need as much time at any of the
waterfalls as the tours allow.
I arrived at the archaeological site about 8:15 and was
immediately accosted by a woman offering guide service.
English speaking guides were expensive (2,600
pesos,) but Spanish speaking ones cost half that.
I didn’t want to spend 1,300 pesos, either,
so I waited for other people to arrive.
 |
| The Tombs of Pakal and the Red Queen |
Eventually, it being slow season, we made a deal for three of us to hire
a guide for 900 pesos.
I went with a
younger couple from Mexico City.
They
didn’t speak to me much, but I chatted with the guide.
He told us that “Palenque” is actually a
Spanish word meaning “palisade.”
When
the Spaniards first discovered the city, it was completely surrounded with trees,
hence the name.
 |
| The Tomb of the Red Queen |
Palenque is an older city than other famous sites in the
area, such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal.
It
was abandoned about 900 A.D.
Of course,
there is no record of exactly why it was abandoned, but our guide offered a
theory.
The Mayans built their
structures of limestone held together and coated with cement.
To make the cement, they needed to heat
limestone to a very high temperature.
It
would take 125 pounds of wood to make one pound of cement.
There were 1500 buildings in Palenque.
Pakal’s tomb, alone, would have required
15,000 tons of cement.
That’s 1,875,000
tons of wood.
They would have denuded
the forest for miles around to realize their construction.
Cutting the forest would have altered the
climate.
Our guide posited that the
climate changed, the rains decreased, crops failed, and the city with its dense
population had to be abandoned.
 |
| Pakal's Tomb |
Our guide walked us through the main plaza where the tombs
of Pakal and the Red Queen were located and then took us through the
palace.
The palace was very advanced for
it’s time and had latrines with good drainage.
Palenque was not as impressive a site as Tikal or Chichen Itza. Like
Tulum, the draw was its location.
While
Tulum had the beach, Palenque had the jungle and waterfalls.
There were ten streams flowing through the
city, most of which were canalized to prevent their eroding the foundations of
nearby buildings.
Chiapas has always
been a place of water, as it is the wettest state in Mexico.
Today, locals are up in arms about the rest
of the country exploiting the streams of Chiapas for hydroelectric power.
 |
| Courtyard of the Palace |
 |
| Palace Toilet |
 |
| Early Archaeologists Carved Their Names |
 |
| Pakal's Palace from Above |
 |
| Bridge Over One of the Canals |
 |
| Palace Tower |
 |
| Temples of the Cross |
 |
| Ball Court at Palenque |
Our guide left us at the beginning of the path that led upwards to the temples of the cross. The
entire pathway was lined with vendors selling crafts.
No one was buying and I felt rather sorry for
them, but not sorry enough to shop.
I
climbed up to the next level and then to the top of one of the temples to take
pictures of the scene below.
One could
see the ball court clearly from up there and also across the valley to the
mountains in the distance.
I had time to
kill, so I explored the side paths to small temples hidden in the jungle and
then walked down the main path, past some residential areas and waterfalls, to
the exit.
Only 5% of the ruins in
Palenque have been uncovered.
The rest
are shrouded in dense jungle.
There will
be work for archaeologists until our own cities have fallen to ruins.
 |
| Temple in the Jungle |
 |
| Waterfalls at Palenque |
 |
| The Museum at Palenque |
 |
| Ceramic Incense Burner |
I took a quick run through the museum near the
entrance.
The treasures from the Red
Queen’s tomb were on tour somewhere in the United States, so there wasn’t much
to see there except a lot of ceramic incense burners and Pakal’s monumental 25
ton sarcophagus, carved from a single piece of stone.
The Maya didn’t use gold, so their jewelry
was made from precious stones such as jade and onyx.
Sixteenth century Spaniards mostly left the
Mayan ruins alone because there was no gold to be plundered from them.
 |
| Pakal's Sarcophagus |
 |
| Jade Jewelry |
I had been told to meet my driver at noon under the big tree
in front of the Museum. Every tour
company in town had told their customers the same thing and it was chaos. I looked and looked for my driver but didn’t
see him anywhere. The couple with whom I
had shared the guide likewise seemed to be abandoned. The driver had taken my voucher, so I didn’t
have a number to call to complain.
Finally, I saw my driver from the day before. He had spoken to me briefly that morning, so
I knew he recognized me. I asked him if
he was going to take me, too, but he wasn’t going where I was going. He did, however, seem concerned that I had
been abandoned. He called around,
haggled with the other drivers and, as near as I could tell, arranged to
squeeze me into another company’s tour as a personal favor. I really appreciated that because, while I
could easily have gotten back to Palenque, it would have been difficult to get to
Misol-Ha and Agua Azul on my own without planning in advance.
It was 12:30 by the time everyone got a ride and then we
drove for an hour to get to Misol-Ha.
 |
| The Waterfall at Misol-Ha |
 |
| Cabins at Misol-Ha |
 |
| Looking Down on Agua Azul |
Misol-Ha is a tall waterfall that plunges into a very deep, green
pool.
There were a couple of shops and
restaurants at the site and some cabins for rent.
We only spent 45 minutes there to take
photos.
I had an ice cream and sat in
the shade of the snack bar, drinking a soda.
It was very hot and humid.
 |
| Me with My New Hat at Agua Azul |
 |
| Cascades at Agua Azul Go on for a Kilometer |
 |
| A Calm Spot |
 |
| More Waterfalls at Agua Azul |
Another hour of driving brought us to the cascades of Agua
Azul where the Paxilha river flows over a series of limestone ledges stretching
over at least a kilometer. It could
hardly have been more beautiful if it were manmade. The calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide
dissolved into the water as it flows over the rocks in that region cause the
light to reflect off the water, giving it its characteristic blue color. A paved path followed the river and it was
completely lined with shops, bars, and restaurants. The path climbed steeply as I followed it all
the way to the top of the cascades.
People were swimming in the quieter stretches. It was very hot and I would have liked to
swim, too, but I had no one to watch my things while I went in the water. I did stop and dangle my feet in the water at
one point and a small boy swam up to me pretending to be a fish.
It got quieter and quieter as I ascended. Every other shop was selling embroidered
blouses. I had looked at some in Merida,
but the prices were higher than at home in La Cruz, so I passed. I had been offered better prices in Chiapas,
so I decided to stop into a stall up where there weren’t very many people. I was able to buy a nice sleeveless blouse
for 150 pesos (about $8.00.)
 |
| My Very Hot Michelada |
My shopping done, I chose a bar and ordered a
Michelada.
They had no ice and liberally
lined the inside of the glass with hot sauce and then
dipped it in chili
powder.
It was the spiciest Michelada I
had ever drunk.
It was a good thing I
had plenty of time to burn because I had to sip that drink very slowly.
 |
| Shops Lined the Pathway at Agua Azul |
When I had finished my drink and said goodbye to the
proprietor, I strolled back down the hill to the van.
It was steamy.
I had seldom sweat so much from so little
exertion.
I could barely keep my eyes
open during the hour-and-a-half drive back to Palenque.
I was quite pleased that I was one of the
first passengers to be dropped off.
I
couldn’t wait to get into the inviting pool at the Hotel Ciudad Real.
I swam, showered, and then had dinner in the hotel
restaurant where I was, once again, the only customer. I ordered a cheese burrito with arrachera
strips, which turned out to be a hearty steak quesadilla. I was quite hungry, having eaten nothing but
junk food all day. I was also sleepy. I went to bed early.
April 22, 2018
Sunday morning was leisurely. My bus didn’t leave until noon, so I had
plenty of time to pack and eat a nice pancake breakfast in the hotel
restaurant. Most pancakes in Mexico are
very thick, rather dry, and much sweeter than those in the United States. These were tender and delicious, even without
butter. If there was one thing I missed
about the USA, it was salted butter.
 |
| Novel Use for Coke Bottles |
 |
| Flowering Trees in Tabasco |
The hotel called me a taxi at 11:00 and I took the short
ride to the ADO station, arriving nearly an hour early.
The airport shuttle was a minibus and it was
quite comfortable.
The ride to the
Villahermosa airport took almost exactly two hours.
As we passed from Chiapas into Tabasco it got
dryer and some of the grass was actually brown.
We saw many cattle grazing amid lovely pink flowering trees.
 |
| The Villahermosa Airport |
The Villahermosa airport was small and easily
navigated.
I had time to grab a meatball
sandwich at Subway before heading to my gate.
 |
| Note That the Monitors Do Not Display Flight Info |
The flight to Mexico City left at 4:00 and it took a little over an
hour.
I arrived at Gate 75 and my next
flight was leaving from 75D.
I stayed in
the gate where we had arrived and charged my phone.
At some point, I got a pizza for dinner.
I was rather annoyed that the monitors
showing departures spent most of the time displaying ads.
You really had to pay attention to see your
flight.
I kept checking that the gate
hadn’t changed, but really didn’t have time to look at the other information as
it flashed by.
About half an hour before
my flight was due to leave at 8:15, I started to get concerned that my flight
hadn’t been called.
I looked carefully
to see if it had been delayed and saw that it said, “Last call.”
Apparently, the departure gates 75 were in a
different place and they didn’t call the flights where I was.
I asked an employee for directions and then
sprinted through the airport.
I was the
last person to board the plane.
It had
been entirely too close!
Another short flight later, we landed in Puerto
Vallarta.
My luggage arrived before I
did and I was quickly on my way.
I had
never arrived at the domestic terminal there before and was disoriented at
first when the exit debauched into a seemingly exit-less room with no taxi
counter.
I should have recognized it as
the gauntlet of timeshare hawkers such as I had experienced when arriving internationally.
Eventually, I detected a sliding door and
made my escape.
It was after 10:00 and too late to take a bus back to La
Cruz. Airport taxis are always expensive
and the ones in Puerto Vallarta are more of a rip-off than most. The collectivos don’t go beyond Nuevo
Vallarta and a regular taxi wanted to charge me 877 pesos (twice what I paid to
fly to Cancun.) Knowing that it cost 400
pesos in the other direction, I argued with them. Eventually, we settled on 700 pesos. It was a slow night. The taxi brought me to my door and it was
very good to finally be home.
