More photos of Cristyballs

Even more Saint Cristy Balls Photos

More San Cristobal de las Casas

This was the result.

So yesterday I spent a couple of hours learning to stone set ambar in a silver pendant. Rogelio and his son were fantastic. Great teachers 1-2-1 class. Ambar is mined really close to here.

Dan picked up some Mexican guys who we had a drink with in a dive bar afterwar

ds. I bumped into one of them today and I said I loved my ambar pendant to which he said "And I love you". I had just been saying how much I liked San Cristi's lack of sleezy men. Spoke to soon. He was trying to get me to go up to his studio in the mountains, take magic mushrooms and look at 100 different varieties of Orchids. Humm.....

The other night we stopped in a Oaxacan restaurant to get food for a picnic on the hill. I was given some chapulines (locusts). They went down very well with beer. There is nothing I won't try once!

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

So I missed the England game in order to get a bus up out of the jungle up a mountain and to Santy Cristo's Balls as it's affectionately known. I actually love it here. It's a medium sized town. It's beautiful and the people are so nice. I spent the day wandering around by myself and didn't get any marriage proposals at all! In fact I don't think any men approached me at all. Bliss. It is also a lot cooler here as it's 2100m high. Is that high enough to get altitude sickness? I am extremely tired. Staying in a yoga place here too, but slept in and missed the class. Nevermind! Might rent a bike and go up the mountains tomorrow.

Palenque

You can't exactly see it, so we re-enacted the scene of slave being beheaded that was painted on the wall. All the sun and jungle had clearly gone to my head.

this was where the human sacrifice took place.

Can you tell the difference between this and Chichen Itza? It's nicer imo as it's set in the jungle. I'm not wearing long trousers and top 'cos it was cold - more because I was scared of being eaten alive by mosquitos, snakes and jaguars...

So on Monday night I finally managed to leave Tulum on the 8.50pm bus with Dan, a guy from Atlanta who was also going to Palenque. Well actually he wasn't but I managed to persuade him to come with me as a) he's fun and b) I was scared about travelling in Chiapas overnight by myself. Quite what another tourist could do to make me safer I don't know. The bus journey was fairly uninventful despite threats from the Lonely Planet of Zapatista Rebels hijacking in the area. Note to self - don't joke about this possibility with parents in future.

Where I'm staying Yoga Shala Tulum

I just can't seem to leave here.

Tulum - zona hotelera - Yoga Shala Tulum

Some yoga poses on the beach. We missed our class due to too much beer / tequila so thought we ought to make up for it.

Laguna Yal Ku was pretty rubbish. Expensive and we didn't see any fish. So we hopped out and went to Akumal - it's a bit weird - you have to pretend you're going to a restaurant, and the above pic is the sea there. It was beautiful and we went in the sea and swam with huge huge turtles. Loved it.

Then I came back to Tulum and hang out by the beach, had a massage from ArcoIris who is great and massages intime to the waves. I stayed pretty much near this hammock until far too late drinking far too much tequila and beer watching the shooting stars.

I met two French girls Bibou and An Gail here in Tulum and Dan from Atlanta. This was a fairly uneventful dinner but great company.

Chichen Itza

Right, I'm off to do a yoga class...

This is a view of the main pyramid from the ball court. Now you've seen these pics you don't really need to go there ever. Coba was much more of a cool experience. Chichen Itza just looks good....and you can

this is the paseo de mil columnas or something. There were lots of columns - didn't count to see if there are 1000 though...

Isnt this just the best picture ever? Better than the postcards I think.

I was quite scared here. What LP omits to tell you is that you dont need to be there at 8am in low season. It was EMPTY and walking down pathways to get to the observatory etc I came across men with huge knives carving things - they easily could have killed me an no-one would know. I actually craved some annoying Gringo company....

Coba and it's ruins

Some Spaniard that were the equivalent of burnt fat burger eating brits you'd expect to find in Cancun. I actually stated at the ticket office I wasn't with them I was so embarrassed by their appalling language and behaviour. I can only hope that the Mayans didn't understand their swearing. Revolting people they were! Thankfully I got away from them most of the way around as I went by bike.

yes I climbed this.

Juego de pelota

So I got a bus from Valladolid...Mayeb, not quite the ADO standard. Got shouted at by the

bus driver as my rucksack was taking up a seat. Got there frazzled and hot to a really unfriendly welcome at this tiny Mayan village. I think they were too hot to work. I finally found the above hotel. The whole place felt empty and it was the first time I wondered if I'd made the right decision to go somewhere. Later on I met a family from N. London at dinner in my "hotel" they were really nice and v.

chilled so instantly felt better.

I had a great nights sleep with air-con. Got up early and went to Coba ruins. There's quite a spectacular lake on the way and I really enjoyed climbing up the pyramid with the views over the jungle.

The bus turned up early but the women in my hotel came and got me and sort of managed to get it to wait for me while I packed. Weird experience. I then ended up standing pretty much on the dashboard to Tulum where I could read signed that said "Seatbelts will save your life" I prayed we didn't crash.

Tulum Ruins

This is set on the beach. Not quite as spectacular as Coba but I liked it. Tour guide was pretty rubbish. Not much more to say.

I arrived on the bus from Coba yesterday after having

gone to the ruins there.

Valladolid - officially my favourite Mexican city thus far, despite inadvertently attending mass

This is the church in the main square.

So I left KP at noon in Cancun and caught a bus to Valladolid. Met 4 people from Atlanta (who only mentioned the football once) along the way so the journey felt super short. I wandered into Hostel Los Frailes which is nice, but empty, although a few more people seem to have arrived now. There are sheets on beds, if not actual people in my dorm.

So after skyping JD and AF (I feel ever so modern) I head out to the main square which is lovely...a bit like Campeche but not quite as scorching. Then I head to the 16th Century Convent and Church. There was noone in there so I decided to take a seat and admire the old frescoes and read in my Lonely Planet where to have dinner. The next thing I knew (about 15 mins had passed) the church is full to the brim and the priest is walking down the isle. I knew there was no way I could leave.It's quite a small town and being a foreigner I stand out. I didn't want to be known as the English girl who walked out of mass. So I stayed. Initially not even sure what denomination the church was I soon heard "PECADORES" (no, not the fishermen, but the Sinners) and knew it was a Catholic church.

I learnt a few other things - when you turn around to kiss / (thankfully) shake hands with everyone around you in UK you say "Peace be with you" here you say "Amistad" (friendship)...I just smiled as it took me about 10 handshakes to get passed the look of surprise to listen to what they were actually saying.

Then onto dinner (finally) and it was nice. People spoke to me but not in the I want to have sex with you way of Merida. Just friendly and ever so polite.

I wandered to the other side of the square to have a policeman stop the traffic so I could cross the road to see a live band and a load of people dancing cha cha cha. pics above.

Valladolid is definitely my favourite Mexican city so far. Chichen Itza in the morning all being well.

Cancun

Randomly a peacock was just wandering around.

Kate and I on the beach before one of our many huge nights out typical Cancun style.

I knew my Chasers Tri shorts would come in useful for something....

Breakfast in the hotel:

Cancun was a bit nicer than I expected. Didn't do much other than beach,pool, beach, snorkel, yoga, beach. Was lovely to spend a week with KP, but feels like a lifetime ago already since I left her this morning! The rest of Mexico is truely another world....(a nicer one).

The Cancun highlights were definitely para-gliding. I'm getting over my fear of heights... and snorkelling - we swam for quite a while with a rare, endangered sea turtle which I never expected to see.

Los Cenotes (Waterholes / Caverns)

These are the tree routes that grow into the top of the cave. Some people managed to climb up them, I have no idea how!

Most adventurous day so far. Got up early and went on a Combi - sort of private mini van to Cuzama. The chatted to a Swiss and Argentinian guy so we could share a bici-taxi to the entrance to the Cenotes and afterwards we took a horse drawn cart which ran on a track - like a train track. It's 150 years old

and was used by the Mayans to communicate between the villages. Now it's just used to access the cenotes as they're about 10k away from any roads. There were three and all quite different. One could only be accessed by a very steep ladder...you can see in the photos but it was just so high. I didn't realise what a scaredy-cat I was until today. I loved this trip and travel wise been the best day so far. I had my nicest Mexican meal so far. Pork on a roadside bbq, with rice and tomato sauce. Let's see if I'm ill tomorrow. I did have a hideous return journey in a bus with no openable windows. It was so hot and like a sort of recurring nightmare as every time I woke up we seemed to be in the same place...a square with a huge yellow church, but I realised that all the pueblos along the way looked the same.

Met a really nice Hungarian guy in the hostel so spent the afternoon chatting to him and cooling off in the pool and about to go out for a fiesta tonight - no idea what's on- with Simona who has arrived from Celestun.

MERIDA, 04.06.10. Land of more annoying men

It does however have a nice cathedral. And good artesanias.