From Chiapas to Yucatan. Travel in Mexico

Passing the border Guatemala-Mexico I, Ilaria and a nice group of friends with whom we made friends in the meantime, we are about to discover Mexico, from Chiapas to the Yucatan, from the Bay Area.
We were fortunatissimi. Although it is August, we got a wonderful climate and dry (except for a roar of a short-term evening in Campeche).
Deserved relaxation awaits us after the visit of the archaeological institutions existing in the Riviera Maya from legendary white sandy beaches.
Want to share? Zero

 

The border is something that we will remember more than the entire trip. We downloaded the border that we have to cross alone, on foot and with luggage in hand, like loads donkeys (x via the carts of the purchases made in Guatemala). Seem to be refugees.
End up on a minibus scassatissimo and hot and we lose the hours for the processing of travel formalities.
The road to San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas is long, tortuous and isolated.
The trip is a nightmare. We are in 12 spaiccicati in a bus of 8 seats.
Fortunately we arrived in San Cristobal in a very nice posada where we take.

San Cristobal is a charming town in Chiapas where he also freschino. We are around 2000-3000 meters s.l.m.. The city extends on a little pebble streets' and on some 'down. It 'really very beautiful and he left many memories.
We even found a favorite restaurant, the Salsa Verde, a kind of grill to cook on huge plates of most everything, from mythical quesadillas, the res, to nachos, to nopalites (which are cactus), strongly recommended to those who suffer from allergies because it is virtually impossible that you do not finish something in the pot has ordered another. Yes, I ate the cactus and I can say I'm wonderful. One of the new local air than smoked. At the end of six grilled dinner and you become a succulent steacks for all dogs of the city that are starting to follow you in every corner most remote of San Cristobal.
San Cristobal is the Mexican city of grunge (foreign or transplanted). In the evening in its streets or in the Zocalo, or main square, the Spanish colonial style, there are guys who play and dance and sell necklaces, sweets (strictly covered with insects), even if you like maria.
So many beautiful memories, but also the beginning of the incubator. Accustomed to travel in a country virtually devoid of tourists, we are catapulted into another dimension.
Out of San Cristobal is a very special church, that of San Juan Chamula (the Zinancantan into the background).
The church experience was unforgettable in every sense. I state that it is absolutely forbidden to take pictures, even in secret, because the local gurus do not like. It seems that the week before had killed a barrel of French tourist guilty that I took a picture with the phone. Actually see in front of the churchyard a poor Japanese chased and then surrounded by these huge santons clothes with black fur. It seems to have made a picture with the digital age. Tourists gurus to see that there is no picture. They are not satisfied and want the car. He does not spring to the end, hidden among a group of tourists that surrounds and protects. We do not know how it is going to end, but I guess at why we have not seen blood stains on the square ...
Inside the church is a hellish Bolgia Dante, a human tide of local tourists. For earth and straw and grass interminable file of long candles, colored and thin (which does not need to be dropped because it sfiga, but I swear that I do the slalom between all that is a wax). The local people are desperate and pray together with all kinds and not food. To obtain a pardon (or chase away the evil eye) must Rutte (to pull out of the evil one) and then continue to drink soft drinks to get better. There's even an authorized retailer of soft drinks within the Church. Shocking!
Did not know if the animal sacrifice for some religious reason, or if you want to pull out the evil from them also, because we saw a poor chicken in agony on the ground filled with Tequila ... no comment! Throughout this Bolgia players of all types of musical instruments stuns you, various religious processions will cut the road (do not look at dropping the candles), shots of rockets will blow up in the air, incense and flowers you sick with their fragrance ... really fascinating, however, one thing never seen before, sin did not manage to make a picture.

On the way to Palenque we make a stop to the famous waterfalls of Agua Azul, where the water is really blue, but we do the bathroom because it seems to be infested by poisonous snakes. Unfortunate that at that time the rest of the world is unaware of the danger paddle. I must say that these cascades have disappointed me a lot. They are the classic tourist spot where your time to lose ... of the most beautiful the world is full! Then there is humidity, exposed ...
In Palenque, the only thing you need to see is the archaeological site in the jungle. Very nice, because maybe it is only the second of the trip.

The road to Campeche is wonderful, because we left the highlands of Chiapas, and we are to reach the coast and more specifically the Gulf of Mexico. The landscape changes dramatically and the roads from all curves become flat and straight. At the gates of a magnificent lagoon, Campeche welcomes us and then finally the ocean.
Unfortunately we get to Campeche under a tropical storm. A scene very disturbing and enchanting at the same time. Fortunately lasts about twenty minutes and returned to the serene.
Campeche is a real jewel. The old town is situated inside the walls, the houses are low and colorful as it pleases me, and the black color of the sky gives an irresistible touch. Being a city of the sea are going to eat fish and the famous camarones (I take them with mango). I used to entertain us by playing mariachi songs and popular Cuban Italian.
In the evening we do a tour around the city and find a fountain running time of music, changing color at the same time, a church with a beacon instead of the bell .... So the atmosphere is unique and that this city will remain in my heart .
I am sorry dovermene go.

Before we get to Merida shot the third site of the journey to Uxmal, one of the most beautiful for me.
Because of the heat I decided to not even climb on top of the pyramids, but to seek shelter under a tree.
We arrive in Merida in the afternoon. There are about 38 degrees.
Merida is the white city because of its white colonial very beautiful. Those not removed remains. We are lucky though, because we see in the Zocalo of folk dances in costume.
What remarkable dinner from Pancho's, spectacular, the best meal of the trip.

Ranging from Merida to Chichen Itza, one of the most famous Mayan sites.
The temperature increasing and also the humidity .... The site is beautiful, but the plants that even more cool ...
The pyramid is steep and imposing. Basically you have to climb and descend a Gattoni if you do not want to fall. It 'a business, but it's worth it. The same thing can be done from within, but the faces of tourists who come to understand that there is not the case. Apparently there are 50 degrees inside and that is so wet that lacks the air.
The site is restored to Benin, it is beautiful, although I preferred the others.

After faticaccia archeologica do a one night stopover in Cancun, to recover.
The beach of our hotel, in the bottom of the zone hotelera is a charm. White. The sea is turquoise postcard.
Cancun is a jungle of asphalt full of local tourists, but has a why. Ugly, but curious and not more than one night.

Ila and I going to do a week of sea halfway between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, in a very spartan hotel called La Posada del Capitan Lafitte, a place that advice to anyone.
There are 6 km of white beach protected by the nesting of turtles.
La Posada is eco-compatible, but with all the comforts.
We are so fortunate that we also rise to hundreds of turtles.
A place to dream that will not forget never (we hope you keep well and do not build anything in the area)

Not yet saturated archeological sites are organizing a trip to Tulum.
In Playa del Carmen go to the bus station and take the first part.
The site is very spoiled, but its location beside the sea from a postcard is something magnificent.
On the beach there are also the iguanas that take the sun with you.
I have never seen a sea so beautiful in my life.

Cozumel is an island with a beautiful marine reserve in front of Cancun. To get there by taking one of several ferries that depart from the pier in Playa del Carmen.
Just negotiate the price.
In Cozumel there aro a very nice, a reserve with the crocodiles and a magnificent reef.
Must pay an entry, but it is abbordabilissimo do so to try to preserve nature.
There is a bus English double-decker wooden everything that moves within the reserve.
We rented a jeep and we just turned the whole island.

Just one advice, if you call in the USA, left open the bags, because otherwise the security ve the split as it happened to me and Ilaria.
I rediscovered my sealed with adhesive tape and a ticket inside which says "we apologize for the inconvenience, but we had effetturae checks Terrorism"