Bienvenido en el mundo de Chaac, Itzamná, kukulkán y Huracán

In April 2019 my family (parents, younger brother, aunt and uncle) came to visit me in Mexico. This blog post won't contain any deep thoughts of mine, it is more of a factual diary in order to not forget our adventures. As always you can take a look at the pictures as well. Also, if you are wanting to visit Chiapas, Campeche or the Yucatan and Quintana Roo peninsula and if you are interested in learning more about the ancient Maya culture I would definitely advise you to take this diary as a guide or travel itinerary. It was a marvelous trip and I really feel that, given the time we had, we got the maximum out of the experience. 

Without further adue, here we go. 

Before coming to me, my family blitz-visited Mexico City in 2 days. Afterwards they took a  flight southwards to Tuxtla. There they went first to Copoya and then proceeded on their way to me. 

Tue 9/4: An emotional family reunion in the children's home in Tuxtla. My family got the chance to look around a bit and to get to know the people and the children I'm working with. We bought pizza for everyone in the children's home and my family shared a meal with the children. 

Wed 10/4: I worked one more day (the children would leave for a holiday with their families on 11/4, and so would I). In the mean time my family visited Chiapa de Corzo and the cañon de Sumidero. 

Thu 11/4: We went to San-Juan-Chamula and Zinacantan, two traditional villages close to San Cristóbal de las Casas (from now on Sancris). In San-Juan-Chamula we visited the church with its unique rituals. In Zinacantan we visited one of the traditional weaver families. In our hotel (BO) I had a great vegan culinary experience. We spent the evening in Sancris.

Fri 12/4: We brought a more thorough visit to Sancris, its market, churches, weaver-cooperatives,... In the evening Eveling came to Sancris after work and my family met her for the first time. We had a very nice evening and it was decided that Eveling would join our fellowship starting from 14/4 in the evening in Palenque. 

Sat 13/4: The whole day we were on our way to Palenque. On the way we visited the archaeological site of Tonina (near Ocosingo), we brought a visit to the wonderful agua azul and the waterfall Misol-ha. 

Sun 14/4: We celebrated my mums birthday with an amazing trip. We visited the archaeological sites of Yaxchilan and Bonampak. To reach Yaxchilan we had to go a little while by boat through the jungle on the Usumacinta River which is a natural border between Mexico and Guatemala (we also set foot on Guatemalan soil for 5 minutes and used the opportunity to drink a typical Guatemaltec beer). The archaeological site of Yaxchilan is one of the most impressive archaeological sites I have ever seen (for me personally its right up there with Angkor Wat in Cambodia). The site of Bonampak is (to me) less impressive but it has some amazingly beautiful colourful original wall-murals from the mayans. These murals are unique because the colors have nowhere else been preserved that well. The murals have a high historical value, historians learned a lot from them (the Mayans apparantly weren't that civil and peaceful as everybody seems to think). In the evening Eveling reached Palenque and we all went together for some good Italian food. The vegan pizza was delicious. Perfect day. 

Mo 15/4: we visited the archaeological site of Palenque, which is definitely worth visiting. Here you can still feel and see how big Mayan cities could get, how far their technology (for example their aquaducts that until this day provide a steady flow of clear water) was evolved and how rich their culture was. There are also several reminders that they were cruel and mercyless warlords. My brother had to go home early for his studies and thus here we said goodbye and lost one of our comrades. Afterwards we did a jungle hike in the vecinity of the Palenque site. The hike was interesting because we came along alot of Mayan ruines and structeres that are still half or even completely burried by the jungle. The rest of the day we used to relax. 

Tue 16/4: This day was mostly spent in the car. Our guide Hector brought us to Campeche, a beautiful and colorful colonial city at the seaside. This citycenter is so vibrant and has a great atmosphere. I could definitely see myself staying there for a while. 

Wed 17/4: In the morning we took the time to enjoy Campeche a little more and then we were on our way to Merida. On the way we visited a cooperative of traditional hat makers and as well the archaeological sites Uxmal and Kabah. Both Uxmal and Kabah are very beautiful, impressive and interesting. Kabah means roughly translated 'mano duro' or 'strong fist'. The Mayan architecture and ornaments can be seen very beautifully on these sites. In Merida we stayed in a little paradise, a beautiful colonial hacienda with a marvelous green, wild, exotic garden. 

Thu 18/4: We went to celestún for a little boat trip to see the biodiversity of the mangroves. Celestún is known as a breeding place for flamingos and although we had hoped for so many flamingos we would see only pink for three weeks, I was not disappointed there were only few. It was very nice and peaceful to spot the birds in their natural habitat. In the mangroves we observed as well the special natural phenomenon 'ojo de agua' or 'eye of water'. This is a source of sweet water coming up out of the earth flowing into the salty water from the sea. Because of this phenomenon there is salt and sweet water around and thus the biodiversity is very unique in celestún. You will find in the neighborhood a mixture of fauna and flora that generally isn't located together. Afterwards we had a relax afternoon at the beach.

Fri 19/4: We visited the citycenter of Merida. For me personally Merida is nice to visit if you are in the neighborhood, but it wasn't so memorable that I would recommend you should especially go there. I had some decent vegan meal in Merida though after surviving on too many very boring salads. 

Sat 20/4: It was again a day spent in the car, but we had some nice stops on the way. The first break we got was in a small town called Izamal. It was a very beautiful colonial village with a beautiful convent. It became less beautiful in my eyes when I learned the Spanish had destroyed the most important Mayan city on that very place and used the rubble to build Izamal. Definitely a rough history. Second stop on the way: Chichén Itzá, one of the new seven World wonders. Look, I am not going to say it isn't beautiful or worthwhile, because it definitely is. But it's title of Worldwonder does in my eyes more harm than good. In all the other extraordinary archaeological Maya sites you can wander around freely in tranquility, it is most often a magical experience. But Chichén Itzá is filled with tourists and people trying to sell you some garbage, to me the magic has long gone from Chichén Itzá and it is (to Me) definitely not more special than Yaxchilán, Palenque or Tonina. After the Chichén Itzá visit, we saw as well two big cenotes (natural big sinkholes filled with clear sweet water) in the proximity of Chichén Itzá. The cenotes are miracles from nature, but the ones near Chichén Itzá, to me, are completely ruined by tourism. But to each their own I guess... When we finally arrived at Tulum, the same impression lasted. Tulum has a beautiful exotic coastline, but it is so very much overrun by tourists... Not my cup of tea (and I had the impression everybody in our group shared this opinion). But we made the best of it. 

Sun 21/4: We had a tranquil day. Went for a long walk on the beach with destination the archaeological site of Tulum. The archaeological site is beautiful and has a special character in comparison to its colleagues because it is build on a cliff with seaside. Pitty it has also been overrun by tourists. It's popularity is part of its downfall. Also, I need to admit, after a busy vacation with a lot of archaeological sites I became more critical and less easy to please. 

Mo 22/4: Another tranquil day. We saw some trational 'voladores' and took some pictures with them. We went to a domain called 'cenotes casa tortuga'.  with some more smaller interconnected cenotes. Although these cenotes are a lot less impressive at first sight, the experience was a thousand times more memorable than the big cenotes. We swam in the cenotes through the underground interconnected waterways which was a really fun, beautiful and interesting experience. You are not the only tourist there but you get the feeling the natural treasure is better being taken care of. Later that day I had some excellent mushroom and vegetable tacos. 

Tue 23/4: The end of our holiday. After half a day more relaxing we went with everybody to the airport of Cancun where we had an emotional farewell. My family returned to Belgium, Eveling and I to a hostel in Cancun for 1 night. 

Aftermath: On the way back from Cancun to Tuxtla (during the night from 24/4 to 25/5) we got pickpocketted... Not such a fun experience. I arrived in Tuxtla without my tablet and Eveling without her wallet. But we didn't let it get to much to our mood... It could have been way worse. We were more or less in good health, I had made two backups of my tablet so I didn't lose any important data, Evelings wallet didn't have a lot of money and her important documents were as well in another wallet... It still sucks but it isn't the end of the world. 

Some fun facts and side notes to never forget:

* After getting my tablet stolen I contacted my insurance to get some money back . They needed me to announce the theft officially at the police station. I can assure you, you don't want to go through the Mexican police administration. What an absolute nightmare. It took me several days to find the right office, and once there it took me several hours to obtain the documents I needed. Mexican efficiency I guess... After going through all of that paperwork, my insurances had the opinion I didn't deserve any refunds because I wasn't physically assaulted during the theft ... What a load of ****. It would have been nice of them to tell me that before I went through Mexican bureaucracy...

*I will never forget half March until the end of April being the longest period in my life of having a very disturbed gut. Because of food poisoning I had a stomach infection in the beginning of March, so they gave me some antibiotics which made everything just so much worse. Yes the bad bacteria were dead, alongside all the good ones. I swear I will never again take that poison again if not absolutely necessary. My gut microbiome was basically decimated. The antibiotics where an atombom on a whole city to kill one criminal. I almost didn't digest anything amore. My digestive track was just a tube that didn't do anything else than pass things through. What came out was exactly the same as what had gone in. I feel again healthier than ever now and my guts health is restored as well, but I pray to all the gods old and new I will never again have to go through that again. Recovery took some time... 

* Our guide Hector was a very funny man. An anthology from his repertoire:

- upon the sight of some vultures his reaction was 'look, the Mexican parliament'. 

- Tulum is the Mexican pink panther: Tulumtulum, Tulum, Tulum Tulum Tulum Tulum Tuluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum, Tulum Tulum Tulum. 

- Hector does a wonderful impression of the howler monkey

- Toma un Mezcal cuando te sientes bien, cuando te sientes mal también. Y cuando ya no hay remedio, toma litro y medio. 

- ... 

This post is more than long enough now.

As always, I wish you the very best.

B. Supertramp