Arriving in San Cristobal on a nightbus at 7am after the coast was akin to getting back off your summer jolidays at Heathrow…talk about temperature difference! Luckily I’d cleverly figured this out and had a few layers on in preparation and scoffed at the silly girls who were still wearing short shots and flip-flops…..hehe. We checked into a hostel that I’d been recommended and also place a chap we’d met in Oaxaca was now “working”. It may well have jumped into the lead as best hostel on my trip to date…..again pretty new, huge colonial building with an internal atrium. Super comfy mattresses, hot showers, plenty of blankets needed for the cold night, a different prepared breakfast each day, a garden area with hammocks and a fire pit, and very friendly staff. If your headed there don’t think about anywhere else to stay! Puerta Vieja

Luckily the sun soon came out and once it did it was very warm and having managed to get enough kip on this night bus headed straight out to explore the town. Whilst much smaller than Oaxaca city SC is on par with charm for sure. With several pedestrian streets lined with cafes, panaderías, restaurants and artisan craft shops. It’s another place you can quite happily just wander about absorbing the “vibe man”… As always the local food market is major draw for me, and we headed there for a snoop and lunch. As we entered one lane it seemed fairly small….we wrong! A maze of lanes, blocks and stalls with sections for anything and everything. I’ve never seen so many mangos! A cheap tasty lunch and laden with fruits intended for a fruit salad we returned to the hostel and it being Saturday and 6pm decided on a drink. The well equipped kitchen had a blender so I sacrificed some of our mango, passion fruit, banana and pineapple and with a bit of rum knocked up a rather good number if I do say so myself! We had a fire in the garden that night which just managed to keep us warm as the temperature plummeted with the sun gone, I slunk of a little early to dodge a hangover.

Next day four of us headed out to the indigenous village of San Juan Chamula to visit the Iglesia de San Juan de Bautista. The customs practiced in the church are a mix of Christian and Mayan. Photos are strictly forbidden inside and we all felt quite intrusive just being there, but it was very interesting and unlike anything I’ve seen. The outside of the church doesn’t seem very different, but inside is a different story. The floor is covered in pine needles, there are no pews, and around the walls are statues of different saints. Thousands of candles are alight, the people who are there to pray clear an area of pines and arrange and light varying numbers of thin candles arranged in a message. As we went on a Sunday families were grouped together praying and chanting. The overall image of the church lit with all these candles with the pines covering the floors, and the saints adorning the walls felt somewhat magical, and fair more spiritual than all the more impressive churches and cathedrals I’ve seen. But I did feel very weird tiptoeing around people praying, and I can fully understand why photos are not allowed. Afterwards we shared two whole cooked chickens for lunch in a local eatery…just a pure protein lunch with no tortillas! Back in town in the afternoon one of the Mexican girls who was working at our hostel took us to a local cantina, which is a family affair on a Sunday in a large hall with plastic tables and chairs, cheap beer and snacks and a comedian/cabaret performer. I’m not sure how much of his jokes we really got but it was really fun to go to and something I wouldn’t have come across without local “in-the-know”.

My last full day two of us took a tour of the cañón del Sumidero, which all though a bit touristy as you can only go there in a tour on a speed boat was quite staggering, beautiful and we saw a few crocodiles! As well as huge numbers of cormorants, pelicans, egrets, vultures and herons. When we got back to the hostel two other friends had arrived, and with all the other guests and staff had another fire outside and enjoyed some cheap rum courtesy of the hostel….don’t mind if I do!

I really had a great time the last few weeks hanging out with some people and I didn’t really want to move on just then but there are places to see….so the following day I took a six hour bus to Palenque. Two travel pills later I woke to a grey drizzly skies and jungle foliage. I luckily met two ladies on my bus and we got a room together in the jungle, very basic but hot water and a cleanish bed. It was cool going to sleep with all the noise of the jungle around including the howler monkeys! But didn’t see any….

So yesterday I was up early to visit Palanque ruins. Of the three ruins I’ve now seen, these have to be the most impressive, as much in part to the location and setting surrounded by jungle. They seem a bit more real…..Teotihaucán north of DF whilst still staggering, seems to have been plonked there as its so dry and surrounded by nothing. A few hours later, and some considerable steps climbed up and down I caught a shuttle to two sets of waterfalls. The second ones “agua Azul” were as the name suggests so blue! Unfortunately the weather was a little unseasonably cool that day, and noone was swimming in them….but being British that didn’t stop me and I had a fifteen minute swim on my own….if just to tick the box! Transfer dropped us back into town at seven and I killed an hour or so before taking an eight hour night bus north to the Yucatan arriving at five am this morning in the city of Merida…..tbc