Crocodiles and the last nights in Mexico

This will probably be the last post from Mexico, because tomorrow we're off to the next country. I'm very excited to see what Guatemala will be like😁

The next day (01/29/24) in San Cristóbal de las Casas there wasn't much on the agenda. I wanted to go training again after more than 2 weeks and decided to do it at least twice a week...then I found a park and did a little sport. On the way back I stopped at a restaurant that also offers vegetarian tacos. Actually, it was the first time I ate tacos in Mexico...it was sad, but at least they were very tasty. Sated, I went back to the hostel and in the “common room” was the German who I had chatted with the day before. Later a Dutch woman came along and we spent the afternoon there together until the German went to another hostel.

For this day (01/30/24) I booked a tour to the Cañon del Sumidero. Despite a few problems with my gastrointestinal tract, I started the tour at 9:00 a.m. I didn't feel good but since I couldn't cancel the tour, I had to go through with it😂. And it was definitely worth it, we took a boat through the canyon for almost 1.5 hours, some of the walls were up to 1000m high. Well, I've never been in front of a wall that just goes straight up 1000m, it makes you feel very tiny. When the canyon was over, the landscape became flatter and greener. We saw some crocodiles chilling on small sand banks and at one point also "spider monkeys" jumping through the trees. Seeing crocodiles in their natural environment is so much more beautiful than in the zoo, it's incredible. They just live there, eat there and lie on different sand banks or just float in the river. You can't compare it with a zoo at all...You should see the animals there, in their natural environment and if the animals don't feel like it, they go into hiding, quite simply.

But at some point every journey is over and we arrived in a small town. Maybe there would have been a lot to do there but I didn't feel like it, so I sat there on a bench for the time😂 After about an hour we were picked up again and we went back to the hostel. The rest of the day was relaxed, I sat around a lot, strolled through the huge market and planned my next journey. Due to the stomach problems on the day, I decided to extend my stay for another day to see how I was doing.

And the next day (01/31/24) I felt better and had another wonderful sunny day in San Cristóbal, which I didn't use for much😅. Actually, I only went to an orchid park, which, due to the time of year, only had green plants and that was it... In the evening I thought to myself that I could actually have gone to a national park that was very close by. but good. The day was still beautiful and the anticipation of the next country is growing.

On February 1st, 2024 I had to leave the hostel and go on to Palenque. For this I took two Colectivos (minibuses). The first took almost 2.5 hours to Ocosingo and then another 3 hours to Palenque. Everything went smoothly and was both cheaper and faster compared to the coach.

As I discovered relatively quickly, Palenque is actually not very beautiful. Lots of traffic, loud, aggressive dogs and pushy vendors. All this even though the city is actually surrounded by jungle... very strange. But I'm not here for the city, but for the Mayan ruins. The evening consisted of going shopping, taking out my laundry and then cooking. While cooking I talked to a German and an Austrian and it was very funny. For the first few minutes we muddled around in English until we found out that we actually all speak German😑. The Austrian just came from Guatemala and mentioned some cool places that I'll probably check out. However, I doubt whether I can stay in the same place for 7 weeks like him. In any case, we sat on the roof terrace for a long time afterwards.

Today (02.02.24) I left quite early to avoid the crowds and the heat at the ruins. On the main street here in Palenque, you can just stand on the side of the road and when the right Colectivo comes by, you raise your hand. And that's how it went, the ruins are actually only about 7km from the center, so it's very easy. When I got out, I recognized the Belgian woman who had been in the Colectivo to Palenque the day before and we tried to make our way through the jungle together. Because that's how it started, the place where you buy the tickets is not the place where the entrance is... it would have been another 3 minute drive, but we didn't know that. Ella had a travel guide with us, which somehow helped us get to the entrance.

It must have been so cool to have lived in temples in the middle of the jungle as a Maya. Secluded from everything, connected to nature and having an incredible view, amazing. The temples were all extremely impressive and Ella played the tour guide with her book. Compared to the pyramids in Mexico City, you could climb some of the temples and even go inside some of them. There wasn't that much inside, but the view from above was great. At some point we met Lucky? an Italian from their hostel and he joined us. We walked around a bit and were surprised when we had already reached the end. During our initial search for the entrance, we found a jungle path that runs away from the ruins. We then walked along it and it was very cool. So much birdsong and felt so far away from everything. We could even hear the howler monkeys at the end of the path. Very cool in any case. A few waterfalls could also be seen in between and many different plants.

When we arrived at the exit, we stood for less than 2 minutes and a Colectivo came by and took us back. When we arrived in Palenque, we had a lunch snack and I walked around the city a bit (but today it wasn't any nicer either😂). Towards the afternoon I did some quick shopping and picked up my clothes.

The first border crossing into Guatemala is tomorrow. I'm very excited to see how it turns out...there was a lot of discussion in the last hostel about whether you needed a specific exit form or not. But the website where you have to do this doesn't work properly and yeah, let's see if I'm allowed to leave the country or not🫠