After Playa del Carmen we took a bus to Cancun and another one to Chiquilà, than a little boat to Isla Holbox. We stayed in a nice hotel run by an italian (what's that? where are all those italian in Italy?) called La Palapa in a beautiful rpom overlooking the ocean.
We forgot who we were and where we were.... we mingled with the population playing tombola in the main square and playing bagatelle table (I'm not sure it's what I meant!) with the children.
We woke up at dawn to dive in the clear waters and to have a long walk while picking up beautiful shells. Then back to the village where we had breakfast in the nicest place I've ever been... a gigantic ensalada de frutas y yogurt y granola y miel and a gigantic jugo de mango.
Then back to the beach to see the fisherman's return and the cleaning of the nets and the food for the birds.
Out of time and space!
After this dream we did the trip back to Cancun in the rickety bus crowded with mexican only who became superhappy when Andrea and I (foreigners) bought some 'handmade' snacks from the pitchman who stepped up on the bus and got up after a couple of miles.
Back in Cancun and at the airport we had to deal with a herd of italian with sombreros (please note that in the whole Yucatan and in the states of the south nobody wears sombrero which is typical in the north instead) and already complaining for everything.
We've been lucky to be the first 2 in row and to go away from them as soon as possible. Unfortunately we had the chance to see their rudeness while ordering water at the bar desk or by being superloud in the passangers area.
Then 10 and half hours to Rome and another 1 to Bologna. Finally home.
The garden is blasting flowers all over and Monocolo is happy we're home as much as we're happy to see him. We really missed him!
I woke up at 12.45pm and I'll be sleepy in a couple of hours. I need to clean the house and the clothes and need to prepare to leave to Rome tomorrow to visit for Easter.
It will take a while to 'digest' this combination of colours, tastes, faces, and views we have been through in those last 15 days.
It has not been a picture-tour even if we shoot a lot, I'm sure none of those pics will transmit anything we felt. I've always been out of time, of frame or moving.
But the pictures that slide slowly in my mind are way too beautiful to be remembered!
Showing posts with label Messico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Messico. Show all posts
05 April 2007
01 April 2007
Viva Mexico!
From Tulum we arrived in Playa del Carmen after only 1hour drive:-)
We got out of the bus and the 'global so-called-civilization' hit our face violently!
We booked the hotel via internet the day before coming to Playa and we really got a good deal since the place is right a block from 5Avenida (the strip of Playa) and it's really a nice place, run by italian.
Italian seems to be everywhere. In Tulum the Hemingway cabañas was run by Paola, and other cabañas by other italians!
By the way. Playa is just like Riccione and Rimini on the Adriatic Riviera. A place to buy and eat and eat and drink and buy and dance and eat and drink and have fun.
This morning we went to the beach and it was cool. Of course we had to forget the feeling of freedom we got used in Tulum, where the only shadow was that of a palm and the only worry was the cocunut shaking dangerously over our heads.
Here is all very Cool, Hip, In, Trendy, Sophisticated.... and so on.
We had a group of rich italian next to us. All dark tanned and with Giorgio Armani and Dolce e Gabbana swimsuits. The men were way too trendy... trying to copy Berlusconi in shapes and attitudes; women too old to expose their 'nudities' to the world but too vain to cover them....
Poor guys.
Playa looks like an American city. Americans are everywhere, everybody speaks english and there are 2 Starbucks on the main road.
By the way, we decided to give ourselves a little last present before going back home.... tomorrow we'll reach Holbox, a small, lonely island north of Cancun with nothing else than a place to stay and the beach and the birds and the shells.
Italo (an italian guy working in Tulum) told us of how he felt in love with that island, and we decided to go. We already called another italian guy (and then we talk of The Family!!!) and we booked this room for our last 2 mexican nights!
We're looking forward it.
We'll miss this country!
Write more from Italy in 4-5 days.
We got out of the bus and the 'global so-called-civilization' hit our face violently!
We booked the hotel via internet the day before coming to Playa and we really got a good deal since the place is right a block from 5Avenida (the strip of Playa) and it's really a nice place, run by italian.
Italian seems to be everywhere. In Tulum the Hemingway cabañas was run by Paola, and other cabañas by other italians!
By the way. Playa is just like Riccione and Rimini on the Adriatic Riviera. A place to buy and eat and eat and drink and buy and dance and eat and drink and have fun.
This morning we went to the beach and it was cool. Of course we had to forget the feeling of freedom we got used in Tulum, where the only shadow was that of a palm and the only worry was the cocunut shaking dangerously over our heads.
Here is all very Cool, Hip, In, Trendy, Sophisticated.... and so on.
We had a group of rich italian next to us. All dark tanned and with Giorgio Armani and Dolce e Gabbana swimsuits. The men were way too trendy... trying to copy Berlusconi in shapes and attitudes; women too old to expose their 'nudities' to the world but too vain to cover them....
Poor guys.
Playa looks like an American city. Americans are everywhere, everybody speaks english and there are 2 Starbucks on the main road.
By the way, we decided to give ourselves a little last present before going back home.... tomorrow we'll reach Holbox, a small, lonely island north of Cancun with nothing else than a place to stay and the beach and the birds and the shells.
Italo (an italian guy working in Tulum) told us of how he felt in love with that island, and we decided to go. We already called another italian guy (and then we talk of The Family!!!) and we booked this room for our last 2 mexican nights!
We're looking forward it.
We'll miss this country!
Write more from Italy in 4-5 days.
29 March 2007
Finally Caribe!
Tulum....
After 16 hours of bus we got to the ocean.
We found those cabañas right on the beach. It is more than I have ever imagined. The only mole is the cost... they charged us 130USD for a night in a cabañas = a cabin with a roof made of palm leaves and a bed with a mosquito net... yes there's also a bathroom and some iguanas on the roof and some lizards in the room... but we don't care as long as everybody stays in its place.
The cool thing is that we are on the beach of Tulum... which is absolutely beautiful.
Last night we went to bed at 7pm (there's no electricity and the night is really dark out there) and this morning we woke up at dawn, put our swimsuit and went for a walk on the beach, then had a dive in the warm caribbean ocean and a great breakfast. The rest was... going in and out of the ocean and read and write and talk and enjoy the palm over us always paying attention to the 'dancing' coconuts over our heads.
Wow, how hard is living like this....
Tomorrow we'll go to Playa del Carmen and then in some other place...
After 16 hours of bus we got to the ocean.
We found those cabañas right on the beach. It is more than I have ever imagined. The only mole is the cost... they charged us 130USD for a night in a cabañas = a cabin with a roof made of palm leaves and a bed with a mosquito net... yes there's also a bathroom and some iguanas on the roof and some lizards in the room... but we don't care as long as everybody stays in its place.
The cool thing is that we are on the beach of Tulum... which is absolutely beautiful.
Last night we went to bed at 7pm (there's no electricity and the night is really dark out there) and this morning we woke up at dawn, put our swimsuit and went for a walk on the beach, then had a dive in the warm caribbean ocean and a great breakfast. The rest was... going in and out of the ocean and read and write and talk and enjoy the palm over us always paying attention to the 'dancing' coconuts over our heads.
Wow, how hard is living like this....
Tomorrow we'll go to Playa del Carmen and then in some other place...
27 March 2007
San Cristobal de las Casas
From Merida we took a night bus to Palenque, where we arrived after 8 hours of sleep.
We arrived in Juarez around 6/6.30am and the light of the sunrise was yellow and beatiful stretching all the shades, which is strange here since the light is always white and the shades are always short.
The crowded small city of Juarez grows at the border with the ruins, a city of touristic services and place where to eat. Really colourful. We leave the backpack at the bus station at the baggage depot and then wait for the first free combi (small buses that transport local people around the places... you just wait in the middle f the streets and scream your destination!) to the ruins.
We arrived there around 7 but it open at 8 and we had the time to assist the preparation of the small market that borns every morning in the proximity of the ruins entrance. The indios come out from the jungle bushes with all their sacks and prepare little benches with their stuff to sell or things to cook or fuits.
I made a deal for a coconut and the guy made a hole with the machete and put the (ever present) straw in it, so that I could restore from the long night in the bus with a high airconditioning system. This coconut had a special taste to me. We were in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by indios and by this overwhelming nature and I was sipping a real coconut juice.
The ruins of Palenque left me speechless again. I have no words to express my feeling and the jumps by heart did while in this place. The jungle almost 'eats' the ruins and there's a soundtrack of verses from the 'shouting monkey' and the tucanos and other animals. There weren't a lot of turists and we just step over all the ruins possible. From up above the El Palacio there's a view of the valley which really impress the senses.
It's unbelievable those people made all this with no metal supplies or animals or wheels.
El Templo de las Inscriptiones and that of la Cruz are really beautiful.
But the jungle is queen in this environment.
We exit the ruins after a walk in the jungle, passing rios and waterfall and wood bridges and encountering snakes and spiders.
After that we visited the museums and waited for another combi to go back to the bus station. This one was very typical. There were some 4 locals inside and it was literally without door, and the engine was bursting weird noises every 200mts.
It has been a fun ride.
A 5 hours bus to San Cristobal awaited us.
It has been a silenced trip. Andrea took some drugs to refrain the carsickness and started sleeping, and I wasn't able to read or write anything since the road was curves and curves and curves.
So I watched outside.
From the 80 meters of Palenque we reached the 2160 of meters San Cristobal de las Casas, driving throung the rich vegetation of the Lacadona forest.
I was impressed. Going up was just green and blue, the forest and the sky. After a couple of hours the view was incredible... the valleys down there and the Altos on the other side.
We encountered a lot of small cabañas villages (small in order of 4-5 cabañas) where the indios live.
It was Sunday and the children were mostly dressed with a white shirt and almost looking elegant. The women all wearing the traditional clothes (even if they dress like this always) and family going from one 'village' to the next one where the church was with all the little coloured flags of the fiesta.
Outside some of this 'villages' coffe was toasting in the sun over white sheets and women were washing clothes and men working the red earth.
Children playing almost nude in the red earth.
I've been watching outside and 'inside' and there's a lot to think about.
We finally reached San Cristobal and found an hotel where we had a shower..... shower, shower.
San Cristobal is really beautiful; a small mountain town with a lot of attention for the indios. Here is the 'motherland' of the EZLN and I also came to know that El Sup Marcos was here yesterday but I missed him because I was doing the laundry! I was almost killing myself, but I didn't know about it if not after the laundry!!!!!! Pretty humiliating!
By the way we ate in the Centro Social where he did the conference, so I felt a little closer to the 'situation'.
Until last night we were thinking about going back to the Riviera Maya through Guatemala and Belize but checking the bus schedule it would have meant to spend 4 nights before the ocean whitout really visiting those places and... we are way too tired to wait 4 more days. So we decided to do the crazy thing and take another bus (this time it's a GranLux one... so Andrea is happy:-)) that we'll take us to Tulum in only 15 hours:-)
I know it's crazy but after a lot of asking and reading guides and planning sounded like the best thing.
Tomorrow morning we should be able to enjoy the Caribbean Mexican Beaches:-))
This is really a beautiful trip!
We arrived in Juarez around 6/6.30am and the light of the sunrise was yellow and beatiful stretching all the shades, which is strange here since the light is always white and the shades are always short.
The crowded small city of Juarez grows at the border with the ruins, a city of touristic services and place where to eat. Really colourful. We leave the backpack at the bus station at the baggage depot and then wait for the first free combi (small buses that transport local people around the places... you just wait in the middle f the streets and scream your destination!) to the ruins.
We arrived there around 7 but it open at 8 and we had the time to assist the preparation of the small market that borns every morning in the proximity of the ruins entrance. The indios come out from the jungle bushes with all their sacks and prepare little benches with their stuff to sell or things to cook or fuits.
I made a deal for a coconut and the guy made a hole with the machete and put the (ever present) straw in it, so that I could restore from the long night in the bus with a high airconditioning system. This coconut had a special taste to me. We were in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by indios and by this overwhelming nature and I was sipping a real coconut juice.
The ruins of Palenque left me speechless again. I have no words to express my feeling and the jumps by heart did while in this place. The jungle almost 'eats' the ruins and there's a soundtrack of verses from the 'shouting monkey' and the tucanos and other animals. There weren't a lot of turists and we just step over all the ruins possible. From up above the El Palacio there's a view of the valley which really impress the senses.
It's unbelievable those people made all this with no metal supplies or animals or wheels.
El Templo de las Inscriptiones and that of la Cruz are really beautiful.
But the jungle is queen in this environment.
We exit the ruins after a walk in the jungle, passing rios and waterfall and wood bridges and encountering snakes and spiders.
After that we visited the museums and waited for another combi to go back to the bus station. This one was very typical. There were some 4 locals inside and it was literally without door, and the engine was bursting weird noises every 200mts.
It has been a fun ride.
A 5 hours bus to San Cristobal awaited us.
It has been a silenced trip. Andrea took some drugs to refrain the carsickness and started sleeping, and I wasn't able to read or write anything since the road was curves and curves and curves.
So I watched outside.
From the 80 meters of Palenque we reached the 2160 of meters San Cristobal de las Casas, driving throung the rich vegetation of the Lacadona forest.
I was impressed. Going up was just green and blue, the forest and the sky. After a couple of hours the view was incredible... the valleys down there and the Altos on the other side.
We encountered a lot of small cabañas villages (small in order of 4-5 cabañas) where the indios live.
It was Sunday and the children were mostly dressed with a white shirt and almost looking elegant. The women all wearing the traditional clothes (even if they dress like this always) and family going from one 'village' to the next one where the church was with all the little coloured flags of the fiesta.
Outside some of this 'villages' coffe was toasting in the sun over white sheets and women were washing clothes and men working the red earth.
Children playing almost nude in the red earth.
I've been watching outside and 'inside' and there's a lot to think about.
We finally reached San Cristobal and found an hotel where we had a shower..... shower, shower.
San Cristobal is really beautiful; a small mountain town with a lot of attention for the indios. Here is the 'motherland' of the EZLN and I also came to know that El Sup Marcos was here yesterday but I missed him because I was doing the laundry! I was almost killing myself, but I didn't know about it if not after the laundry!!!!!! Pretty humiliating!
By the way we ate in the Centro Social where he did the conference, so I felt a little closer to the 'situation'.
Until last night we were thinking about going back to the Riviera Maya through Guatemala and Belize but checking the bus schedule it would have meant to spend 4 nights before the ocean whitout really visiting those places and... we are way too tired to wait 4 more days. So we decided to do the crazy thing and take another bus (this time it's a GranLux one... so Andrea is happy:-)) that we'll take us to Tulum in only 15 hours:-)
I know it's crazy but after a lot of asking and reading guides and planning sounded like the best thing.
Tomorrow morning we should be able to enjoy the Caribbean Mexican Beaches:-))
This is really a beautiful trip!
24 March 2007
Hola
Hola de Mexico!
We arrived in Cancun and the day after we took the first bus to Valladolid, ate there and then another bus to Chichen Itza. At night we went to the archeological sites to see the 'sounds and lights' show and went to sleep. The following day we visited the site and since it was the spring equinox, it was pretty crowded but beautiful.
Then another bus to Merida where, following the instruction of the Lonely Planet we entered the doors of Paradise in the Medio Mundo hotel. A total different standard than the place we have been before... but so beautiful we couldn't refuse to stay there.
Yesterday we took a public transportation to the archeological sites of the Ruta Puuc and Uxmal.
The jungle and the archeological sites are breathtaking.
We took the small digital camera with us but I feel not able to take good pictures. The light is superwhite and shades are everywhere and I wish to take million pictures a minute but I feel blocked. My mouth open in all different directions, looking for iguanas, or other animals I've never seen before or astonished by the overwhelming nature. Cactus growing literally over big threes or such.
I am speechless and wordless and poor in creativity. It's just like if I am fulfilling a big sack with all the colours and emotions and feelings and I hope I'll be able to use those 'things' once back home.
The poverty (expecially in the jungle) is nothing I've every seen or experienced and it gives a lot to think about my everyday life and needs.
The earth is red. RED.
The sky is blue. BLUE.
The nature is really green. GREEN....
I'm almost shocked.
By the way we are healthy, we drink a lot of exotic fruit juices and water because it is REALLY hot.
Tonight we'll catch a bus at 10pm to arrive in Palenque (Chiapas) tomorrow morning, just in time to visit the archeological site and then go on to San Cristobal de las Casas.
Wish I could meet el Subcomandante Marcos!!!:-)
Gotta go now.
Baci
We arrived in Cancun and the day after we took the first bus to Valladolid, ate there and then another bus to Chichen Itza. At night we went to the archeological sites to see the 'sounds and lights' show and went to sleep. The following day we visited the site and since it was the spring equinox, it was pretty crowded but beautiful.
Then another bus to Merida where, following the instruction of the Lonely Planet we entered the doors of Paradise in the Medio Mundo hotel. A total different standard than the place we have been before... but so beautiful we couldn't refuse to stay there.
Yesterday we took a public transportation to the archeological sites of the Ruta Puuc and Uxmal.
The jungle and the archeological sites are breathtaking.
We took the small digital camera with us but I feel not able to take good pictures. The light is superwhite and shades are everywhere and I wish to take million pictures a minute but I feel blocked. My mouth open in all different directions, looking for iguanas, or other animals I've never seen before or astonished by the overwhelming nature. Cactus growing literally over big threes or such.
I am speechless and wordless and poor in creativity. It's just like if I am fulfilling a big sack with all the colours and emotions and feelings and I hope I'll be able to use those 'things' once back home.
The poverty (expecially in the jungle) is nothing I've every seen or experienced and it gives a lot to think about my everyday life and needs.
The earth is red. RED.
The sky is blue. BLUE.
The nature is really green. GREEN....
I'm almost shocked.
By the way we are healthy, we drink a lot of exotic fruit juices and water because it is REALLY hot.
Tonight we'll catch a bus at 10pm to arrive in Palenque (Chiapas) tomorrow morning, just in time to visit the archeological site and then go on to San Cristobal de las Casas.
Wish I could meet el Subcomandante Marcos!!!:-)
Gotta go now.
Baci
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