16 de Noviembre 2010

Finally! Once again I have found readily available internet for use at my disposal. Mari and I just arrived into the city of Campeche after catching an 8:00 am bus out of Palenque for a 6 hour bus trip through the beautiful and vibrantly green Mexican landscape.


We booked into a beautifully located yet slightly delapidated place named Monkey Hostel, located right downtown near the waterfront in the city of Campeche. We took the morning bus with the Germans Tobi and Claudia and are staying in a dorm room that sleeps four for 100 pesos each per night. Unfortunately, we had to leave the two English/Russian girls behind in Palenque as they are headed to Merida either tonight or tomorrow on the night bus. For those of you who dont know, the night bus is a great way to travel when crossing distances great than 7 or 8 hours. The night bus allows one to avoid spending money on a nights accomodations while simultaneously sweeping you away to a new location, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

We arrived this afternoon with bags full of dirty laundry, in desperate need of a warm shower and craving some cheap good food. Upon arrival we hand washed all the clothes that we werent personally wearing and hung them out to dry in the hot sun, took showers, and headed out for food.

I had chicken tamales. The tamales here are delicious and I never pass up the chance to eat ´em. They came with some delicious red salsa atop, but I also slathered my entire plate with the hot green salsa sitting on the table. My mouth was on fire, but it was absolutely delicious. Mariana ate chicken milanesa with french fries and a salad. She wasnt very impressed. This meal marked our most expensive meal to date, racking up to an all time high of 160 pesos ($13.80). But starving from the long bus ride with no food, we dove into the first spot that looked habitable. We bought a single 12 oz beer that cost us 28 pesos ($2.40), much higher than the typical 15 - 20 pesos we have payed in the past. Guess we can chalk it up to a warm welcome back to the city I suppose.

As we were out in the boondocks the last couple days with limited to no internet services, I will post a back log of our adventures soon.

As I sit in the hostel writing this, my view out the open veranda window is this cathedral lit up spectacularly for the night. Unfortunately I couldnt locate a picture of my exact view, and I still cannot transfer photos from my camera... so this found picture off the net will have to do for now. Its an incredibly warm beautiful night here with this magnificent view.

Literature and Guidebooks

In preperation for our trip Mari and I have been hitting the Goodwill in search of travel books. Not that we have been vigilant about making stops to comb through the varied collection they have there, but we have gone a handful of times already and picked up a few great gems that we hope will help along the way.

As our trip starts in the Yucatan Peninsula area of Mexico, we will start there. The Lonely Planet's "La Ruta Maya". A guide to Mayan ruins throughout the Yucatan, Guatamala and Belize. Although this book was published in 1991, I think it will be really useful as it has a wonderfully detailed section explaining the history of the Mayan civilization and culture as well as all the major sites in each of the three areas.




But, just in case, we also have this more up to date version as well. The Lonely Planet's "Belize Guatamala & Yucatan". Maybe this is for the northward traveler, as it looks like they just swapped the order of the locations on the cover.

"Belize Guatamala & Yucatan" was published in 2001. 10 years more recent than La Ruta Maya. I havent looked through this one yet, but I assume it gives alot of the same information from La Ruta Maya. Hopefully between the two we can varify proper information along the way.

Once we hit the Caribbean Coast and kick back a bit in Cancun, the next book will come in handy - Chicki Mallan's Cancun Handbook. Although seriously outdated (1994) this book gives backgrounds, nature explanations, and location insights on the places in and around Cancun. This seems like a great book to get the ball rolling.

After we leave Mexico and head into Belize and Guatamala, we have the two books outlined above as well as our newest purchase - The Lonely Planet's "Central America on a shoestring". After finding many of the Goodwill purchases with copyrights back in the early 90's, we decided to splurge at Barnes and Noble and pick up a more recent travel guide. In many places, this book will be our travel bible. I expect this book will get many miles.

Published in 2007, Central America on a shoestring offers more up to date information researched by "travel experts" in the not too distant past. This will be a good way for us to double check some of the more in depth information covered in the older site specific books.

These books are about half of our collection so far, but seeing as though our trip starts in these areas I figured I would start here as well. I was trying to pre-read the books to cram large amounts of information into my head so I wouldnt have to lug all of them along on the trip. But I quickly learned that each one is a mini encyclopedia of necessary information. I have given up the thought of leaving them behind and now know they will be close companions on this journey.