Mexico!

Said goodbye to Tikal and entered Mexico last night. Got to my hotel room at midnight after 16 hours of bus travel and two border crossings (Belize and Mexico). The Mexican buses are great, like everyone says. Watched a great dubbed version of Pirates of the Caribbean. The voices were impressive and sounded almost like their English-speaking originals. You could imagine the two London cockneys speaking Spanish with a cockney accent...is that possible?!

Great to be chilling out by the ocean with my tour group, and knowing I can relax for the next two weeks and let someone else do the guiding.

Tomorrow I head to my second Mayan ruin: Tulum. It´s supposed to be a beautiful setting by the ocean. We´re also going to swim in the cenotes and chill at a beach. Sounds really good...

A few days before entering Mexico I asked some people, why is Mexico part of North America and not Central America? They told me, "you'll see when you get there." This is true. As soon as we crossed the border, the highways, traffic signs, gas stations, convenience stores, supermarkets, bus stations could have been in Canada or the States. There was a level of sophistication alongside the guys with guns in the back of pick-up trucks, the indigenous people selling food by the side of the road, the tiered village shacks built into mountainsides, the stray dogs...Buses run like clockwork and there are pharmacies on every corner! You can walk in and tell them what ails you and they'll give you the drugs to treat it, for a very reasonable price.

The shot above was taken in San Cristobal later on the trip - in the mountains of Chiapas. I regret that I took virtually no pictures of the streets, or the people on my trip. It was a combination of reluctance to pull my camera out on the busy streets by myself and not wanting to be intrusive. Something for next time!