A Mexican Magic Carpet Ride

A lot has happened since the last post. I have left San Cristabol, spent several days in Palenque and am now in Catemoco. And, besides all that traveling in space, I have done some traveling in my mind. I’ve decided to make Catemoco my home – at least for a while. That doesn’t mean I won’t be traveling. It just means I will now have a place to come back to. At least fro a while.

So, on with the update.

This is San Cristobal the last day I was there. It rained 16 straight hours that day. The next day I packed my backpack, caught a bus and went to Palenque.

Feb 9, 2012

If you’ve ever read many travel blogs you would soon come to believe that people who write those blogs must travel by magic carpet. You read one entry and they are in Mexico City seeing the sights. In the next entry, they are in Guatemala on Lake Atitlan. Usually, little or nothing is said about how they got from one place to the other. I always wonder, “Was the trip really so boring it had to be skipped altogether? Did nothing happen during the journey? Or, could it be that the traveler is just so jaded by it all they just zone out for the whole thing?”

Well, I don’t plan to do that. Things happen when I travel from one place to another, even if it is just in my head. I admit though that sometimes it isn’t much especially if it is by plane (gag a maggot.)

Anyway, today I left my comfortable little room at the Hotel Posada Mercado in San Cristobal and traveled by bus to Palenque. The busline was ADO. The cost was one hundred pesos (about $7.75 USD.) That’s not bad considering it took five hours to get here. The bus was a nice big Volvo; very smooth and comfortable. The driver was a professional, not the usual suicide jockey I usual get when on a shuttle or tour bus. The seats reclined. There was an onboard bathroom. There was a double feature movie during the trip. Both of them were in Spanish so even had I wanted to watch them (I didn’t) it wouldn’t have done me much good. Between movies there was Spanish music. Neither the movies nor the music was played overly loud. For that I am grateful.

I snapped this picture from the window of the bus in some town I can’t remember. Like most kids that I have seen here in Mexico, Central America, and South America, work is just a part of growing up, not something that comes as a shock to the system when you get out of school.

So, what else happened on the trip? Pretty much nothing so I looked out the window and zoned out.

And then I got here in Palenque. It was approaching dark so I was in a hurry to get some place to stay. I had read on the net about El Panchan and a place out there called Margarita’s and Ed’s which was supposed to be a great place to stay. Being in a hurry, I jumped in a cab at the bus station for the ride out there – cost fifty pesos. I had been told I could take a Collectivo Bus for ten pesos but there wasn’t one handy.

Got out here in the boondocks to El Panchan and the cab driver dropped me off at M&E’s. There was some young(er) guy in the office. Everything I had read said that a single at M&E’s was max 160 pesos. The guy charged me 250 pesos PLUS a 50 peso key deposit! If it hadn’t already been dark I would have told him to kiss my ***.

After I got in the room I went to Don Mucho’s to eat, reportedly the best out here. I had an enchilada pizza and a cervaza. The food was great. The waiter should have been working as a dishwasher or some other job where he didn’t have to communicate with customers.

Now, I am feed and in bed. The bed feels damp like it needs a good airing out.

My little casita in the jungle.

Other than that, it was really a great day. I am out of San Cristobal where I was wearing six layers of clothes to stay warm. Here in Palenque in the midst of the jungle, it is warm – but just a little humid –

NOTE added 2-14: Remember, the above was written right after I got to bed that night and I was really tired after being on the bus all day. It turned out I came to like the guy running the place. After the first day, he decreased the rent to 200 pesos a day. Also I meet some great folks hanging out in Don Mucho’s and had a great time holding down a table there for a few days.