Hola everyone,

I am writing this blog at 23:00pm on the 6th Nov from an OCC bus, bound for San Cristobel from Palenque, a journey estimated to take 5 hours, but this is Central America we're talking about here, it'll probably take another 2 hours at least :)

So where we left off in Oaxaca.  Myself and Andy were staying at the same hostel so we treated ourselves to a lye in after the last big night that we had well.  We didn't really have any plans apart from watching AC Milan vs Real Madrid in the Champions League at about 13:30pm in the Zocalo with a couple of Danish dudes and 1 Aussie called Pat.  

Myself and Andy decided to see the big ass tree in the mean time, before the game kicked off.  The tree was situated approximately 20 mins via taxi out of town.  We arrived to the worlds largest tree (in circumference) and yeah it is pretty epic but at the end of the day it remains a tree, so for the 20 mins it took to get there we looked at the tree and took the necessary photos for about 5 mins...........probably not worth it really in hindsight.  It also took an absolute age to get a taxi back into town.  The taxis here literally pick people up on the way until they are full with Mexicans sitting on your lap............cosy.

The delay in catching the taxi meant that we missed the first 20 mins of the game, but that really wasn't the end of the world.  We sat down and tucked into some of Oaxaca's famous hot chocolate whilst watching the game...............how manly, but trust me it is amazing, like liquidated chocolate cake, it tastes amazing.

The game was pretty good it ended 2-2, unfortunately I found out that Arsenal lost though, bad times.

After the football we had some time to kill before catching our bus to San Cristobel at 19:00pm, so we just grabbed some food in the Zocalo. The buses here are pretty good, they are comfy and thus far always leave on time.

The journey took approximately 10 hours, so we arrived at like 05:00am in the morning.  The sleep you get, if any on the buses is always broken so you always tend to be shattered on arrival.  Myself and Andy shared a bus with a girl called Charlie, who Pat knew and asked if we could accompany, as she was worried about travelling on her own.  She was pretty cool though.  

We arrived at our hostel, called the Rossco Hostel after reaching the bus station.  The hostel was pretty nice, we were in dorms of 14, but pretty much everyone was placed together, which was cool.  Pat from the hostel in Oaxaca and Megha arrived in San Cristobel on the later bus, not long after us actually.  They were both staying in the same hostel as us,  so although we lost a few members of the original team from Mexico City, we gained a couple of new recruits.

After checking in we all pretty much headed straight out to explore our surroundings.  San Cristobel is a really nice place, I'd definitely recommend it.  We sat in a cafe and planned our days activities whilst sipping on some fine hot chocolate.  It was really cold in San Cristobel so a hot chocolate and a few layers was definitely needed. 

We all decided to get a collectivo, which is basically a mini bus and works in the same way as the taxis in Oaxaca, and head to one of the surrounding indigenous villages, called San Juan Chamula.  

We visited the Iglesias de San Juan Bautista, where local religious ceremonies are still practiced.  The floor of this cathedral is covered in pine needles and the hall lit by a thousand candles.  During our time there we witnessed 2 healing ceremonies, performed by the local shamans.  The ceremonies took a fair while and involved the lighting of numerous candles, each signifying something different.  The person who was ill was also present and brushed with a set of leaves, followed by a chicken, which was sacrifice soon after (KFC).  It was quite crazy to see, but really worth while to get a real insight into some true traditions and beliefs.

After our days activities in the local indigenous villages we all headed back to the hostel for a power nap and a freshen up, before a big fire in the hostel courtyard and a large night in town.  

The hostel was really cool, the fire was blazing and we had table football to keep us entertained.  Myself and Andy formed team England, with Pat and a Norwegian dude coming together to form our opposition.  Needless to say team England absolutely stomped on the opposition 10-4.................annihilation.  My striking prowess was on full show, Jamo you know all about that :) 

After dominating on the table football and a few beers we all headed out into town.  We had a really good night, partying with the locals and carving some dirty shapes :)

Myself, Andy and Megha were all heading to Palenque the following afternoon, at 12:15pm.  We were all feeling a bit shady after our heavy night, but we said our goodbyes to Pat and Charlie and boarded the 8 hour bus to Palenque.  The bus route (which I am currently on again for the return leg) is slightly hairy, winding through thick Mexican forest.  You have to navigate your way past sheer drops down large cliffs, with a Michael Schumacher wannabe driver at the helm, it's a bit freaky.  I survived the first leg, so hopefully I'll make the return leg...............fingers crossed.

We arrived in Palenque at about 20:00pm yesterday and made our way to an area called El Panchan, which is the place to be in Palenque really.  It consists of numerous small places offering a variety of accommodation, varying from hammocks with mosquito nets, to shared dorms and chalets.  It is also a perfect place to catch a 10 Pesos collectivo either into town or to the ruins themselves.  All of the accommodation in this area is located in the heart of the forest, right by the ruins, which is really cool, listening to Howler Monkeys by night.

We all stayed in a place called the Jungle Palace, which is surrounded by numerous travel agencies and restaurants.  It was a dorm of 6 but myself, Andy and Megha just had it to ourselves, oops no we didn't we shared it with one super hippy :s from California called Janey.  

They (hippies) are harmless, but I find that they just do my box in, waffling on about energy and healing hugs and what not, my tolerance level around them is just drastically shortened.  I'd never be nasty to any of them though, don't get me wrong.  Megha has a term for this particular type of traveller, called twatpacker, basically describing people who become hareem (not sure how you spell that) trouser wearing hippies whilst on their travels, haha, I like this.  It sums them up so well, but be warned, they are everywhere.  Ric, Pauley and Jeff also had small tolerance levels for these particular types, haha, it is funny though :)

I shouldn't brand them all with the same brush, some of them are genuinely alright.

Anyway, rant on stinking hippies over, back to the accommodation.  The accommodation was basic, but served it's purpose.  We were based near a really nice restaurant called Don Mucho's, which played live music and served a wide variety of really nice local and western food, I'd definitely recommend eating here if you ever find yourself in Palenque.

We didn't get up to much that night as we were based in the jungle.  However an earlyish night was needed as the following day we had to get up fairly early to see all of the ruins in Palenque.  The ruins were good and different from the ones that I saw in Angkor Wat, but not as impressive in my opinion.  I'd definitely say that it was worth a visit though.

After visiting the ruins we just chilled and ate in Don Mucho's. Myself and Andy both had buses to catch at 23:00pm.  Mine heading back to San Cristobel and Andy's heading to Merida in the north east of Mexico.

I made the journey back from Palenque to San Cristobel safely and am now sat in the cold bus station waiting for another bus to Ciudad Cuauhtemoc on the Mexico-Guatemala border, before a further 5 hour bus to Antigua in Guatemala.

I met a Mexican girl in the bus station who was beyond helpful in arranging my connecting buses.  My Spanish is still pretty rusty so I couldn't have done that without her.  Thankyou Mexican girl :)

That's all for now.  My next blog should be from Guatemala which should be exciting.

Lots of love to you all.

Over and out x