On my first trip to Mexico years ago, I remember my friends telling me that it was unsafe, full of drugs, hookers, bandits and that everyone would try to take my stuff at every turn. In Trinidad, the bandit copied the “Colombian” kidnapping habit, hence my Trini friends would tell me that they knew someone, who knew someone else who was kidnapped or murdered in Latin America, about how their favourite pastime ”is kidnapping tourists”. Of course, the media sensationalizes everything today and has a pesky habit of accentuating the negative aspects about different parts of the world.

It’s like when I go to US every other week to work. The average American client person thinks that Canada is cold all the time and that there are marauding polar bears everywhere and that we have rogue weekly avalanches  – I’ve never seen a Polar Bear outside of the zoo … but it is about what generalizations will spread.  As ridiculous as some of the assumptions people have about parts of the world, there are some very simple things we can do to ensure that we don’t become a part of other people’s stories.  Here are my quick tips to traveling safely in the Latin America or even in Trinidad – but they are applicable generally everywhere.

1. Take the taxi around – they’re cheap, especially if you can haggle!
   During the day, I am usually pretty confident about just walking around, however at night, taking a recognized taxi is always the safer approach. For instance, In Buenos Aires, I walked around as much as I could, especially since taxis are a chore but at night I always took a taxi. In Rio … I always took a taxi, even in the day… Rio is rough … ! In Morocco, I had the best tour of Fez ever for a couple dollars. Although it might seem like overkill at times, especially if your hostel or hotel is just blocks away, taxis generally are much safer than walking, above all at night.  We hear horror stories all the time about taxis taking people for all they have, but in reality this is a rarity.  If you want to be extra careful, have the bar call a certified taxi and make sure you are not alone. We all know the stories where drunk tourist decided to walk .. got robbed and lost hundreds of dollars/cameras/shoes etc … when they could have spent 2.50$ a person and gotten home safely.

   

2. Spread the money around … your body
   Simple and easy tip, yet I read travel forums and horror stories all the time about people being robbed of everything and their religion. Don’t keep all your money in one place. Do however keep “enough” money, in case you ever get robbed … hence walking with 20 pesos in Mexico per pocket is stupid … if you do get robbed, handing over only 20 pesos will get you beaten up plus robbed, and probably strip searched by your potential bandits.

   

3. Always keep a copy of your passport and never your actual passport
   When traveling to a foreign country, especially one where you don’t speak the language, never take your passport along with you. Have multiple photocopies and scan a high resolution copy and email it to yourself, in case you lose your copies.

   Repeat after me : Your passport is your life. Say it 100 times. Losing your passport in a foreign country, is akin to you being in a non fatal car crash. It’s serious, stays on your record if your embassy has to get involved and will absolutely RUIN your trip. Photocopies will quickly prove who you are, and get you back on the road quickly. Plus in some parts of Latin America, it is the law to at least have a photocopy.

   

4. Walk it, like you invented it
   Do you ever question a guy who said he invented something? Nope .. why? Cause he said so. When going to anywhere new, act like you’ve been there before and walk with confidence. This is a difficult trick to master for the inexperienced traveler – it only comes with experience and that certain “screw you” attitude that some people naturally have.If you stand around looking like a hyper-vigilant, paranoid tourist; then you will be treated like one. Do you see locals staring around? No .. cause they know what they are doing … even if you have no clue where you are going … you can always simply ask to get to somewhere interesting. I’ve done it enough times and it’s worked 100% of the time for me.   

   
   

5. Talk to the locals
   They know where to go and where not to go … simple, easy … now write that down <scribble> “Talk to locals .. check!”  The locals are hidden in this picture!

   

6. Don’t fall asleep on buses … unless …You’re at the back of the bus, by yourself.
   I’ve met too many people who lost their stuff on the bus. Food, bags, shopping … all gone with a little nap.   
   
7. Trust your insincts … if it doesn’t feel right, it isn’t right!
   

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Post tags: argentina, brazil, chile, honduras, how to, latin america travel, mexico, travel, travel in latin american, travel safely in latin america

Nothing like a reminder of lovely places and sunrises as a pick me up in the morning.

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Post tags: Tikal

Well long day getting from Cancun to Miami… almost missed the plane in typical style and all…. but of course in the end I got the plane but I lost a 100$ bottle of tequila because the flight attendants from Cancun didnt remind me to check the bottles in the luggage. Anyway now I am here in the plane and of course we’re completely delayed and all. So I guess I have time to refresh the last couple days of travel since I dont know how long I will actually be in this plane stopped here.

However, walking around Le Meredien was really nice and the moonlight made for some great pics

With the wind blowly strongly,  it made for some great photo effects

…..

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Well got in this morning quite early, right after midnight into Le Meridien. Nice hotel and lots of pools. It has been about 8 years since I was last in Cancun and I will say that it has changed a lot since then. Very very developed and chains and franchises everywhere to be seen. The hotels themselves were rebuilt after Hurricane wilma and you can definitely tell. Most of the hotels are completely new or newly renovated.

Le Meridien is one of those hotels, with a number of pools and very good facilities. So of course, when i checked in Got the usual Platinum room for 50$ but the concierge desk was closed (?)… since the concierge should always be up and all. Anyway they arranged a tour with Cancun Tours. Quite pricy though for the tour, about 1000 pesos, so about 100 USD.

7.30am:
Well the tour came on time and there was breakfast and juice on board as well as a waitress on board to serve everyone. I was most impressed by this…

The trip from Cancun to Chichen Itza was about 3 hours with the mandatory stop at the tourist trap to buy stuff. I did find a great machine made Mexican rug, and I had to barter the price down from 900 pesos to 325 pesos. Man must these guys make some money when I could hit them down that low for the rug.

11.00
Once we got to Chichen Itza, it was everything that I read about i.e. it being a tourist trap since everyone from Merida, Cozumel and Cancun do day trips to this place, so it was like a tourist bomb has exploded there.

I do recognize the irony of me talking about this, since I myself was doing the tourist thing and all, but I was backpacking my way through and I have seen all the temples, so I am allowed to get on my high horse for a little bit. The structure and the complex itself is impressive but in my mind, it really wasn’t as impressive as Tikal at all. Tikal is the largest pyramid of all the Mayan temples, but yet since Chichen Itza has all the tourists, it was voted on the new 7 wonders. I dont completely agree with the choice but in the end, what do the little tourists really know.

It was scorching hot and reminded me of angkor Way in the way that the heat radiated of the rocks and structures. There was also one long structure that had a snake end like the apsara heads in Angkor Wat.

Kukulcán pyramid

The massive Kukulcán pyramid called “El Castillo” (the castle) is roughly at the center of the site. Climbing it is quite a challenge and those who make it are rewarded with a spectacular view of the city and surrounding country side.

From the other angle

The construction of the Kukulcán Pyramid at Chichén Itzá was planned so that each Vernal Equinox the dying sun would cast a shadow of a serpent writhing down the steps of the pyramid. Every year over 40,000 people make the trek to the great pyramid to watch in awe as the snakes diamond backed body slowly appears.  

If you stand facing the foot of the temple and shout the echo comes back as a piercing shriek.

Also, a person standing on the top step can speak in a normal voice and be heard by those at ground level for some distance. This quality is also shared by another Mayan pyramid at Tikal.

The Temple of the Warriors 

The Temple of the Warriors and its adjacent Temple of the Jaguar are the most awe inspiring ruins on the complex. A massive temple structure, surrounded by hundreds of columns is carved with reliefs. I wandered into the rows of columns with the sun just coming up and hard.

The columns continue on into the jungle, that part of the temple still has not been restored. It’s an unsettling sight to see how easily the forest has reclaimed the area. What unanswered questions lay under the canopy of leaves and beneath the twisted roots.

The Observatory

The intense interest of the Maya in the annual travels of the sun across the sky is evident in many structures at Chichén Itzá and other Mayan Sites. South of the Castillo is a strange round building known as the Carocal. Several of its windows point towards the equinox sunset and the southernmost and northernmost points on the horizon where Venus rises.

One of the nice things about Chichén Itzá is that you can go in almost all of the ruins. Many have the musty smell of the past, still present after over 1000 years. Dark portals await those that dare walk through. After walking into one pitch black room a startled meter long iguana charged through my shaking legs and out into the jungle. It felt like a seen from “Indiana Jones” It’s nice that despite all the reconstruction and tourists, the place can still grab hold of you like that.

The great Ball Court at Chichen Itza

The Mayans were great sportsmen and build huge ballcourts to play their games. The Great Ballcourt of Chichén Itzá is 545 feet long and 225 feet wide overall. It has no vault, no discontinuity between the walls and is totally open to the sky. 

Each end has a raised “temple” area. A whisper from end can be heard clearly at the other end 500 feet away and through the length and breath of the court. The sound waves are unaffected by wind direction or time of day/night. Archaeologists engaged in the reconstruction noted that the sound transmission became stronger and clearer as they proceeded. In 1931 Leopold Stokowski spent 4 days at the site to determine the acoustic principals that could be applied to an open-air concert theater he was designing. Stokowski failed to learn the secret. To this day it has not been explained.

The more of these temples and structures across the world that I see, I realize that there is a certain similarity about all these structures and really does make me question the revisionist Catholic history that we have been subjected though time. When you go to Palenque and you see the carving from Hindu, Hebrew, and Egyptian cultures, and you look at the relative timelines of what they say the new world was discovered, I think there are some really huge holes in the history of what has been told.

Anyway touring the structures in Chichen Itza was complete, again nothing really profound to think about, got the usual good pics and all. Then it was off to the
Cenoté which  deep water filled sinkholes formed by water percolating through the soft limestone above. Since the porous soil held little water, these underground bodies were extremely important to the city.

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It’s about 9.45am here at the Water Taxi terminal.. just getting ready to head back to Caye Caulker, thought the water taxi was at 10am, but of course, it is going instead at 10.30, so I have about 45 mins to blog and type so far.

Belize City is by far one of the dirtiest cities I have seen on my travels anywhere. The infrastructure is poor, there is a run down element to the whole city which is typified by the complete desolation at night. Once the clock turns to about 8pm or so, the roads are quiet, the people are gone and nothing really stirs at night. It is kinda like downtown POS at night, now of course the last time I was actually downtown POS was maybe 15 years ago, I can’t really give a realistic description of POS at night right now. But I am sure it is similar to Belize City. The Cayes are completely different.

The people are like from Trinidad, not just like from Trinidad, but actually like from Edinburgh Village growing up, where everyone knew everyone, people would lime and chill and not really have to worry about things like murders and crimes in general. The food is phenomenal, hell yesterday I met the guys from Monday night again, got the best haircut I have had in the last 2 years for 10 BZD, the barber took me to his favorite place to eat, since he just basically closed the shop to take me around. Name of the place : Mom’s Kitchen and I swear it was the closest things to my own mom’s kitchen anywhere in the world I’ve gone….I had this spanish dish with chicken, tons of gravy, rice, and a good good “mother-in-law”……I was in my glee. When I finished the rice on my plate, I wanted some more, so the barber signals “mom” and she brings the rice pot which had a bit more rice and basically scraped the pot for me. I tell you, it was just the best…. and at that moment right there, I felt like I was kinda home and pissed that I had to come back to stink ole Belize city for the night.

Too bad Dave and Angelica left earlier on yesterday, it was nice of them to show me such a great time and Dave is the consummate gringo… stories and jokes to kill, a senorita on his right hand and a drink in the other… my kinda guy, no wonder we hit it off so well…..I guess I have to go Wisconsin for a drink and maybe some bear hunting!!!

Definitely though Caye Caulker has been a highlight of this trip, I’ll rank it right there with all the temples I came to see… well the people of Caye Caulker. The english they speak is so similar to Trini english to except for the spanish that is obviously infused with the proximity to the rest of Spanish speaking Central America. The food in Central America though, funny enough is rather devoid of the spice and pepper Trinis seem to cook lots with. However, the Salsa picante and the raw salsas definitely add the flavour that one would need. The meats also are not seasoned as well as we do in Trinidad, so I have to try and figure out how come we season our meats so much in Trinidad for cooking. Good research question for someone in ethno-gastronomy.

There is also a huge population of Chinese people here, like HUGE!!! So there is a very selection of good chinese food, with all the spice and pepper one expects of chinese-caribbean food. The chinese do spread wide and far, but like anything else, something don’t change and the Chinese I have met here who speak ridiculously poor english is just like anywhere else…. but after a couple generation, they will fix that for sure. It is just all the mainland Chinese people who don’t want to learn english…. sorry rant on one of my pet peeves.

Tomorrow, I take the noon boat from Caye Caulker and start my journey towards Cancun, I should be touring Chichen Itza on the 25th all day, staying in a nice Sheraton ending my Central American journey, the way I started it, in a Sheraton relaxing and not worrying about nothing. But on this trip so far, I have met some great people, had one good night of drinking (!), seen some amazing temples, found a place here in Caye Caulker that I would come back to again and again and bring back people to….and then top it off with time in Trinidad. How excellent are things!!!!!!

One thing… Toronto made the sign…but what about Port-of-Spain eh??

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So after a couple of days here travelling.. i was supposed to come to Caye Caulker for a couple hours… well lemme tell you.. the first thing was that I rented a golf cart here and was driving around the island. Holy shit… i have to get my license now… this driving thing is totally not overrated and im loving myself here… met a couple Canadian girls here… and a girl who was engaged to a Trini… well I tell you.. good times and all.. good people

So as follows : Linda, Type A (Lorri) and Kristin

Me after 9 beers diving into the Split!

Me with no rear delts!

After a couple drinks ..Lorri (the one engaged to a Trini) and Lorri Type A, then ribs and jerk chicken at Sandbox!

anyway going to drink and have a good time.. be back in a while!!!

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Post tags: Caye Caulker, caye Caulker pics, caye caulker restaurants, drinking at the split in caye caulker, the split caye caulker

seriously.. so while I wait here for this stupid bus that is late as hell…. im thinking, the weather has to be nice in Belize right? Since it just started raining here in Tikal. Ah well, after a lost day yesterday to bad tacos, alcohol and fatigue, Belize City and Caye Caulker should be a nice respite, although finding out that there is no Sheraton there makes me tingle in the worst places.

Anyway, time to sign off quickly, since the bus should be here any minute now.

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it’s now 5.49pm here in Flores, Guatemala.

I don’t know how backpackers do this anymore, I’m getting old, cranky and just won’t tolerate cheap ass shit no more. Seeing them in their scruffy, unshaven, bohemian selves makes me shiver …. since when do Europeans and Israelis think it is not cool to shower for days then get on a bus with a bunch of people. Like I just wanted to slap people all over my bus. I get the fact that students don’t have money and what not, but when ur a bunch of 30+ yr old people backpacking and arguing about sharing a room for 4 people,  when the room is 11$ USD  a head.. which makes the total cost per person of about …ummm , this math is hard… it will take a while to divide that much money… unmmmm…yeah about 2.75$ a head.. the fuckers.. i just wanted to slap them dotish.

So anyway, I woke up this morning about 5am to pack and catch the 6am bus from Palenque. It was about 400 Pesos.. so about 37 USD to get the bus, and the bus included the transport to the Yaxchilan and the river, then the 30 min river ride to Bethel, then the 4 hour bus transfer from Bethel to Flores. I think by the second time, you do a trip, you start being an expert, I think by the third time you show someone around an area, you are a defacto expert.

Flores is nice, small island in the middle of a huge lake and about 70 mins from Tikal, which is the largest Temple in the “Mayan” world. I use quotes around mayan, since a lot of things I have seen on this trip have made me reconsider a lot revisionist Catholic history. This trip has confirmed a lot of things, I have thought since I started temple hopping across the world. Palenque in particular, has such a mix of Egyptian, Hebrew, Hindu and Chinese elements, that it really does question the whole Columbus discovered the new world in the 1400′s and yada yada yada. Revisionist garbage, I think…now I kinda wish I did some type of history in university but no reason for me not to get the booklists for my own personal readings.

Anyway back to these blasted backpackers and all….someone needs to tell people that being stinky and unkempt is not a fashion statement and doesn’t make you a cool traveller. Anyway, after moving around for two hours to find a hotel in this place that has an Internet connection and reliable A/C, I am dead tired and need a good shower. But definitely getting here was part of the experience, who takes a boat with their 60lb backpack and 20 lb technology backpack…. now if only I could find a gym here tomorrow after Tikal, although I suspect that I will be so tired by noon, I wont want to go anywhere.

Oh yeah, forgot, I actually met a trini girl on my backpacking this morning, she was very nice… it is nice to meet trinis when I’m travelling and all… Simone got sick this morning on the way from Palenque to Yaxchilan… but she ended up with some medicine from some Frenchies. Anyway, time to grab some food… I dont know about walking around here and all…and shit I am so tired of fricking frijoles now, I never wanna see them ever again…..

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Well got up this morning bright and early, headed to the gym in town after a swim. The gym was a quaint old thing, with lots of weights, but all rusty and what not – a real man’s gym, without the acoutrements of the modern gym and all. It was nice and I hit the workout hard… after grabbing some empanadas in town, got back to the hotel for about 11am and then it was off to the waterfalls.

Just like Trinidad, everything here operates on Mexican time but the thing is that my time here is of the essence, so I was getting a little antsy about the whole thing. Eventually the bus came for us and we were off to the falls. Getting from Palenque to Misol-Ha was about 20km.. but it took about 15 mins with the crazy driving these guys do around the bends and everything and I must say that when I got to the falls, the drop and the power in the DRY season was astounding. It is a gorgeous sunny day, so of course it causes all sorts of problems with flaring on your camera…

Now once you hike the 15 mins to the falls, there is a huge area to swim within the pool, but of course, since I’m travelling alone here, there wont be any of that. I’m a little disappointed not to be swimming in the pool but hey what can you do?? The nice thing is that within Misol-Ha, there is a clear path behind the falls and there are some caves at the top of the falls area, where there are even more falls through some caves, but as I have clearly learnt in Mexico…. I am claustrophobic!!!

The hike behind the falls offers some stunning drops of the water in front of you, but I am thankful I invested in the Merill hydro sandals before I came, since the footing was treacherous and everyone was slipping in front me, one dumbass girl tried walking in platforms and sprained her ankle quite badly… note to anyone, falls climbing isn’t a fashionable activity and nature doesn’t like being mocked.

Once you traverse behind the falls, there is a steep climb to caves at the top, where there is another waterfalls within the caves, but the view of the falls from this side is amazing

Once you’re behind the falls and going up the climb

You get to the caves and once ur inside you can take another little tour, but for me, this was enough caves for me this trip, so I chose to look from the inside out…

Then it was back down, past the view and to the bus to head over to Agua Azul

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Well getting into Villahermosa from Mexico City was kind of a trek, especially when these little airports are out of thw ay. This was a painless trek though, and my luggage came on time, unlike the episode in mexico city. So once I got my lugagge, I then had the task of finding a taxi to Palenque from Villahermosa, not getting ripped off in the process. The hotel has quoted 1200 pesos for the transfer… to which i polited told them on the phone to F@@$ themselves. When I got to the taxi depot, I saw that the price to Palenque was 1000 Pesos.. i resolved not to pay more than 800 pesos, and even then I knew this was too much, but not speaking Spanish, in a Spanish speaking country leaves you with slightly less bargaining power – after walking outside, I indeed found a taxi, with the help of his calculator and me going yes/no to his typing on the calculator, we met me my price after walking away twice.

The ride to Palenque was non eventful, but this was a 170 km ride though… for 800 pesos… man.. in Toronto, I would have needed a second mortgage to afford that ride. Lots of great jungle to pass through but eventually I got the hotel here in Palenque : Maya Tulipanes . This is looks like a decent enough hotel with a pool, no gym but thankfully very very reliable FREE Wi-Fi service. Hell the internet at the Sheraton in Mexico City cost me about 25% of the room there. Speaking of that, lemme go check how many SPG points they deducted for that 5 night stay there. Ok, so no real extra points gathered and no stays credited Anyway so the program for the next three days is as follows

So after getting here to the hotel now at about 6pm or so… dinner was passable. The food definitely isn’t 5 star but the mexican stuff is pretty decent. So now off the to the pool for a swim and then some sleep, it’s been a long day getting here to the jungle, but the air is clean, the weather is warm and I’m ready for some waterfalls…..

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