The 7 hours of the overnight bus ride went faster than anticipated, though slightly more uncomfortable than planned. We were awoken multiple times after midnight by the bus stopping to let passengers off & on. After each one of these stops, we would have our faces filmed by police.
The bus arrived right on time at 7am & we were both well & truly ready to get off.
We got a taxi to our accommodation for 40 peso's! So cheap!
The only problem was that the hostel wasn't open yet & the front of the building is a very high wall with a large wooden door as the entrance.
We sat for 30 minutes on the doorstep, sharing choc chip cookies & intermittently knocking, before deciding to go find coffee.
A shop just put out it's chairs, umbrellas & signs to say it was open when we arrived. La Colmena was it's name & they did an amazing omelette & coffee. Come to think of it, we've had all good coffee's in Mexico!
The omelette consisted of grated zucchini, mushroom, onion, cheese & mint, with a side of black beans, guacamole, green salsa & fresh tortillas!
I am so inspired to make Mexican breakfasts at home!
We got sidetracked talking to 2 Aussie guys who were very well travelled & they had some great tips for the next couple of days & for getting to our next stop, Palenque.
We decided to book 2 tours through the hostel. The first one is for tomorrow & is the local area of San Cristobal de la Cases, featuring the waterfalls & lakes.
We're super excited to explore some of the natural sights of Mexico & leave the cities behind.
The 2nd tour will take us to the surrounding regions of Palanque, which is 250km's away from San Cristobal de la Cases. There is some more natural attractions, ruins & then the tour company will drop us off & leave us in the city of Palanque, instead of bringing us back to San Cristobal de la Cases.
Palanque is our next stop & we were planning to go there & see all these sights before moving on. There are 3 reasons why the tour is not bringing us back.
The first is convenience. The problem with the big ADO bus's is that they can't make it through the mountain's & need to take a massive route around the mountain range. This increases the travel time from 2-3 hours to 12 hours!! That's a whole day of exploring taken up by the bus. The private little tour vans, can easily make this journey in the minimal amount of time required.
The other factor is that the tour cost us 450 peso's each, the bus would of cost 400 peso's each & then we would need to pay to do these things from Palanque anyway.
The other factor is this saves us lots of time & we would only need to stay one night in Palanque after the tour & then move on! We are worried that we don't get enough time in Playa Del Carmen before the tour starts & we have a few special animal encounters that will need to be planned.
Feeling very thrilled with our plannings, we hit thr streets again lookimg for lunch & victory beers. We found a place called Contenedor papas + pub.
Here we ordered 2 different types of poutine, beers & a bloody Mary! Everything was amazing.
The bus arrived right on time at 7am & we were both well & truly ready to get off.
We got a taxi to our accommodation for 40 peso's! So cheap!
The only problem was that the hostel wasn't open yet & the front of the building is a very high wall with a large wooden door as the entrance.
We sat for 30 minutes on the doorstep, sharing choc chip cookies & intermittently knocking, before deciding to go find coffee.
A shop just put out it's chairs, umbrellas & signs to say it was open when we arrived. La Colmena was it's name & they did an amazing omelette & coffee. Come to think of it, we've had all good coffee's in Mexico!
The omelette consisted of grated zucchini, mushroom, onion, cheese & mint, with a side of black beans, guacamole, green salsa & fresh tortillas!
I am so inspired to make Mexican breakfasts at home!
After breakfast we walked back down the street & through the big wooden doors giving us access to the hostel. We could Check in but would need to sit in the common area until everyone in our dorm was awake. This was easily done & when we eventually checked into the rooms & had showers, it was time to evaluate & plan our time here wisely.
We got sidetracked talking to 2 Aussie guys who were very well travelled & they had some great tips for the next couple of days & for getting to our next stop, Palenque.
We decided to book 2 tours through the hostel. The first one is for tomorrow & is the local area of San Cristobal de la Cases, featuring the waterfalls & lakes.
We're super excited to explore some of the natural sights of Mexico & leave the cities behind.
The 2nd tour will take us to the surrounding regions of Palanque, which is 250km's away from San Cristobal de la Cases. There is some more natural attractions, ruins & then the tour company will drop us off & leave us in the city of Palanque, instead of bringing us back to San Cristobal de la Cases.
Palanque is our next stop & we were planning to go there & see all these sights before moving on. There are 3 reasons why the tour is not bringing us back.
The first is convenience. The problem with the big ADO bus's is that they can't make it through the mountain's & need to take a massive route around the mountain range. This increases the travel time from 2-3 hours to 12 hours!! That's a whole day of exploring taken up by the bus. The private little tour vans, can easily make this journey in the minimal amount of time required.
The other factor is that the tour cost us 450 peso's each, the bus would of cost 400 peso's each & then we would need to pay to do these things from Palanque anyway.
The other factor is this saves us lots of time & we would only need to stay one night in Palanque after the tour & then move on! We are worried that we don't get enough time in Playa Del Carmen before the tour starts & we have a few special animal encounters that will need to be planned.
Feeling very thrilled with our plannings, we hit thr streets again lookimg for lunch & victory beers. We found a place called Contenedor papas + pub.
Here we ordered 2 different types of poutine, beers & a bloody Mary! Everything was amazing.
With our 2 big days of adventure booked & our terrible sleep last night, we decided to take it easy today. We went for a stroll through the town, wishing we had more time!
This is by far our favourite place so far. I pop in & out of shops & buy a pair of hand woven, Aztec patterned pants & a hand woven crystal necklace.
We then head back to the hostel to relax. This is the first hostel that has had other western tourists & we can't wait to mingle.
Sometimes travelling in foreign countries, not knowing the language & only having each other to talk to gets very tiring. Especially after the recent 42 day Africa tour, where we've had lots of personalities & people to talk to.
Going back to just us, was a shock to the system & a total change of dynamics. It's a really nice hostel with a big common room full of bean bags & hammock chairs.
The night would go past with a few beers, a few card games & friendly shit talking!
- Alli
We then head back to the hostel to relax. This is the first hostel that has had other western tourists & we can't wait to mingle.
Sometimes travelling in foreign countries, not knowing the language & only having each other to talk to gets very tiring. Especially after the recent 42 day Africa tour, where we've had lots of personalities & people to talk to.
Going back to just us, was a shock to the system & a total change of dynamics. It's a really nice hostel with a big common room full of bean bags & hammock chairs.
The night would go past with a few beers, a few card games & friendly shit talking!
- Alli
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