Timmy Travels

Arriving in Chihuahua late we (Myself & Tara) checked into the worst looking hotel I've ever stayed in but it was 1 night and it had clean sheets which is what matters. We head off at 6am to catch the bus to Creel which is just in canyon country. It's a 6hr bus ride and it's hot, we arrive to a sea of hawkers trying to get us to stay at Hostel Margarita, instantly making me not want to stay there. All I hear is Margarita! Margarita! and them speaking to me in Spanish, knowing full well they don't understand English I tell them I don't want a Pizza. We eventually find the lonely planet choice of accommodation but not before being followed across town by several hawkers.

Another early start sees us getting the 'bus' to Batopilas, the bus turns out to be a 4x4 I craftily wait until last to get in and end up with the passenger seat. I'd read in the LP that the journey is a bit 'scary' as it involves a descent into a canyon on a dirt road, hence the 4x4, so I was pleased to get a birds eye view. The journey was really cool and provided lots of great views and sights such as goats, cows and donkeys in the middle of the road. The journey takes another 6 hours mainly due to the terrain rather than the distance.

Once in Batopilas we set about trying to source a guide to take us through the canyons to the next village of Urique. We find an old Mexican dude who looks like he's about to drop dead and begin negotiating a price, he says he'll come and find us at our hotel once he's confirmed he can get some mules for the trek. Later he appears and we also convince one of the girls, Michelle, from the bus to come along too which splits the price 3 ways. The guide, Librado, tells us it'll take 3 days/2 nights.

Yet another early start as we are up at 6am to get sorted with our gear and get it loaded onto the mules. We set off by 7am and hit the road on our long journey, almost immediately we begin to climb out of the canyon in which Batopilas resides, already I'm sweating like a turkey at christmas and the sun hasn't hit us yet! By early afternoon the sun is blazing and it's bloody hot! We've climbed over 1500m since starting and we are all feeling it, lunch is a welcome respite. Once again we set off fortunately we are out of the sun and in the pine tree forest but the terrain is still tough, this trail right from the start has been anything but easy. The ground is covered with gravel and rocks in various sizes with bushes and plants growing onto the trail as well. That said though the views along the way were spectacular and we reach our camping spot by 3pm which provides a magnificent view down into a canyon. We are all knackered and looking forward to a long rest. Later I go with Librado to get water while the girls collect firewood. After a hearty meal of flavoured rice, beans and avocado we pick our sleeping spots by the fire as the light fades. As I lay in my sleeping bag staring upwards the darkness brought an amazing star lit sky and I see a shooting star as I drift off to sleep.

Up early again! We begin a gruelling 2 hour descent into the next canyon, half way down I can feel my knees aching and my legs are still tired from yesterday. Once at the bottom I raid my first aid kit for ibuprofen to numb the pain, we've also reach a stream and I take the opportunity to dunk my head under the cool running water, ahhh it felt so good. We top up our water bottles and crack on wondering what pain we are in for next. By 12pm my stomach is grumbling and I'm looking forward to lunch when we stop and Librado announces that we are done for the day as we've been making such good time, I'd never heard such good news!! As the next leg involved crossing a river via a footbridge it meant that the mules could not come and hence neither could our guide so we were left to do the last leg on our own carrying our packs. We were supposed to camp for the evening but instead we cooked up some lunch had a snooze and at 3pm headed out on what were were told was a 7km hike along a dirt track/road.

Once we'd crossed the river we hit the track and found a truck parked up with the owner just arriving, perfect we thought, we can get a lift. However the guy wanted $30 take us to Urique which we thought was a rip off for 7km, he started telling us it was a 2hr drive which contradicted the 7km. We decided to have a crack at walking it rather than give this dude $30. After about 30mins of walking the guys comes past in his truck and stops offering to take us to his village for $10 saying it's only 10mins away from Urique so we agree and hop in. Once there we find whilst getting change to pay him that it's 1 hr to Urique so we tell him he can only have $5 for lying to us and set off walking again. We pass a family having a picnic and swimming in the river and they confirm that it's 1hr to Urique. About 10 mins later that same family come along in their truck with all 9 kids in the back, we flag them down and ask for a lift to Urique, sure they say and we hop in the back with everyone else. All the kids are singing and playing around and the bloke and woman also in the back are chatting to Tara in Spanish. The driver passes back a bottle of Tequila which is offered round to us, well it'd be rude to say no so we all down several gulps of what turns out to be bloody good tequila!! After a rather bumpy ride we arrive finally in Urique and our journey is over, we check into the nearest hotel and take a well deserved shower!

The next day we take the bus from Urique to Bahuichivo where we catch the Copper Canyon train back to Creel.

I was invited to a weekend away with the new friends I'd made during my stay in Mexico City so how could I refuse a long weekend at a private villa in Acapulco!?

I travelled down by car with Catherine, Ricardo and Tara from Mexico City having flown in from Tuxtla the day before. It was a long journey thank god for the iTrip which was purchased by Ricardo on the way out of Mexico City. Even with the Air Con in the car you could feel it getting hotter the closer we got. We were the first to arrive at 9pm on the friday and it was still baking hot so once we'd picked the best sleeping spots we quickly cooled off in the pool. By midnight everyone had arrived with 16 of us in total including a DJ brought along which got the party started.

The next day was spent relaxing in the 40c heat, there was a little shaded pool at the end of the garden as well as the main pool which was great as it was really cold water. That evening we ate at a local fish restaurant where you can choose the fish you are going to eat, it was really nice food. The rest of the evening was spent listening to more chilled out tunes courtesy of the DJ.

Sunday morning provided us with a great breakfast cooked by the housekeeper and the day was spent again by the pool, it's a hard life but somebody has to do it! Later on in the afternoon we headed off back to Mexico City stopping on the way in the Center of Acapulco which incidently is a right s**thole!

I arrived here at 8am after a 12hr overnight bus ride from Oaxaca which I surprisingly managed to get a fair amount of sleep on despite the numerous speed bumps we went over, I thought England was bad for them but here it's just crazy, doesn't stop them driving like nutters though! I explored San Cristobal and booked a cycle tour recommended to me by a Dutch guy I met at breakfast in the hostel. The hostel is really nice and would make a cool home, it has a big court yard with hammocks a place to have fires and a lime tree perfect for your Cerveza!

The following day I was up at 8am to go for my bike ride, there was supposed to be two other guys on the ride but they didn't turn up so it was just me and the guide, perfect as that meant we could go at my pace. We headed off into the hills surrounding San Cristobal and all of a sudden I felt like I was back in Cambodia. After a tough climb we got right into the countryside where the true locals live, I was not allowed to take my camera as the locals do not like to have their photo taken as they believe it takes away a part of your soul. My guide told me that they've been kown to hold you hostage for money if you take pictures of them! The trails were pretty good with some nice technical sections and some fast sweeping downhill. After the tour once back at the bike place I sampled some local Tzotzil moonshine known as 'pox' and after two shot glasses of that I was ready for a nap!

On Monday I visted Cañon de Sumidero with Suzy, who was at Oaxaca also, its cliffs are 900 meters above sea level and overlook the Grijalva River, which runs across the states of Chiapas and Tabasco and flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the canyon is a result of a geological fault and not created by the river. The trip involved a boat trip down the river through the canyon. The water is pretty dirty though so no swiming, plus there are crocs in the water! The rain also washes lots and lots of rubbish from the villages and towns down the river where it collects in the canyon, they have teams of boats full of people collecting the rubbish and tree debris from the river but it looks to me like they are fighting a loosing battle, it's a real shame and makes you realise the importance of recycling.

The following day I took a trip to Palenque with Geoff which despite being a long day was well worth it as we went via Agua Azul and Misol Ha waterfalls which we didn't anticipate. At Misol Ha you can go behind the falls and climb up through the water which is pretty cool. The runis were the hightlight of the trip and were an extremely impressive sight.

I left Mexico City on a bus to Oaxaca which took 6hrs and went through some varying Terrain and gave me my first glimpse of 'real' Mexico, some of the scenery was amazing as we passed through mountainous areas and almost deserts I expect during the dry season they are pretty much that.

Upon arrival I decided to get a taxi rather than try and walk it, a wise move as the pavements are almost single file and it was really, really hot! I'd written the address of the Hostel down and in true English style I resorted to pointing at the address hoping the driver would understand. The Hostel was a bit of a dump but you can't argue too much for $9 a night, the beds were clean and there was running water albeit cold water. After dumping my bags I quickly got chatting to a couple of English girls that were playing Chinese poker, after a few games they asked if I'd eaten and since I hadn't we all went for a bite to eat in the town. We hit the zócalo and I was supprised to find that the prices were still fairly reasonable even thought it's a tourist trap, 10 quid for 3 mains and a beer each!

The next day I explored the markets and the town properly with a Yank called Suzy, she's ok for an American and even gets sarcasm, we took in the famous-ish Mercado 20 de Novembre and were assaulted by the many different smells and sights. We sampled some freshly made gooey chocolate stuff for making hot chocolate with and some real street food that cost 30 peso's which is about 15p!

On Thursday I visted Hierve el Agua which is a natural warm spring which contains air trying to escape, the name "Hierve el Agua"means “the water boils”. The water is also full of minerals, so as it runs off of the edge of the nearby cliff, calcium carbonate and magnesium in the water create a petrified waterfall.

Today I went to visit the Aztec Pyramids which is about 40km outside the City in a place called Teotihuacán this name was given by the Aztec centuries after the fall of the city, and is translated as "the place where men became gods". It's about a 1 hr bus ride to the ruins which meant negotiating the Mexican bus terminal, not an easy task. There are loads of different bus companies servicing the different routes. After 20 mins of wandering up and down the desks I finally managed to find the right one.

On the bus journey we stopped several times to allow locals on selling various eats and drinks along with a guy who got on with a guitar, he then played and sang to everyone for a while then collected money and got off again.

Upon arrival you can't but be impressed. This site is home to what was the largest city in the Americas. It is made up of large avenue, called "Avenue of the Dead", which is about 2 miles long. At one end is the Pyramid of the Moon. To the side is the Pyramid of the Sun (second largest in the New World) and along the Avenue are many smaller platforms. The larger of the two Pyramids the Pyramid of the Sun was constructed around 100 A.D. which makes the place even more impressive to think that these massive structures were built basically by hand so long ago.

Photos

That evening I met up with some of Tara's friends consisting of some expats, some Aussies and some Mexicans. After some dinner at a local restaurant we went to a Salsa bar which was really entertaining, these Mexicans can move! They had a live Salsa band playing and the place had a real mix of young and old. We were only in there 5 mins and the girls were being dragged onto the dance floor by the many Mexican dudes, like flies round the proverbial turd, I was happy to watch and take in the atmosphere. Though I later danced a little jig with one of the girls who used to teach Salsa. I had a good chat with Franco one of the Mexicans even though he kept apologising for his English, I kept telling him it was really good, much better than my Spanish which is non-existent. He kept asking me what all the bad English swear words were although he seemed to know most of them already!