Travels with Hayley

So, the next couple of days diaries will be a bit light as there’s only so many ways you can say ‘I sat on a bus for hours’. But I will endeavour to give you the additional highlights! Some of the pictures are a bit ropey as they were taken through the bus windows at speed, but they give a little flavour at least.

Today we left San Cristabel at 7am and headed towards Palenque on – and I’m truly not exaggerating – the worst road I’ve ever been on. It was so twisting and turning you could never actually went straight at all, with speed bumps every 20-30 feet the entire way, pot holes the size of craters and a bus with no suspension. Thank you to the universe once more for motion sickness pills – sadly even the best of western medicine couldn’t help Lyndsey who was white as a sheet and had to have a stop for some fresh air and deep breathing.

We arrived at our breakfast stop at 9.30am, battered and bruised, and collapsed into chairs to enjoy the view and today’s soundtrack of 70’s classics including Bruce Springsteen and Journey. A slightly disappointing breakfast of fried bananas – not bad – and toast – not good, it was prepackaged Melba toast – when you tried to butter it it just shattered into pieces. To add insult to this travesty in the name of toast, they then tried to charge me almost £4 for the inedible pile of dust. I refused and there was some speedy negotiating done down to £2. It’s not the £2 saving you understand, it’s the principle of the thing – just because I’m a little blonde gringa (female gringo) you can’t swizzle me over bread based goods!

Reluctantly back in the bus we carried on weaving through the chicanes, watching as the landscape gradually turned greener and little tuk tuks started appearing everywhere – it felt like being back in South East Asia.

We got stopped at a makeshift road block where after a brief discussion JJ handed over a wad of cash – we couldn’t get a decent explanation out of him but it looks like some guys just put a rope across the road and demanded money to pass. Not sure what would have happened if we had refused to pay but JJ was very blasé about the whole thing – so paying up to demands for money with menaces seems to be part and parcel of driving on the roads here – bandit country is alive and thriving.

After another couple of hours we arrived at Agua Azul (blue water), an amazing set of natural pools and waterfalls. You could swim in any of them but the best one was apparently at the very top so we climbed the many, many, many stairs to get there (sometimes I feel like I spend an unreasonable proportion of my life climbing stairs…) but it was totally worth it on arrival. Sparkling turquoise waters, the waterfall splashing in the background and local children launching themselves into the water from the rope swings suspended from the trees lining the shore.

Stripping to swimwear we jumped in and eased our aching bodies in the crystal clear – and freezing mind you – waters. We managed to swim quite close to the waterfall but the current was so strong we were just swimming to stay on the spot by the end so succumbed to nature and let it float us back the way we came from.

Warming up back on the bank there was a funny episode where I was – discreetly – removing my bikini top to put my bra back on. At this exact point Steve (American, retired) decided to turn to me and ask out of nowhere ‘So, do you like reading books?’ I said to him, Steve, I do like reading books and I definitely want to talk to you more about that, but perhaps not while I’ve got my boobs out – so maybe give me two minutes? Cue utter hilarity from the rest of the group and a slightly red face from Steve – we did have a very nice chat about books after I’d put my nipples away though…

Back down the stairs past the hundreds of stalls all selling the same souvenirs – I didn’t see one single sale being made, how do people make a living – and very reluctantly, back onto the bone shaker bus. Snacks were handed round – Rachel (mid thirties, Dublin) has taken a great shine to Takis, an American crisp which is like a rolled up Dorito – so I’ve been buying her all the different flavours when I see them and I think we completed the set today with the guacamole flavour. Verdict – tastes like chilli (everything tastes like chilli here!) with a bit of coriander thrown in too. 6 out of 10.

We drove for another couple of hours, passing huge American retro looking trucks and lots of tiny roadside stands selling food, petrol and all sorts of random things that are apparently vital to be bought mid journey – I feel sure if I had looked hard enough I would have spotted nail scissors and superglue…

Arrived in Palenque at about 4pm, this is just a one night stop over before our next epic drive tomorrow. The hotel/roadside motel is quite nice with a pool and Mexico’s version of Walmart next door in which I spent a happy hour wandering the air conditioned aisles wondering if I needed any gardening equipment, babies cribs or the thousand or so versions of cake on offer (I ended up buying a Diet Coke and some biscuits – but it’s nice to know these things are available, just in case…)

Dinner was at the hotel and I went for a comforting bowl of pasta that I managed to persuade the chef to add some broccoli to – vegetables are a definite afterthought here – and some fruit to finish. Tucked up in bed nice and early as we have a 9 hour drive tomorrow…!

Lots of love always xxx