Week 2: Did you order your Mexico with extra heat, sir?

Neckers swapped: 4
Bags of recycling sorted: 8
Cenotes swum in: 1
Mayan ruins seen: 4 cities
Miles travelled: 723.5
Habanero chiles eaten: 1/5
Species of monkey observed: 2

As I sit in Luis' office, fan in the corner and classical music wafting through the air, I am reminded that Mexico is a place of contrasts. I have gone from Playa Del Carmen, where I was staying with Victor in his very nice bungalow in a gated community, to staying with Mauricio Vidales in his two storey house, and now Luis Aguayo's house which also has his office built into it for the pest control business he runs, three storeys with two garages (and one mental little dog who I am thinking of stealing!), and it's fair to say that I have been very lucky with the people I have met and the kindness they have shown me thus far on my trip. However, as my bus to Tuxtla drove down mountain roads that no bus should ever attempt (which, due to my pitifully small bladder, I had to try to go to the loo in. Possibly the most dangerous thing I've done yet in this country), I saw houses that really were no more than sticks with some corrugated iron over them. The people weren't starving - they had luscious jungle in the lowlands, beautiful mountain forests in the highlands, and had plots of land to grow food in. But their lives were totally different to the lives of the people whose houses I have stayed in over the last few days; I doubt you could find such a massive difference in way of life in the UK!

The places have been extraordinarily different, too. Playa del Carmen, and Merida, on the Yucatan plain, have been hot, with palm trees, sand, and quite dry heat. In Playa, I visited Tulum, my first ancient Mayan city, set on the edge of the Caribbean sea; if was spectacular, and an afternoon on the beach at the local resort of Akumal, eating at the beachside café, transported me in one instant from ancient ruins to a very typical - but enjoyable - tourist experience. I even saw a couple of turtles, chillin' on the sea floor, when I went snorkelling.



It was just like this documentary I watched

Eventually, though, it was time to wave goodbye to Victor, his wife, his son Pablo and daughter Rohita, and get on a bus to Merida, on the opposite coast of the Yucatan. Merida was similar to Playa Del Carmen, but hotter. Rather than the paltry 35 degrees in Playa del Carmen, in Merida we were looking at 38 degrees during the hottest part of the day. Nobody told me that May was the hottest month of the year for Mexico, so I suppose that this is the hottest I will be on this trip! There I met up with Gabriel Gongora, a Scouter in charge of national opportunities for international experiences, and Mauricio Vidales, a local rover who had agreed to host me. I had an incredible time in Merida, seeing more ruins (Chichen Itza, which is the one with the famous snake shadow pyramid thingy, and Ek Balam, a smaller ruin but one that you can actually climb on, to get the real Indiana Jones Experience!) and swimming in the underground cenote; possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

I believe the word you are looking for is "oooooooooh"

I also got to see some more scouts! In Mexico, every scout troop meets on a Saturday afternoon, rather than in the evenings in the week, and on this Saturday I got to watch (and participate in!) an Aro Indio tournament between two units (for more details on this, see this post about the game) and at which I swapped another two neckers, linking Cockermouth Explorers with Grupo 11 San Jorge Caminantes, and Purley & Pangbourne Explorers with Grupo 17 Caminantes. Hurrah! I also got to talk to the rovers about what I was doing, and why I was taking this trip, which was great and gave them all practice at playing the role of translator! One of the Caminantes was also very keen to work at Kandersteg International Scout Centre, so hopefully he will keep in touch and let me know how he gets on with that.

My two groups in Merida, and world champion Aro Indio players as well!

Time, however, waits for no man (or Scout) and so it felt like no time at all before I was packing my bag (complete with new hammock!) to get the overnight bus to Palenque. And when I got off the bus, bleary-eyed and half asleep... well I didn't see much, because I was half asleep. But when I had woken up, and taken the collectivo (a collectivo is like a little bus service run by minibuses) to the ruins of Palenque...

Gone was the flat. Gone were the palm trees. Gone was the sandy, dusty  earth. In its place, there were luscious jungles, crowning hills and mountains in which sat the ruins of Palenque. The air was alive with the sounds of insects and birds, and the air felt close and humid. As I walked through the ruins of the main temple (you could actually walk through hallways in the dark and emerge at the top of the structure!) a roaring in the distance made me look up at the higher half of the site, where three temples sat. My guide book said that it was Howler Monkeys, which is pretty cool on its own, but in that place it was so easy to believe that they were dragons. I spent the whole morning gawping at the ruins, and slowly saturating my clothes with sweat - the humidity in the jungle more than made up for the (slightly) lesser temperature.

Yeah I did the big arms pose. What are you gonna do about it?

Tell me you wouldn't want to get yourself a whip and a leather jacket if you were here

 



Alas, my bus to Tuxtla was leaving at 12, so I had to tear myself away from the ruins to walk to the museum. Even more unfortunately, the museum was closed because it was Monday, so I had to settle for reading my book for a  few minutes while I waited for a Collectivo back to town. I managed to get my postcard to my old work posted, though I had to put the stamps over some of the writing (sorry guys!) and then I made it back to the bus station, where I accidentally tried to pay the lady in the secure luggage storage in apples, and got on my bus, which took off up and down more insane roads that made me think I should have travelled by helicopter.

After another 6 hours of isolated mountain villages, farms and corrugated shacks, we pulled into Tuxtla. I was sat texting my latest contact when he walked right up to me, and in a blur we had loaded my bag into his truck, had a quick bite to eat in a restaurant, and I had been taken to his massive house to get settled before a quick jaunt round the town. Luis is a wonderful man, and his wife Miriam is the state chief for Scouts in Chiapas (an equivalent of County Commissioner here), and I met him through his daughter, who works for the Scouts Mexico HQ. His son, Luis Antonio, is also going to the World Scout Moot, as is one of the rovers I met last night when we went to a restaurant which featured traditional folk dances, and a bizarre ritual where any takers can sit in a chair and be blessed by the dancers with a floral wreath. Of course, I was volunteered to participate!

"Don't act like you're not impressed"

While I have been in Tuxtla, I have visited San Cristobel, a mountain village with lots of churches, and been on a river trip to see some crocodiles (we only saw one, but we made up for it by seeing a family of Spider Monkeys). Tonight I will meet up with more rovers, and apparently teach them some English songs, before hopping on my overnight bus to Puebla. What will I see there? Who knows. But I have been assured that it WILL be cooler than here (we were still had 38 degrees on the river, though in San Cristobel it was a chilly 28!), so maybe I can finally actually wear the trousers that I packed for this trip!