We took an overnight bus from Palenque to Cancun. Overnight. Again. I had already come to terms with the thought that I wouldn’t sleep enough here, in Mexico.
We were waiting for our vehicle on the bench, in ugly Palenque, the city (the jungle itself is beautiful). A small bus was supposed to take us to a gas station somewhere in the suburbs where the right coach was waiting for passengers. That whole arrangement was quite funny. First of all, we couldn’t find second-class companies offering a ride to Merida, nor to Cancun. It seemed that ADO holds a monopoly. That’s why you have to visit all hidden corners of Palenque and talk to the right ladies with golden teeth in the street before getting a cheaper deal.
We weren’t the only tourists who “sacrificed”. Pascal was a French-Canadian. More French. Quebec. His English was very… French:). He admitted that he started learning it while travelling. They had some lessons in the school, but passing the exams was so easy, that nobody put effort in learning.
Pascal was waiting with us for the coach. He started saving money after “an accident” in Mexico City. He lost all cash and a camera. She was nice. She didn’t look like “a bad girl”. She was so nice that he invited her to his hotel. It was totally his initiative, not hers. So nice. Few drinks. She didn’t look like “a bad girl”. “You know, you can always tell…” All he remembers was coming back from a restroom. He finished his drink and "flew away" right after. She was nice enough to leave his passport.
Pascal’s next destination was Tulum. Few hours drive from Cancun.
He didn’t sleep almost all night. First we were chatting, then he watched a movie.
He didn’t sleep ALMOST all night. He took a nap, exactly when he was supposed to get off…
“Good morning, Pascal. We are in Cancun”.
We didn’t plan to be that day in Cancun either. Only in Palenque we decided to skip Merida and drive straight to Caribbean Sea. We didn’t have enough time as we wanted to see… the snake. The snake which dominated our nearest future… But hold on:). (OK, the gun trick checked:))
In Cancun we were supposed to stay at Russian Couch Surfers' place. Three young Russians, working as travel agents here after having left their well-paid jobs in Moscow. I had a contact only to Maria whom I found on CS page. 7:53 am. Let’s wait at least till 8 am. It is not polite to call somebody so early, especially when they don’t expect this.
- Masha? I'm Magda, CS. We were planning to surf at your place in two days. We just arrived to Cancun. Can we go to your place and just leave our bags there? We plan to go to Chichen Itza today, so it would be much easier for us.
- You can leave your stuff; you can even stay here from today. Wait downstairs for a guard. He will open the gate for you.
Maria occurred to be a concrete girl. Some rules for the beginning – lady’s restroom here, men’s there; wanna cook – go ahead; wanna eat – take an apple, but bring one after; no sleeping bags? OK, we have some blankets; inviting other friends? No problem, but appointed Couch Surfers have a priority. So if there is enough room after they accommodate – everybody is welcome; sleep here, in the kitchen, on the floor with other CS-ers or go upstairs, to the roof.
We were first guests that day. Pascal came with us. And he stayed with us.
We didn’t go to sleep. Too many plans and not enough time. That day – only one, but the great plan. THE SNAKE. We were going to Chichen Itza to observe Spring Equinox effect. The main attraction of the ruins, Pyramid of Kukulcan, has been designed so that every year, on March 21st, the afternoon sun causes a shadow play. It appears that a huge serpent is descending from the sky, down the pyramid. You can recognize an image of the snake. If you want to learn more about the snake, go to Chichen Itza for a night sun&light show or read this:
I had read! And I was looking forward to see the pyramid exactly that day!
Our hosts said there are more people who wanted to go that day to Chichen. Liubov – one of the girls living at the flat and two Israeli boys who came before the noon. They were also staying at our place. So… Let’s go! With a team of five we can rent a car!
America Car Rental.
In Cancun everything is more American, more North American.
We left, finally, after filling some forms at the rental office and eating a lunch after. No rush.
Does anybody know the way?
We have some general map; Liubov knows how to bypass the city. Oh, calm down, there are signs everywhere, we won’t get lost…
It was so hot. Liubov’s cute white dress with red embroidery was the most proper clothe to wear.
We grabbed some juice made of Jamaica flower to drink on the way.
We were eating grapefruit and oranges. I had to throw away my chewing gum. The wind returned it to the car. I was too chilled out to look for it.
We were all completely chilled out.
Driving a car in Mexico! Woohoo!
Not too many plans in front of us except making it to see the snake! The information that it is on 21st March was enough for our gang. The day is long. We will be in Chichen eventually.
Talking, fooling around totally… Sagi singing some Hebrew songs, sometimes chanting, everything with a straight face even though we know (already) and he realizes that no gift was passed to him… (I’m sorry, Sagi;))
What a great time we have…
BOOM!
Our car is loosing the balance!
BOOM!
Tomek, keep the cold blood, please!
He kept, fortunately. We stopped on the side. Ay... Flat tire. A complete disaster. Looks like a part of it has transformed into a bunch of wires… a ya yay… Strange. Anyhow, just replace it. So we did. Boys, exactly. Three of them managed perfectly.
Meanwhile I was taking photos of overridden iguanas, Liuba was stretching…
Time to go. We must see the Snake.
Fooling around again. Actually, I’m not sure if we ever stopped, even when the problem with the wheel occurred. Replacing it, we were making up stories and excuses which could be sold to our rental agency. Sagi was a genius in providing funny stories. With a straight face – double championship.
Woohoo!
We are getting closer to our destiny. Just stop once again for a while, we need to use the restrooms. The last stop! Emergency! This (one) time for real.
On the way, the last stretch.
Yes, signs! “Chichen Itza”
They are pointing us to the pyramids.
Oh, we can see the crowd!
But… Why are they going in the opposite direction?
?!
Liuba is recognizing her Russian friends in the throng… They are also walking back from the pyramids… We can feel as we were unique, exceptional… Others have already seen “zmija”. The snake show had just finished. “Liuba, it was at 5 pm!” - informed us her friends.
Yes, we are exceptional. “Now the show only for VIP” – Sagi didn’t fail to add.
Indeed, the circle is VERY exclusive. Maybe few people are going along with us, parking place is getting empty…
Additional good information (except the one pointed by Sagi) – the next show is going to start at 6 pm. So I don’t have to commit suicide!
Hurry up, hurry up! There is only few minutes left! Maybe we should take a shortcut through the forest? The official way is quite long… We didn’t take a chance this time. But the grain of our clever ideas for tonight started to grow… Oh, yeah, don’t fail to read the whole story:).
Near the pyramids wasn’t so bad…
There were even too many people lining for the entrance tickets…
We bought them finally.
Another challenge was to “make some friends” (Sagi) in the line waiting for entering the show. It was a huge challenge!
But we made it. Some Israelis studying in the U.S. They were late as well for the 5 pm show, the natural one. Now we were waiting together for a sound-light effects created by lasers, united in easiness and good mood in spite of all. In spite of the fact that we won’t see the only- twice-a-year phenomenon…
“Don’t worry, girls. We can still see the snake”
“Even a rabbit!” – boys added and then started making shadow creatures…
Oh, yeah, we had the zoo show when waiting a while for the launch of the snake show.
Meanwhile I noticed on my blouse the chewing gum that had returned to the car. Meir (the other Israeli companion) said that probably he knew where the rest of it was. I had it all over my shorts. We laughed:). That day everything made us laugh… Literally everything (to be continued).
The show started. Then it finished:).
If you don’t speak Spanish, remember about renting a headset with the English translation! I hadn’t known about that…
Or, again, read this after: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lQpLni2GjCIJ:www.world-mysteries.com/chichen_kukulcan.htm+chichen+itza+snake&cd=9&hl=pl&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
It was dark already when the attraction started. It finished about 9 pm or so…
First bright idea: let’s hide somewhere, wait till everybody leaves and we will stay in the pyramids zone for the night. Maybe even sleep in the Kukulcan pyramid! It was warm enough to sleep outdoor! What is going on here when there is no people, no tourists? No guards? Maybe they are letting in some bloodthirsty dogs or hyenas? Sagi started creating stories when we were already hidden behind a tree:). Nobody had noticed us so far and the field was almost empty. We were talking about a potential spot to sleep. I and Sagi decided to sleep near the garbage, because we were so so hungry. We were kidding that near the trash there was at least a chance to grab some leftovers.... Everybody was hungry, actually. This was one of the lofty reasons why we decided to be good kids and leave the place. And the prospect of visiting the indigenous family was more tempting than sleeping under the tree.
Did you get it? A visit at indigenous family’s place! It sounds almost as much crazy.
First of all we had to feed our bodies, still in Chichen.
Then we got our car, the last one in the parking place.
The plan was to stop on the way to Cancun by an indigenous house. Celebrating equinox with original, native snacks! And posh - whisky based on sugarcane juice.
We passed one village, another one, third…
OK, can stop here.
The building wasn’t huge, just a regular, tiny house.
What will we say? What will be the pretext to invade their place? Hmm… “Good evening, we want your food”? “Good evening, we are from Eastern Europe and we want to see your house”?, “Good evening, can we drink some posh with you”? Hmmm… Oh! We can always ask for a way to Cancun. Yes, we are the lost tourists!
Through the little window next to the front doors we could notice a host sitting in a hammock and reading a book. He heard his dog barking at us and approached the door. I couldn’t keep a straight face; this entire situation was so silly… But there were some brave among us, additionally Spanish-speaking. Yeah, the host didn’t speak Mayan, unfortunately. He didn’t even look like a Mayan person. No family behind his back inside, nobody celebrating traditional equinox… No posh… Only some TV set. Argh… Not a good choice. But… Maybe the best one we could make.
- Sir, we are just coming back from Chichen Itza to Cancun. We...
- To Cancun? Hmm... But you are on the way to Merida, Cancun is in the opposite direction.
- ?!
Thank you, dear friend. It doesn’t matter that you hadn’t match our expectations!
So our crazy plan again transformed into a grotesque. We were fooling by visiting a random house which appeared not to be a Mayan house. Moreover we weren’t even on the way back home, as we had expected. Covering the distance back to Chichen took us a while. So as not to waste it completely, we stopped in Chichen’s main square and we were looking for some traditional customs here… But that is all what we could observe among a crowd of tourists, street vendors with junky souvenirs and food stands:
“A traditional Mayan band!”- this is how Meir called this Latino boysband:).
Another attraction to satisfy our sophisticated, anthropological desires!
Time to give up. Let’s just go home.
But even this simply thing we couldn’t plan without disruptions.
OK, OK, everybody can be caught by the police… Yes, Mexican police. Don’t worry – you won’t loose too much money. Only time you devote to negotiate.
The police had found some more flaws, though. “Where is your driving license?” Our friend didn’t have it on him. In the rental office they said that he hadn’t need it. I don’t remember other problems pointed, but they were prying for a long while. Two men. Serious faces, very hard situation, lots of energy and effort to be put in finding a solution convenient for everybody. Very strenuous work. The next stage was to delicately suggest our driver that there was only one mean to deal with all problems of the world. “If we give you a fee, we will have to take your passport.” They had already known that we were flying back to Chicago soon, so there was no such a possibility. From our part the main serious “excuse” was Tomek’s birthday that day. Surprisingly, they respected that.
After heated debate they let us go with passports having collected 100 pesos (about 8$).
Whew… 2 am. But we are finally in Cancun!!!
Oh, no! When we were almost approaching our street, another police started following us. We suspected that the other car had let them now about the foriegn juveniles driving to Cancun. We decided to park a car… and, very smart, run away for a while to avoid paying another fee.
We took some pictures on the opposite side of the road while waiting for “clear streets”. Say “Police” instead of “cheese”! Yes, we were all very TERRIFIED;)).
We could come back home without the risk of being caught again.
We were tired and sleepy. But with enough energy to set up a tent on the roof and have some wine there. That night or rather few hours in the morning we slept in the tent.
The next night some people also occupied the tent. There were two shelters already (a German couple set up another one). The same evening new travelers appeared at the flat. We all came back from different destination by the end of the day and the big multi-culti event started. First we had opportunity to meet Alex’s parents and sister who had flown from Russia. Except CouchSurfers already mentioned, there were new faces, including a boy from Sweden who just came from Cuba. Pascal was still with us. My friend from San Cristobal who visited Cancun also stayed at our place. His local classmate joined the meeting as well. We went all together to the grocery. A huge group:). Then the boys started cooking a meal. After eating this late delicious supper we didn’t go to the party, even though it had been the plan. We were just enjoying time together. Over a dozen bodies on the floor and upstairs sleeping one next to another, without sheets, just lying in our casual clothes on the floor. It was warm enough.
Open-minded people, laugh, all languages of the world, interesting stories to tell and hear. We had to leave after few days, unfortunately. Some of our companions stayed, including Pascal.
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| A view from our roof |
[1] „You have to turn back and go to Chichen see the Snake!’
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