Portland sucks

I have proof. If you google "Portland sucks", at least 40,000 results show up. If you google "San Francisco sucks" or "San Jose sucks" (hell, I even tried "Fresno sucks") the largest number you'll come up with is 3,500 results. Maybe there is a California bias so let's try another city, say Seattle. Not even close at a mere 5,000.

Yes, you can add my voice to the growing list of Portland-haters. I don't like to hate but Portland and its citizens make it too damn easy. I will elaborate more on this in future blogs but I just wanted to get the ball rolling since we just returned from a long weekend there.

p.s. K, D, K, K, A, B, H, and G...you are very cool people that are excluded from this rant.

Birds do it, bees do it....

We can't stop eating!

When you can sample a little bit of everything for under $5, we find ourselves eating tacos, tortas, tostadas, postres, chocolate, dulces, etc.

As much as I would like to enjoy a romantic dinner in a fancy restaurant with Eric, I don't want to spend $10 on a meal when I know we can eat just as well on the street. We will have sticker shock when we get back home and will need to readjust to American prices on everything.

The other night I had a craving for pizza. I just needed something other than Mexican food for a change. We asked around, actually we had to ask 4 different people and finally found Pizzeria Charlies. Not the best and we only finished 2 slices. The next day as we wandered the tourist zone, we found pizzeria restaurants everywhere. I guess we should have checked there first, because it took us at least an hour to find Pizzeria Charlies. It's true though....a Mexican would rather give the wrong answer than to say 'I don't know'.

We have 2 more nights in Oaxaca, our hotel is so awesome that we decided to spoil ourselves just a little longer. Will add photos to our next post. We then continue on to Mexico City to stay with friends of the family.

Adventures in bus travel

So we have mainly traveled by 1st class bus on our trip, and colectivos or combis in town. Each trip is completely different from the next. The bus from Tulum to Coba was only an hour, but the bathroom on board had no light and the various topes (huge speedbumps) make for an interesting trip in the bathroom, or as Eric likes to say, 'ride the lightning'. Our first long haul was from Tulum to Campeche. The driver had the a/c on FULL BLAST. I'm talking freezing cold. While in the humid weather a little bit of air conditioning is welcome, we weren't prepared for the ride and we both caught a little cold as a result. That and the fact that he seemed to be racing down the freeway in pouring rain had me worried that we would skid off the road. We also packed a headlamp for the bathroom. In this case though, the light worked, but there was no water in the faucet. The bus ride from Campeche to Palenque was a late night departure, super bumpy ride with potholes the size of cars. We dressed in layers like it was winter, but found that the driver did not blast the a/c. The ride from Palenque to San Cristobal will make you sick to your stomach because of all the turns. From San Cristobal to Oaxaca it was 1st class Deluxe, so they offered free beverages and the bathrooms were actually very nice....signs in English, a baby changing table, nicely scented, and automatic flush & faucet. However there was no a/c and it was a full bus, so body heat... you get the picture. Oh yes, and all buses show movies dubbed in Spanish. I watched The Butterfly Effect part 2 and a cool documentary on orangutans.

As for the colectivos, I found myself praying that there would be no oncoming cars when the driver decides to pass the car in front on a blind turn. But it's all good. Today we took a colectivo to the Tule tree, one of the largest in the world, and it was only 9 pesos for me and Eric. That is less than a dollar if you consider the current exchange rate is 12 pesos for every dollar.

Cañon del Sumidero

Yesterday we took a boat ride through Sumidero Canyon. Only $12 per person for 2 hours, it was a 30 minute ride on a colectivo to Tuxtla Gutierrez, then a $7 ride to the embarcadero. Saw lots of birds and crocodiles.













At one point, we were passing through a huge mass of litter (mainly plastic bottles and wood) in which a huge chunk of wood must have gotten stuck in the propeller.














While the boat driver was cursing in Spanish trying to get the thing unstuck, we slowly drifted towards the shore where there was a crocodile sunbathing. Great photo opportunity until we realized the driver wasn´t paying attention to where we were drifting and we got pretty close to the croc. Not within biting distance, but we were pretty close and it was pretty funny to see everyone slightly panicked.



Afterwards, we wandered the town of Chiapas en Curzo. We followed some mariachis and came upon a church which was adorned in beautiful colors. We are so lucky to have stumbled upon a festival and we met Mario, who invited us to partake in some of the food and even took us to the choir level of the church to view them hoisting the traditional offerings of bread and flowers to the ceiling of the church. These pictures and video are on Eric´s camera so we´ll have to post them another time, but it was so nice to be welcomed and shown what the customs are. I think there is a festival for every saint in Catholocism, and there are a lot of saints...therefore there are a lot of festivals!


Tonight we´re heading out on a 12 hour bus ride to Oaxaca. We spent the remainder of our day in San Cristobal at the mercado. So much to see and buy!! We´re bringing souvenirs and Christmas gifts for everyone. We can´t wait to show you the handcrafts that we´ve bought. Today I played a game of pogs with some Mayan boys. I love to hear them speak and laugh.

San Cristobal de las Casas

Before we left Palenque, we watched an interesting documentary (probably from the 60s or 70s) on the indigenous people of Chiapas. Gave us a good insight into their culture and their constant struggle with the PRI governing party of Mexico. Tired of the night buses, we took a day bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas. It is the most curvy road I have every been on in my life, and I was sick to my stomach. It was worth it though, because we arrived into San Cristobal in the early evening. And also because we were able to see much of what we saw in the documentary.


All I can say is WOW. This city is full of life. We stayed one night at Hotel Media Luna, owned by some Italians, and priced at $35-night.


We´ve since then moved to a budget hotel at $20-night. Today we wandered the mercados and then took a combi to a nearby village, San Juan Chamula.



Eric will probably describe in better detail than me, so I´ll let him blog about it in our next post. But we are very happy to be in San Cristobal.

Subcomandante Marcos gave a voice to the poorest of the poor, and perhaps in a unique way, brought tourism to this section of Mexico. While we were in the village of San Juan Chamula, we saw photos of the development going on, which fortunately benefits the local villages.

The city of San Cristobal is lively, the plaza is enjoyed by all, the accommodations fit all budgets, and the shopping in the mercados is endless. There are plenty of restaurants, bars and cafes. Last night I had a craving for pasta (needed a break from Mexican food) so we dined at a restaurant listed in our book. I couldn´t wait to leave though, as soon as the live band started playing Eric Clapton´s ´Tears in Heaven´. The place seemed to cater to the type of tourists that like to be surrounded by other tourists. We eat better at the local cocina economicos, at $1.50 per person.



I would gladly return to San Cristobal in a heartbeat though. Glancing at the news, it looks like we just missed an earthquake too. We´re both fine, stomach wise, and probably a little skinny too from all the walking. We´re just slightly sad knowing that our trip is soon coming to an end.

Tonight we´re going to enjoy a nice dinner and maybe an after-dinner tequila. Tomorrow we hope to travel to Tuxtla Gutierrez to catch a combi to Sumidero Canyon.

Campeche to Palenque

Sad to say, we were very disappointed in Campeche and its people. Everywhere we went we would get strange/rude looks from the locals. We figured it was either because they were curious of Eric´s eyes or because I´m a Mexicana with a gringo. We did catch a folkloric dance in the plaza on our final night but even the hostess made a mention of how the Campechanos need to be more proud of their state. So next time we leave a passport in Tulum, we will go back for it rather than wait in Campeche.



The bus ride from Campeche to Palenque was rough. The road had so many potholes that the driver drove extra slow and we arrived into Palenque at 4am. Safety first! We stayed 2 nights at Hotel Chablis. Our Lonely Planet book does not include a map of the town, but we found it far more exciting than Campeche. First off, Eric has a new favorite restaurant...TropiTacos. We ate there everyday. For lunch and dinner. Then in the plaza, we enjoyed the music of a marimba band. The people were far more friendlier as well, which made a huge difference.




We were quite impressed with the ruins at Palenque. Eric enjoyed a dip in the waterfalls, and I enjoyed chasing butterflies.



The ruins cover over 16 kilometers, so we didn´t see all of it, but got some great pictures.






Whether they are being rude to the locals or hoarding the markets, we´re finding the French tourists to be the most arrogant of all, and Eric and I have declared war on them. From here on, if we see them being disrespectful to the Mexicans we will give it right back to them. On the combi to the ruins, this group of French tourists climbed onboard and one of them proceeded to yell her conversation to her friends, which happened to be sitting behind me and Eric. She was basically yelling in our face. So while we were inside one of the pyramids Eric made sure to bump into her.