Weng Gus and Platter Pus Go Travelling

Today we went to see a canyon. Currently we’re in the highlands and its freezing cold at night but pretty hot during the day. Its a big shock to go from nice sunny weather to near freezing temperatures.

The canyon was amazing to see. The highest point of the canyon is approximately 1km! There was much wildlife to see, lots of different birds, a couple of igwanas and some crocodiles!

The canyon has much pollution and some parts of the river had lots of bottles and trash in it.

There was a waterfall in the canyon which was pretty spectacular to see. It was only a trickle of water but it looked very unconventional.

Next we’re gonna head to Guatemala and try do a volcano trek. We’re gonna have to stay in San Cristobal for another day as we didn’t book a bus to go to Xela. It sucks as there is nothing else I wanna do in this town.

I have been in contact with an organic farm in Guatemala and they have invited me to come work. They want me to work on the farm as well as make a new website. That should be interesting as I haven’t really managed an entire web project on my own and I’ll be using other peoples equipment as well as doing it in another country.

It will be an experience and a half!

We rock up to Palenque at 5am having caught an overnight bus from Tulum. We’re nakered as we didn’t get much sleep on the bus. Luckily my tablet has a little battery so we see on a map where the hostel is.

We walk around a find the place. Palenque is quite a safe area. Police are about and there doesn’t seem to be any groups of dodgy looking people.

Once at the hostel we look at a dorm but also enquire about a private room. Turns out the private room is cheaper than the dorm! So we get the dorm, but then the guy screwed up his English and its not cheaper, its more expensive, but only a little.

The room is one of the best we’ve stayed at so far. Double bed each, 2 pillows each, what feels like silk sheets, private bathroom and shower. The only bad thing about the room is no WiFi! It doesn’t reach the room. Next to the bed is a menu which describes the services the hostel has to offer. This place knows how to take care of its guests.

We catch few hours sleep and get ready at 12pm to go to the ruins. Its relatively cheap as it only costs around £3 to get in. The ruins here feel more spectacular than the ones in Chitzen Itza. Chitzen Itza pyramids are larger in scale but they’re really spread out. Palenque pyramids are closer together and they’re in the jungle too! Trees growing all around them and grass all over too.

I will need to link this post to photos as I cannot describe the beauty of the scenery. These type of ruins are what attracted me to see the Mexican pyramids. The scale of the pyramids are amazing. The steps are huge, making me think the Mayans are large people.

We didn’t get a guide this time as we felt like walking around and admiring the sights. I can’t wait to go to Tikal as those ruins are apparently the most incredible of them all.

Cenotes, clear water rock wells that can go as far as 30 metres deep. Naz and I made the cycle down to the nearest cenote and took the plunge. The day earlier we went to the beach and attempted to tread water. It was a test if we could do the real thing in deep water.

We got there and apparently there were only 5 people there. Not quite. There were 5 snorkellers and around 7 scuba divers! Very packed. We didn’t take the plunge until the snorkellers left. And then the scuba divers left. So we had the cenote all to ourselves to swim and explore. We didn’t do too much exploring as we couldnt swim very well. We didn’t have anyone to save us if we drowned!

Luckily there was a rope so none swimmers could hold on to. Naz was clinging on to it like his life depended on it. That was pretty true as he couldn’t swim very well!

After a while in the water we got the confidence to swim around a bit. I felt like diving/jumping into the water as we saw some other guys do it before us. I plucked the courage and kept off the edge. Boy that was an experience to remember. I hadn’t jumped into water that deep since high school! It was scary but it was extremely fun.

The water isn’t salty and there aren’t any waves to wash water into your nose. The water isn’t like a swimming pool as its clean, without chlorine and it doesn’t wave around. It was clear and still. The only waves being made were the ones people would make. It was very tranquil and natural. Dripping noises could be years as the water was seeping in from the walls. The water was amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. I’m going to be visiting many more if I can.

Naz was the star of the show as he wasn’t a confident swimmer and he only learnt to tread water a day earlier just like me. We aren’t the best swimmers in the world but we managed to get the confidence to jump in! It was a good 2 1/2 – 3 metres high! I did a few to begin with and Naz managed to jump in too! I have videos of him preparing to jump and get the confidence to leap off into the water. He started to jump off a ladder first and then eventually he got to jump from the rocks like I did. Incredible it was. We can both just about swim, I’m a little better than he is, but we were jumping 2 metres into probably 6 metre deep water. Its something I’m gonna take away with me as an experience to remember. Being in the water was like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life.