Oaxaca to Tulum

The overnight bus to Oaxaca was pretty nice actually. Big seats, good aircon and no crying babies. At one stage I woke up and saw this out the window:

Would really like to come back and do a hike through this area at some stage, very nice.

After some more great advice from the tourist info people I checked into the Paulina hostel. Probably the nicest hostel I have ever been in actually, more like a five star resort with dorms. After a great big free breakfast and watching the hummingbirds in the garden for a while I headed up to the Monte Alban ruins in the hills above town with Glendon, a Canadian guy who is riding his motorbike from Canada down to Patagonia.

Oaxaca:

Pretty nice ruins but poor Glendon was having a bit of stomach trouble, and of course there was no toilet paper anywhere, just lots of very rough looking leaves. note to self: buy toilet paper.

Caught a night bus to San Cristobal for a day of wandering around the Spanish colonial town centre and a night in another cool hostel:

Inside the dorm:
Then went out to a local bar with some girls from my room for a few beers and a really good cover band and then back to the hostel for a few bedtime shots of the Mezcal I bought in Oaxaca. (pretty much the same as tequila but because its not from the town of Tequila they have to call it something else).

Palenque was the next stop to see the ruins and spend a night in the jungle hippie camp at Panchan (well it was a hippie camp once upon a time but now its just a collection of cheap cabaña places and people with tattoos and dreadlocks). They did have a cool fire and drumming show though:

The ruins were impressive too, though it was so hot I had to rest every ten minutes:

Apparently this is a rabbit. Nice bunny....

Taking an apple break:

Another night bus to Tulum, this time second class to save some money, which I have been blowing like crazy so far. This time there was a baby, no aircon, and frequent "mystery stops" in the middle of nowhere. Also they love their speed bumps in Mexico, are they really necessary every ten kilometres on a highway???

Got hooked up with a nice little beach hut right on the sand in Tulum. Or in the sand I should say:

And settled in for an afternoon and night of shuddering walls and cascading sandshowers......

The ruins above the beach were cool though:

So this afternoon I`m off to go snorkelling in a cenote ( a cenote is a sinkhole in the limestone shelf that makes up the Yucatan peninsular. The whole peninsular is basically a honeycomb of caves and underground rivers, there is very little water sitting above ground) nearby and then down to Guatemala tomorrow for some more ruins at Tikal.......