Chamula, Palenque and from there on

After laying in bed (or running between the bath room and the bed) for three days I finally felt okay enough on Thursday to take a bus to a near by village called Chamula to go see an indian church where old native rituals still take place on daily basis. The place was full of locals, families and groups of both men and women, the floor partly covered of some type of cut grass, smells of different innocents and smoke filled the air and there where candles EVERYWHERE. I felt like a total outsider but just tried to take little space and sit down with the rest of the crowd. As part of one ritual an old woman was wiped with a live chicken right next to me, then the chicken killed and some booze poured on top of some candles on the floor. Next to her there was a lady breast feeding her baby. I've never seen a church with so much life in it. Peaceful, I'm not sure, but definitely part of people's life. (Sorry for the lack of pics, I didn't want to steal the peoples' souls...)

The children begging outside the church were less fun. My extremely firm 'NO!' seemed to do the trick though – they knew better than to mess with a inpatient Finn with a tummy ache! I've actually been amazed of how little people beg or to try to sell their stuff to me at all, or shout on the streets or show any attention really; maybe because I've just felt so ill and wrinkled my forehead so hard... Well, whatever the reason, it's makes my life easier.

After some well-needed rest we went to Kate's friends house in the evening to chill out and see other people with stomach problems (shitloads of Americans and one Russian).
The next morning I decided I was time to hit the road again, say goodbyes to my lovely hosts and head to Palenque, and Kate's friend Jorge surprised me by saying he'll join me. The 6 hour bus ride was a complete nightmare; the bus went up and down and turned left and right about a hundred times a minute in high speed and my recovering stomach didn't make it any easier, neither did Jorge's bad hangover. But the views weren't too bad...
After we finally reached the town of Palanque in was difficult to walk straight, let alone keep anything down. I had booked a room in the city and was planning to head straight to Guatemala the next morning but for some reason we ended up in La Panchan, an area between the city and the famous Maya ruins of Palaenque, in stead. We took beds in dormitories of 6 for 60 Mexican pesos (less than 4€) per night, met some nice Kadadian and French travellers and paid too much for the shitty food in one two restaurants in Panchan. The place is amazing in many ways (in the middle of the jungle with birds, and all sort of wild life right next to you) but also made to lure the money of stupid tourists who have to eat overpriced food in the two restaurants if they weren't wise enough to buy food in town.

After a very early night interrupted only by about five bathrooms visits and party-Jorge's arrival at 4am I was more energetic than ever the next morning. Fruity breakfast with a Kanadian Isabel and a german hippie family, bit of rest and off to kick Jorge out of his bed. We went to the ruins stupidly in the hottest hours of the day which made me simply seek shadows whenever I could and perhaps be less interested in Maya culture than I should've or would normally have been. After Jorge had recharged his batteries with Mayan energy and I had almost been paralyzed by the sun and the heat, we walked to the nearby waterfalls that were incredibly enough completely empty of tourists when we arrived. After walking in the cooling pools, sitting on the smooth rocks and getting hits by refreshing water showers I felt like I was alive again – by far the best place in Mexico so far! Just as we were leaving the waterfalls were filled by a huge group of tourists that had no idea of the paradise it had been only a few minutes before.

Bus trip from Palenque to Flores in Guatemala started 6am, took all together 9 hours and cost 300 Mexican pesos (18€). The trip was slow and tiring but interesting with changing drivers and a nice boat ride across the bordering river. After arriving to Flores I got a bed in a nice hostel called Doña Goya for 30 quetzal (3€) per night and ate my first big meal in a week.

Watching the sun go down on the lake, laying on my bed with a full and happy belly and listening Bob Marley jamming on my MP3 player must be heaven on earth – and 8 months of this still to go!

Here's by the way an updated march-april travel plan:
week 10
London, Great Britain (with Erik)
Mexico city, Mexico

week 11
San Cristobal de la Casas, Mexico
Palanque, Mexico

week 12
Flores and Tikal, Guatemala
Río Dulce, Guatemala

week 13
Antigua & Guatemala city, Guatemala

week 14
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
Tapachula & Oaxaca, Mexico

week 15
Mexico City, Meksiko