Welcome to the Jungle, where…there are crabs?!? Leaves the Size of Claire?!? Sorry that we have been out of contact for so long, but there is no internet in the Jungle and then we have been in constant transport for awhile so Info of the last little while will be filled in slowly and divided into three posts. Palanque was wonderful. We stayed in the Jungle just outside the park(where the Ruins are) in a small community FULL of artisans from jewelry makers and circus performers to Native drummers and fire dancers.

It was full of life, music and a hippie traveling vibe that took over the wholeplace. Claire and I stayed in a small cabin that shared a wall with a Jeweler and her talkative 3 year old Daughter (Who was up until 1 am happily chatting away, every 10 minutes she would be on the shared deck, on our side, shouting "OLA" to the campers 30 feet behind us...it wasn't annoying at all...nope didn't keep us up in the slightest). The first night in the jungle was a little rough... at 3 in the morning I awoke to Claire ...this is how it went....

Claire: (whisper) "Simpson, Simpson are you awake?"

Simp: (waking up) "hmmm? Not anymore, why?"

Claire: "Don't you hear that?...(moment pause to hear a loud demonic roaring noise)

Simp: "what is that?..."

Claire: "How do you sleep through this shit!!!"

It was an eerie noise that sounded like it was right outside our hut…it sounded as if a jaguar were giving birth and everything was being torn up inside by the cubs claws…Claire and I stayed awake for a three hours listening to the terrible noise and trying in vain to fall back asleep. When we asked the hostel owner the next day what had made those terrible sounds we were surprised to find out that it was a monkey! That´s right a howler monkey, just slightly larger than a house cat! Gives new meaning to the phrase Mono Loco! The first full day we just vegged and took in the quirks of the Jungle. Found a tattoo artist that does traditional tattoos, she's well known for her art, and Sonya and Izzy were keen to get some of her beautiful work....but she was leaving for a tattoo conference inHolland and didn't have time to design anything.

The second day took us to the ruins of Palenque, which were pretty amazing.

The Sun was blazing as we walked the 3km uphill to get there and by the time we reached the ruins it was already mid day and we were feeling the heat! The walk was inspired by the idea of saving money which we found out later was only a dollar for the collectivo, but still that's pretty much a beer, we clearly have our priorities in order!! The ruins were surrounded by jungle and were open to be climbed on, which is always fun! After a few hours the sun proved to be too much and our traditional ruin loopyness took over. We found a bunch of bean pods (tamarind we think) and proceeded to swordfight each other in dramatic drawn out fights. The last one with a unbroken bean pod was declared the winner and officially knighted. Did I mention the sun had gotten to us! When we finally stopped after a traditional knighting there was a loud applause and we turned around to see a crowd of about 50 Asian tourists armed with cameras who had stopped to watched the whole thing and found it highly amusing. Highly embarrassed we bowed and then briskly walked away. If you ever see a youtube video of four idiots bean fighting in some Mexican ruin be assured that it totally is not us…

The next day we caught a bus form Palenque to Tulum, a place off the Caribbean coast in the Yucatan province of Mexico. Getting there involved another 12 hour night bus ride with bumps and sharp turns galore, interrupting the fleeting bits of sleep we were able to catch. Tulum was nice, but not the famed town we had been expecting. After searching in town for a few hours we managed to find a nice cheap hotel at the north end, near the ruins. Tulum´s ruins are fairly unique as Mexican ruins go because they are built on cliffs over-looking the sea. Apparently when the Spanish arrived they made mention of what an incredible site it was at night due to the fires that burned at the tops of the temples. An awesome sight I am sure! However, by this point we were a little ruined out and decided not to go. Tulum is a Mayan word meaning dawn, apparently it is spectacular then, not that we were ever up that early to see it, nor it the site even open then. Tulum is an expensive town and our $20 a day budget would not have stretched very far had we gone out for meals, again we were really glad the girls had a stove and pot set. We managed some pretty great dinners and took advantageof the cheap fruit to make massive fruit salads. Cooking in the room was a bit dodgy, I am sure the hotel would not have appreciated it so we took turns guarding the door and keeping a lookout for any friendly staff that might come along.

Our hotel was a 3km walk from the beach, and when we ventured there on the first day after the 12 hour bus ride, all the trouble to get toTulum became totally worth it. The beach was incredible! White sand as fine as flour stretched for kilometers. The turquoise blue of the ocean offset by the white beach dotted with fishermen's boats was the most picturesque beach we had been to yet. Claire was particularly taken with the beach and could be heard muttering ¨this sand is amazing!¨, ¨I love this beach¨ every few minutes.

On the second day we travelled to the local centotes, or Sanatra´s as Claire liked to call them. When we arrived Claire and I were not sure of what we were getting into, all we understood was water and snorkeling… that was enough really! For those that don´t know Cenotes are freshwater caves with tunnels that go on for kilometers. We weren´t exactly impressed at first, but as we swam deeper into the caves light from above illuminated the water, and the lights from the scuba divers below hinted to the extreme depths of the Cenotes. It was AMAZING. Diving down into the caverns as far as our lungs would allow and snorkeling through stalactites. The Mayans believed that these pools were gateways to the other world, it is easy to see why. Four hours later it was only the frigid temperature and pruning digits that eventually pulled us from the enchanting waters of the Cenotes.

Later that night I did a solo trip to visit Chichen itza, It is a magnificent ruin that on the Spring and Fall equinox, at the rising and setting of the sun, the corner of the structure casts a shadow in the shape of a serpent that from the corner tiers slithers down the northern side of the pyramid with the sun's movement...thousands of people gather each year to see this...but unfortunately I missed the bus and ended up taking a taxi. It took 2hr just to get there…and somehow with his broken english and my broken Spanish we were able to uphold a conversation for the whole 2 hours. Unfortunately with province crossing and random police checks I missed my sunset,that I had so desperately want to see…but I arrived for what they call the light and sound show. When I entered the site it was pitch black save for the lights that lit the path. There were school groups with children about 11-13 years old surrounding me asking me questions 5 at a time about where I am from and so on. I posed for pictures with them and signed jerseys (weird!) and felt like a celebrity for a while until we reached the area that we watch the show from that over looks the main plaza of the ruins. The temples were dark shadows against the night sky. Then the path lights went out and the music started and suddenly El Castillo (the main temple) was light up. It was incredible, it was everything I had hoped and more, the stairs rose to a place I found myself only dreaming of. There was a loud booming voice over the speakers as a surround sound as the temples lit up with different colours...all in all it was a bit cheesy (and later I found out that I could have rented a translating devise to listen in english but I think that the spanish was much more powerful and I'm sure I would have been less interested and felt that it was more cheesy). However, there was this Magical moment. The lights all went out and then over the speaker there was this light rumble. Behind El Castillo there was a quick flash of a bright light echoing a hauntingly shadow… then suddenly a loud crack of thunder over the speaker, then the sound of rain. I sat there and watched a fabricated thunderstorm over the ruins and was nearly brought to tears, it was so magnificent, it was as though I had this quick glimpse into the past and how incredible this place must have been.

The next day we headed for Belize where our Central American adventure truly begins. Unfortunately Belize was too expensive for our small budget, so our planned week in Belize was swallowed up by Mexico and instead turned into a corridor for entering Guatemala. We took a three hour bus from Chetumal Mexico to Belize city, then had two minutes to grab our bags, pee and board a good old fashioned cheese wagon to San Ignacio close to the Guatemalan boarder. From what we briefly saw, Belize is a very chill Caribbean country with the friendliest boarder guards in the world! It was nice for a night to be able to speak English and know exactly what we were ordering for dinner, but we were anxious to get to Guatemala. The next day we bussed into Guatemala and got a collective to Flores a small island that serves as the jumping off point for trips to Tikal. Leaving Mexico was more difficult than we had anticipated, and we were sad leave, however, now that we are in Guatemala and officially out ofNorth America we feel like our trip has really begun.

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QUOTE OF THE ENTRY:

(translated from spanish)

Izzy: Pardon, (to the hostel owner), can you tell me what that noise was last night at about 3 am?

Owner: oh it was...um, hold on a moment I have to chance a cat