update from the middle of the jungle :)
Dear everyone, It´s been long since I´ve written a proper update. So, here it goes - I need to write everything down to organize my head because it seems to be overflowing of new impressions and thoughts, I´ve done and seen so much in the past few days! I´m always writing in my head but I feel I really need to put it on, uhm, ´paper´, just so I can move on :) I am gloriously happy. I don´t know what´s come over me but I haven´t been this happy in a loooong time. I almost don´t know where to start ... I´m writing this from a wooden cabin in the middle of the jungle, close to the border with Guatemala, next to the Mayan ruins, and it´s getting dark here and there´s all these little lizards crawling over the window right now, right in front of me, really amazing =) Ok let´s start at the beginning shall we? I wanted to go on an organized tour through the Chiapas region because I thought that one would attract me the most because of nature and history. I wanted to do an organized trip for a few days because I´m travelling alone as you know, and I just wanted to be on the safe side. But the organized tour didn´t really work out so instead I booked a flight to Tuxtla, the capital of Chiapas, scheduled my own little tour in my head (i knew what i wanted to see) and just, left. I wasn´t even remotely scared or stressed; all of a sudden I turned into adventurous Clau! And I must admit, I like the new Clau. The stressing out in times of uncertainty that I used to have before is fading away and instead I´m just putting myself out there and enjoying every experience to the fullest! So, I flew to Chiapas on Tuesday, and when landing, I was really starting to feel funny. I mean, i couldn´t get the grin off my face, I just was too happy (I was THAT happy that I almost scared myself haha). At the airport I met an Israeli guy who is also backpacking and together we went to the Canyon del Sumidero, a canyon near Tuxtla, where you can embark on a motorboat and take a 2 hour tour on the river in the canyon. It was really great, I saw monkeys and crocodiles and all sorts of beautiful birds. Then from the boat we went to Tuxtla´s zoo, where they have animals that are common for this region and they let them live in their natural habitat (as little cages as possible). Some of them walk freely (like huge birds, and some kind of funny rodents). They also had leopards, and jaguars. They even had a black jaguar (which was of course behind glass) and when we got there, it was sleeping, but only the glass was between us. I mean, I could almost touch it. It´s an amazing animal, majestic, proud and mysterious. Its paws where actually bigger than my hand =) I totally wanted to hug it hehe :) From the zoo we went to San Cristobal de las Casas, but unfortunately it was already dark when we got there. The accomodation here is really cheap and I stayed in a fairly good hotel. I immediately booked a tour for the next day, to the Cascadas de Chiflon (waterfalls) and Lagunas de Monte Bello (close to the border with Guatemala). We first went to see a cave which wasn´t interesting and then we went to the waterfall which was (i have no other word) paradise. It was absolutely amazingly gorgeous and even though it was a 3km climb to the top in an unbearable heat: the waterfall definitely made up for it. At the ascend i saw the most beautiful butterfly ever: almost as big as my head and indigo blue. And at the descend I saw this huge iguana climbing up a tree:) From there we went to the Lagunas. There´s 59 lagunas in a protected ecological park, and I only got to see a few of them, but they were again, gorgeous. The sunlight colors each laguna differently and the sightings were amazing. At the last laguna there were some indigenous people who were cooking quesadillas (tortilla pancakes with cheese) with all sorts of fillings, like pumpkin flowers, on wooden fires. They were seriously the best I ate in my LIFE and i doubt i´ll ever eat them like that again. After that, we took a little tour over one laguna, on a raft made out of 5 treatrunks. It was kinda scary because the trunks were not even close to each other; the water was still in there, but apparently the rafts are really solid, and well, it was simply a great experience. Then today I went on another tour, to the Cascadas de Agua Azul and of Misol-Ha. The Cascadas de Agua Azul are really big, it´s various waterfalls with amazingly crystal clear lightblue water (like the one of Chiflon). When I got at the top there was a small laguna in which you could swim. There was no one there (most people stayed at the foot of the waterfall to swim) so I took a dive there. It was again (I´m getting repetitive) an amazing experience; I was swimming there in this beautiful water, I could see every single pebble on the bottom, and I sat in the middle of a waterfall for a while, seeing birds and butterflies fly over my head and hearing nothing but jungle sounds and falling water. Really breathtaking. After that we went to Misol-Ha, yet another waterfall, which is really high and falls from a high cliff. You could walk beneath it, and then we discovered (we = me and two other great people from my tour, a canadian woman and her 8 year old daughter) that you could climb over the rocks, straight through the waterfall, to a cave. Which, adventurous as we were, we obviously did - with ropes we climbed up through a small waterfall till we reached a cave. We went in, and inside, in the dark, there was another waterfall. A guy with flashlight went with us to show us. There were bats hanging from the ceiling and the atmosphere was absolutely serene and radiating with positive energy. It was sooo good. Okay and then after that I went to Palenque - Mayan ruins and one of the biggest archeological sites in Mexico. It was obviously again totally amazing, we got there late in the afternoon so we had great lighting and it´s really a magical place, tucked far away in the middle of the jungle. Together with two other israeli guys that I met on the tour today we went to stay in a hotel close to the ruins. It´s not a hotel really - it´s more like a hippie village where everyone stays in wooden cabins. There´s restaurants here and tour operators, a bar, a swimming pool and 3 places with different cabins, but it´s still not commercial and really in the middle of the jungle. There´s all these beautiful jungle flowers and a small creek. I´m surrounded by unfamiliar sounds, animals and insects (these damn red ants keep stinging me in my feet :p) and like I said, while I´m typing this, I´m in one of these cabins and there´s small lizards crawling over the window :) they´re so cuters, it´s amazing how they stick to the window with their little feet:) Tomorrow I´m going into the jungle to visit more Mayan ruins that are only reachable by boat. Should be another great experience. On Saturday I´ll first go horse back riding in the morning, before departing to Mexico City again in the late afternoon. My flight back home, to Holland, is on Monday morning, but right now I really don´t want to think of that. It really feels like I am in paradise, I can´t remember having enjoyed something SO much as this trip. I met some of the greatest people in my life really, the Mexicans are great people and I love the culture and nature and everyting. I just totally fell for the country (and not only for the country... *wink wink*). And the trip I´m making now, just really is a gift. I am constantly thinking how incredibly lucky I am to be here, and first I thought I´d find it scary on my own, but instead I´m having the time of my life and I am amazing myself in every courageous step that I´m taking. Apparently I´ve changed a lot lately - personally I feel that it started with my exchange to Madrid, I´m just more daring and I´m not stressing out in times of uncertainty like I used to do. Also talking with my friends here in Mexico has opened my mind, I´m learning so much from them and I value every single experience. I´ve never been to a country like this, with such a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and i feel I needed it to open my mind and eyes and to broaden my horizon even more. My loyal camera (the cheapest one but amazingly enough it takes great pictures) is processing around 60 pictures a day at this moment. I´ve only seen some of them on screen so far but what I´ve got, really seems to have captured soe of the endless beauty I´ve encountered up till now. I guess you´ll have to wait till I´m back home before I´ll put them online because when I get back to Mexico City I really want to enjoy the last days with my new-found friends for life. Okay, that was it for now... I hope to be able to write again soon =) lots of luv and *hugs*!