Nearly broke. I have two 500 notes and about 80 pesos in smaller coins and notes. Fuck. I may well not be able to pass the 500s at the small shops we will visit today. Not to mention the fact that entrance fees are clearly not included and I had to pay 20 to get in here.
I should have used a 500 last night to buy the last lot of drinks but I didn't have one in my wallet so I just used the last two 100 notes.
About six of us on the tour I think. No, seven including me.
We are at Misol-ha now, I am (was) waiting for the others to get back to the bus.
Huge shortage of photo space , I am having to restrain myself (and will no doubt end up having overdone it). May go on an uploading binge tonight now I can leave the laptop on in my room overnight with a wi-fi connection.
12:30. At Agua Azul. Hot. Sweaty. Having lunch in one of the several thousand near deserted restaurants by the path.
Misol-ha was pretty cool. This less so, though it does have some appeal. The water clearly descends a long way, judging from the effort and time to walk up to what I take is the top (the restaurants, food and souvenir stalls peter out), but it seems to do it via a series of smallish falls. Some are moderately impressive but (especially towards the top) it almost felt like it wasn't worth the effort of ascending. The more impressive bits are lower down, and while not bad, they aren't stunning.
There's a sort of lookout near the top and don't get me wrong, the view is not bad, but you don't really seem to get a sense of the scale of the series of falls from there either.
The water is not blue either. It's a very muddy brown. Half memories of my guide book suggest this may be due to the season.
There is a sign saying you should only swim in the area near the car park. There seem to be about five kids in there. I haven't seen anyone else in the water, though I did see tourists on the path in towels higher up implying they had an illicit (and probably stupid) swim somewhere up there. I'm not going in. Hot springs yes, some interesting pool at the base of a waterfall yes (not done this, but if I'd known I could have at Iguazu Falls), some frankly boring river by the car park where there just happen to be some moderately impressive waterfalls nearby? No thanks. It's not like I can actually swim anyway. (I could use the verb 'bathe' which would probably be more accurate, but it has a horribly Victorian quality.)
I hope I'm not in a bad mood. I wasn't too chuffed when we turned up because it seemed a bit undirected and 'where do I go?' but I don't think I'm being overly unfair in my descriptions.
We got here about 11:45 and are leaving at 2:15. God knows why quite so much time - I can only assume it's to allow for us to buy lunch or to go swimming. But unless I am totally missing something, it's not just me who seems disinclined to bother with the latter. (The place as a whole is not heaving with tourists but is far from deserted, so I might have expected to see more of them in the water.)
Oh, I asked if they could change my 500 and they said they could. So even if the food sucks at least I will get some more easily spendable cash.
13:45. Having a bit of a wander (though not up to the top), now that I'm not rushing to make sure I don't miss anything and not so worried about food, I may have been a bit harsh earlier. Two or three of the lower falls are fairly impressive.
14:50. We stopped at side of road apparently to let one woman off to get a bus to San Cristobal. We seem to have been sat her 10-15 mins now. I keep microsleeping.
Hm, a bus just turned up. Maybe she was waiting for it with our driver. (It on other side of bus to me, so I couldn't see her stood there, I am inferring.)
16:30. Back at Cafe de Yara. I happen to observe from the bilingual menu 'aguacate' is avocado. That could have caught me out another time. I thought 'palta' was avocado.
Got dropped off in the middle of town 'somewhere'. Stumbled across another tour operator whose blurb about the trip I want to do was suspiciously similar to that of the guys I bought the tour from today. I suspect they are all just reselling. I booked via the new guys, incidentally saving myself MXN50 (550 vs 600).
We just didn't go to one of the waterfalls advertised. Digging the leaflet out, Agua Clara. We left Agua Azul at 2:15 and got back here about 4.
Journey back shit. Roads are twisty as hell, which I noticed on the way out, but I had changed seat (for the better I thought) when that woman got out. No. Tho I suspect old seat was no better. No horizontal support so continually bracing myself against floor or leaning on my arm against the wall (not an option in my old seat). Seat had clearly intentional 'lumps' in the cushion to divide it into three (four?) parts. Three or four six year olds maybe. We weren't cramped, but the damn lump forced me to sit right at one end. The seat didn't quite reach the wall so I felt I was sitting half off the thing.
So tho I doubt it makes a difference due to my reseller hypothesis, that (especially simply missing out one of the three) is why I wasn't overly desperate to go back to the guys who sold me today's tour.
Ended up going completely the wrong way after buying the ticket, vague plan was to go back to hotel maybe via bus station to buy a tkt for day after tomorrow. Since I came the wrong way it was convenient to stop in here for a beer or two. I just may eat here but probably not, simply as I ate relatively recently.
20:25. Down restaurant near hotel. Left some more photos uploading to my PC at home, had to hang around a bit while first lot finished. (I could be lots cleverer, but my current "I trust it to work without much risk of losing stuff" method means I need enough space on the laptop for each batch I transfer, so I couldn't simply kick an enormous transfer off earlier.)
Spoke to reception, apart from them thinking my reservation was with expedia (apparently that's the same as hotels.com - not that I care, I went with them as wego made them out cheapest for this place), that's fine, I can keep my room.
I noted a little printed ad at reception for tours. For the one I did today for MXN120 (theirs is directly comparable as it doesn't even offer the waterfall we missed out), they want MXN290. And for the one I am doing tomorrow for 550 they want 895. They also advertise 'min X persons required' (presumably for the smallish hotel as a whole, rather than you needing a group that big to book). Maybe their tours are a bit nicer, but I suspect they're just reselling the same ones at an even bigger profit than everyone else.
20:45. Just eaten. Steak and chips. Would have been excellent (even the vegetables were good, and they gave me bread and pico de gallo) except the steak was incredibly tough. Oh well. Cheapish all the same.
Just ordered a beer. Need to be careful with the 6am start but it's not that late yet.
Pretty comfortable out tonight, though a nearby fan may be helping matters.
Music here is fairly pleasant in a way I shouldn't admit to liking. Sort of vaguely 70s classic mellow pop/rock (not exclusively, there was a female - Whitney Houston?? - cover version of 'Without You'.). Two youngish women here earlier and one had to tell the other the song playing was "Hotel California" by The Eagles. Young people today, eh? :-)
Am here on my own at present. If I can get another I will - I mean, it's not late in absolute terms - then maybe make a move.
21:45. Just got the bill. Seems a bit early but I am kind of pushing it as it is.
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