Merida-Valladolid

Thu 1033 at terminal. Vaguely got up about 8-9. Didn't sleep too badly but not great.

Booked hostel - went for the one with the pool, in the coldish light of dawn this appeals less but none of the other options seemed massively better and if I can swim a bit over next few days that would ease pain of resuming lessons. I booked bus, much fuckery but since I also had weird fuckery with trying (and giving up) to book a swimming lesson for when i get back I am not entirely sure this is ado's fault, although tbh what worked on what phone when is a confused mess. And ado are a bunch of arseholes for blocking vpns - so what if someone scrapes their site? The end result can only be someone *buying a ticket from ADO*. They are providing a real world service, not a digital only thing which can be pirated and deprive them of revenue.

I didn't say yday but when in little supermarket I went to nearish hostel next to Oxxo (I didn't use oxxo actually even if I said I did), a woman had left her shopping trolley in queue and I pushed ahead as wasnt sure it wasnt just deserted and she came back and I moved to let her go ahead of me and she was almost "this guy is a mental patient" levels of reassuring and almost patronisingly nice and said I only had two items so go ahead of her and it was all just a little odd. While not super cheery I also don't think I was feeling noticeably worked up or stressy or panicked or anything.

And it just hit me that the Spanish "X wishes you a pleasant journey" spiel played automatically by some companies at most of these terminals is reminiscent of the Spanish woman giving a little speech in the Strangler's "Spain".

1044 just done bloody Duolingo to get it out of the way. (There is free WiFi at the terminal.)

Ad here says Campeche carnival is on for nearly a month. Perhaps this explains the relatively low key nature of it. Maybe not.

I didn't take advantage of private room to exercise. Easy to make excuses but given I was only there two nights and yesterday I left late even without exercising and had eaten by the time I got back and the other days were arrival or departure days I can't totally blame myself.

Ado won't even allow you to download your own ticket using the link they emailed you via a VPN. Which is just arse squared. (And of course they can't simply attach the ticket to the email, because reasons. No password is needed to use the download link in the email, so I see no security benefit here and it is just extra inconvenience even if you are not using a VPN.)

1056 yay-ish. On his. I spoke to guy and he scanned my ticket so should be fine. He told me to put bag in boot and I asked and he said no and then changed his mind, so it is in rack. But... They are announcing buses, ans showing them on the screen (this is in area B, presumably for more local buses, I was told to come there and showed my ticket in entry) *but* this bus was nkt announced. Or shown in screen. If I hadn't happened to get confused and think the 1100 chetumal bus which was announced was mine I could and probably would have missed my bus, and I honestly don't think it would have really been my fault. Fuck knows.

I hope this is the right bus but hell, if did say valladolid on the front and as I say the guy checked my ticket too.

This is potentially the second to last "long" bus hop of the trip.

1101 seeing a handful of other people boarding - bus is mostly empty - I do wonder if there was an announcement/departure board entry shown between me coming out here and now. No way to know.

1104 I haven't checked my old notes but my memory suggests that on 2010 trip I was coming into Valladolid on a fairly long night bus. I have these weird and probably completely wrong dusty "desert" images in my head.

1116 paw patrol super film or something like that is on. Put my headphones on...

1223 it is freezing on the bus. Got fleece on and it is still a bit cold.

The film just had a point where all the dogs gave their superpower crystals to one because she needed them. This triggered the odd thought of a world where you could maybe go rent a superpower crystal from shop for the day. Odder still, I didn't think you could rent one for the fun of it to go flying or something, but to help you do the housework or something, like you might rent

1258 coming into Pisté terminal.

Some sort of vaguely martial arts superpower film on. Marvel branded. Some stuff about ten rings of power but some woman guardian of the last place unconquered on earth by the guy with the 10 rings defeats him without breaking sweat (I have to admire her commitment to non-intervention, given she could have done this any time but waited til he turned up at her village) then maybe gives him the rings back anyway, but now we are in modern day San Francisco and some youngish guy has a green pendant that maybe gives him super fighting skills but I don't really know and am not actively watching, it is just hard not to see bits and pieces.

2035 Sitting on the deserted hostel terrace outside by the two pools, I've just got back. The only person I've seen is the owner who's sitting inside, so goodnight to him. I'll say hello, whatever.

No one else seems to be around just to jump ahead maybe slightly. There's one ex-guest now friend of owner, a Canadian Mexican chap who I spoke to whenI arrived who's staying here, and there's a young Brazilian woman (who is nearly always sitting in dorm on laptop giving english lessons to brazilians or talking to friends - she seems nice and polite and friendlyish in our brief interactions tho) and there's another guy who speaks very good English but I don't know whether he's a guest or where he's from. I don't think I've seen anyone else. There seem to be like three of us in my dorm, which is me, the Brazilian woman and that guy who isn't the owner or the friend. I don't think I've seen anyone else. It's fine. It's fine. I'm just saying everyone's seems to speak English with the possible exception of a youngish Mexican woman who seems to be staff and for all I know she does speak English. However I'm not saying anything terribly controversial and no one is remotely near me so it's a lot easier to use the voice typing.

For the record, I had two Bohemia oscufas in a bar which we'll come onto as I do the chronological stuff. I'm just about to crack open one of two dos equis I bought at a six on the way back. It seems to be one of those states, I'm guessing, where oxo and other places don't sell beer. Like, Campeche, maybe. Anyway, that's my inference.

Okay, so we got into valladolid probably more or less on time. I walked to the hostel, no problem. Got checked in, as I say, spoke to that Canadian Mexican chap and then the owner, I think he's called Oscar. Everyone very nice, everyone seems to speak English. I got into the dorm, I had a lower bunk without asking. I thought I had to send that message. Brazilian woman was on the bunk, giving a lesson, but I sort of nodded at her and it was fine, We spoke briefly when she happened to finish her lesson just as I was about to leave after unpacking myself and making my bunk. Turns out it was a 30-pesso charge here to have unlimited coffee that you make yourself, and water for the duration of your stay. Wasslightly taken aback. But I thought I'd go for that, I just hope if I do extend, I don't have to pay that again, because it's not the end of the world. Jumping ahead again, I did have a cup of coffee, which probably already puts me ahead of the game, and I've taken a little bit of water. So, while I hope not to pay again, it's not a huge deal.

So I went out and to be honest, for no really obvious reason I was feeling a little bit out of it and a little bit frustrated and a little bit what the hell am I doing here. It's not like I was starving because I had those Takis Fuego this morning and I had 100gish nuts and fruit on bus when a sudden hunger pang came on so it's not like I was absolutely starving nor did I feel actively starving but anyway I was wandering around and it's fairly hot and I'm in a bit of a bad mood and I'm kind of recognising this but it is hard to mentally adjust.

I wandered around and I really wasn't sure what I was even looking for and maybe there's an element of weirdness at the end of the trip and I'm feeling lazy or just want to be home or missing the social stuff I've had recently or I just don't know. Anyway, nothing huge but just saying strange mood.

So I thought I'd go over to the Cenote in town and have a look at it. I didn't have any swimming gear with me and I wasn't in town to swim. I just wanted to check it out on the rules. So I went there and I queued up in the shortish queue and I spoke to the woman. And I wasn't rude, honestly. I wasn't super excited or super friendly, but I wasn't rude. And I spoke to in Spanish. There's also signs. Turns out lifejackets are mandatory, which pissed me off a bit at the time, but I can kind of see that if that's the rules, that's the rules. And other cenotes are probably the same, and it does at least avoid any, oh, am I good enough swimmers to need one or not? So, you know, and I suppose it's an experience. It's 150 pesos, which is slightly steep, including the lifejacket higher. There's no lockers, but you can leave your bag with the woman at the counter where you pay, and there are apparently changing rooms. apparently changing rooms.

So I walked away from that, and I wandered around a bit more, and I said I still wasn't sure what I wanted, and I didn't really feel like eating in any Mexican place, because I didn't want to faff with sauces and fucknose what. Anyway, I decided I'd have a look and see if I could find a chicken place, because I still actually haven't had a proper kind of chicken over a fire, rotisserie kind of place, and there's lots of them, so you could even argue that's authentic. Just an awful lot of them don't let you eat in, or it's too hot and the last thing I really feel like doing is Sitting in an unair-conditioned room, sweating my balls off, eating greasy chicken.

So I was heading over to what might have been somewhere like that, based on organic maps, which does not seem to be terribly up to date in this part of the world, and I came across a Chinese, you know, pick your own and they serve you once buffetish kind of cheap place, super down at heel. Anyway, I went in there and I ordered some stuff, and to be fair, it wasn't too bad. I didn't have a drink because all the stuff in the fridge was warm and the thermometer on the fridge said 14 Celsius. Fingers crossed it was okay. There were a few people in there. So there's that. I then came back to the hostel and I walked past the chicken place which I'd been heading to and it looks maybe okay so I've kind of penciled that in for tomorrow at some point.

I think, to be honest, the whole swimming thing in its different forms, you know, the lesson at home, wanting to swim here, the fact I haven't swum much, the whole cenote business, whether I take advantage of the pool here or not, was playing on my mind. At this point, it was maybe about four-ish, obviously, I'd just eaten as a bit full, so maybe it was a bit after four. So, I came back to the hosfel and I was thinking, okay, look, well, I'm going to have a coffee because I've paid for it, and maybe after an hour, I will see if I can use the pool. So I got back and apart from the woman, staff member, who I asked about coffee and she showed me how to make one, there was no one around the pool was empty, so I had a coffee and I checked sunset and I was slightly tight on time, but basically I had a single coffee and then I went with the dorm and the Brazilian woman was still on the laptop, threw in a call, probably to a friend or boyfriend this time, and I got ready to swim and I came down and had a shower in the little place by the pool.

So I got into the pool, I don't know, it was maybe half-five this point, maybe a little bit earlier, I'm not sure, and actually it was alright, I had it to myself, it's not huge, but it's maybe chest deep for the shallow end and actually like, maybe six foot five-ish, based on trying to measure by standing on the bottom, holding hand spans above my head, at the deep end, perhaps only about ten metres long, although I switched to swimming diagonals at some point, given that I had the place to myself. Anyway, it is actually a proper pool, you can actually swim in, it's not just This is one of those cool offs by sitting in it and slashing around kind of things that a lot of hostels will palm off as a swimming pool. Although there is a second pool I haven't been in there right next to each other and the other one is probably one of those.

And it was pretty tiring at first, I was knackered after five minutes, but I sort of kept persevering, and I was in the water about 37 minutes, and I may well have been swimming for 20 or even quite a bit more at that time, swimming, you know, doing something, treading water or strokes or whatever. And I felt good having made an effort, and this is kind of like prepping for resuming lessons and practicing back home. And also, you know, it means I used the pool which I kind of used as an excuse/reason to pick this hostel, and I ticked it off. And you know, if I never swim again on this trip, I've now done it, and it kind of picked me up a bit one way or another.

I had a bit of a look after that back in the dorm for language exchanges and I thought I'd found one at Les Paul but then subsequently I tried to find Les Paul because I thought I might go over there tonight even though the language exchanges tomorrow and just ask and I realise that Les Paul is probably in the Vayadolid in Spain. Not a big deal. The guidebook is all like Vayadolid is not big on nightlife. I mean that seems to be very true. I'm not too interested in hipster fucking bars and super expensive craft beers. Not like a craft beer but not super expensive one in a tourist place but based on what's about to come it seems pretty quiet and maybe it's only Thursday.

Anyway so I went out and I wandered around asking first from the English speaking guy who's not the staff member or his friend and if it's safe and they said yes, there seemed to be a pit bully looking dog I'd seen earlier in a front garden, admittedly very tranquil looking one with the gate open but it didn't do anything so didn't matter but I didn't come back when I came back just now

So I wandered round. I was basically just looking somewhere to have a beer or two. I figured I'd kind of earned it after having made an effort with the swimming and having had a few days off. I could have maybe had some in one of the sort of restaurants around the square but you know it really is pretty quiet and it didn't feel quite right and I kept wandering round and it was fine. It was nice to see the place at night but there were people around certainly but you know I was expecting more bars. I didn't check out one cantina but there were two waiters or bouncers Hanging around by the door and it didn't really appeal, I had a look on organic maps and I ended up going into Yucateco or something like that which actually walked past earlier and decided I wasn't going to go into but seemed like the lesser of multiple evils, not that many evils to choose from to be honest. And it was okay basically, there was a foreign tourist looking woman talking to a local, the rest of the people seem to be Mexican but it was pretty small and wasn't tremendously intimidating.

Oh, just to jump back. Mark had told me, admittedly talking about Saturday night, about maybe 10 or 11 at night, or later, that plaza la candelatka was good and he'd been there with some people and met some locals and they kept giving them beer. I was wandering around and I saw this on the map, actually I looked up where he told me about, even though it was a different day and earlier, I went over there. There were people around, some sort of labour union people, giving a talk on the little stage there. They didn't really seem to be any bars. They were quite a lot of people about, but nothing seemed to be happening bar wise. So at that point, I'd started looking more on organic maps and that's when I ended up going to Yokoteko. I might well try that Clasalacandalaria Plaza tomorrow night a bit later or the night after. I also spotted a bar near the hostel on the way back that might try tomorrow night or something.

I think I made a bit of a booboo in Yokoteko by going up to the bar asking what beers they had and the woman there showed me the menu looking a bit surly and I said I'll have a Bohemia and after we established she didn't actually have any Clara so I got an Oscar she gave me one and I gave her 50 pesos and I think It was supposed to be table service but fuck it didn't know did I so I went and sat down and it was fine and then a waiter came past and gave me some free snacks which made me feel quite a lot better but I finished the beer in a minute. 10 minutes even though I wasn't feeling too bad. I don't know, I was just thirsty or keen.

And like, I saw other people getting the bill at their tables, but the waiter didn't really seem to want to look at me, or they were kind of two of them, and maybe I was just shy, or maybe I don't want to be rude, or maybe I'm not fucking sure if I'm allowed to talk to any waiter, or just the one who sort of served me, or if I'm excluded from this now, because I ordered at the bar, and I don't want to be that guy who's saying, like, well, excuse me, can I get another beer when they're clearing another table, but maybe I'm supposed to do that, and I was feeling a tiny bit shit, not terrible, but a tiny bit shit, and basically, although I was looking around, I wasn't like waving my arms around trying to get tension and there's only about five tables in there, so I get super busy, you know, two or three other groups, tops, because the other two other tables left while I was watching, that's what they were going to build.

So after about 20 minutes without a beer, it's fine, you know, I went up to the bar again and I thought, fuck it, if you're not going to come to the table, then I will go to the bar, and you know, she served me, I gave her 50 pesos, I left 10 pesos awkwardly on the table on the counter without anyone really seeing me as a tip, because I figured although I've had no fucking table service, they have at least given me the snacks. So I got that beer, I drank it fairly quickly, not feeling too bad to be honest, and then it was like I left, because fuck it. I might go back there another night, let's say Saturday, and try for table service, and I'm not holding a massive grudge, but it was kind of shit worse, it was slightly my fault or not.

I was thinking I'd get a beer and maybe some snacks on the way home and drink from the hostel. I went into the oxo, I was looking at the snacks, and as often happens it's like this happens back in the UK as well. I really, sometimes I fancy some crisps, but often it's like I really don't want any of this crap. It's like maybe I'd go for some fried chicken if that was available and I was feeling lardy, but I don't really want to a packt of biscuits, I don't really want cake. It's like I didn't really want any crisps, anyway, so I then realised I couldn't get a beer in the oxo, so I didn't buy anything. I looked on the phone and I found a six, which wasn't actually where the map said it was, but that's organic maps in this part of the world, but I did go in and it was very small, but the staff were reasonably nice, and I got a couple of beers on a 46 for two offer.

So I came back to hostel and that's where we came in because I've been sitting out here drinking the beer and I already said that I think.

So, where do we stand? I'm not feeling too bad with this. Certainly much better than I was earlier. I don't know whether that was lack of food or food just helped anyway or whatever. Maybe the swimming also helped, but not feeling too bad. Bit awkward in the bar. I don't know what the fuck was going on, but that's all part of the tourist experience, especially when you're on your own. It's fine.

The hostel seems pretty nice and I am pretty impressed with the pool in its way. I've also possibly actually spoken to every single person staying and working here and to the relevant extent they all seem reasonably friendly. It does not feel like it's going to be super matey now. I'm not saying that some of these people might not be up for a chat if I'm around them and Brazilian woman is not on her laptop and the other guy is not talking to the owner or whatever but I could always push myself and be a bit brave and do some of the stuff Mark told me so to speak. But it doesn't feel super busy which is good with a bit to the pool but not with other socialising but nice enough feeling better than I did earlier but it's a little bit weird.

Anyway, I think the very short term plan is going to have this finished this beer and maybe have the other one go to bed, not super late, try to be your early-ish tomorrow thinking more about UV radiation than anything but also about busyness and go to the cenote maybe eight-ish in the morning depending on when it opens, maybe get a coffee at the hostel first if I'm up early enough and I can but that way I've ticked the cenote off and you know I've done it and it'll be nice and I don't have to worry about protecting my head or sunblock or whatever because it'll be early. And then, you know, I might wander around, maybe do a museum, maybe have dinner, well obviously have dinner or early lunch I should say, somewhere perhaps that chicken place, maybe somewhere else, apparently how I'm feeling. I might also see if I can extend for Saturday night, so that will be three nights here. We'll see how I sleep, etc. I don't think there's a huge amount to do here, there's probably side trips you can do out to other places and I'm not saying I won't do them, but I'm not desperate at this point in the trip. And then, unless I'm utterly knackered, I might try and swim in the pool again, especially if I get it to myself tomorrow a bit before sunset, so that's more exercise and prepping for return to the UK and take an advantage. And I guess if I stay Saturday again, it would be good to use the pool Saturday night. I could use it first thing in the morning, but if it's empty-ish before sunset, that's probably a lot more comfortable and less stress and less hassle. It's also a natural time for me to have a shower anyway.

2113 Okay, I've just broken off to actually go on book the swimming lesson for next Wednesday. If I feel knackered, it's 6 quid written off. There were four of five slots available, but I figure, especially, given I might get two or three days of swimming at least. I'll talk about that more in a second here. And I am going to be in London that night because I'm not going back to seeing my parents till the day after. Might as well book it. I could have probably put it off. And now it's sorted. The booking site was, I think, trying to be clever as fuck because it showed the timers six hours earlier than it should be. I assume it's using my local time zone. It did say Wednesday, although when I was doing the search, it was confusing as hell because it was like showing one day off. But I'm fairly sure it booked the right thing. I can't see them having completely rearranged everything and stopped evening lessons in the last eight weeks. Who knows? Absolute worst case, it's six quid gone.

So just to resume, where are we? The hostel seems nice enough, it's possible I talk to people, it doesn't feel ultramaty but then you just don't know, do you right? You can go anywhere and find it's not and maybe I can make more of an effort and maybe I will make an effort and blah blah blah. Also, although I'm sure it's not great if I'm going on my own, rather than with a group, maybe there's some potential at that class or place that Mark told me about Saturday night, maybe even Friday night, if I go later, whatever.

It's also nice to have the pool and, given I'm kind of in a wind down phase of the trip, although it would be nice to socialise and go out and stuff, also be nice to meet locals. I could see some value in like, well let's try and pick up the swimming again, take advantage of this pool here for a few days, blah blah blah.

Ignoring the pool, it also kind of feels like actually, unless you start doing side trips, valladolid is kind of nice, but also a little dull. Maybe I'm being unfair, it's only my first day and I haven't always had the best attitude. It kind of feels a bit like a, not like Sankris, because Sankris felt a bit livelier, but it feels like a hotter Sankris if you put that aside. It's like, it seems quite nice and if I wasn't at the time pressure, I could imagine kind of enjoying, spending four, five days longer here. Sort of vaguely chilling out and, you know, maybe meeting people, depending on which hostel you are, and trying different places or going out a bit at night and maybe trying to meet locals. But that's not the time schedule I'm on.

I suppose what I'm saying is, assuming I sleep okay, I can probably see myself extending at this hostel for Saturday night, that way I can go out and see what happens and so forth. I might even extend for Sunday, but what I'm kind of thinking is, although I really have no idea what Cancun Centro is really like, maybe after a few days here on the particular schedule I'm on, It might be nicer to go to Cancun and therefore be less stressed about getting to the airport and have like Sunday and Monday nights in Cancun in the actual centre not in that place I was in when I came. It was nice but you know remote and it was different when I arrived. You know, maybe around Cancun Centro is dead or maybe it's still horribly resorty full of screaming, foreign tourists, or maybe it's threatening, but you know, maybe it's a bit livelier than here, and maybe it'd be something different to see, and you know, maybe I could find a niceish bar and go there, or maybe there'd be a language exchange or something, or whatever. I mean, I don't have to decide now, I do need to decide what I'm going to do in a day or two, But those are my rough thoughts at the moment, anyway I think I don't think it would hurt to stay here for Saturday night, you know that would give me two nights in Cancun, Centro if I wanted them and it also means I have the option to try that place Mark told me about Saturday night or to find somewhere else lively or to be braver about going into different bars or to search for language exchange or meet up group and it gives me at least three nights including tonight with the pool to practice a bit which is something towards prepping for returns to the UK. I could totally still see myself doing the extra two nights here if only because of the pool and because I'm not that excited about Cancun and blah blah and you know getting the bus to Cancun or the airport on Tuesday during the day.

I can't put the decision off indefinitely, especially if I want to investigate this direct bus to the airport. I ought to at least look what times they go, might do that in a second, but I can certainly put the decision off until tomorrow and probably the day after.

With regard to the swimming lesson obviously there's a chance that I'm going to be totally knackered after not sleeping much on the flight and jet lag with my body clock at the wrong time you know it's like that lesson is effectively happening in the early hours of the morning but absolute worst case is I don't turn off or I turn up and I'm shit but at least I've shown willing and I've got back into it and blah blah blah

2124 Okay, ADO being ADO, you can't just search for buses to Cancun airport, you have to search for a specific terminal (or buses to Cancun as a whole), so I had to search to all three. Basically, there's no buses to terminal three or four, there's a bus to terminal two, that's probably fine, I'm sure there's internal transport. However, there are two buses a day, assuming it's not just because the tickets are sold out, but I'm guessing not. One leaves at five in the morning, one leaves at 1500, that's three in the afternoon, takes about three hours, 40 minutes. So the 1500 bus gets therebexactly in time for my flight to leave, and the 5am bus gets there in time for me to hang around at the airport for about 10 hours. So, I don't think I'm taking the direct bus, that's not to say that I won't stay here until the Tuesday and get a bus to Cancun Centro. I already know the terminal, it's the same place, while a bit faffy, I'm sure there is no difficulty whatsoever changing for a bus to the airport, but the direct buses, unless there is someone other than ADO, which I doubt, do not work for me.

Nearly finished first of my two beers here and will probably have the second in a minute (I put it in the fridge)

I'm not feeling too bad, obviously, there's a certain amount of uncertainty, it's not an endless whirl of excitement and adventure and really wild things. It's not obviously like that here, but it's a funny stage of the trip, you know, it's fine, it's fine. I kind of wish I'd put an extra night in in Merida, at the same time. I wasn't crazy about it, and I wouldn't really want to have to change accommodation but I didn't really want to have to pay for another night in that semi-expensive private room. It's not like I won't be back. It's not like there's anything specific I really missed. It's just, you know, maybe I could have stayed there. But I am under the cosh with time, and valladolid it is closer to Cancun. It's not like there's nothing to do here. As I say, if I wasn't worried about the time, it'd probably be quite cool to put in four or five days here.

I was kind of thinking earlier when I left the hostel after just checking in that maybe part of what was making me feel a bit discombobulated was this whole, oh I'm really coming down to the end of the trip so I've got to make every day count and I'm not making every day count because things feel a bit crap and weird or dead or unhopeful. Obviously that's irrational and it is where it is and all sorts of stuff is good and you know I didn't have too bad a day overall and the pool was nice and that has made me feel a lot better about going back. I haven't slipped back immensely on swimming et cetera et cetera. It's all fine. It is what it is and the end of the trip is always meant to be funny anyway so I feel basically okay you know I'm just waffling but you know trying to get there just down for future me to read.

And I do have a fairly solid plan for tomorrow, what with the cenote early and then a niceish lunch somewhere, be that the chicken place or somewhere else, and the odd museum and then a swim at sunset and a casual no fuss bar trip out for the evening. I just need to decide if I'm extending for Sag night, but it's pretty likely I will extend for at least one more night. And I need to check out the buses to Kankoon generally and stuff. I might do that now over a second beer, just to feed into the subconscious decision-making process.

Quite a nice cool breeze. As, if I forgot to say, there was in merida even during the daylight on some streets at some times late afternoon and also more so after sunset and contributing to that vaguely exotic enticing air of adventure I mentioned.

2134 Okay, it's inconvenient as shit due to having to switch profiles thanks to ADO's VPN stuff, but the ideal bus from here to Cancun is 1010, getting in at 1340. I think I may have misremembered that. The bus before that leaves it something like 850. The trouble is, that's kind of okay. I mean, that gives me five hours until the flight goes and, you know, I haven't checked yet, but there are probably pretty frequent buses from Cancun central to the airport. It's just like, what if that bus is delayed? Am I going to be stressing my guts up? You know, I could get the 850 and it's an extra. It's a shitty early-ish morning start, well at least it's still daylight. And it's basically an extra hour and a half hanging around at the airport, if everything goes okay, maybe it's not really that much less stressful because I'm still worried about missing it. So, of course it's always crappy getting to the airport. I mean, this is 50-50, right? This isn't terrible, it's doable, it's not ridiculously optimistic and no safety margin. It does also kind of make me think that it might just be nicer to be in Cancun the night before the flight, and maybe even the night before, not so much for buffer zone as in order to do something with the stays in Cancun rather than just literally getting there that evening and checking in and then going out to the airport next morning.sleep on it I guess.

I mean, unless it starts to turn out to be super social here, or I go out Saturday night and I don't want to be overly worried about being hung over And having to get another bus on Sunday, but I could always book the Cancun hostel and bus on Sunday morning, right? Because I'm not going to be in a super-duper rush to get to Cancun. You know, there's absolutely no problem at all with going over on Monday and extending here on Sunday morning if I am hung over after a brilliant night out on Saturday. These sentences are not in a logic order, it's just the way I'm voice typing but I hope it will make some kind of sense if I really need to think about it in future and it's not like it's critical.

Okay, the voice typonh doesn't seem to work very well if I'm multi-tasking and switch away to another app, not totally unreasonable.

So, to repeat myself, I think what I'm kind of saying is, stay here Saturday night, Sunday morning I make a decision based on whether I'm tired because I had a good night out on Saturday, or whether it just seems cool enough and fun enough here that I really want to be here Sunday anyway. And then I can book for Cancun that morning and just get the bus over. It's not like I'm racing to get a flight that day on the Sunday. So I may stay Sunday here or in Cancun. I would almost certainly go to Cancun on the Monday if I didn't go on the Sunday. I'm probably going on the Sunday but, you know, it keeps my options open. And if I had a good night here on the Saturday and therefore I stay here on the Sunday for whatever reason, I'm still not racing against the clock. But there's probably no major reason to stay here Monday and I could still do that if I really wanted to. I'll see you next time.

It's not that bad, and I have seen this mention elsewhere, so I didn't observe it entirely on my own account, but the voice typing does have a certain tendency, I think it was trained on YouTube data, and if you just do like a tap and then stop tapping without saying anything, it was very likely to interpret that as "thanks for watching" and it just popped up in the transcription of something I said, although it did then change its mind, it only flickered in because it does revise what it's doing as it processes the audio, I guess, but it's kind of amusing. It's not great, but I suppose it's a hell of a lot better than it could be, and even this buggy, crappy, waffly talk is better than nothing for future me to look at.

I do half wonder if I should not have the second beer here and the fourth beer of the night. I'm going to be here at least tomorrow night. Absolutely worst case I throw the beer away, it costs me a pound and I don't really want to jeopardize the cenote tomorrow morning. I don't feel particularly drunk but I also don't crave it and you know, it's late enough that I could go to bed and probably go to sleep without any enormous difficulty.

Okay, if Google Maps to be believe  the Cinote opens at 9am, some idiot in the comments seems to think 150 pesos is 60pence, but whatever. I don't think there's that much h  change to exchange rate  in five months. So, I'm not saying I will have the beer, I was just checking, but that's a bit... I'm sure that's fine with regards to solar radiation stuff. It's a cenote, It's probably in a sort of valley, cave-y kind of environment. But it does mean I probably don't really need to be up any earlier than 730 at outside. I'm not dead sure, but it's probably something like 15 to 20 minutes walkaway tops, perhaps quite a lot less. I've not measured it and I'm not going to look it up on the maps.

If I go to bed now-ish, well it's going to be like ten past ten by the time I'm in bed after cleaning my teeth. I probably will go to sleep. I'll probably wake up in the night, a little bit, nothing major. I'll probably be awake, five-ish, six-ish, and struggle o get back to sleep. I could get up, I suppose. It seems stupid to drink more just to kill the time, I could stay up but not drink here, but probably shouldn't have a coffee, I don't fancy making one either. Doesn't really seem sensible to put on the weight and burn the health credits as it were from another beer. I think I might move towards bed. It's tempting to should have the other beer, but as I say, I'm not really craving it.

I Half wish I'd brought myself a snack back or something but that'd be more unhealthy food and weight put on and I'm not really hungry to be honest you know and I can maybe have some pastry tomorrow or something as well as a nice dinner and there'll be beers tomorrow night and stuff so as I say it's not really a massive loss in the big picture scheme

I actually do still have like a swallow of this first can and beer, because I've been talking and writing this of course. I think I'm going to have that and then I'm going to move towards bed. Absolute worst case is i am up six-ish. It'll almost be daylight, I could even go for a little walk. It'll mean I'm not rushing around. The chances are I'll go back to sleep. It's fine, it's fine. It's not like the dorm's ultra rammed either. Yeah. I think that's a plan. It's not like I'm going to regret not having this beer. I can always have it tomorrow night. Right. It's fine.

I mean, I really can't believe I've got this entire huge terrace to myself, both the pools, they're lit up, presumably, if I really wanted to, I could be swimming at this time of night, or, you know, relaxing in the plunge pool with a beer. There's actually a pool bar set up at the shallow end of the big pool, although, you know, I'm guessing that's somewhat aspirational or leftover from previous owner, but, you know, and I'm glad it's not that kind of pool, so I couldn't swim in if it was full of people sitting at the pool bar, but I still can't believe I've got this whole place to myself, it's just weird. this a newish hostel, so to wish them well, I suppose, on the whole, anyway.

There are cicadas doing their theme or crickets or whatever the hell they are, just for atmosphere.

2155 Okay, I've just finished the beer. I'm gonna move towards bed. I may tap out a teeny little bit on the on-screen keyboard when I'm in bed and I'll send this then. Yeah.

2209 in bed. I suspect other two dorm inhabitants are already in bed and asleep judging from curtains. There is a fan on iirc ceiling which is off and an aircon unit on the wall which is definitely off and it is IMO mildly over warm in here and slightly annoyingly so given these provisions for cooling but can't be helped, that is dorms for you.

Also my bunk doesn't seem to have a curtain along the long side unlike the other two occupied ones but can't be helped.

Merida, Wednesday

Wed 1843 Back at the hotel, there's some sort of event being set up in the main square, so when I got home I had a look to see what it was. It was obviously not starting straight away. I couldn't see any musical instruments either. It might be a political rally or something like that for all I know. Anyway, despite me having had a look a couple of hours ago and some running web search, it turns out there is a language exchange here tonight in some sort of public library in town. It starts at seven. I probably ought to go, but I'm probably not. This is maybe a bit weak, but I'm bit late and I need to shower and clean my teeth before I go and it's... Let me waffle generally.

It's been an odd kind of day, just sort of for me nothing really strange has happened. I didn't sleep too badly, I got up not that late ut then I sort of dicked around in the room before going out about one. There might be some kind of mud dogs and Englishmen thing here because maybe I should make an effort to go out early and then come home or hide myself away somewhere else during the peak of the day but I don't and because of ticking around and I can sleep. I didn't.

I think I have to accept that part of the attraction for me of Merida on this particular stay is that I splurged on a private room with air conditioning, so I can't entirely blame myself for wanting to indulge in it, so to speak.

I will say that if I'd found out about that language exchange, assuming it's actually odd, which it probably is, when I looked at five-ish, I would probably have tweaked my plan slightly and made an effort to go. So we could put it down to sort of anti-serendipity, me finding out about it later. I did look about five-ish. Just, I didn't find that website because I wasn't going in with what are the public events to try and find out what's happening in the main square. I still haven't found that out. And again, I'm probably not going to go back. maybe I will wander out for that, probably not.

I'm feeling a bit bad as I say this. I've been feeling a little bit funny all day, but I'm not going. I do feel I ought to, and it might even be fun, although it does have English, Spanish, and other languages. And with it being in a public library, you do kind of wonder what it's going to be like if it's not in some sort of bar. But the key thing is the timing. I wouldn't really need to shower, and maybe not shave, because I did that this morning. I'd need to shower, clean my teeth. It would be at least ten past seven by the time I left the hotel. I'd then be turning up late, I don't know how long it goes on, I don't know how informal it is, maybe I'm making excuses, it's not a deathbed regret situation.

So I went out for a walk about one and it was hot as hell and I didn't really know what I wanted to do and I was just wandering the streets and I was feeling a little bit like, what the hell am I doing? I was gonna maybe have a pastry or something but I didn't find any bakeries, I was gonna have a coffee but I didn't find anywhere that didn't seem like a rip-off. As I wandered around I did actually go into one place that seemed to be advertising a white coffee or a latte at about 60. But I went in and it looked quite big and slightly fancy and they had a courtyard at the back so I wandered out there to see if it was cooler or warmer in there than inside and a waiter sort of looked at me and he said table for one in Spanish and I said I just wanted to have a coffee and he pulled a fucking funny face at me and then he said yeah okay and I just said in Spanish probably badly it's okay I'll leave thanks I wasn't even storming out in a strop, i just wasn't that desperate for And the last thing I wanted was to have them pissed off with me and give my money to them if they were going to act like that. It's not like there were no tables free. The entire inside was empty, well, like 90% empty.

By sort of chance, I saw the Museo de Ferro Carrille in organic maps and I thought, okay, I'll go over there like, you know, that's serendipity. So I wandered over towards La Plancha and the park's quite nice and queued us to the town under the owners or the council or whatever. The railway vehicles and carriages scattered around the park haven't been refitted even though they appear to be publicly accessible and although it's hot as hell (OK, exaggeration), it's really rather nice.

After the full start and the fact I was a bit weirded out by the fact that you have to seemingly walk past loads of staff and down an aisle to get to the ticket office and that it was 120 pesos which felt a bit steep and that they asked me to leave my bag at the counter. I went into the museum. At least it was air conditioned and I will fully admit that for whatever reason I was feeling in a slightly funny mood already at this point I had vague political crap running around at the back of my head which maybe didn't help although I probably didn't really alter my perception too much. I just wasn't feeling, I don't know, in the mood for touristing or I don't know, I don't know.

So I went in and I'm looking at some of the exhibits and there's an annoying train chugging and whistle sound going off every now and then. And I'm having a look around the exhibits and it's not bad and it's like the place isn't actually as small as I expected. A couple of things different from the very informal, oh here's some trucks out on some track and a little exhibition doesn't open till three in a single room thing in Oaxaca. Although the oaxaca one was cool and in some ways I preferred it, you know, it was just different at the very least.

As I say, I had some vague political stuff running around my head, but there did seem to be a vague art gallery, word salad, workers' revolution, hints of diversity stuff about the text on all the exhibits. I was reading the English versions, but I looked at the Spanish ones and they had the same kind of slightly weird word salad structure. It wasn't just that the translation was poor.

There were like three set-piece things there, and I'm going to say technically they were pretty cool, right? I'm not going to say they're most amazing ever, but they were pretty cool, technically, and kudos for that. One of the annoying things about them was that there seemed to be like staff members or a few staff members kind of shadowing the little groups of tourists. There were not that many tourists there. All the stuff I did was basically me and I, as you were a Mexican couple, probably Mexican tourists, who knows. I didn't really speak to them except to smile at them a little bit. Actually it was sort of another half set piece that was just a bit dull but was nicely done in it way and probably aimed at kids but let's talk about that in a minute.

So anyway, before we get onto what they were, like the problem with these staff shadowing around was like you'd be looking at some exhibits and you feeling like you're being watched. And then at one point I was going to wander down a corridor to look at some stuff that was there and it probably wasn't the most interesting stuff ever, but there were some exhibits. And instead the staff woman politely gestured me into one of these set pieces. And then I never got to go and look back at the other stuff. I'm not exactly gutted about it, but it's like there was stuff in the museum I couldn't see.

So the first set piece was this old train, I think it's number 350, but it doesn't matter. Took a few very bad pictures, but I tried not to go nuts on the pictures. It was in this sort of circular room, and there were projectors, I don't know if there was some sort of laser light as well, and it wasn't quite 360 degrees around the walls. There was nothing right behind the train, I think. But otherwise it was close to 360, and they were projecting a sort of animation on it, and there was some narration, Andor Music. The first thing I saw, which the Mexican couple didn't turn up in time for and weren't allowed to stay to watch on their own because they had to shuffle us all around was some very brief animation about some people running through a desert and one of the women got pricked by a cactus-y thing and she picked up the thing and hit it on a rock to punish it and she discovered how to make some sort of fibre by beating this plant on a rock and it was like, well, a bit weird. to folk story or did you make this up? But, you know, it was fine. No real objections there.

And then the second bit in this circular room with the train was along, I think, pretty much music-only, slightly psychedelic animation of flying through space with vaguely train and station-related imagery, but a lot of statues and stuff. And as I say, it was actually quite cool. I did quite like that. It wasn't a lot the best thing ever, but yeah, I did like that.

So after that I was wondering what would happen next but then the woman shooed us out the opposite door to where we'd come in the other side of the train and we went into this room and there was some exhibits and then I started looking at some of them and then this is where I got chewed into the second set piece and we sat in this old carriage and there were like projectors set up either side so were you looking out the window as you were looking at a projected image and then they had a kind of she told us to sit down well I didn't know and I don't think the Mexicans knew It was actually going to be a set piece. We thought we were just walking through this carriage to have a look at it. It was an old second-class carriage from 1925. Quite nicely restored, quite nice. Yeah.

And so she told us there was going to be a show and to sit down. She didn't say show, but whatever. And then there was a pepper's ghost type thing where a virtual chap gave us a little introductory spiel and my heart sank because he said we were going to learn about gender equality. For better or worse, he meant men and women, but it's like for fuck's sake. I didn't go to be lectured.

And the odd thing is that the actual like projected filmy thing was just so contrived. It was just sort of in parallel chuntering about bills in the Mexican Congress or whatever in 19, whatever the hell it was, you know, early 1900s-ish, mixing that with this womans story While they were building the railroad and how she had been selling like food to the men working on the trains. They didn't go on about how she had been handicapped or something. It was just, oh, better for our daughters, working for the future, equity. It was utterly contrived. Maybe I should be grateful that it wasn't too really hammering the point home, but it's like they were just desperately trying to force this theme into a railway context. I don't know.

And the thing is the actual technical side of it was really good. At the start, there was some juddering or jerking. I'm pretty sure the carriage couldn't move at all, but maybe it could. You know, probably just had something knocking on it at the right point. I did expect this, but when they started to alter the production, so it was scrolling past the carriage, it did actually kind of feel like we were moving. As I say, I cannot rule out that the carriage didn't move a tiny bit but I don't know what makes me kind of suspicious Is that they seem to drop the moving illusion really quite quickly. It was probably just the way the film was done. It was a kind of animated thing, I think, quite hard to describe. And they did do it again a bit later on, so, and I can't really see the carriage being rolled back and forth inside the museum, even on a short length track. But who knows, my best guess is it was the illusion where you're sitting still because the window moves, you know, the stuff outside the window moves, you think you're in Like when you're in a coach and a coach next to you pulls out and you're not moving but for a second you think you are.

Anyway, we got out of that and the woman took us up to some projected thing on the wall and it turned out it was like a three people could play conveniently independent thing where there was like a virtual button and on each of three tracks that are sort of animated vaguely open TTD station you could push a button to start and then you'd pick a train and that train would drive in and then you could pick a carriage and that carriage would roll in and join itself the train and then when you were ready you could press start and the train as a whole would drive out of the station and then it would repeat. I didn't quite get it at first and I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be competing against each other and although you know I try not to worry about looking childish and its nice to do these things rather than having to be/pretend "oh I'm an adult no I won't do that thanks". I also felt a bit awkward and I was feeling a tiny bit peeved after the the gender equality pseudo lecture.

So after that she took us into the final thing which was not technically as good but sort of technically good. We sat in a room with mirrors all round basically with loads of chairs and although I kept sort of not actually paying attention to the depth of fact and I'm describing this backwards the basic setup was There were two parallel mirrors and we were sitting between them, so obviously you could see a sort of distant and slightly fainter reflection of the rear mirror in the front mirror, whichever way round you're facing. I guess you all were meant to face the same way. You could of course see yourself and the two other people who were in the audience with me, but that wasn't too distracting.

And they then projected two sort of synchronised but slightly different films on the front and rear mirrors so as we're looking at the front mirror we have kind of one film in the foreground and the other one which as I say I sort of accidentally kept mostly ignoring in the background. Quite a nice technical effect all the same and I don't think I'd see anything like that before.

I didn't massively object, but the problem was that the film was essentially a promotional piece of fluff about the Tren Maya, you know, a little sprinkling of all connecting communities and crap like that, but it just feels like why the hell am I paying to watch proper gandery shit (propaganda shit, but i love the voice typing version, it has a news huddlines feel) like this? Maybe the Trenmaia is a great idea, maybe it's not, but it's like, apart from the technical merits of the film, it really wasn't that interesting. as at least it was a train theme, but...

And then she told us we could go out and there was a temporary exhibit (which had actually already been to the door of accidentally and spoke to the woman there about where the entrance to the Real Museum ticket office was) in a small thing across the way which had some hard to describe, some sort of fabric-y artworks, like I've got some photos of it that were like almost pseudo-giant knitted figures and dresses and geometric-y kind of shapes made of fibers. If not amazing, I took some photos of that, so that will help explain better than I can say.

They also had like a cafe in one of the two or three railway cars that were sitting along the track where you had to walk past to get to the ticket office. I think one of them was an old Pullman car and it was air-conditioned and I had a cafe in. I did open the door and take a quick peek in. I was kind of tempted to get a coffee and it would have been slightly cool to do it but there was absolutely no price list and I was still feeling a little bit miffed at the way the whole thing had worked out and the proper gandery quality of it and it's like no I'm not that desperate I'm not going to give you any money especially if you know I go in and then you say oh it's 150 for a latte or something so anyway.

So I walked through the park, which was hot but quite nice, so I walked around the lake and you know it was clean and it felt safe and there were a few people around and there were a couple of tracks marked out with I think three different lengths, presumably for people who want to cycle a jog which is nice obviously I'm not doing that in this heat and wearing a clothes I was wearing blah blah blah but you know really quite nice

At the south end I think there was possibly the actual old station. It had been turned to some sort of academic-y building with a preachy sign out front. You were allowed to go in but I wasn't sure I'd be able to get out the far end and you know I just took a few pictures and then went out of the park through one of the normal entrances.

Oh, I also, earlier in the day before I got to that park, I walked up just by accident that sort of commercially street, I can't remember the name of it, just to the north of the centre which I think Mark had told me about with shops and stuff down it. They attempted by a noodle type place but it was like a proper Thai restaurant and the prices were a bit high. Paseo de Montejo is the street.

Oh, I also forgot to say that I did the flight seat booking before I left the hotel at one ish. I had to use the phone data, you know, mobile data. The hotel wifi seemed really slow, but I got it done. I used some air miles to get the price down to 31 pounds, which isn't great, but I think that's as good as converting the air miles to nectar points. Although, I'm not really sure. And, you know, anyway, it is what it is.

So I was wondering around the sort of quite nice actually, I quite like it, the sort of slightly grittier area, vaguely south and east of the main square. I think it's the main square of my geography really, isn't that clear here? Afterwards and looking at the little shops and like there's the little party shops selling party accessories and pinatas and there's all the sort of clip-party signs like, oh it's not a party without such and such and all these It's ridiculously happy, kind of kids enjoying the party. And that's how I'm still oddly cheering, I suppose.

And you know I saw a couple of taco restauranty places and there were a couple of Chinese pseudo buffet type places and I was really quite tempted but I was also feeling a real pull to go back to cheese up pizza and long story short I wandered round a bit and I had a coke and I found somewhere to have a coffee on the square (nicte-ha) which was a bit of a mess somehow but not a huge deal and I used the free Wi-Fi to call home and then I went and had my pizza (carnes frias not mexicana today) at cheese up and came back to hotel via main square (seeing that event set up) and oxxo to get some cold fizzy water and takis fuego.

As I was wandering around looking for a coffee and killing a little bit of time before the pizza, I did actually find another nice little square with some places round it, but one of them seemed a bit expensive and then there was a Starbucks and also seemed a bit expensive. There was actually a Costa next to it and I nearly bought some of them because it wasn't expensive, but luckily I asked the woman at the counter and if they had toilets for customers and she said no, I double checked, so it's like I didn't go there anyway. It seems ridiculous, but there you go.

So if we're talking generally it's like I think in all sorts of ways I'm in a bit of a funny mood, it's the end of the trip, it's hot, I have paid for this private room, I'm obviously a little pushed for time, I may be a little bit "the trip's almost over", getting lazy or so on, not quite just wishing I was home already, we're not quite that far on but maybe an element of that.

I'm really not entirely sure if I like Merida or not. I think I kind of do, but it's just been so weird. I didn't like the heat earlier but maybe I picked the worst time of day to go out. As I was wandering around that bit sort of southeast of the main square and finding all these little places I could eat. I was kind of wishing I could stay and eat in them, but it's not that they were particularly superbly Mexican or anything, so it would be pretty ridiculous to stay on just to have some more evenings to eat. It's not that there won't be any noodle bar in Valladolid.

I mean probably the best you could say is that I kind of do like it here but it's been a real flying visit because I was originally gonna skip it on this particular trip and then I decided I would come here because I sort of got tempted by the prospect of a private room (even if it wasn't super cheap) and I didn't really want to do a double bus hop to get straight from Campeche to Valladolid. And maybe, although everything was of course fine in reality, maybe it was nice to have a private room and a bit of quietish time to myself after the minor in my own head stresses I've written about in Campeche.

If the guidebook is to be believed there's quite a lot of like side trips you could do from here to places nearby, a lot of them seem to be a bit indigeneous-y but I guess that's not that different to some of the places near San Chris. I think I could totally see myself coming back through Merida on a future trip and making more of a stay and more of an effort if I fly into or out of Cancun. But anyway with the time constraints and so forth and the relative expense of staying in this hotel I think it I'm Better to just treat it as a flying visit and move on to Viadolid tomorrow where I should be able to have four or maybe five nights depending on what I do about staying or not staying in Cancun the final night. That's also something I really need to look at tonight.

The need to look at viadollid accom and buses and make decisions or at least initial investigations on the bus from Valladolid to Cancun is another reason not to go out tonight on top of the private room and the laziness and the timing of the lang exchange and the uncertainty of the thing in the main square. It does all feel a little bit crap but you know I think it's fine and I'm probably now I have written all this up with the voice typing in a horribly waffly, slangy, unpunctual way, going to watch a bit of YouTube, drink some more of my cold, fizzy water, and then after that I'll have a look at some of this onward investigation plan stuff.

Ideally I need to remember to buy some souvenirs and post a couple of postcards from Viadolid. I saw some postcards today that made me think about it, but it figured it didn't really make sense time-wise here by that point. I did also go in one little shot and I got chewed out after a little bit and I only realised after a few seconds that she was telling me I had to leave my bag at the counter, but I just left. I was pretty sure I didn't really want the thing. I didn't drop out or anything, it's fine.

I'm maybe also a bit edgy about staying a dormitory and or whether I'll get chatting to anyone and so forth but it's fine. I mean I've got a recommendation for a hostel it might even have a free bar which doesn't make sense but whatever and I think it's got curtain beds and I will jist book for two nightto start wkth s if I can get into this one of course and see how it goes. If I meet people great, if I don't I suppose it's not ideal but I'm kind of feeling a little bit tired and end of trippy and I've already had some good social experiences so it is fine.

Just to repeat something I think I've said before, one of the downsides of being in a hotel is that you don't get a fridge and there's no free drinking water. I've got my filter so the latter's not a huge problem but you know there are downsides. On the plus side it's maybe a lot less tempting to just drink for no reason so this is helping me have a couple of days off and to a limited extent I suppose that also helps offset the cost of the room versus a dorm.

The clothes were almost dry this morning when I finally left. I'm not going to wash underwear, but I think I might wash my top in the sink tonight because then that's at least stretching the supply out a little bit further.

1939 Okay, I washed the top.

I should say that the woman who showed us round the last two or three things at the railway museum, she was perfectly pleasant, I mean, I was just feeling bit generically annoyed and the fact that she stopped me looking at some stuff that I could have seen but that's I guess just how their system works and I had no personal problem with her, she seemed very pleasant. Oh and I will say it was all in Spanish so you know at least I got to practice all the spoken stuff was in Spanish, the plaques all over the world were in both languages.

I am feeling vaguely guilty about not making the most of my opportunities here, but I think that's just part of the slightly odd feeling of mood I've been in all day. Not exactly down, but just kind of a bit off balance or something. It's hard to say. I really don't think it was wrong for me not to go to the language exchange equally. I'm not going to investigate that event in the main square. Didn't look super promising. I mean, it's easy to make excuses, but I do have the private room. I want to make my plans for the next few days. I'm also leaving tomorrow, right? If I had more time and I was staying a couple of extra nights, it might make all the difference. I might have made more of an effort to find a language exchange earlier.

It's fine. Even if I've not done very well, hardly the end of the world, is it? And, you know, maybe a night or two of relative quiet will set me up for the rest of the trip. You just don't know.

As I was walking back tonight, you know, in the twilight dark, I was thinking as I think I did yesterday, it's really quite evocative, a tiny bit disconcerting, but it really is quite evocative with the sort of yellowy orangy light and the not brilliant lit streets, but it doesn't feel super dangerous, and you know, you're walking past all these old buildings, and the idea of going into some bar or going to some sort of event does kind of appeal, but it's my last night here, I chose to stay in a hotel rather than a hostel, so I've not met anyone. I don't have anywhere to go or anyone to go with. I am leaving tomorrow. It's good to have a couple of days off, etc. But as I say, it probably is worth coming back to Merida and trying to make a bit more of an effort and maybe doing things differently and maybe staying in a hostel or putting in more time here and trying to find events to go to in the evening or something.

It's probably obvious because I don't think I've ever really done it unless I've explicitly said so, but I haven't gone back and looked at my notes from 2010 about Merida. It might be interesting to compare them, but I have not looked at them while I've been here, so they are not contaminating my opinion one way or another. I, to be honest, I'm not sure that I really remember very much. It's like maybe I saw the big flag (or flags before because there's another one in the railway museum park as well as the main square). Maybe I went through railway museum. I think I went to the zoo when I was here last time and I have vague recollections of sitting outside a hot bar in a street somewhere and maybe even talking to a local but really I'm not remembering much at all that reminds me of what I'm seeing here now.

2156 I honestly don't feel that tired, but I was lying down on the bed, admittedly watching YouTube, and I was finding myself drifting off to sleep, so maybe I'm more tired than I thought. Anyway, I've dicked around a little bit, looking at the buses. Basically, I'll check the times tomorrow, but there's plenty and it takes about two, two and a half hours.

It's a bit odd, the hostel which Mark recommended with the free bar, which is called New Friends, is not showing on booking.com at all. It is on hostel world, but if you look at it in the small print it says the age range is 18 to 45, so technically I don't qualify. I don't think that's why booking.com isn't showing it given they will cheerfully show me hostels which only have female dorms available, but who knows? I'm not saying I couldn't try to get in if I wanted, but I'm not that desperate. What if they turned me away on seeing my passport? I'm not entirely sure I like the policy. You know, it's their business. If that's how they want to do it, fair enough. But I'm not sure why I should fight to give them my money. I've had a look on booking.com. There's an awful lot of hostels in Valladolid. I think I've found one that kind of appeals to me. It's fairly cheap and the reviews seem fairly good. It's new-ish. It looks like, although it could be deceptive, it might actually have a genuinely large swimming pool, something you could swim in, which would be a nice bonus. I'd probably just book for two nights and then see how it goes. I am potentially in valladolid for four or even five nights. So if I like it, I can extend. And if I don't, I have maybe two to three nights to try somewhere else. And, if either hostel or whatever I end up staying in an environment is nothing special socially or whatever, it's not the end of the world is it? I've not actually booked it, it's being very coy about only so many beds left, so I'll probably be fine and I'll book it tomorrow morning along with the bus. I'll hopefully therefore not be up too late. I've semi-packed It kind of looks like there's a lot of junk lying around, but I kind of know there isn't. It just squishes into my bag right. There's also the clothes drying in the bathroom and stuff like that. I don't know exactly when I leave. I need to be a little bit cleverer than I was when I was leaving Campeche so as not to waste time unnecessarily, but I think it should be fine for me to get up about 8ish tomorrow and have a little bit of a think and book stuff.

I'll admit I haven't looked at all into bus options from Valladolid to Cancun. I'll probably do it tomorrow, or once I know exactly how I feel about the V hostel, etc. I think if the limited buses direct to the airport do sell out then that's a shame but it's not the end of the world because there's still the option to go through the bus terminal in the centre. It's only within terminal change and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of centre to airport buses. I don't know what times the buses direct from V to C airport are. I don't want to leave it till the last minute Mark said he met someone and they wanted to do it but they booked up because there weren't many but I'm not that worried and I think it would be better to get to Viadolid tomorrow and take it from there.

It really is annoying, the kind of illiterate quality dictating this gives when I'm not taking lots and lots of effort to patch it up afterwards, but at least it gets the stuff down there and it is basically intelligible except where the voice typing misses a chunk out and I don't notice. It's better than nothing, right?

2203 So I'm going to clean my teeth and have a quick shower and go to bed. I really don't have that much packing to do. I've guzzled some of the takis fuego, but I'll finish the rest tomorrow. Bit indulgent, but since it's maybe my last private room, I thought go with it because that's not the sort of thing that's so easy to snack on in a hostel with no privacy. Yeah, I think everything's basically fine and there shouldn't be too much trouble getting up relatively early. I'm not too much under the cosh, given I don't really plan to do anything in town tomorrow. The bus terminal isn't that far and check out is at 12. But if I could be up for 8ish, that would be great.

2218 going to bed.

Campeche-Merida

Tue 1016 posted last entry and done bloody Duolingo, I had no streak freezes due to last couple of nights so I bought two more and did it for today.

FWIW the p7 did that lock up thing when I pulled it out of my pocket to try to record a song with ahdience singing at concert laag night. It came round eventually. An update was waiting for a reboot again which may or may not have anything to do with it, and it was chuggy as duck earlier that day but I didn't want to reboot it as I was trying to get syncthing to so some syncing.

I think there is a one o clock bus which might do, it gets me in slightly early for check in but only about 15-30 mins and I may be allowed to check in early. Now I have caught up with blog etc I might go pack properly and see how I feel about leaving that bit earlier.

1032 95% packed. Back on terrace, no one else here. Had to take 1k out of my reserve staah as low on cash. This is aemi expected as I have to run down the stash at end of trip, I probably will need to withdraw some more cash but need to think calmly and try to estimate it correctly so dk t want to be rushing.

1036 ok, next bus is 1135 (or 1125? Profile switching cos ado block vpns means i have forgotten and cant check easily) and then it is the 1400. I could probably just make the 1125 but it would be tight (need to buy ticket online as prob a queue at terminal, unchain bag and tell reception I am leaving etc, and I would be doing the 30-35ish min walk to the terminal under the cosh a bit) so 1400 it is. I will leave here about 1200 and take the walk easy and spend a bit over an hour hanging round at the terminal which is shitty but not terrible and better than rushing madly now. If I had thought a little bit clearer I might have planned this better but tbf I might have felt it was tight anyway.

1043 feeling ezcessively frustrated at lurking until I can go. there is one woman by the pool actually and was earlier, but otherwise an here on own. It is just a bit warm to feel super nice loitering.  (Pool is a cool off plunge pool thing with a small fountain, it is not something you could swim in.  I haven't used it, I wasn't that keen and I have used enough of these facilities eg in palenque to not feel I ha e to prove anything to myself and I also felt esp with this short stay and little major desire that I don't want to get swimming trunks wet, tho to be fair in this weather they would probably have dried.)

1056 the bus is at 1300 not 1400, which is actually better. Just booked. So if I leave here 1145ish I should be relatively unstressed walking over there and not be hanging around too long.

1222 at terminal, having a large latte at 50 (cheaper than most places in town), there is a toilet on bus so should be OK.

Feel OK. Not super excited or chripy or anything but I'm OK.In some ways an for today and maybe my full time in merida (which may just be tonight and tomorrow, we will see, I am too close to flying to push my stays) is to be fairly relaxed and wander round. Will try to get something "nice" to eat (pizza or maybe some roast chicken) in Merida, enjoy the private room and do a bit of wandering but not much. As I think I said I need to do some admin and I was yawning a bit kn walk to terminal for some reason so being back at hotel by 6ish and maybe say 8ish and doing a bit of admin and then an early night and a not too pressured atart
may well be on the cards.

Reminded by seeing signs as walked to terminal I haven't done ruins at edzna (sp) here but I have seen a lot of ruins including quite recently and that gives me at least them and the inside of the fort and nearby battery to occupy myself for perhaps a short 2ish day stay here on a future trip, maybe while heading west from Cancun on outbound leg.

Nice shorish bus hop today, merida to Valladolid should be similar and ditto V to Cancun. Talking with mark last night there are a couple of buses a day V to C airport and I need to have a look at times and maybe book one relatively soon. This may just possibly allow me to avoid overnighting in Cancun before flight, perhaps at the cost of if no accidents happen having to kill say 5 hours at the airport due to needing to leave a buffer if I am heading out from V to C the day I am due to fly. But while sucky that may be less sucky than the extra disruption of checking into a cheap hotel say in Cancun centre for one or two nights. See how it goes I guess.

Lots of buses V to C and then C to C airport, which may well be better in terms of flexibility and timing.

This bus today is ADO, wonder if that means I will be allowed to take my bag on as is. Have prepared day-pack with fleece and headphones etc just in case, tho less critical on a short ride of course.

1323 yay. 1300 is late. There is a 1330 to same stop in merida but no, we can't use that. Not massively worked up but this is annoying. 1300 has been 1984ed from the departure board but I have spoken to staff and other people in queue and it is delayed

1354 the 1335 to merida centro historico has just turned up, but no sign of 1300, no mention of any estimates, no option to take spare seats on the 1335.

1356 just asked if I can get on 1335. Been told (staff v nice really in general) the 1300 is actually here now and will be announced shortly.

1419 on bus. They let me on with my main bag no fuss. So we are probably running 1.5h late by the time we get off but can't be helped and at least it should still be daylight.

The bus was here and had been sitting in a bay
for ages, I don't know why it wasn't announced and based on earwigging I don't think the "gate" staff did either.

1853 Back at the hostel after checking in and then going back out again, we maybe got in about an hour late after all, so I probably got to the hotel at about five, really not sure, GPS track would show of course.

The bloke on the desk seemed a little bit funny with me at first. We did at least speak in Spanish. But then he sort of seemed to get a bit cheerier and I'm not really sure what to make of him. There is a nice black and I think white cat here called Nemo. Don't know how you spell that. Which, I asked could I stroke it and it sort of didn't seem super keen. I did get to touch its head. We'll see. Room's okay, I had a bit of trouble with the air conditioning, the control, nearly all the labels on the buttons are rubbed off and the screen has gone a bit. I went and asked the bloke on the desk and he sort of showed me how to do it. He's not come to the room with me at all. He didn't show me to the room or come and look at the air conditioning with me. Not a problem, just slightly unusual, maybe even in hostels they tend to show you the room.

The room is on the suite, it's a tiny bit of a spartan, maybe not quite the right word, but it is on suite, it's clean and there's air conditioning, it's fine. The narrow corridor down in the middle of all the rooms, there's a sort of vague open air and got some flowers down it and it's quite nice.

So I went out and I looked on Google Maps and organic maps and I thought I'd go for a pizza. I ended up wandering into the centre and snapped a few photos and I spoke to one pizza place and they seemed a little expensive. And then by chance I went to Cheese Up! Pizza which was on organic maps and which was super cheap and filling. I had a 35 centimetre pizza with a small soft drink for about 160 pesos. They took the receipt off me when I brought the food. Sort of semi-open air quite down at heel in a nice wag. I can't believe I ate the whole thing, but I didn't really even struggle.

It was sort of getting dark. It was actually quite a nice sunset effect on one of the streets, which I tried to photograph. It may not have come off when I finished the pizza. So I came back to the hotel via an oxo. I got a litre of some chilled, soft, sugar-free drink, no fridge in the room, no free water, but I do have my filter and I expected both of those.

Not entirely sure if I like merida but I am getting quite a decent vibe even though I'm only here on a flying visit almost certainly. Some of the architecture is very elegant it doesn't feel dangerous but the street lighting it's not that sodium orange but it's yellowy and not always that good in places and it's sort of both evocative and a tiny tiny bit uncomfortable I think it's basically fine with quite a lot of people on the streets that you do get quietish patches.

Let me drink my soft drink before it warms up now I've bashed out the basics. We'll probably do some laundry in a little bit and have it early this night.

2214 So I actually washed three small loads of laundry in the sink with soap. That's drying, I hope it'll be okay. I even did the grey trousers which are surprisingly dirty after only a few days were. I also cut my fingernails and I finally made the effort to book the seat on the British Airways site and then it had a technical error at last minute and now it's no longer working. I think I'll have to try again tomorrow or something maybe during normally UK working hours. Anyway, not a huge deal I guess.

I'm watching some YouTube. I'll probably head towards bed soonish. I've still not had a shower, but I can do that in a little bit. The plan for tomorrow is not to get up super early and then just sort of wander around and tourist it up in the town, you know. I have a quick check of the guidebook. I think I've got some notes from what Mark told me, but I'm not going to get too bent out of shape about it. And then tomorrow night I can start to look at where I want to push for another night here and where I might go in valladolid and whether I might overnight in cancun or not.

I also did unpack my bag and check and it doesn't appear to be too dirty from that bread. However, I also noticed by a chance that the packet of mixed nuts and fruit that I brought all the way from the UK and have been carrying round, that's popped. I mean, it's got a resealable thing. I had a tiny handful and they tasted okay and I resealed it, but I suspect that is actually what popped the other day because it didn't feel like the pan canella should really make that pop-ing noise. Not a big deal, just not great.

I also finished the last slightly awkward and beaten up dregs of the Mani garapinado that I bought in San Cris.

2249 Admittedly I was lying on the bed but my eyes were starting to close while I was watching the YouTube video so I'm not going to retry the British Airways thing tonight or hopefully I'll look at it first thing in the morning. I'm going to have a very quick shower, clean my teeth and go to bed.

2259 Okay, let's go to bed. For what it's worth, I did use the universal sink plug when I was doing the laundry earlier. I probably could have got by with a sock. The drain is just a hole. So a sock could probably work, but for the record, the universal sink plug did do a fairly decent, if not perfect job.

San Cristobal-Campeche and Campeche, Monday

Sat 1652 At terminal. bus goes 1730.

Didn't sleep super well but to be fair I was probably asleep not long after 10 so waking up about 5ish and then struggling to get back to sleep is not necessarily that bad.

Got up about 0730 I think, ended up having a bit of a chat (mostly listening, as it touched on politics and naturally I didn't share my opinion) with owner Sergio and a 60ish Canadian guy over breakfast.

Was hanging round a bit waiting to say goodbye to Max, Cafecita, Lewis and the two French guys (Laurent and Simon?) - bit awkward as it isn't as if we're bosom buddies but i did want to and it was ok. I guzzled some Mani garapinado and booked bus and hostel (went for cheapish dorm option, partly to keep costs down and partly for social and maybe tour reasons) and after saying goodbye I finished packing and left bag at reception, was allowed to keep key during the day. I asked Sergio and he said el mirador aka Montaña Don Lauro was maybe dodgy "in the afternoon", I took the o6 with me instead of p7 just in case.

Incidentally o6 charging port is struggling to retain either of my cables, I suspect a dust or dirt build up which I am not likely to be able to get cleanss out while on trip.

I got a bit lost and mildly whiny trying to find the start of the path but I asked and also during walk up I got a bit confused and was worried some random dog or irate farmer would have a fit but it was fine. I maybe didn't see the perfect lookout point as on way heading down I went off to one side a bit and then changed my mind but some locals (who i spoke to briefly about route down) were sitting on top of a big rock. Still, I did go, I did see the view (albeit only spent about 15 mins there, after maybe 2h getting there) and maybe will go again with less stress another day in future. (Also has it not been for hanging round to say goodbye and checkout/onward booking stuff, I could probably have headed out an hour or even two earlier.)

I guzzled more Mani garapinado at top and on walk back onto town I started to feel a bit of stomach ache which has come and gone during remainder of time. I did have a diet coke on walk and eventually had a couple of white coffees and a pizza. I didn't buy an emparedado de chocolate as I had half planned. My stomach feels a tiny bit funny now which isn't great but fingers crossed this is just a mild bit of overeating or poor diet and nothing like last time. I don't feel that bad, there is maybe an element of slight worry about it being bad making it worse.

Hostel checkin is nominally 10 so that may somewhat ease the night bus pain given I think we are due in about 7.

When got back into town I tried to go to Pachamama but no tables, went to kukulpan for coffee but no tables. Had a coffee in Pizza Da Tito then went back to hostel and swapped phones (o6 nearly dead) and went back out and had pizza at Pachamama and coffee at Kukulpan and then back to hotel where had brief chat with woman I'd met Thursday night briefly who had been to see carnival at San Juan chamula (no signs of carnival in San cris itself btw) and got key deposit back and cleaned teeth inc flossing and used toilet and headed out to terminal.

Not looking forward to it maybe being mega hot in campeche and rest of trip but it will be sort of nice before returning to maybe coolish London and I wouldhope there will be aircon generally and I think the dorm is supposed to be.

Perhaps a bit perfunctory but I think that more or less catches me up.

1707 was feeling a bit sad but also a bit stressed sitting in kukulpan. But usual wafflings apply.

I have mani garapinado but also bought some of the roles de canela at super mas on way back to hostel second time to get back, so I do have snacks if desperate.

My bus is waiting outside, final destination merida.

Some sort of Karakte kid cobra kai spin off on TV here, as it may have been last time.

1715 Bus just called.

1722 on bus. I had to put my main bag in the boot but fingers crossed I have got everything I need. And this is maybe better WRT risk of theft overnight.

Feel a bit head-ache-y but I suspect this is mainly getting worked up a bit.

With a little bit of luck this is the last really long bus and the last night bus of the trip. Some film about a genie is on and slightly too loud.

(I might have preferred to pay the very small extra for the ado gl bus, but iirc it left earlier and got in earlier so wasn't as convenient. This is an occ.)

Two youngish English women and an English bloke are sitting near me. I hope they don't talk too much as for no good reason I may find them annoying.

A tiny bit stressed about "health" but not too bad. Plus of course in terms of any mental health wobbles I am at least heading towards home and will be flying back in about 10 days.

Will put nc headphones on when bus goes, though with this fucking super loud film even those plus music is going to struggle. I guess they will at least turn the fucking film off about midnight.

Obviously I could be feeling healthier and this would be less stressful but fingers crossed I don't feel that bad and short of flying (which is stressful in its own way) I have to do this bus or something very like it to get home. I could eg have gone via palenque but that is about 8 fuckkng hours and the bus got in at about 6pm so more or less dark and I don't really desperately want to waste a couple of nights in palenque right now.

This film is a fucking musical and that really doesn't help with the high volume.

1732 bloke has got on and is sitting next to me but not end of world. Bus seems pretty full.

1736 off.

1738 fwiw "Cruz de navajas" was playing when I went into kukulpan for that last coffee.

Do feel a bit edgy but it isn't as if I haven't been on a bloody night bus before or even recently. And I don't feel overly ill.

1757 fwiw there was talk about the planetary alignment last night. Most people seem to be a bit mystical astrological spiritually inclined. I didn't say much.

1833 film finishing. Might be Disney Aladdin. Will Smith was in credits but I didn't recognise him.

1852 at Tuxtla. I went to bog and opened it and a woman was in there. Just been again on grounds it is nicer to go when bus isn't moving. Mildly disgusting in there.

Not feeling too bad, mild gut "ache" but touch wood nothing major. Not really churning or anything. Just a piss by the way and since we aren't moving I stood up to avoid getting whatever is all over the floor on my trousers, I changed to the fresh grey ones last night BTW. The Velcro pockets on right knee and back right suck but otherwise I think these are looser and more comfortable than black, if perhaps not quite so "smart".

Mouth feels a bit sticky despite having cleaned teeth once flossing before leaving hostel and not eaten anything since.

1904 driver might have ibspected toilet and some woman just got on with a mop. Maybe someone complained or maybe this is normal. Mind you, she has already done her mopping in the time it took me to write this.

FWIW saw a woman wearing plastic leather-ish trousers on walk over to el mirador trail, and then later a woman wearing a dress of similar material in centre of town. Just coincidence or could there be some connection? Not massively shocking or weird but unusual enough two on one day struck me.

1911 can we just go? Anyway, bloke next to me got off when we got in but a woman just got on.suppose really am in no rush. In some loose way it would be nicer to be off the bus on case I get Ill and even on general grounds, on the other hand I can't check in any earlier so on some sense getting in an hour or two late (not that I think we will) is almost no bad thing.

1914 some vendors on, vaguely tempted to buy eg a cold coke but tbh I still have water, I don't really want sugar or phosphoric acid all over my teeth all night if i can help it.

Not a novel observation but fwiw I eat way more sugary junky snacks and drink far more sugary and/or artifically sweetened soft drinks (as well as kind of more beer, at least more often) on holiday. Not that big a deal but FWIW.
Obviously being out in heat plays a part but in theory I could buy cold water or just make do with warm. There is naturally an "I am on holiday" feeling, plus things like pastries at a bakery feel vaguely affordable here in a way they don't at home.

1923 driver just counted heads. Maybe we are going soon.

The video system on the bus appears to be running windows XP. There was a shutdown sequence for whatever reason when we got in to tuxtla. That was so long ago XP was probably still in its support period. Badoom-tish.

1926 we are moving! The driver said 10 mins here when we pulled in BTW. Not really complaining, just saying.

2103 jersey boys been on for a while. Just might have watched it but it was actually a little low volume ironically enough and it was painful to listen especially on Spanish. We have stopped for a document check (on bus, as usual).

Guts actually feel 95%+, touch wood don't jinx it. Lips and maybe teeth still feel illogically sticky.

2106 off again. Route according to spot OM observation seems rather long way round.

2305 Villahermosa. Not sure but toilet on bus might not be working, but it might. Got off and used free toilet at terminal.

Vague nagging "oh, I did X wrong" doubts floating round my head but nothing too major.

Guy selling coke and cold water and snacks on bus but resisting temptation, on teeth and possible toilet concern grounds.

2325 still here. Ultra loud comedy suddenly started playing over speakers for some reason. (No video, monitors are folded up.) The Friends theme music played (in English) and I wonder if this is a spanish dub of an episode.

Bum hurts a bit from sitting.

No huge plans for Sunday except staying awake and wandering round a bit. Vaguely fantasising about food and cold drinks.

Screen protector on p7 increasingly fucked.

2336 driver counting heads. I think one of the English girls asked him to stop the friends audio a few mins ago BTW. It certainly did stop.

2337 off

2247 having a few Tic Tacs. Feeling vaguely hacked off but in that general night bus misery way, not mh wobbles. I suppose at least I am "riding some bus" as ff3w puts it, even if in paper this is way too luxurious.

Sun 0301 ciudad del Carmen, on that little island I half wanted to visit. Thought we might come through here. Nothing to see at 3am of course.. Been asleepish. Not feeling amazing but not tterrible. Woman selling coffee but I hope to drift back to sleep.

0332 driver counting heads. Woman next to me got off when we got here and no one is in that seat yet.

190km as crow flies to Campeche City so we probably will arrive vaguely 6ish (ticket doesn't show arrival time, I think) as I expected, maybe 645 if I had to guess what the website said when I bought it. So it should be daylight.

0358 island looks OK afaict. Maybe on a future trip given it is in the main bus route. Some carnival signs in town. Hope I am not going to get accidentally shafted wrt accom during next week. Will probably try to go back to sleep.

0631 pulling into Campeche. Bit of a womb situation bit not too bad and at least it is daylight.

0814 at luan for coffee and to use toilet. Bit expensive but been standing outside hostel since 0715ish, there is no bell and no response to my whatsapp message. I am not AFAIK "entitled" to 24h reception so I can't hold this against them but it is annoying. Not too worked up tbh. Guzzled some Mani garapinado while standing outside. It is 80ish for a large latte here but wtf, I am paying for toilet and somewhere to be as much as the coffee.

V quiet on walk over from terminal, I guess it is both early and Sunday.

English women and probably bloke too didn't afaics get off bus here, so I assume they were going on to merida (next and final stop iirc)

0822 got admittedly fairly big latte (I did order the largest though and it is not elephantine) and the courtyard is quite nice and I feel slightly chilled etc.

1050 been for a walk. Back at hostel. No sign of reception. Another guest let me in again. Ffs. Toppkng up phone then will go out.

It is hot. Atmosphere in town (historic centre) is a bit weird, relatively few people about although maybe getting busier. Walked along malecon and almost deserted though was one guy throwing a net in to fish. I feel hot and sweaty but in part this will be having been on bus and not showering, not just local climate. Town is sort of attractive, very mixed feelings.

Bus mildly warm and sweaty all the time, except about 5am it did feel a bit cold and I put my fleece on.

1128 at fresh n green for a cappuchino because the price is listed (50) and why the fuck not. Then will go see if I can eat somewhere. It all feels not massively gringo oriented but expensive ishly Spanish speaking touristy with a touch of English in some menus.

Staff guy turned up about 1045 or 11. tbh don't like his attitude. He didn't apologise even slightly for being late. He told me check in was at 3 and when I showed him the booking. Com email he said (in Spanish, not quite sure) something to the effect that yes you can check in from 10 - no you can't, no one was there - but you can't get a bed til 3. This all feels like a load of made up shot. If you can't get a bed til 3 maybe dair enough but I am not sure that qualifies as checking in at 10 and it damn well doesn't if there is no one at reception.

He told me no lower beds but then I think I have got one since I didn't need to have it now but could wait for it to be made up. I don't have a key or a locker but have brought passport out with me and will ask about a key when I go back.

Except for saying mostly I'm passing when he asked how I had got in - his manner wa s not angry but broadly unhelpful - I said I had been waiting since 7 (not in a massively indignant way) and had come back at 10 and someone had let me in. (You are not supposed to let other people in and there are stroppy signs, this is basically fair enough but I didn't want to get anyone in trojble5 for helping me out.)

A few other guests loitering round courtyard, maybe that is the thing to do here. I am not exactly hacked off but I am probably in a funny mood and feeling uncomfortable and sweaty and I don't really know what to make of the hostel or the town but am trying to withhold judgement.

I was already fairly sure the place was going to get no review rather than a good one  at the moment I am teetering on the brink of actually leaving a mildly bad review but I am probably still in the "just leave no review" camp. See how it goes.

I generally did my beat to act friendly with the reception guy and eg thanked him when I left. No point burning bridges.

Some sort of remix? Of Alphaville forever young coming from inside.

Guts oscillates between feeling fine and vaguely slightly "sore". Probably generally fine.

1155 wrt prices I probably need to remember this is a boggish city and also that I am no longer in Chiapas, which is supposedly relatively cheap.

Laura Brannigan self control playing inside.

Finished capuccino, not bad. Had look on Google maps earlier and probably going to go for lunch at a Chinese express place inside a bit supermarket. I suspect it will be air conditioned, and then I may come back into historic centre and go onto one of the museums I saw earlier and perhaps risk a taco from a cheapish looking place I saw as a bonus bit of food, but not as my main meal.

1614 on Terrace. Bit discombobulated.

Another guest has given me door entry code, no sign of arsehole staff guy and I still don't have a locker key or (if I need one) door key. Tbs guest said he was out late night for carnival and I am a bit worried I am going to get shafted accom wise wrt carnival. I don't see much obvious sign of it round down unless you count vaguely partyish junk on street on malecon but that could be from any Saturday night.

I have clean bed and a sheet and have charged phones a bit. Fucking hating on screen keyboard. I cleaned teeth but haven't had a shower yet, waiting for nearer sunset.

I did go over to that Chinese before I came back to hostel, it was OK. I saw a burger place very cheap which was rammed so thought I might go back, I went there to  a walk after my teeth cleaning but it was shut. Got a couple of cans of superior at an oxxo and put them in the fridge for post zhowef.

I saw an Olympic swimming pool earlier but you need a swimming cap to swim, it is only open weekdays (and not from  12-3, despite having a sun shade roof),  you need two photos and a medical certificate to join and there is a membership fee and an insanely high charge for a membership based high many times you want to swim a month. No sign of a simple payg option, plus there is the bathing cap issue. I just may wander over there tomorrow and see if I can talk to someone.

Museo Palacio closed, Maya architecture muaeim was open (free to everyone Sundays except us scumbag foreigners, who have to pay 75) and it was quite bad, I thought you weren't allowed to take photos due to a confusing icon which probably just meant no flash but in a way it was a relief not to be trying to snap everything.

I have no idea what to do tonight or tomorrow. The city is kind of sort of nice - I saw a local market on way to Chinese, outside walled city - but it is hot as hell (as am sure Cancun and Valladolid and Merida will be) and I am not sure there is much to do and the idea of trying to dick around with daytrips out of town on collectivo especially to a cenote with theft of gear concerns and maybe carnival /public holiday on top is not appealing.

Screen protector is increasingly fucked.

I dont have to decide today. Best to sleep on it.

1705 had shower and V bad shave, despite blade only having one use in it. Didn't remember I had been given a towel so used my lacktowl. Do feel better but still a bit "wtf to do". I guess tonight I will go out for a wander shortly after dark and see and probably aim for an early night. Tomorrow I can think about tomorrow. Quick check on booking suggests dorm bed here for tue night is a bit cheaper than I am paying so maybe carnival not an issue.

Wearing flip flops, trousers and red short sleeved shirt. Cooler now there is no real sun at least here in courtyard and stretches out wear of long sleeve tops and socks.

Quick web search says carnival runs to 4 Mar, which is Tuesday. So I guess I am prob OK, and I may extend tomorrow morning if I can and sleep OK. And maybe this is good as it may mean some lively stuff on street tonight and tomorrow and tue if I am here so i can tourist it up without having to work too hard.

P7 takes fucking forever to charge and I haven't got it any higher than 30% despite leaving it to charge on bed earlier and during shower.

There is only one table table on the big terrace

Mon 1648 round back of hostel on quiet terrace, front one is fairly busy. I have this vague ill-defined sense of guilt for I think no really good reason.

As I was writing that last night a Scottish guy (Mark) sat down and said hi and then an English woman (Ella) heard us talking and realised we were both British and joined in and long story short we went out for drinks with an American woman called I think Donna and I ended up having quite a long intense conversation with M&E (Donna went off to some dance thing earlyish)  and towards end of evening we got chatting to some Mexicans at next table and they invites us to go on to some place but we didn't as Ella had to get a 3am bus so we went back to hostel and stayed on terrace chatting and she was packing and I hope we didn't keep anyone awake but no one has said anything.

This morning I woke up and phone has (as it turned out) fallen off bunk and so I could see it was daylight but had no idea what time it was so I was sort of crawling around all over the bed trying to find it. I did  a bit later woman in top bunk asked me nicely enough if I could stop (can't remember word) shaking the bed as it was making her want to vomit and I thinking it was something I was doing in my sleep said I would try but I couldn't consciously control it and then a bit later I realised she probably meant the crawling around looking for phone and I asked her a bit later when she came back and she said yea I had been doing it then not in middle of night so I said oh sure, yes sorry, I was looking for my phone and I sis t realise it would have the best and I can stop doing it. (Ish) But I think this is contributing to a vague sense of disquiet and feeling awkward.

I had a chat with Mark when he came out of his dorm and that was all very amicable yet again I have this horrible feeling I was an arse last night even though I probably wasn't.

In course of chat with him we discussed where I night go next and he said there is a cenote in centre of Valladolid and I thought I would go there but it turns out there is no direct bus (he looked, I haven't double checked yet) so I might go ans spend two nights in Merida then go on to Valladolid. My gut feeling after talking to him is J silk maybe do a quick check of buses and accom tonight but try not to be up too late and book it tomorrow morning after sleeping on it. This is only a couple of hours on the bus I think.

I vaguely hung around hostel wasting time and then finally dragged myself out to walk over to the fort. I saw kn organic maps a few metres from hostel it was closed but was too lazy and stupid to go back to hostel to check kn web, so I walked over and it was shut. no explanation at actual site but OM says shut Monday. I did half expect this but I had nothing else to do and it was exercise. I then walked rouns to the Bateria San Luis,that had a closed gate which was slightly ajar and not locked so I could have gone it but I didn't dare. I then walked back over to the Chinese place I ate in yesterday (filling and aid conditioned) and came back to hoatel.

I did a quick cold water wash of red t shirt in a sink round the back here before heading out to fort and it is already dry. I was wearing it and flip flops yday post shower when talking to m&e and kept it in to go out, but I did go put shoes on.

I didn't go over to the pool to talk to them.

Gut feeling is I am leaving tomorrow. There is this weird feeling I am actively unpopular here/have done something wrong which it would be nice to leave behind, I am not so desperate to go into the fort that I really want to try again tomorrow and there isn't really much else I am desperate to do. And since I am now probably going to both Merida and Valladolid it probably makes sense to not waste a night here when I am against the clock with my upcoming flight. Carnival does not seem to be much of a thing so missing it here on Tuesday night is hardly a big deal.

1829 on deserted terrace where was sitting last night. Was bhaier earlier but not now. Vague paranoid ideas everyone else has gone out to see something carnivalish and I am missing out. But this is inconsistent given I kind of want to avoid everyone insofar as I have this feeling I have pissed people off a bit.

Wasn't going to have a drink but I have one can of superior left from day and will have it since I am probably leaving tkmorrow.

There is a direct train here to Valladolid but only 2 a day at slightly crappy times and it is expensive (I expect) and the stations are probably not super convenient either so I will probably stick with bus to merida.

Did a water only wash of couple pairs socks and a set of uw and a top a bit hastily after shower. Better than nothing and with luck they will dry ok overnight and/or in whatever sun is around tomorrow morning.

It did feel hot today but either in reality or due to psychology or bodily adaption it didn't feel quite as awfully stifling/sticky as it did yesterday.

I will observe that although a smidge earlier in the day yesterday, this terrace was also deserted yesterday when mark came and sat down and talked to me.

Tue 1001 Just booked a hotel private room in Merida. I'm doing voice typing on the hospital terrace. I met Mark again last night and we went out while he ate and I just had a soft drink. I did drink a beer on the terrace because I had it in the fridge and I wanted to use it. Oops, I'm probably leaving tomorrow but I didn't otherwise drink. We then went on to see some carnivlish and performing at the conference centre. I will paste it later. I do have a photo on Mark's phone of one song recognition he got off Spotify, so that will have that in if I forget to put it in.

Went to bed, probably about 11-ish, fell asleep relatively quickly. I think I might not slept too badly, but then I woke up in the night and it was a bit air-conditioning cold, but I didn't want to get up. Maybe I just went to bed early and so I was waking up earlier. And then, you know, could have or should have got up.

So I had a bit of a chat with Mark this morning. I've gone and collected the clothes I washed. I've done a tiny bit packing. I'm charging up my headphones on the bed. I'm currently thinking I'm going to get the one o'clock bus to Marida gets in about half three. The checking at the hotel is three so it's probably about 15 minutes walk so I'll be there by four and then you know that gives me an hour or two to wander around and I'll have the whole day there tomorrow and I can do a bit of admin type chores like booking the flight seat with the private room and so on.

I did toy with doing a hostel mark, told me one he stayed in, and he said it was very quiet, but nice enough. It would have been about half the cost. I'm paying about $800, $900, probably more like $900 for this while on a hostile for about $400, but it would be nice to have a private. It would also be nice. I'm not that excited to meet more people that's been going well lately, but a bit of quiet time would be nice, maybe not drink for a day or two.

I also found that I heard a pop when I pushed something into my bag the other day and I think fingers crossed it turns out it was a pan canella which I just found loose fortunately intact but not in any plastic bag in my backpack while I was packing a bit so I guzzled that and hopefully there's not too much mess in nothing like the life straw bottle popped and I will probably take advantage of the private room to empty out the backpack and just check it's not dirty in there with grease or anything

I haven't booked the bus yet. I might do that before I go. I'm not going over to the fort. Even if I'd got a bit earlier, there wouldn't really have been time. It would have been rushed and unpleasant. And as it is, I'd probably just get there in time to turn around and come back. I'm not desperate. It would be nice to go inside, but I will do it on another visit. And if I don't do it, that's fine. I did have a go yesterday. It's fine. Given the time constraints and the fact I fly back a week today, I can't afford to just go throwing extra days in here and there.

It's been far too long since I actually posted this. I'm worried about losing it because the sync to my serrver is just, I think, it's never going to catch up with the videos. It's taking forever to sync all the videos I took at the falls have really bloated my storage. So I really want to get this sent because otherwise the chances are it might get lost if I lose the phone or something. So I may send this now and start a fresh one.

Perhaps stating the obvious, the reason it never got posted is things like the night bus and then the last two nights i have been out. It's all good right, it's good reasons stuff to be happening but it just has meant that I haven't got this posted so let's send it now.

San Cristobal, Friday/Saturday

Fri 1614 At Maya Pakal for bistec a la plancha.

Yesterday quite full on. Got up and had breakfast and bit of chat and was collected by tour about 915. Bit of chat on bus with a Dutch-Italian couple who were only others, then the bus filled up with a load of people and I didn't talk much more. Semi cool bunch but also very youthful slightly studenty vibe and I was a bit vaguely jealous.

Views from canyon top not bad albeit a bit samey after first. Longish drive then on to where we got on boat for a one way trip down canyon. I had snacks with me but also bought a bottle of Pepsi at the dock and then a michelada for 50 from the floating shop we stopped at early on.

We got in to chiapa de corzo and I wandered a bit and had a not too expensive steak at el reloj on main square.

The canyon del sunidero was pretty cool and I am glad I did it. Driver told us it was 36C IIRC when we got to oat dock but it wasn't too hot when we were on the water and moving. Canyon walls very impressively high, I believe 1km at highest point.

Got back and had shower and ended up spending most of night chatting at bad with Samuel, we had quite an intenseish clbversation, interrupted by some playing of the bus game as other people came down from the roof to the bar (I joined in but lost 2 out of 3). Then afterwards some of us went on to the club we had gone to after the quiz my first visit - all this was Max's leaving party BTW - and we came back after not that long and had another beer on terrace quiet and I ended up staying up chatting with Samuel til about 330.

Felt a bit tired and slightly hung over this morning but forced myself up about 930 iirc, though no bread left so just had black coffee for breakfast.ended up going for walk with Samuel and

2130 food came so stopped writing. Very good actually and I was surprisingly full and struggled to finish.

Edned up going for walk with sanjel and we had some tacos 7 pesos each at a afall in market and a coffee at kukulpan. Back to hostel and I did some looking at guide books and I am almost certainly going to Campeche overnight tomorrow. That actually knocks off an awful lot of the bus travel/distance towards Cancun so I can keep my options open a bit but I will probably go to either Merida or Valladolid as an intermediate stop before Cancun. Probably going to book tomorrow, I haven't done it yet.

Went out for meal at Maya Pakal, came back and had brief chat with French guys from last night on terrace and as they mentioned post office and postcards I went out but couldn't find many postcards and none were any good plus I am not certain post office will be open Saturday so I didn't buy any. I will have to make an effort in eg Campeche.

Samuel said bye as I left and had gone when I got back. I had a shower and washed today's clothes and put some of the water washed ones off line on.

Slightly odd evening, no quiz, I did go up on terrace and sat with people and it was vaguely companionable but I wasn't saying much and it felt a tiny bit odd. No one was really drinking and not sure anyone was serving if I had wanted a drink but not a big deal, good to have a day off. I have a feeling Samuel and I talking late last night on roof may have disturbed some people in dorm next to bad which is only one level down from roof but no one was nasty about it and I did apologise and to some extent people were also talking about general disturbance eg from our impromptu karaoke before we went out to the club etc not just me and  Samuel.

Dakota told (very well) a version of a traditional folklore story about the origin of the Jack o'lantern and also sang a song he'd written (istr lyrics something like pick up the pieces) which was actually very good (song and his singing and playing)-I spoke to him one on one about this a little bit just before coming down as it was just the two of us up there.

Said bye to Max, will probably see him tomorrow but anyway. He is hitchhiking to oaxaca with the two French guys and Cafecita. I arguably didn't need to come to bed but I am a tiny bit tired and I was feeling just a little bit in the way sort of.

This isn't a great write up of the last couple of days but it isn't too bad. We had pizza last night, they had ordered a few in and we split the cost (think it was about 70 pesos each).

There is some possibility I will hike up Don Lauro tomorrow but I am a bit dubious on my last day when I maybe want to take it easy. We'll see if I manage to get up early and how I feel after booking bus and hostel. It might in some ways be nicer to save this until I come back (which I probably will at some point, if only on my way to go swim in the deep pools at El Chiflon :-)) and do it without feeling stressed etc (also eg Samuel said he spent hours up there and on  off-chance I felt I wanted to somehow it might be nice not to feel time pressure). Not going to be a deathbed regret if I do never do it of course.

Anyway, let me send this and lie down and read and at least be open to going to sleep.

After I do bloody Duolingo of course...