Travel Blog 2010

Ok, so i’m moving into territory here that is more suited to Ed Wyand’s Blog, but as those of you who know us well will know, Nikki and I are obsessed with Mexican food. Here is a little taster of the little tasters we found along the way:

Most of what you are going to see are Antojitos, they can be tacos, quesadillas, panuchos, picadas, flautas and many other others. Basically, if they are small round and comes in groups of about three and are filled with deliciousness, then that’s them.

First of all I have to start with the Tacos Al Pastor, perhaps the most common taco in all of Mexico. Marinated pork in pineapple, several types of chillies etc and served with coriander, diced onion and pineapple, these joy discs are an all time favourite. This particular batch are from a restaurant in Playa del Carmen called El Fogon.

Next up another staple, Tacos del Carne Asada, which is either pork or beef. Delicious. These ones here are from Poc Chuc (by far the best restaurant) in Isla Mujeres.

A slightly more refined version perhaps are the Tacos Aracherra (steak).  These ones we got in a nameless restaurant in Tulum, which also had a good array of salsas and pickles:

The following photo shows what is possibly the best thing that I ate in my time in Mexico:

These are Picadas Especiales con Chorizo from Poc Chuc. Picadas are basically very thick tacos and are a speciality of the Yucatan Peninsular. Covered in Habenero salsa chorizo onion coriander and cheese. If I could live of these I would. Also from them some lovely tacos de pescado, or fish tacos:

The way in which Mexican cuisine deals with cheese is fairly simple and very wonderful – melt it.

Firstly we have here Queso Fundido con Champinones, literally melted cheese with mushrooms. You can order this with anything, another favourite of ours was with chorizo. so good and bad at the same time.

Next up are quesadillas, tacos filled with molten cheese. They can be meals in themselves such as these Mushroom Quesadillas from San Cristobal:

Or can be smaller appetizers like these from Poc Chuc:

Either way, that molten Tangy Oaxacan cheese, with salsa picante and what ever else you choose to have it with is so so good. Like an exotic cheese toasty.

The guacamole which it is impossible not to eat by the bucket load is so good here, so fresh and simple compared to that which we get served in the UK and a world apart from the green whip that supermarkets try and pass of for the stuff.

Here it is served with totopos, basically yesterdays tacos deep fried and the basis of (American) tortilla chips. Often though, Guacamole is not eaten as a dip but as an accompaniment.

The soups in Mexico are fantastic, and a particularly interesting one is Sopa de Lima, or Lemon Soup with chicken.

One of Mexico’s most classic dishes is Mole. Mole is often wrongly translated as Chocolate Sauce. Some moles do contain small amounts of cocoa, but are a far more subtle blend of seeds nuts spices and chillies, and are amazing. They come in every colour from green and red to yellow and paler. My favourite however has to be the Mole Negra:

Here is it over chicken enchiladas. It is one of those strange dishes were the most important element is the sauce, everything else on the plate an excuse to eat it.

There are so many more wonderful dishes we ate here, the breakfasts in particular being superb, but right now I am so hungry I’m off to grab a taco. Next time, San Francisco and northern California.

I haven’t manage to update for a few weeks, as we have been camping, so expect a few updates over the coming weeks. From dull Campeche we travelled to Palenque, a relatively non descript jungle town which is pleasant enough, but is 10km down the road from some spectacular ruins:

The amazing thing here are not only the ruins but the fact that you can go in them, and also the incredible jungle setting. Carved into a wall we saw epic skull #1

Its also near a beautiful series of waterfalls, Agua Azul:

The water here is normally vivid turquoise (I have been here in February 10 years ago) but we came during the one month of the year when the water is vivid brown. Still, there was a rope swing at least:

We found a company that could take us to the ruins in the morning then onto Agua Azul, then drop us off at San Cristobal de las Casas, our next stop. We got there late, but could already tell that we loved the place. It is so beautiful, and full of the most amazing people.

We found it incredibly humbling being here as loads of kids from the surrounding villages come down to the town to sell their goods. We bought loads of this stuff, as when a bare-footed 4 year old asks for 10 pesos for a little doll, its impossible to say no.

From San Cristobal it was on to Oaxaca (the correct spelling for that dreadful restaurant chain in London). This involved taking a night bus. You would think by now we were very used to these, and we are. The last time I took a night bus in Mexico however, March 2000, William Carleton and myself were taken hostage for 12 hours and robbed of everything we had, which was rather inconvenient. Needless to say I was slightly apprehensive, but the journey went very smoothly (for a journey in Mexico, only 5 military checkpoints) and Oaxaca is another incredible city

We visited an expensive but great museum and cultural centre where, amongst other things, we found epic skull #2

We met John Gregory Smith here, as he has been doing some travel himself and he treated us to a fancy dinner. Food was great service was hilarious and restaurant was loud (they blamed it on a water pump) but it was a nice reminder of home and the finer things in life.

After Oaxaca we went to Mexico city, where we only had one full day, so we had a lot to cram in. Unfortunately the zoccolo was hosting some kind of yogurt themed festival, which is a shame as it is the most impressive city square I have ever seen.

We wandered round taking in the city and went up the fake empire state building to see the view(ticket valid all day so we went up again after dark)

Mexico City is fantastic, and although on paper it is quite dangerous in reality it is safe as anywhere and the people are incredibly friendly.

We decided rather last minute to go and see a Luche Libre (Mexican wrestling) match. Luckily the night we went it was a 12 man cage fight. Unfortunately though there is nothing for me to show you as we weren’t allowed to take our camera in. Needless to say, I will definitely go again next time I am in Mexico. I did manage pick up a souvenir though:

(apologies for camera-phone picture)

We are very sad to be leaving Mexico, it is such a great country totally mis-represented by western media which sells by being overly dramatic. Still, next stop USA, and San Francisco is our first City. Coming soon is a food special blog about Mexican food, so until then, Fight The Man, man.

I have wanted to visit the island of Cozumel for a very long time. It seems though that I have missed my chance to see a beautiful Mexican Caribbean Island, as now it is just a resorters paradise/travellers hell. No local restaurants really remain, so we just ate in the supermarket. Although there is a nice waterfront to sit and have a drink on, the amount of hustlers and pedlars there are yelling “hey buddy, Cuban cigars?”  or “special price for honeymooners” makes it a really offensive place to be. I only bothered to take the camera out one evening as there was a nice sunset:

The main attraction of Cozumel are the coral reefs that surround it, second in size only to the Great BarrierRreef. Unfortunately, as we are not divers we couldn’t see much of it as the shallower parts were largely wiped out by hurricane Wilma. Still, it was an ok-ish snorkel trip:

Whilst we were on Isla Cozumel Tropical Storm Alex rolled in and stayed with us for the next week or so, meaning our stay inour next stop Playa del Carmen was fairly miserable. Whether this was due to the storm or the fact its easier to to get a Whopper with onion rings than tacos and guacamole I’m not sure.

As the storm started to clear we headed south again to Tulum, a place that I have been looking forward to returning to very much. Again, however, we were very disappointed. The Cabanas where you could hang a hammock that used to cost a couple of dollars a night have gone and been replaced by $100 a night cabanas with beds in, that look really really overpriced. We just camped on the beach, but even this has turned terrible, the sand is still icing sugar white and the waters still vivid turqouise, but there is so much litter now that it is quite an unpleasant place to sit. Whether this is from the recent development of hundereds of resorts and apartments in the surrounding area I do not know, but this will definitely be my third and final visit to Tulum.

The ruins, are still amazing, but whereas before there may be 2 or 3 other people there with you today it looks like this:

I can understand why, as they are amazing:

After this 3rd disappointment in a row we left Tulum beach and headed into Tulum town, a few miles inland. Here we arranged to snorkel one of the Cenotes in the area. The whole of the Yucatan Peninsular is linked by a series of underwater tunnels and sinkholes, known as Centoes. The jungle above is fed from the water in these which is why it can be so lush here even during the dry season. The snorkeling was amazing, and I only have this terrible photo of nikki swimming through one of the caves to show you, but if you are in the area I highly recommend it. You can just see in the foreground a small tetra fish, which live there alongside catfish and cichlids.

From Tulum we headed off to Merida, the State Capital of Yucatan, where we had only planned to spend a night but ended up spending 3 as it was so nice:

We stayed in a hostel with a pool, and generally got on with enjoying travelling again, after 10 fairly terrible days. From Merida we headed to Chitchen Itza, the Yucatan Peninsula’s most famous Mayan ruins. They were incredible, especially the main pyramid:

It was actually cheaper to book a tour than to make our own way on public transport to the ruins, and a nice bonus was that we got to see another cenote, a 40 metre deep sinkhole full of black catfish, the best natural swimming pool I have ever seen:

After much persuaision I got Nikki to jump of the diving platform. She is on the left, i’m on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

After Merida it was onto Palanque but we decided last minute to go via Campeche, the most boring colonial town we have yet visited, but with a nice view from the hostel roof.

The dorm was unreasonably hot at night, so after a few beers I asked if they would mind if I pitched our tent on the roof. They didn’t, so we managed to accidently stumble across epic camping site #5

We are now in Palenque getting ready to visit the ruins and various waterfalls in the morning, then onto San Cristobal, where we will be meeting a certain JGS.

As you may know by now our plans have changed and we are coming home about three weeks earlier than we thought on 6th August. I will try and do a couple more blogs before then. So until next time, I shall not be as smug.