The first stop in Mexico. A city of 23 M people. It can feel a bit overwhelming even for a Chinese who is used to big crowd. The scene at the airport was pretty hectic. People were literally dragging my bags to get me into their taxi.

Next morning, after three subway and an hour of bus rides ( thanks to "lonely planet" guide, navigate the public transportation system was not difficult even I don't speak any Spanish and few Mexican speak English), I came to the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. The pyramid facing the ave. of death is temple of moon, the one on the side is temple of sun. The open structure suggests both temples were used as places for worship.

On the ride back, the bus stopped in the middle of the road, and two policemen came on doing body search( mostly on young males). Bit weird for me, but the Mexican on the bus seem to be not surprised at all.

Stopped by the Sunday antique market before back to the hotel. A lot really old stuff, not sure they are real or fake.

Puebla

A nice colonial town five-hour bus ride away from Mexico city. The city is known for the very colorful pottery. I bought a tea pot and a plate in the artist market there. I knew it will be quite a hassle to bring them around Mexico for two weeks. But I like them too much to walk away. The sellers on the market are all artists themselves. Most of them are very nice. It made me almost felt embarrassed negotiating with them on price( on a calculator).

The group had dinner together. Sue, the Aussie lady, ordered Puebla summer special for the group to share. It turned out to be a plate of deep fried worm. Yes, I did try them. And honestly, it doesn't really have any taste. Just proteins, I guess :-)

Headed to Cholula to view another pyramid. Actually, the 'pyramid' is a series of pyramids built on top of each other. They built one layer every 17 years ( as cycle of life). The pyramid is partially uncovered and has a yellow and white church on top of it. The church was build by Spanish during the colonial times while they were unaware about the pyramid beneath it. The visitors go into one side entrance and pop out the other side of the church where the rest of the ruins, including the sacrificial sites complete with human remains (encased in glass), are in full view.

Oaxaca city

The capital of Oaxaca state. Another nice colonial town. Santo Domingo culture center is a very nice museum, a lot of stuff from Monto Alban. The teacher union was on strike while we were there. They were camping at the central square. Does the scene remind anyone of Tiananmen square in 89?

Five miles away from Oaxaca City lie the Monte Alban ruins, perched on a mountaintop high above the surrounding valleys. From about 500 B.C. through 800 A.D., Monte Alban flourished as the capital of the Zapotecs. There are several ball courts at Monte Alban, they are not really for excise. Instead, it is a conflict resolution mechanism.

San Cristobal

After 12 hours of overnight bus ride, we came to San Cristobal. Watched " the Hours" on the bus, god, this is a depressing movie. Everyone inthe movie is either committing suicide or thinking about/planning it.

San Cristobal is also a colonial town ( yeah, I know, a lot of colonial towns in this trip), but in a more rustic way. Church of San Cristobal, according to the tour book, "seemly endless stairs, but the view is definitely worthwhile". The stairs are endless, but the view was not that impressive. Some hippies were singing and doing the fire dancing in the zocalo.

Brain, the GAP leader, cooked dinner for the group in the hostel we stayed. Well, he bossed everyone around the kitchen to make the dinnerhappen. He asked me to cut the cucumber in equal thickness and display them decoratively. It was a fun dinner, music and dancing afterwards.

The next day, we took a two-hour bus ride to a nature park nearby. The crocodile was just two feet away from us. He took a glimpse at us, and went under the water. Thanks god, he was not hungry.

On the way back, we visited an indigenous village. Very interesting worship ceremony. Due to respect to their tradition, did not take any pictures.

Palenque

Another 8-hour bus ride, the road is very curvy, it felt like forever. Watched " finding Nemo" and " Hulk" dubbed in Spanish on the bus, still have had no idea what the story line is.

Palenque is definitely worth the painful ride, my favorite place of the whole trip. A Maya ruin in a rain forest. The weather is hot and humid. Bug propeller every 90 mins, sun block every couple of hours, layers of dirt and sweat in between. But the view is amazing. All those images of romantic Mayan ruins shimmering in the morning mist come true here. There are over 500 maya buildings in the area, only a handful have been uncovered. Because of the weather and location, Palenque is not a very popular tourist destination, no tourist bus comes here, only backpackers like us. So the government is not spending money on uncovering more sites.

Temple of Inscriptions, the tallest building in the ruin, also the tomb of the empire. Visitor need to apply for a permit to get inside the tomb. I did go to the office for the permit. The officer asked me to elaborate why I want to go in ( yes, that is the exact word he used). Wrote a one page essay ( or BS)to get the permit. I guess that is their way to control the number of visitors.

Inside, there is a fake tomb with six bodies. Obviously, the emperor did not want people to discover his buried place. The place is 1500 years old, but the original red painting is still visible. Quite amazing, isn't it?

For some reason, Palenque seems to be the gather ground of all the hippies of central/south America. They live/camp together, call each other brothers, and smoke pot ( my guess) together. At night, they perform fire dancing at restaurants, and sell jewelry(jewelry made of deer bone and stuff) afterwards. Quite a way of life. I talked to some of them after the show. A few stuck me as rich kids going through the rebelling phase. Just a wild guess, none of them speak English well enough to really communicate.

Merida

The capital of Yucatan. Beautiful colonial town. Very touristy. Has a lot fancy restaurants and bars. I met a very interesting lady in the night market. She was selling used book there, speaks very good English. We began to chat. Turns out she is half Canadian, half Venezuelan, proficient in seven languages. Lived ten years in Spain, and all over south America. Though probably in her fifty, she seem have never grown out of her hippy phase.

Playa de Carmen

A resort town close to Cancun. I felt I am in the States there. 90% of people on the street were tourist from US. Very nice beach though.

Shopping is serious business in Playa. The vendors are very aggressive. They buy bulk from the inland towns and sell to the tourist. You really need to bargain here. The best way to do it is to have a friend go with you, play the good cop / bad cop game. Don't be afraid to walk away. They are very shrewd businessmen, they won't sell below cost, and they will get you back to the bargaining table if there is deal to be made.

There are several ruins around Playa. Tulum is right on the beach. The ruin itself is not that big, so a lot of people just hang out on the beach to make it a day.