Watch out for LADD

Walkie talkies (Chicken heads and feet)
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So we arrived in this quaint little town early in the morning after our long night bus. We quickly seeked out a nice posada (Posada Los Morelas) were we managed to bargin the man down from 520 pesos to 300 pesos! A steal with great views over the town!

And just as well for those views as that was all Phil saw of the town yesterday as her Latin American Disentry Diet (LADD) kicked in! We set out just after checking in for the bus station to book tickets for our onward journey to Palenque on Sunday on the touristico bus which stops at a couple of places along the way. Just after I´d booked the tickets Phil told me it was time to rush back to the Posada. And rush we did! As we were walking (Phil running) up the stairs in the Posada gardens Phil suddenly lurched sideways for the gardens where she did a little fertilising for them! Twice.

Choosing dinner
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After that she was woman down in the room for the rest of the day while I went out exploring (yes I am a bad person for not sitting and watching her vomit).

While out a serious down pour ensued - nothing like the namby pamby English rain which is mearly aggresive moisture. This was aggresive rain! It bucketed down for about and hour. The roads were nearly knee deep in water! At one point the manhole over a major intersection popped open and water started shooting upwards! IT was coming from all sides! And I stood in a doorway watching it all while getting a little wet.

Church
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After that I headed to the main market. An amazing place where the locals all come and sell their wares. Chickens. Roosters. Pigs heads. More crackling than you can shake a stick at (photos to come). Rows upon rows of vegetables - onions, tomatoes, bananas...you name it they had it. But do you think in all of this I could find a poncho¿ (I already had a poncho - thanks to Julie for leaving it with Phil!) but Phil needed one (for when she was no longer dieing). Nothing. Nada. No ponchos for miles around. I asked (in my finest Spanish - Donde este el poncho¿). Nothing. No one had any idea where they came from. Eventually about 2 hours later I stumbled upon a small store...and hidden in the back like some sort of drug were the ponchos. The owner was almost reluctant to sell it to me...like it would be wasting a good poncho on a Gringo. But evetually I got what I was after. Phil had her bright yellow poncho!

Hmmm...crackling...
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Since then Phils been feeling a little better and we´ve walked the same places I walked yesterday. More pigs heads. More chickens and roosters tied by their feet. But it was all good.

Tomorrow morning we head off early bells on the touristico bus to Palenque - an amazing set of ruins in the jungle.

Until next time...

hasta la vista.

More bananas than you can shake a stick at
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And for those of you still reading...here is an update from Phil...

hello all :)

i am pleased to announce i have recovered from my first bout of LADD (latin american dysentry diet) and am looking forward to a meal consisting of solids tonight. maybe that was too much information! puerta angel was a lovely little place, once we no longer needed to carry our bags - it was baking hot, not a breathe of air anywhere! there wasnt a helluva alot going on, which suited me just fine. we dined on fresh fresh at a little restuarant that was perched on a cliff face overlooking the bay. it was really beautiful + breezy. unfortunately PA also had a vast community of flies that appeared at every meal time!

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spent a couple hours resting at another playa, while jeremy acted like a young boy who had forgotten to take his ritalin tablets. he was off snorkeling, then fishing, then doing some general exploring in the same time i finished a couple more chapters of my book.

our next stop (after another 12hour bus ride) was san cristobal. suprisingly the night buses are somewhat better than 12hour planes, except you cant turn off the TV sound! SC is a quaint colonial town, 2000ft above sea level, and nestles in the top of some mountains. we found some bungalows to stay, equipped with fireplace, that overlooked the town. i was man down from 8am onwards, leaving Jeremy once again to explore explore explore!

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today i ventured out and tested by stomache by visiting the mercardo. they sold everything there - dvd players on the one side of the aisle, fruit and veg just on the other. loads of chickens (dead or alive). the middle of was the butcher section. growing up in africa must have made me stronger in once sense. all the other tourists were leaving the area looking rather pale!

i have noticed a couple other things:

* this area has a large indigenous population, ie they arent of spanish descent. they are really short, often shoeless people, that sell mostly souveniars like belts, bracelets etc.

* Most buses have signs, similar to ones you would see at roller coaster rides, that appear to state you get a discount if you´re shorter than 1.45m high. since most of this women dont even make it halfway up to my shoulder, i wonder what they would be paying?

*the mexicans have a strange obsession with lighting fireworks in the middle of the day. bom bom bom. i dont know if they celebrate every weekend, or if we´re in the middle of fiesta season?

*After years in london, and not ironing wherever possible, we´ve been forced to use laundromats (lavanderia´s). i am once again enjoying the pleasures of ironed cotten knit apparell. aw its the simple things that make life that much better!

we´re off to palenque tomorrow (more ruins) via some waterfalls.

more importantly, i am off to find some food right now!

cheers Phil