Sian Ka'an, Part 1

by FERENC IVANICS
From Tulum to Chetumal there's a paved road. But there's another path that takes you through the biosphere reserve Sian Ka'an. That is the major national park in the Caribbean, and it's been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Mostly made of huge palm forests, there's a peninsula with freshwater lagoons, a coral reef, etc.



We knew many tourists visit this area from Tulum. And then come back to Tulum. We wanted to move on south after visiting Sian Ka'an. We didn't know if it was possible, so this choice was a bit risky, but we wanted to see what does the real, wild Caribbean looks like, without the signs of human civilization, huge hotels, crowded beaches, harbors.



And Sian Ka'an is beautiful. There's a 35 miles long road from Tulum to Punta Allén, running on the peninsula between palm trees and mangroves, the sea is extreme blue, but there's too much litter running on shore...


Our only trouble (besides the ever-present mosquitoes) was drinking water. It wasn't serious though, I mean, we could have stopped a tourist convoy to ask for water anytime, but we turned to our most-honored coconuts. Wildlife is dense in Sian Ka'an, we've seen coatis, western red pandas, capybaras, small crabs living in shells, and there's pumas and jaguars as well in this jungle. But the most dangerous species we've met was that little crab with its heavy claws.


Sian Ka'an, Part 2

A Farewell to the Caribbean Coast

by FERENC IVANICS
Tulum is an authentic Caribbean holiday resort. It's expensive for us, but if you look at its beauties and compare the prices to other places, I'd say it's rather affordable, or even economical.



There are a lot of young travelers, hippies, nature lovers here, they rent cheap bungalows or camp near the beach. We, by luck, ran into Chain and Jaime, they run a campsite near the Tulum beach.



We can tell, that was the most exotic camping we'd ever seen. We passed two quite enjoyable days there (though you can't escape from the mosquitoes). This lovely couple told us we could stay for as long as we wanted, but we had things to get arranged in the town of Tulum. Thank you!

New Tents, New Hope

by FERENC IVANICS
Thanks to the helpful tourists in Playa del Carmen we bought a new pair of tents. Our fourth pair on our 8000 miles walk. We bought two Jeep Hiker Tents, these are pretty strange tents but they seem strong enough, ant that's what's important for us.


They chipped in enough to buy some new socks and pants as well. Due to the almost expired visas our days were counted in Mexico. We were expecting to receive new shoes from the U.S. so we arrived in Tulum full of hope. Thank you for your support.

Another Talking Round

by FERENC IVANICS
We stopped at Playa del Carmen, some 40 miles south of Cancún. Found a deserted go-kart track and made a base camp there. Our tents are full of holes, our clothes aren't any better. Playa del Carmen is full of tourists, Canadians, Europeans, from the U.S.A...


The city is full of bars, shops, restaurants, it's a pleasure factory. We just sit on the 5th avenue with a WorldWalk-board. Two bearded guys in identical clothes, looks interesting. Many passer-byes are curious about us and we always chat with them, usually mentioning the situation with our tents and clothes. We get some small donations and even some major help, like the support from the Hungarian Tukarcsy family. (We met other Hungarians as well: many thanks, Marcsi, Szilvi, Balázs and Tamás.)



It was a special experience spending New Years Eve at the beach, taking a swim. The water was clean and calm. I guess I don't have to say anything about the blue seawater... We enjoyed it a lot, and it was nice to see how grown-ups unveil their inner child.

Miles of Sandy Beaches

by FERENC IVANICS
We reached the Caribbean at Cancún. I guess most of you have seen pictures of the blue Caribbean Sea. I always thought those were images altered in Photoshop, a computer generated exaggeration. We've seen the Mediterranean of the French and the Spanish, The Atlantic in Africa and in Miami, the Gulf of Mexico in the U.S. and in Mexico. Their beaches were playing in another league. This is something totally different. The color of the water is amazing.


So it's not surprising that Cancún is the "capital" of tourism is Mexico. An 18 miles long beach sprinkled with luxurious hotels that suit your every need... Well, we think it's interesting but very distant from us.

Snakes Again

by FERENC IVANICS
Near Valladolid we found a bike-road parallel with the road. It looked more thrilling than the paved road, and even though we knew it was a bit risky due to the presence of our reptilian brothers, we took it.


And I almost had it... I was in the clouds—both with my thoughts and with my eyes—when suddenly my brother hold me back by my backpack and yelled: Stop! A snake! I looked in front of me and a few feel away there was a yard long, wound up snake. We knew its pattern, it was some kind of a viper.


With perfect timing, an old man arrived riding a bicycle. We pointed at the snake, he asked if it was alive, and when our answer was positive, he jumped off the bike, cut some young branches and practically smashed the poor thing. He told us it was the second most dangerous snake they have in the region. The most feared one is the coral snake. Personally, I pay a bit more attention since this experience...

Chichén Itza

by FERENC IVANICS
Chichén Itza lies between Mérida and Cancún. It's a large Maya archeological site on the Yucatán peninsula. It was obvious that Cichén Itza is "more important" than our other pre-Columbian experience: El Tajín. It's full of tourists, we haven't seen this many European and North-American faces in other parts of Mexico.



We did know that the price of the tickets would be high (at least for us), but we decided to look around. The entry is free one hour before closing time, but one hour is just not enough. So, we paid those ten bucks each. Even though it's worth it, we would have loved to get a map or something for the money.


Inside it's not only an archeological site, but rather a huge flea-market. It's almost embarrassing and definitely annoying. But otherwise, it's amazing: the buildings, the stonework are perfect evidence of the late existence of a developed culture.


It's astonishing how this ancient civilization defies analysis: no one really knows what these buildings were made for, what events the reliefs describe. Again: an amazingly different world.

Mexican Pilgrimage

by FERENC IVANICS
In early December Mexico's Catholics begin a pilgrimage to the Chalma church to leave their crown of flowers. They come from all over the country, generally in groups. If they hadn't have the image of the Virgin on their coaches or T-shirts, you would think it's some kind of sport event.



Most of the pilgrims are young men and women, and many of them are children. They travel on bicycles or they run, and the groups usually have support vehicles. (Sometimes it's hard to believe we don't...) And they are noisy! :)



It's their habit to make the pilgrimage making awful noises with car-alarms. Someone must have started it a while ago, and now every group have their noise-machines. I guess, these days it's easier to steal a car because no one would notice or care. :) But anyways, every habits or customs that bring people together are important and respectable. Even if they seem strange at first to the foreign eyes...