This is the blog/travel journal for Chris & Joanne Reilly from Glasgow, Scotland. After quitting our jobs and selling our house, we plan to travel around the globe for the next year.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Deep in the Heart of Texas

The start of our second week was mostly like our first with very hot humid mornings. By 2 oclock the sky would turn dark and we would be in the middle of a huge thunder and lightning storm that would last for a few hours. On Monday afternoon Lynne & Gabriel went to their Mothers and Toddlers group while we caught up on some admin and changed a few of our upcoming flights. As we did this we watched the lightning moving closer and closer to the house, a few minutes later we heard an almighty crash as a tree just across from Lynne's back garden was hit by the lightning. Joanne disappeared down stairs, but I'm not sure if she was under the dining table or the kitchen sink hiding from the elements.

David had been told that on Monday nights a good band played in a bar called Helios in the Montrose area of Houston, so David, Joanne and myself headed out to the bar. It looked like another big Houston wooden house apart from the 20 or 30 people milling about in the garden drinking, inside wasn't much different with a few walls taken down and a bar set up on the right hand side. We got there about 10:45 and it was mobbed which I thought was quite surprising for a Monday night. The band were called "The Medicine Show"(not an eye patch in sight for you older readers) and had just finished setting up when we arrived. When they started they had two guitarists, a guy on mandolin, one tea-chest bass player and a washboard player. Before long they had most of the crowd hollering and stomping along to their Bluegrass Cajun Country Swamp Skiffle Americana fusion. This was no old timers band but just some young punks having a good time, check the cover below of "The Basement Tapes" by Bob Dylan and the Band that will give you a good idea what these guys looked like and later on they went on to cover "The Weight" by The Band.


During the second song things started to get a bit strange, a guy at the front of the crowd made a bit of space for himself and then began to strip off, pretty soon he was as naked as the day he was born apart from the few tattoos and he started doing back flips right in front of us. He nearly landed right on top of Joanne at one point, I don't think she knew where to look. On his final jump he landed on top of the washboard player and managed to break his board, before he streaked into the night to find his clothes. The band played on for another 5 or 6 songs before they all swapped instruments and started using a bass guitar and drum kit.

The place was jumping and it was hard to believe it was well after 12 o'clock on a Monday night, the band took a break so we headed up stairs for a bit to see the Jazz band in residence. Well Jazz isn't really my thing but you could tell that these guys could really play and they had a whole different vibe going on from that of downstairs with their mellow smokey laidback bluesy improvised doodles. Back downstairs we had another beer before deciding to call it a night as David had to be up at 6:30 for work.

The next day we wandered up and down the funky thrift stores and cool antique shops in the Montrose area before heading to a cool cafe bar called Brazil which we visited the previous time we were in Houston. Gabriel was in his element with his plate of avocado and glass of ice and spoons, while we tucked into our fancy sandwiches. After lunch we went to the Menil Collection which had hundreds of pieces of art from some of the 20th Century's most famous artists as well as exhibits of African and Native American art. They had some cool Rauschenberg and Warhol things, a few from Picasso and the building was also a really cool place. The rain came back on as we left but we managed to get back to the house before the roads flooded. That night Lynne made a lovely salmon meal for us all and we ended up staying up until half two in the morning drinking and talking.

Over the next few days we went to the Museum of Fine Art which had a great exhibition on Baseball in American Culture with large displays of it's memorabilia throughout the years. The museum also had another large collection of 20th Century Modern Art. Outside the museum was a large installation made of large rubber bands which was quite cool to walk through. Houston must have one of the biggest art collections outside of New York in the world. We were also considering buying a laptop the prices seemed better than back home and it would save us some time and money but we hadn't totally convinced ourselves yet.


On Friday night we got a Mexican take away and "The Motorcycle Diaries" DVD. We had tried to get this out back home out of the blockbuster in Cardonald but when asking for it for an assistant said they didn't have it but we wouldn't like it anyway because it had sub-titles. It was great to see some of the places we had visited in our time in South America and to see how the book was transferred onto film since we had read both this book and another book of a journalist following Che's same route 45 years later before we started our trip.

Next day David took us to hunt for a laptop as Lynne had a meeting at the Gallery where she is a member of the committee. For those of you who don't know our friends David and Lynne, well David is a project manager in the oil industry that's why they are based in Houston and Lynne is an Artist who has exhibited in many places throughout the world.

Here's a review of a recent show

In the afternoon David and Lynne had invited lots of friends round for a party at the house, including the use of their swimming pool. Lynne had forgotten to tell David about this and he had just put the chemicals in the pool that morning, so we were warned it might not be a good idea to sit too near as we might bleach our clothes. It didn't seem to have any long term effects on the kids who used the pool but they did seem a whole lot cleaner when they came out. This was the first day since we arrived in Houston that we didn't have an afternoon downpour or thunder storm so we all sat outside until about 10 at night. We had got talking to some of the folks, Catriona (an artist from Northern Ireland now living in Houston) and Jeff who was in a band and was into some similar type music as myself. Jeff's band were called Mansion and later he was going to see a friends band in a bar in Houston, so Joanne, Lynne and myself tagged along to Rudyard's to see them. The bands played upstairs in the bar and the place had a similar layout and feel to King Tut's in Glasgow but maybe slightly bigger.

On the Sunday after Lynne made us an enormous cooked breakfast the five of us headed south to Galveston about an hour and a half from Houston. The last time we were in Houston I mainly remember listening to Saturday Night Fish Fry (a New Orleans 60's Soul CD) and Ben Kweller (an Indie Pop Kid) as we drove about but this has all changed now as Gabriel holds sway over the in-car sounds and his personal favourite at the moment is Lisa Loe's "Catch the Moon" with songs like Oh Susana, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Joanne's favourite Little Red Caboose.



When we arrived in Galveston we strolled up and down the main street looking at all the shops. We decided it was time to go after going into the Corona merchandise shop where one of the sales assistants was a 50 year old hippie with nothing on but a Corona G-Sting and his flabby saggy butt on view to the whole store. We then drove down to the beach but gave it a miss as it was covered in jetsam and flotsam due to the recent storms.

We headed to the Kemah Boardwalk for food, it's a small town created by a company who owns a chain of restaurants throughout Texas. The town has about half a dozen different restaurants, a fairground, live bands and a hundred other ways to get into your wallet. We ended up having dinner in Joe's Crab Shack which seemed to be wired to the national grid as everyone was acting as if their drinks were laced with Red Bull & Big Reds. At one point the music was pumped up to twice the volume, YMCA was cranked on and all the staff climbed onto the nearest table dancing along with all the moves. After having our massive shrimp platters we rolled out to the boardwalk and wandered about in the surreal never never land of Kemah.


Next morning we bought a laptop an HP Pavilion ze2000 (after some extensive research and price matching). It means we can do a lot of things in our free time that took up some time in the internet caf?. It also has a DVD and a good screen so we can watch some movies on nights we can't find a good theatre or wine bar in some remote corner of the globe. The other big plus has been that I can get new music onto my MP3 player, my brother Andrew sent me about 100 albums that have been released since we left home. These are now on alongside the ones I've ripped from Lynne & David's collection. I would like also to thank Andrew here for all his work on our behalf since we have left - so if you see him get him a pint.

As it was a Monday night we decided to stay in for a quiet one, well we had been partying a bit too hard over the last few days. At about 11:30 out came the old photos and you can guess where the night was going..correct after a few more bottles of wine it was 4:30 in the morning. I think David was slightly late for work that day and the rest of us where suffering, but we had arranged to meet Catriona at a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. Joanne found hers a bit too spicy but Lynne and I wolfed ours down to soak up the remaining alcohol in our systems. We all then headed to the Contemporary Arts Museum to see a show called "Landscape Collection" Most of the exhibits were good but some were fantastic and my personal favourite is the one that had about $1000 worth of Plastacine attached to a wall in some amazing patterns.

Here's a link to the exibition

We went to the Baseball once David got home as we had managed to get $1 tickets for the four of us by buying some Powerade energy drink. This was Gabriel's and our first trip to the ballpark, well I'm not sure if it's called a ballpark when it's got an enclosed roof, holds 50,000 people and looms over downtown Houston. The game was between the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies which the Astros went on to win by 2 runs to 1. Before the game I knew next to nothing about baseball, I remember playing softball a few times in the early 90's when my cousin Liam used to run a team in Glasgow. Our seats where that high up the that there called the noseblleds but once we conquered the summit we had a decent view of all the action on the grass and in the stands. There weren't many runs but it was all quite interesting, probably more than I thought it was going to be. I also think Gabriel enjoyed all the razzmatazz and noise as he didn't seem the least perturbed by the crowd clapping and shouting and the large explosion when there was a home run at the end of the game. Luckily the game didn't finish until we had devoured our foot long Hot Dogs and cold beer.

Wednesday morning and it was off to "The Breakfast Club" for the best morning food in Houston. We came here the last time we were in Houston and our memories weren't ruined, with amazing sausage ensembles, glorious French toast and great coffee to wash it all down. After a trip to Target (a bit like Asda but with a better selection of household) to pick up some provisions for the next stage of our trip it was time for me to bail out for a while and go and watch my first live Celtic game since leaving. Lynne drove me to the other side of Houston to a bar called the Bull & Bear which was located in the middle of one of the million shopping units that ring the city. Inside were about 30 to 40 Celtic supporters ready to watch Celtic's first competitive game since Gordon Strachan took over the reigns from Martin O'Neil. Well as some as you might know it wasn't that competitive as Euro giants Artmedia from Slovakia ran out 5-0 winners as the Celtic defence imploded in on itself and the midfield and forwards tried to out do each other in their game of hide and seek. It was a very surreal feeling watching Celtic be hammered in the bar surrounded by Celtic posters and memorabilia and then to head out into the bright Houston sunshine and it took a while for the result to sink in. Mick, who I sold my season ticket for the season, will be asking for his money back or at least a major reduction.

On the Wednesday night we babysat Gabriel to let Lynne and David out for a nice meal together, as the opportunities for unpaid baby-sitters are few and far between due to both their parents being back home in Scotland. Luckily we had no problems once he was down to sleep and Lynne said she would give Joanne a glowing reference if she ever wanted to take up nannying full time. She might have to if she can't get a job back in insurance once we stop this travelling malarkey.

On our last full day we picked up our last supplies and another 90 days worth of Contact Lenses for myself. We also went to an art exhibit which is a house turned inside out and I will stick a photo below to give you an idea what it looked like.


At night Lynne had booked a baby sitter so we could have a night out for the four of us to go for a meal and hit some bars. We went to the Goode Company's BBQ Shack for some more excellent brisket and sausages drowned in a wonderful sauce. Joanne said my plate was as big as Texas but being new to here I dodn't know if she meant that it was big or small. I'm sorry if we have went on quite a lot about the food in Texas but to be honest there has been so many great meals since we have been here that it's hard to name our top ten. We then had a small pub crawl of about 3 or 4 bars before heading into a place near Lynne & David's that they pass every night and see lots of cars outside but never knew what it was, what it looked like or if it was safe to enter. The only marking from the outside was three small 2's in pink neon, this didn't put us off so we headed in to find a rather large room with about 15 to 20 people sitting in the dark listening to some Goth Rock nonsense. We stayed for one drink having cured our curiosity and decided to make our last trip back to McNidder/McCabe residence.


Friday morning it was our sad farewells to Lynne & Gabriel (David was up early for work, so he got his the night before) before heading to the airport. Well it was really sad to leave Texas again and we couldn't have asked for better host but it's back to the hobo lifestyle and back on the road again.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Texas Fever

Houston was the first place on our trip that we had visited before in the spring of 2002 but this was going to be a lot different from our first visit as well as our friends Lynne and David we were also going to meet their 10 month old son Gabriel for the first time. They had also moved home and now live in a beautiful house that from the outside look's like something from the Walton's with it's wood panelling and the large family swing on the front porch but I don't remember the Waltons having a swimming pool in their back garden but I could be wrong. The inside of the house was also full of early 20th Century American charm and we were given our own room and bathroom, after Cancun the luxury just kept coming.


Gabriel was slightly surprised to see two new faces the next day but in no time at all he was all smiles as we played with him and all his toys. Anybody who has ever been to Houston will know that Car is King and it's almost impossible doing anything without one, so over the next two and a half weeks we very lucky to have two great chauffeurs who showed us all of Houston's highlights we had missed on our first visit and to many other places further a field.

Our first day was spent shopping for some new clothes as after 4 months hard wear on the dusty streets of South America and Mexico some of our threads were decidedly threadbare and some of Chris's just a little bit smelly. It started to rain so we went to a great tapas bar for lunch, the restaurants in Texas are so much more child friendly than back home with the staff bending over backwards to make sure you have anything you require. Houston hadn't had any rain in two and a half months until we arrived and certainly made up for it during our time there (Mr Reilly jinxes again!).

The following day we went to 'The Orange Show' built by Jeff McKissack. He was at heart an inventor and after being unsuccessful in being able to work alongside Thomas Edison he decided he would design the best orange juice extractor ever. He bought lorry loads of oranges and sold these on and made some money this way. He believed that oranges were such an important source of nutrition that he built his show about them and his orange squeezer would be the highlight. Unfortunately he felt that none of his designs were good enough and the show opened without this. It is a collection of various articles that he has picked up along the way, frogs, Santa’s son, tractor seats and steering wheels, engines and a various other things. There was a seated area for shows to be shown. He died 8 months after the show opened and his friends and family set up a trust to keep the show going. Nowadays it is also used as an exhibition space and as venue for plays, movies and bands, Bonnie Prince Billy and Daniel Johnson are two acts who have played the venue in the last year.

Thursday was spent looking for shoes...well you know what I am like...I absolutely hate it! We eventually found a huge place where both of us got new sandals and I got a new pair of flip flops (my trendies!!). There was a huge thunderstorm that afternoon and we tried to wait it out...but to no avail...Lynne drove us home whilst trying to avoid the many flooded areas we couldn’t drive through.

Friday lunchtime after David returned from work we headed off to hill country with our first stop being Lulling to sample the award winning BBQ in the City Market BBQ House. This place had it's own smoke room in the back where you ordered your meat by the pound and your sausages by the number whilst peering through the haze. Several pounds of brisket, spare ribs and 4 sausages were plunkt onto a couple of sheets of brown paper...this is also what we had for dinner plates. This food was delicious - honestly we ate and ate and washed it all down with bottles of Big Red which...looks like tizer but I can't describe what it tastes like but my eyes bulged and heart raced after a few mouthfuls. Three of us got a big red for the road...we tried to persuade Lynne & Gabriel but it wasn't to be.


We stopped off in Wimberley a quaint wee town where we wandered about the shops that looked like the Ingles store from the hit 70's TV show “Little House on the Prairie”before heading off to Luckenbach which allegedly has a population of 3. Luckenbach consists of a bar, gift shop and a few sheds but is famous for being where Willie Nelson and friends regularly come to jam a few tunes. We had a beer and chilled out while listening to a few good old boys strum some songs on their guitars before going to Fredericksburg which was the next stop on David's whistle stop tour to Austin through the Texas Hill Country. We went to a little German place called Aldorf and we had a beer and guess what...more sausages..they even had cheese ones...now Chris was delighted. As we headed back to the car we saw the weirdest thunderstorm ever, the lightning was in the clouds and the whole cloud lit up!


Saturday morning after breakfast we passed a drive-thru off licence (this seems to sum up the Texans attitude to drinking and driving) on our way to Enchanted Rock.
This was a huge granite rock which was held sacred by the indigenous tribes of the area and stands majestically above all the surrounding scenery and is now in the centre of a huge national reserve. We all walked up even Gabriel, to the top which took about an hour in the hot hot heat of the morning. We then headed back into Fredericksburg and had lunch in the Fredericksburg Brewery Company - now the speciality was Sausages...but as we were all sausaged out we decided just to have a sandwich and sampled one of the inhouse brews.


After lunch Lynne decided that it would be quite nice to take a sideways diversion via the Becker's vineyard, which is a personal favourite of some guy called George W Bush. After a few samples avoiding the merlot we sat and had a nice bottle of wine out on the beautiful patio before it was back in the SUV and back on the road to Austin.

After arriving in Austin and getting checked into our hotel room we went to a Mexican restaurant in the Congress area called Guerros which had better Mexican food than any we had tasted in last month or so in Mexico. We then had an invite to a party at Heid's (an artist friend of Lynne's) who lived in Austin. There was another Scottish girl now living in Austin there called Jude and we spent our time reminiscing about Irn Bru and Gregg's (well Jude had an apparent dislike of the counter assistants and Chris just dreamt of a Cheese pastie!). After leaving the party Lynne had to put Gabriel to bed so Chris, David & I went down into the centre of Austin for a couple of drinks in a sports bar.

We had planned to go for a dip in the Barton thermal springs but the rain put a kybosh on that idea so we opted to wander around the Texas State Capital Building instead and marvel at it's amazing dome. This building was rebuilt in the 1800’s due to a fire and is fairly impressive, it also has paintings of all the governors of Texas including some guy called Bush who quite liked the Becker's wine. We then went to a really cool restaurant called “Shady Grove”for lunch where we ate the hugest and bestest burger of all time. This place had a cool laid back friendly atmosphere and seemed to sum up the overall feel we got for Austin in our few days
there - Austin should be on your list of places to visit if you are ever in Texas.


After a quick look round Barton Springs before it was cleared due to a lightning warning it was back in the car back to Houston after a great weekend away.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Cancun Corona Comfort Zone

Halfway to Cancun and the clouds start turning very dark and before too long we are in the middle of a big storm with the proverbial cats and dogs landing on the roof of the bus. We decided to spend the first three days in Cancun in the downtown area before moving to the swanky all inclusive hotel with my parents in the area known as Zona Hotelera.

Cancun didn't exist before it's creation in the early 1970's and has two distinct areas, Zona Hotelera which is built on a slither of land with the Caribbean on one side and a large lagoon on the other. The downtown area (Ciudad Cancun) was also created at the same time to cater for all the staff who would work in the hotels and resturants servicing the tourists from around the world.

Monday morning we decide to go for a walk and to have a look at the hotel we would be moving into on Wednesday and maybe leave a note for my parents who where due in that afternoon. Well we manged to walk for about 6km before the skys's opened up again but this time with a huge wind behind it, so it looked if the rain was coming up the way. Within minutes we where soaked and decided to jump on the bus for the remainder of the way. The bus's have a flat fee of 0.75 pesos (under a pound) which will take you to any part of the hotel strip which is about 28km long. Once at the hotel (Oasis Playa) we were very impressed with the plush reception, the lovely pool and great beach. So after trying and failing to leave a message for my parents we decided to head to one of the large shopping centres that pepper the hotel zone, once we got there we soon remembered how rubbish most of these places are. The centre contained a massive Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood and various other chains with a few other tacky gift shops selling cheap t-shirts with the word Cancun gratuitously placed somewhere or other.

That night it was back down to the Oasis Playa to meet my parents for the first time, it was really brilliant seeing my mum and dad after our four months away. We stayed for a few hours and managed to sneak a few free drinks before arranging to meet up the next day and head to some of the other shops (weather permitting), it was if we had seen each other just the week before.



We never did too much apart from shop and use the internet before moving into the Hotel Oasis Playa on the Wednesday lunchtime and readjust to the luxurious surroundings after our 4 months of cheap hotels and food. Our room had a great view over the Lagoon, Golf Course and the hotel’s tennis courts and at night we got to see the sun set over the Lagoon from our balcony. The bed was actually bigger than the room we stayed in Buenos Aires and we both could do star shapes in the bed without touching each other. When we arrived in our room there were some towels wrapped together in the shape of a dog with two eye stickers on it and a little note welcoming us to the hotel. Everyday we had some weird towel origami present left in our room from the maids: dinosaurs, swans and a scorpion which nearly had Joanne running out the room.

The hotel had quite a few different restaurants and bars, we mainly had lunch and dinner in the large buffet dinning room. The food was always of a really high standard with a great selection to choose from, with each night having a different theme. Mostly after dinner we just sat with my mum and dad and caught up with all the news back home and bored them with our stories from the past few months. The hotel usually had entertainment which mainly meant 8 or so dancers jumping about a stage to backing tapes with some contrived Caribbean theme linking them together. This was all made a lot easier to ignore with the beautiful surroundings and the availability of as much draft corona’s or margaritas you could wish for.


We also had a little taste of Scotland courtesy of our friend Audrey who had sent over some tablet and fudge for us and my mum bringing over some Irn Bru to wash all the sugary goodness down. I’m not sure if I’ve said this before but if you ever go to Peru, you can get a drink there called Inca Kola that tastes just like Irn Bru.

Most mornings after breakfast we would head down to the beach or pool before admitting defeat and retire to our room’s to escape the intensity of the sun. The beach looked amazing with it’s brilliant white sand merging into the bright blue warm Caribbean sea, which even having quite strong waves was great fun to jump about in. The pools in the hotel where also really good, with one for playing sports (Water Basketball and Volleyball) and another with a bar where you could sit and sip your pina coladas while floating about the pool.


Everyday the news channels were warning us that Hurricane Dennis was going to hit the Yucatan and probably Cancun and the weather forecast was always for thunder and lightning but apart from our first two days the weather was always great. This wasn’t the case for my parents who were in Cancun for another week after we left, they were to witness the full force of Hurricane Emily. After spending the night in the underground bar when Emily rolled over Cancun my mother described the hotel as looking like final scenes of the titanic with water everywhere, windows blown out and all the large ornamental planters blown over in the large reception area. Luckily no one was hurt and I don’t think it put a dampener on my parents holiday.

Well it was another sad farewell on the Thursday morning as we left my parents and the luxury behind and headed onto the next part of our adventure. Next stop was Houston, Texas but we nearly ended up missing our flight due to a mix of our general stupidity, rumours and lack of signposting at Cancun airport. Immigration in the other countries meant having our passport stamped as we checked out through immigration but after checking our bags in we wandered to the departure lounge and still hadn’t passed through immigration. My dad had also told us that there was a departure tax so seeing a sign for immigration we headed straight there, the room was mobbed and it took about 50 minutes to get to the front. At the desk we got some really strange looks from the guy behind it as we passed over our passports and our leaving forms. We soon found out that this was immigration for people arriving in Cancun and not leaving. We had 15 minutes before our flight left and made a quick dash to our gate and boarded the plane without having our passports stamped out or paying any departure tax. We’re still not sure if we were supposed to…….so if anybody knows drop us a note.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Yucatàn in the Sun

Well the next stop on our Magical Mexican Mystery Tour was Mèrida in the north west of the Yucatan peninsula. Mèrida has a population of 690,000 slightly bigger than that of Glasgow`s but has a sleepy Sunday feel about the place, we had planned to stay here for 3 or 4 days and use it as a base to visit Chichen Iza and Uxmal (2 Mayan temple Sites) both just over an hours bus journey away.


We decided to not bother with a taxi and walk to the hostal, bad mistake as it was quite a bit further than we thought and it was oppresively hot in the afternoon sun. Luckily we once again managed to get a reasonably cheap hostal, you could never say the place was luxurious but it was clean and had a large ceiling fan which managed to keep the huge room cool. Everywhere you go in Mèrida people are trying to get you into some shop or other to sell you hammocks & Panama hats, with every shop telling you that they have the best hammocks in Mexico or that their hats have been the choice of Mexican leaders since Montezuma. First night we found a cool cafe called Pop which sold decent cheap mexican food in cool 50`s jazz style decor, before wandering around the many shops in the archways that surround the plaza.

Next morning we decided to head to Uxmal which is 78km south of Merida on the local bus. The site at Uxmal was first excavated in 1929 and now has some spectacular restored buildings, but much has yet to be discovered. On first entering the site you see the 39m high Casa del Adivinio (The Magician's House) with it's smooth sloping sides and steep stairs. We then walked carefully about the site trying not to trod on any of the large iguanas baking in the sun. Uxmal doesn't seem to be as heralded as much as some of the other Mayan and Aztec sites we have read about but with so many beautiful temples and lavish grounds it's a place we really recommend to visit if you are in the area.


Again there was plenty of steep steps for us to climb up and down, but at Uxmal you get to see a lots more bas-reliefs on the buildings and not just in the museums like some of the other sites. The site wasn't that busy and we managed to roam about ourselves for a few enjoyble hours before the sun started to get too hot, at least it was a change from the rain of the previous week. That night for something to eat we went to a small local place that sold big pizzas and small beers that where big on taste and only made a small dent on my wallet.

Saturday Morning was a real early rise (5:30am) so we could get to Chichen Itza before the crowds and before it got too hot to wander about. We arrived at the site about 8am and headed straight to El Castillo the 25m high pyramid which is the only structure you can climb at Chichen Itza. We climbed the 91 steps to the top which was very steep and some of the steps where quite slippy due to the constant humidity. Once on top you have great views of the site and the surrounding forests, it was also quite good watching all the people getting up and down the steep sides of the pyramid. One family we'd seen had four kids under the age of 7 and managed to get up quite quickly but really struggled on the way down as two of the kids took vertigo and refused to take another step.


The El Castillo pyramid is actually the Mayan calendar formed in stone with each of its nine levels divided in two by a staircase, making 18 seperate terraces that commemorate the 18 20-day months of the Mayan year. The four stairways have 91 steps each and when you add the top platform the total is 365. We also climbed the dark dank narrow stairway inside the pyramid to see the red jaguar throne, which was not for the claustrophobic amongst you.

We also went to the ball court which is so much larger than the others we had seen in the previous weeks. Some of the stone reliefs along the ball court show players wielding bats and others being decapitated. We then wandered around the rest of the sites many buildings before we escaped from the thousands of bus loads who appeared about 11am, big tip try and get to here early as it almost impossible to climb the pyramid when it's busy.


Back in Merida and after a few hours catching up on the net we ventured out for dinner, we went to a busy place we noticed the night before whilst in the pizza joint. What followed was another less than average meal which was washed down by the most disgusting of concoctions passing itself of as a drink. We can't remember what it was called but we had seen quite a few people drinking them in Merida on the previous nights, the drink consisted of beer and a syrupy ginger monstrosity.

After escaping from our meal we then failed in findng a reggae pub/club we had seen advertised in a flyer earlier in the day proclaiming to play the best Jamaican music in the Yucatan with the best of Ska to Dub and a little Rock Steady mixed if for good measure. They might have had the best music in town but their directions left a lot to be desired. We eventually ended up in a bar on one of the main streets (Calle 60) across from where they where setting up a stage. At 9:30 the police closed the road and about 50 tables appeared from nowhere and before too long these were all filled and the band mobbed the stage. The band were your typical cabaret band and seemed to care more about their dance steps than their singing but the crowd loved them. We stayed in the bar watching the band for about an hour before deciding to call it a night. There's only so much cabaret a boy can take.

Next morning it was back to the Pop Cafe for breakfast before having a look round the many markets which are on the closed streets before having to get our bags so we could catch the bus through to Cancun.