We planned three weeks for Mexico, but ended up staying one and a half month! Could have stayed there six months without seeing it all. The people, the food, the waves was amazing and this is a country we know we will be coming back to. Hasta luego Mexico and a big thank you to all the sweet people who made our Mexico trip so awesome! Here’s a favorite mexican song and below my notes from the trip:

We took a trip from Panchan, Mexico to Flores,Guatemala visiting Yaxhilán and Bonampak on the way. Including all meals plus one nights accommodation before crossing the boarder it costed 1000 pesos each.

Woke up in our robust cabana or hut (cabana feels more beachy) that was included in the price of our trip. The light was nice and we eat huevous rancheros for breakfast before trying to explain for the taxi driver how precious our boards were..

The struggle with the board continued when the boat driver wanted extra for them “because they were big”. Which was strange cause you can see how much extra space there was in the boat..  Bargained from 100 pesos per board to 50 pesos for two boards.. Still not happy since the travel agency promised no extra fees for the surf tablas. (Kichan Bajlum Tours; burn in hell, nah, but sort of)

After 40 minutes we jumped off the boat on a beach and some random people wanting to sell currency said “Bienvenidos de Guatemala”. We said gracias and climbed up a hill with all our packing till we got to a waiting area where we filled in immigration cards.

The immigration office was 30 minutes away, in the middle of nowhere.

We paid 5 dollars (thank god Petter saved some from the states, his plan is to have all the currencies at home) and then jumped in the bus again.

After two and a half hour we got to Santa Helena where we could take out cash. First it didn’t work and I was a little terrified before the machine started to spit out Guatemalan quetzales

Arrived to this beautiful view and then jumped in the lake!

After Yaxchilan we continued to Bonampak who is an other ancient Maya site, the special thing about just this one is the beautiful paintings. Amazed and tired in our legs we got to our final destination for the day, a small village where we stayed the night.

This place is soo far out in nowhere. We had to take two taxis and a boat for like one hour upriver to reach it. It’s Yaxchilan, another lost city that used to be great kingdom. The spot was awesome, the views over the river was beautiful, so amazing they found this perfect place to build a city.

Petter found an old office.. And a very ancient toilet in the room next door..

After visiting the big old mayan city we went to a funky place along the road to find us a bed. In the jungle, in the middle of nowhere there was three or four different hostels, a bunch of “hippies” and backpackers, a few restaurants, one of them italian and famous in the whole of Chiapas.

It’s funny how those paces turn up in the middle of the nowhere, just because of tourism. Sometimes when I feel bad about being rich, white and a fortunate traveller I like to think about the fact that just by being here, being a tourist I actually bring people work and their country wealth. We also try and support local communties as much as possible, giving to those in need, eating at local places, at different places, buying local crafts, even if it’s sooo heavy to carry around on our backs.

At this hippe-jungle-hideaway they even served wood fired pizza, of course to accompanied with a mexican margarita. That’s service! Probably the last margarita before crossing the border to Guatemala, the country of rum..

Check this out, they are even on tripadvisor! 

Sorry about the fuck you finger, we where just playing around during the loooong pizza-wait.

Our main reason to take this detour threw the mountains was to see some maya sites, ancient cities of pyramids.

This is Palenque, considered to be maybe the second greatest maya city in the world. Can you imagine that this city was home to a few hundred thousands of people? And that it’s still standing here, with walls, rooms, stairs, towers and everything open for you to explore? It’s craazy. We wondered around in this old city for a few hours actually, it was almost as if time stood still in there.

The maya civilization are dating back 4000 years and eventually grew to be one of greatest ancient kingdoms of the world. The cities, such as Palenque is dating about 2000 years back, when they where at their peak of glory. They where great architects, astronoms, mathematicans, artists and had an own fully developed written language. Every bigger city habituated hundreds of thousands of people. When these kingdoms where at their top, about 900 years after christ, they suddenly disappeared. The entire civilization, gone. No one can explain how.

They have left so much behind, but still we know so little about them. Amazing.