Firstly,
my apologies for the length of time it’s taken to update this part of my
adventures. It’s not for lack of time
but rather not knowing quite how to put pen to paper of the events that
unfolded in these coming days. Here you
can now read for yourself (albeit a slightly 'softer'
version for those of you with weak stomachs or paranoid tendencies). Sorry for those of you who have
already heard this saga and now have to endure reading it again (feel free to skim ;P):-
Merida (6th – 9th
April)
Hot
hot hot! My adventures in Merida began
by walking the 12 blocks from the bus station to the hostel in the hot hot sun because
I was too cheap to take a taxi. Crazy idea and was soaked through by the end (and not by rain!).
Next
day (7th) I visited the Chichen Itza pyramids/ruins. Guess I just really wasn’t in the mood for
this today. I agree it’s a great
representation of a Mayan pyramid, but I’ve already seen a few of those (some I thought were better than this) and the
hawkers that were around left-right-and-centre really detracted from the whole
thing for me. The heat didn’t help. Afterwards I chowed down on yet another
greasy meal (I think I’m starting to get a picture as to why most of the locals
are quite rotund here. The local food is
corn and grease and other than that there’s all the processed food that you
find in the supermarkets packed with crap!
Eww…don’t want to spend much time here, don’t want to become like that
lol…) and then it was off back to the hostel for a quiet night in as I was
still struggling to adjust to the heat.
I didn’t think anything could be hotter than Trinidad but I was wrong,
very wrong…
The
next two days were spent being a typical tourist taking a look around the town
in the stifling heat, traffic and noise taking snaps of the lovely old
buildings, cathedrals, etc. Had lunch at
a local joint somewhere in the city with all the locals staring at me thinking
it strange that a tourist would be there (love it when that happens lol). I had a tamale which is a corn doughball thing
with chicken and tomato salsa wrapped up in a banana leaf. Tasty :D
Sunday
the 10th April – a day etched in the corner of my mind that will be
difficult to remove from my memory for a time to come…
Merida to Palenque to
San Cristobal
Our
bus left just after 2200 but as has been commonplace here we had yet another
crazy bus driver throwing us about everywhere so I didn’t get any sleep once
again. Arrived in Palenque around 0600
and waited at the roadside bus stop til 0840 to be picked up for my tour of the
Palenque ruins and two sets of what are apparently amazing waterfalls.
Two
things I found out at the beginning – one, I was the only one on the tour for
the day which is odd since they usually always pack in as many people as
possible into these vans for such excursions before they’ll even go anywhere
with you. And two, we could not visit
the first set of waterfalls (Aqua Azul) this day as there was armed fighting
between two tribal groups in the area and it was not safe to visit.
The
ruins of Palenque are just outside the township so we got there around
0900. I was surprised I was the only one
and we hadn’t picked anyone else up on the way but even more surprised when I was
informed that I pretty much had to get out and do my own thing and to meet back
in the carpark at 1230. I queried if it
was safe to be going by myself to which I was informed it was. As I didn’t know where the van was going or
whether my stuff would be safe (and I think because I was also still half-asleep)
I kept all my valuables with me as I thought it safer than in the van and
because they were all still in there from the bus ride and the driver seemed in
a hurry to scoot me out of the van and keep going, so because of a myriad of
reasons I had all my valuable documents, cards, etc on me this day (the only
day in my whole 4 months of travelling that I have had them all in one place
and not separated out).
It
was a hot day with lots of tourist groups around everywhere. The Palenque ruins are actually quite
marvellous and some of the best I’ve seen.
Right near the end there’s a part where you have to go down through the
bush to see some particular ruins, the last set before emerging out at the
end. There were tour groups either side
of me, as there had been for the majority of my journey through the different
ruins, however at one point they were out of sight for a couple of
minutes. Apparently that’s enough time
for a person to get mugged. So yes, I
won’t go into details, but at this point I was robbed of everything on me
except the clothes I was wearing, my watch and one of my cameras that I had
wrapped around my wrist.
Needless
to say that put a bit of spanner in the works in regards to the tour and I
never did get to that waterfall after all.
Instead I spent the majority of the rest of the day doing paperwork –
filing incident reports and police reports in both English and Spanish, calling
various companies to cancel cards, etc.
After that I had a ‘lovely’ 5 hour bus-ride from hell to get to San
Cristobel with the craziest bus driver I had yet (we almost had 3 head-on
collisions – not fun!), one of the coldest buses I’ve travelled in yet and with
the worst ever possible movie playing at full volume on the screen right in
front of me (I was at the front of the bus) so that no matter which way I
looked it was right there in my periphery.
I
was so glad to finally get into San Cristobel around 11ish at night and very
glad to roll into bed with a couple of nice warm woolley blankets over me (it’s
very chilly in San Cristobel too).
San Cristobel (10th – 14th
April)
A
new day dawned and with it the realisation of the day’s events preceding this
one. I could hardly move and after
crawling (literally) out of bed with my head pounding and reaching the shower I
discovered the reason why. Adrenaline is
a great thing because you don’t notice any pain. Today unfortunately that had all ebbed away
and I was being made painfully aware of the struggle I had been in the day
before as I discovered various bruises I hadn't noticed before.
Funny
how shock doesn’t really let you choose whether you want it or not. I really had no need or want for this silly
part of the process but apparently my body had other ideas and for the next three
days I felt rather nauseous, could barely eat anything, I had what felt like a
permanent headache and struggling breathing properly, was constantly cold (even
though during the day it got rather hot so I found out later on) and it didn’t
help that San Cristobel has lots of whitewashed buildings which did not help my
aversion to light and the fact I no longer had a pair of sunglasses did not help in
this matter.
After
a couple of days I decided to go get a massage to try and sort out my
back/neck. Hmmm, turned out not such a
fantastic idea. The ‘massage’ included a
vibrating machine like those massage lazyboy chair thingies and then the next
thing I know she’s slapping me with some weird plants – wtf! Definitely not the most relaxing massage I’ve
ever had. Apparently that’s how they do
it here in Mexico…
The
other ‘fun’ experience I had for the next few days was being fobbed off from
the New Zealand Embassy in Mexico to the NZ Passports Office in NZ and back
again, pretty much going round in circles for five days and getting
nowhere. It seems no one knows who’s
responsibility it is to issue a new document for me and no one wants to put up
their hand and take responsibility for it.
Not impressed.
The
Insurers have been good and, although a little miscommunication as to who I should be dealing with at the start, they have been helpful and all of that at least
seems to be falling into place (although it’s been decided probably best to
wait and put in the claim once I get to Canada as things will be much easier to
sort from there).
I
noticed the day I left for Mexico City that I was starting to get a rash on my
calves. Wonder if I brushed past something
when I was on the manhunt with the security guards at Palenque? Hopefully it goes away soon. Another shocking bus ride so was very glad to
make it to Mexico City – no more Mexican buses and hopefully everything will
run smoothly from here on out…
Mexico City (15th – 22nd
April) I warn you, the explanation of the events of these days is a little
long-winded but I’m not sure how else to explain it all:-
Friday
15th
My
goodness, what a hostel! So, the reviews
for Hostel Amigos Suites Downtown were obviously fake because it actually only
opened five days ago and there’s hardly anything finished, it’s still like a
construction site here. Not only that
but the workmanship is incredibly shoddy.
The toilet flusher is not connected properly and just wobbles around,
when you turn the tap it feels like it’s going to come out of the wall into
your hands, and there’s a constant puddle in the shower because it’s draining
the wrong way, away from the drain! The
room itself is tiny and is big enough to house two beds, not two sets of bunks. The only ventilation is a tiny window above
the door into the hallway and at night when the curtains are closed this is
covered so in effect there really is no ventilation – not ideal! Pity I’ve already booked in for two nights…
So
the bus was two hours later getting to the city than originally planned so I
wasn’t even at my hostel til almost midday.
Then I finally got settled in, showered and shown the Metro map and off
I went in search of the Embassy. Got
confused on the Metro trying to cross the two lines because I had to take two
different Metros. Then when I got to Polanco
I had no idea where I had to walk to, I thought the Embassy was close by. However, in the end I realised I had no idea
and was very much lost and asked some lovely helpful people at a money exchange
place where I needed to go. They printed
me a google map which was very kind of them and then I was off. So glad they did, that thing has been a
godsend to me. So it turns out the
Embassy is pretty much as far away from the Metro as you can get and took me
another hour and a half or so to get there – sigh…
Once
there we had a lot of toing and froing across the street to sort passport
photos and get out the necessary payment and by the time all was sorted it was
unfortunately too late to process the paperwork that day – doh! So now I’m booked in for a meeting on
Monday. Guess my legs are going to get
used to this lovely long journey, which isn’t so bad because it will help work
off all those tacos ;P
Saturday
16th
Filled
in as much as I could on the US Visa form before having to save and wait til I
have my Emergency Travel Document (ETD) number in order to complete it.
Found
a place in town called Nutrisa which serves frozen yoghurt like soft-serve ice-cream
and they put with it fruits, cereals and nuts of your choice – taaasssty! (and
almost healthy lol) In the coming days I
would get to know this place rather well... ;P
Sunday
17th
Changed
to Mexico City Hostel today – ahh bliss compared to the other one.
Nothing
much I could do about the paperwork today so I allowed myself to chill for the
first time since the 10th. I
have no idea where the hours of the day went but I’m sure I must have spent
some of them productively…maybe…
Monday
18th
Got
my ETD sorted at the Embassy first thing then spent the rest of the day trying
in vain to sort the stupid US Transit Visa.
By the time I got back from my meeting at the NZ Embassy it was almost
lunchtime but no lunch for me, instead I jumped straight on the computer to
complete the visa form. Then I had to
find a place to pay for it and couldn't pay online because I no longer have a
credit card, so I had to get this deposit request thing and then go to a
specific type of bank and pay for it.
So
the first thing I had to do was find an internet place where I could print off
this deposit request. Found one just
around the corner from the hostel – check.
Next
I had to find the correct bank. Easy
enough – check.
The
queue was out to the door so then waited in line for about an hour just to get
to the counter to be told I couldn’t pay in US Dollars and that I had to pay in
Pesos (which is the direct opposite to what the guy on the phone from the US
Embassy had told me. He said I could
only pay in US Dollars). I also found
out they didn’t exchange money there…grrr…and that the bank that did only
exchanged money from 9-10 in the mornings…double grrr…. Thankfully the bank
lady was really helpful and sent me away to find a cadesa de cambio. I got there in the last few minutes of their
day and managed to change over the necessary money. I then raced back to the bank and thankfully
the lady was kind and so I didn’t have to line up in another insanely long
queue.
Righto,
now I had in my hot little hand the necessary receipt number to put into the
computer to finish the form and make an appointment with the Embassy, or so I
thought…
I
tried several times and it just wasn’t working so then I called the Embassy
(yet again..) and was given the reply that sometimes it takes the computer
system up to 24 hours to process the payment and that until that had gone
through there was nothing they could do and I couldn’t book an appointment with
them as I had to do it all online – what the??!!! By this stage it was about ¼ past 5, I’d had
3 useless calls to the US Embassy (all of which took about 30mins or more each
because I had to wait so long for someone to answer the phone whilst being told
every 20secs or so by a computer voice “sorry for the inconvenience and please
continue to hold” (don’t you just hate those machines!)) and I still hadn’t got
anywhere near to making the urgent appointment and so, understandably I
think, I was freaking out a little.
Decided
I needed a break as my blood had boiled by this stage a few expletives had
begun escaping out of my mouth (and not pretty little girl expletives either,
the real big boy nasty ones…).
So,
after a cool down in the dorm room forcing myself to take a nap, then some
dinner in me, I decided to check my emails and then try the silly thing
again. Finally, at 20 past 10 at night I
managed to get the computer to accept receipt of my payment and then book an
appointment. And, although it had
originally told me the closest appointment was 28 days away, I miraculously got
one for the 20th April (today) at 12.10pm.
I
just can’t believe how wild this whole process is making me. Not that I had an inclination to travel to
the States to begin with, but this process really has made me never want to go
there, ever! just in protest of how stupid they and their systems are and how
difficult and miserable they like to make everyone’s life around them. The hostel staff here have been amazingly
helpful though. Even though they have to
pay for local calls they still let me make as many as necessary to this silly
Embassy til I could get things sorted.
Tuesday
19th
Had
a lovely relaxing day of resting and doing not much. Finished my book on Theodore Roosevelt, went
for a walk, ate icecream (a glorious pastime in hot countries – oh how I will
miss it :D) and generally mooched around as it was the first day I’d been able
to rest in the fact that there was nothing more I could do at this stage and I
just needed to wait til tomorrow when everything would be sorted. Ahh how the bliss was short-lived, but more
on that later…
At
some point in the day I went to the internet place to print off the necessary forms
for the immigration/visa people in Canada (let’s hope the process with them will
be a little less strenuous). Whilst
there I came across an American girl claiming to have had her backpack stolen
whilst she was sick at the Red Cross and just needed enough money for a bus
ticket back to the States. Her story was
highly convincing and after what had happened to me I thought anything was
possible so I gave her 300 pesos (about $30USD) to cover a bus fare back to the
States. It wasn’t til later when I was
talking to others from the hostel that I found out she’s a scam artist who’s
been working that particular block for a while and over the next few days I
would discover that at least 8 of us in our hostel alone had been ripped off by
her. At least I didn’t feel quite so
stupid after finding out others had been duped also. Still, it made me rather livid, especially
considering I’d told her my story of what had happened to me and how I’d had
everything taken from me and now here she was still shamelessly and
unremorsefully effectively robbing me of my money – not impressed!
Emailed
the contact at Palenque to see if they’ve located the mugger or my bag –
haven’t had any luck with either, not surprised. After all, the police really didn’t seem
terribly concerned when I was making my statement so it wouldn’t surprise me if
they haven’t even looked for the guy/my bag.
Wednesday
20th
So,
I’d finally got my ETD sorted and was looking forward to finally getting my
visa sorted today so I set off early, not envisaging any possible further problems
but in case I got lost along the way or something silly. Sooo glad I got there about an hour and a
half early as you are soon to find out…
Got
to the necessary building about 11.15, almost an hour before my actual
appointment. As I waited in the line of
people outside my papers/ETD were checked and then I was informed I did not
have an appointment as I did not have a slip of paper confirming my appointment. Once it was clarified that I did in fact have
an appointment I was bustled past everyone to what I thought was my interview
for a visa. I was wrong. This was the place where they take your photo
for the visa and your fingerprints and then from there you have to go to the
consulate at the US Embassy to have your interview which is a completely
different building and for which you are apparently meant to have a different
appointment time, but which the computer had never given me the option to do.
Once
inside I was informed that they could not process my application because I did
not have this other appointment, so then I had to explain the urgency of the
situation and the whole computer booking issue again. The lady informed me that the Embassy was
closing at lunchtime and would not be reopening til after Easter so after some
more pleading she finally went and made some calls. By this stage my nerves were shot and with
the prospect of being stuck here over Easter was not a pleasant one to say the
least. Finally the lady came back and,
long story short, she’d managed to get an ‘emergency’ interview but that I’d
have to quickly get my fingerprints and photo done and then run over to the
Embassy before they closed for the day.
So off I ran with the directions of the US Embassy a few blocks away. Went in the wrong part of the Embassy and had
to find a different street. Finally made
it. Once inside I had to again stress my urgency to
get an interview because they didn’t quite believe my story (what the?!?) but
eventually was sent through to the interview place. I was one of the last let in before they closed
the doors for the weekend.
It
turned out the interview was nothing like an interview and pretty much involved
me standing at a desk while a lady asked a few random questions like why I
didn’t have a visa before to which I had to explain that as a NZ citizen with a
normal passport we are not required to have one etc etc (same ol’ story again –
maybe I should’ve put it on a tape and just pressed play wherever I went lol, you
would think that with them working in this field all day every day that they
would be aware that it is not a requirement – anyway…). From there I was sent on to the visa
processing person.
Here
I ended up with an extremely helpful guy (thank you Lord) who actually spoke
English (again, thank you Lord – it’s amazing how difficult it was to find an
English-speaking person there even though it’s an American embassy,
crazy). He asked when I was travelling,
to which I replied that I needed to leave on a plane very early on Friday
morning. After a short quick gasp of air
(never a good sign) he said he would need to see if it was possible to actually
get a visa printed that day to give to me or not. (and at this stage the praying intensified
tenfold….)
He
came back and looked at the computer and said that my visa had been approved
but that they had to wait for the computer to check results or some stupid
thing and depending on when it had finished that would depend on whether I
would get my visa today or have to wait til next Monday. So then I got to sit there for the next 1½ to
2 hours waiting, hoping and praying that it would come through. I was in a huge room full of empty chairs
because by this stage the Embassy had in fact closed and I was the only one
left in there. By this stage it was
about 20 past 12 so I was very thankful to the Lord that I’d left early on my
mission today otherwise I would right now still be at the other place with a
closed US Embassy and no way of getting out of here til next week (thank you
thank you thank you Lord!).
It
wasn’t all dull and boring waiting around in an empty Embassy though. At one point all of a sudden the door to one
side opened and all the staff came out whooping and hollering and racing round
in search of Easter eggs. Quite
hilarious to watch really. Then I was
offered cake and chocolate by the staff while I waited which was nice of them.
Finally,
after what seemed like a lifetime, I heard the magic words from the man behind
the glass. "You are lucky” he
said, “It seems it has been possible to process your visa today” (thank you
again Lord, you really are the God of the impossible). The next few minutes waiting for it to be
printed I think were the longest of my life.
I just kept hoping nothing else would go wrong with it. But finally I had it in my hot little hand
and the drama was over. By this stage it
was about ¼ past 2 in the afternoon so I’d been there since about 11.30. Long but worth it in the end…
And
thus ends my journey of the visa. I was
so grateful for the helpfulness of the man behind the glass and that finally
someone decided to treat me like a person rather than just a number. It makes such a difference. It was a pleasant end to a rather long,
arduous and complicated process that really need not be as complicated as it
is.
Although
I say it is the end of the visa saga, I will not be entirely convinced until my
feet touch down on that lovely Canadian soil in 2 days time. Then I will be convinced…
Hope
the above was good naptime reading for you all, sorry it was so long and drawn
out. All I can say is, the Lord is good
and He really is the God of the impossible; even when we hit every brick wall
imaginable He is able to bust right on through it – praise the Almighty :)
Thursday
21st
Mexico
City walking tour
Got
up early to take some photos of the Cathedral before the hordes of people hit
the streets. There were already quite a
few people out today though as the Thursday before Easter is considered holy here
so there were a lot lining up to go in the cathedral for a special mass.
On
the way back to the hostel I heard the familiar voice of Miss scam artist
behind me saying “do you speak English?”
to which I spun round asking where my money was and generally giving her
a piece of my mind (in polite but firm tones).
She showed absolutely no remorse and was still trying to spin me a yarn
even now. She’ll get her cumuppins one
day, if not in this life then after.
Went
on what I thought was a city walking tour this morning. Turned out to be a visit to the local
Anthropological museum and that was it. Got
bored and left part way through to create my own walking tour of the city. In all I walked around for about 9-10 hours
today and had a blast. Mexico City has
some lovely old architecture around-about the place. The legs definitely felt it by the end of the
day though lol. Had a nap and then
stayed up the rest of the night as I had to catch a taxi to the airport around
0400.
