Mexico Misadventures Part 1

So the past few days saw me living on the road since Monday night when I took the night bus from Mexico DF TAPO to Villahermosa in the South. It was a 12-hour bus ride by ADO bus and I was tired from spending time climbing pyramids in Teotihuacan.

From thereon, I have had many misadventures. I had a hard time in Villahermosa because people were not so good at giving directions. I did find my way to La Venta, backpack with me and all. It weighed around 10kg but anyway all I thought of was that I survived Pulag twice and I could certainly survive backpacking for a few days in Mexico.

this friendly fellow has grown accustomed to human presence!

La Venta is a lovely place where one can see the famous Olmec sculptures, in particular the giant heads. There is an aviary and a small zoo, plus you get to see squirrel-like animals with long snouts and they seem to have grown accustomed to humans.

Just one of the many Olmec sculptures

After La Venta, I visited the Museum of Natural History which is just beside the park. It's actually for kids but I enjoyed the place. I hope we have something like that in the Philippines to get more kids to like the natural sciences.

the view from outside La Venta

This is my favorite in the Museum of Natural History

Taking the combi, a local public transport vehicle, I ended up in the historic town, the equivalent of Vigan. Here I visited the Casa de Azulejos which is an eclectic style mansion. The museum shows the history of Tabasco.

neoclassical Palacio de Gobierno in Plaza de Armas, Villahermosa

I traveled at night again to save time and accommodation. My target was to arrive in Escarcega on the morrow but bad luck seemed to be with me. When I bought a ticket to Constitucion, I never thought there were two towns of that name, one in Tabasco, one in Campeche. My target was Campeche, but at 10:30 PM I was dropped off at Constitucion, Tabasco, much to my horror upon my discovery. There were consecutive lightning flashes and anytime it might rain so I decided to walk despite the darkness. A car passed by but it probably did not see me waving.

So the hiker in me won and I walked all the way to town. Good thing I had flashlight with me. I was nervous of course because I had been hearing stories about crimes in Mexico but I had no choice. I felt it was more dangerous to stay near the highway. Plus I badly needed a bath to freshen up myself.

Imagine how I almost panicked when I realized I was still in Tabasco! This must be the result of my love affair with hot sauce!

The small town had many dogs which began their consecutive barking when I finally arrived. For a while I was looking around for a house that could accommodate me but people seemed to have slept already. Fortunately I saw a young man about to go home and I asked if I could temporarily stay in his house, explaining my situation to him. He woke up the entire family and they adopted me for a night. And I got my bath, too. It was my first time to sleep in a hammock, which is a BIG bonus.

The following day they offered me coffee and crackers for breakfast. The young man even walked with me to the highway. A car passed by and we got on. Jose made sure I hopped on the right bus going to Candelaria.

Then transfer to El Sur bus going to Escarcega. The conductor of that bus seemed to have taken a liking for me and seemed bent on seducing me. I told him I have a boyfriend back home but he still persisted though a bit politely, acknowledging my "commitnent". I was glad when we finally reached Escarcega. From there I took the combi to Constitucion where a friend was waiting (and who was very much worried for me when I told her about the misadventures the night before).

I cooked lunch for them! :)

But anyway, I arrived safely and cooked late lunch for her and for her friend. There were cucumbers, carrots, onions, and garlic so I cooked them all up together with salsa picante. Good thing it's exactly what I usually cook for my packed lunch. There were only two of them in the cabin, which was good because I can only socialize with very few people.

enjoying the sunset after an afternoon's work cleaning bone artifacts

Anyway, the reason why I would risk everything to get there was because my friend is an archaeologist who volunteered to excavate in a site there. She was telling me we'd visit archaeological sites together and we did. But that is another story of misadventures... We did get to Calakmul to see the pyramids.

To be continued...