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Chiming bells that no one hears

December 22nd, 2005

Negro Modelo in hand and a bead of sweat on my brow, I gazed across the dusty street towards the main square. To my right the church clock chimed four. This is Palenque town.
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San Cristobal to Palenque

December 22nd, 2005

The minibus was supposed to arrive between 6.30 – 7am. We were one of the first to be picked up which was great as we got a choice of seats. Thereīs always a downside and today this was the fact that the hotel had a deserted reception. We searched high and low for someone so we could check out but it wasnīt to be. So, we left our key and a note and hoped that everything would be OK.
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Hotel Mansion de Los Angeles (Hotel from hell part one)

December 22nd, 2005

A quick dash across the square after perusing the Lonely Planet maps (excellent as always) and we were within site of the Hotel Mansion de Los Angeles, our place for the next two nights. We were really looking forward to another rest from travelling, and I congratulated Em on her good booking skills – nicely close to the centre but not TOO close, and it sounded lovely from the guidebook…..
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Hotel Mansion de Los Angeles (hotel from hell part 2)

December 21st, 2005

…in San Cristobal de la Casas. We booked this because it was recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide. Wish we hadnīt though – it was rubbish! They seemed unsure of our booking on arrival. The room itself was OK, although only a blanket was available for extra heating. We had to show ourselves to our room. We had to ask for the remote control. The hotel was quite noisy with lots of doorbanging. And the icing on the cake was being told we couldnīt stay a second night, even though weīd paid for it – because, we think from our poor understanding of Spanish, that we were “backpackers”. Watch out if you carry a rucksack, whether you wash or not, they donīt want you here! Even though our e-voucher showed all the information for the hotel, payments and nights we were booked in to stay, it still appeared that we werenīt wanted as we should have been in “the backpackers hotel”.

Rant over, but you get the message.

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San Cristobal de la Casas

December 21st, 2005

What a lovely town. Clean and friendly once you get over making a bad mistake by booking a crap hotel before you arrive.
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Into Mexico from Guatemala

December 20th, 2005

The beauty with being a flashpacker (rather than a backpacker, and only when it suits), is that you can semi-control long journeys by paying more than a couple of quid to get somewhere.

Today was going to be one of those days: we had over 250 miles to get through, and much as we love Chicken Buses, and could manage this distance on one (or several!) of them, the border formalities tipped the balance for us. Okay, we paid 12 quid each to get from Guat to Mexico, but this meant a little chaperoning at the border, which turned out to be no bad thing!
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Get me out of here!

December 20th, 2005

It was an early start from Xela. So early that our toilet in the hotel couldnīt cope and we were left with a bowlfull of, well, stuff. How do you explain that to the hotel manager when your Spanish is crap and their English is non-existent? We had no choice really, we left them in the proverbial and hoped they wouldnīt be too upset.
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Quetzaltenango (Xela)

December 19th, 2005

We have both now decided that this place is very odd.
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Santiago to Quetzaltenango

December 19th, 2005

A tuk-tuk, which seats 2 people and their luggage at a push, took Andi, Andrea and both of us down to the “dock” at Santiago. We were ushered onto a small boat and ready to go. The boat was jam-packed full and we wondered if weīd make it across the Lake.
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La Posada de Santiago

December 18th, 2005

Head up the hill from the dock in Santiago, feel exhausted after 5 minutes, grab a “tuk-tuk” to the hotel and hope it has enough power to finish the hill off! Give time for the tuk-tuk to stall at the top of the town while waiting for roadworks, people and one bull on a string. Reach hotel around 20 minutes later: La Posada de Santiago.
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