Man it seems like ages since I wrote a blog, but Ive been in the midst of the jungle with no communication lines whatsoever! So when I left Veracruz i got the night bus to San Cristobal. Its a lovely place, everywhere you look there is another pretty church or another old building. There is also an amazing craft market where i bought some stuff, meaning i had to jettison a couple more items of clothing! I stayed my first night in a cheap hostal as i wanted a hot shower, and then moved to a backpackers hostel for a night. The hostel was ok, people there were kinda boring and German, and not really in the mood for fun as they went to bed at about half 6. woohoo! Also i cant remember a word of my secondary school german so kept quiet really! After a night in the hostel i decided to go to Palenque, was gonna get the nightbus but then a guy i met in Zihua then randomly ran into again in Cristobal said the night bus gets raided by bandits all the time so i got the daytime one! Arrived in Palenque and its horrible, the town is grey and dull and the hotels ridiculously overpriced. The first one i went in wanted 650 pesos for a night about 40 odd quid! Rubbish. Decided to skip the hotel and went straight to El Panchen which is in the jungle, inside the natural reserve where the ruins are. No cabins but across the way they had a space so i stayed there for a night. At dinner met a couple of americans called Cassidy and Sarah who were really nice, next day first thing i went to the ruins. They are amazing, its just shame there were so many people there, then again they are fantastic and of course are gonna be busy. Anyway i decided i wanted to spend a night in a hammock so i changed campsites later in the day. The night in the hammock was interesting. Slept with my knife and torch by my side as the jungle makes a lot of noise. Dad you are a genius for suggesting to take a cotton sleeper thing. Got pretty cold! Was woken up at 3am ish by Howler Monkeys, as the name suggests they are very loud! Had all manner of things jump on me in the night, cockroaches, spiders etc. yeesh.
Anywho bright and early the next morning i had breakfast then went on one of the tours they organise to the two waterfall places, Misol Ha and Agua Azul. Wow. Just incredible. Ran into Cass and Sarah there aswell and we spent the whole day just swimming in waterfalls and pools and swinging on rope swings into pools and diving off stuff. Was amazing. took photos before my camera died. It was just awesome!
Last night i caught the night bus to mexico city as am trying to get to guadalajara to meet up with a couple of people and then gonna head back to the farm i think to see people again!

Busses Busses Busses!

Yeah so when i got to Zitacuaro they dont do a bus to Palenque. Or Merdia. Or Cancun. Or Villahermosa. Or Cuidad Del Carmen. Standing at the bus station with my huge bag on my back starting to feel the icy grip of fear was interesting. Its strange to be at a bus station but not rwally know where you are going to go, my new tactic is to sit in front of the timetable, ignoring the shouts of the touts, and just go down the list of places and look them up in my guide book! Then if they are vaguely in the right directon I check the times and then get on! Anyway so being in Zita was worrying as it was late in the afternoon and didnt really want to be stranded there after dark, it looked like the kind of bus station you see in horror films, think Amercian Werewolf in London but bus station not Tube station and youve got the right idea. Saw that there was a bus to Morelia and got on it figuring I know that town and could find a place to crash for the night and then move out the next day. In the morning I woke up late so wandered round the town and then went to the bus station in the evening looking for night bus, didnt want to go via Mex City so went to Tampico on the East Coast (ish). 13 odd hours later and I was there, night buses are brilliant! Really comfy and mod cons all the way, Tampico is awful. Grey and boring with loads of tacky American stores. Wandered around until i found the bus station as helpfully the bus driver didnt drop us there! Got the first bus to Veracruz and had an awful journey, crap small seats didnt help the back still sore from the waves in Zihua and a fat old Mexican gut next to me took all the arm rest (something anyone who has been to the cinema with me will know i hate!) and he propmtly fell asleep! Anywho got to Veracruz and its ok. Nice Zocalo but kinda grey and I miss the sunshine of the West Coast! Should have checked my guide book as they warned about the noise from the Zocalo and the prostitutes "servicing" sailors in my hotel. Guess which of the two noises I was woken up by at 4am this morning.
Anyway have decide to head to Palenque and San Cristobal tomorrow so got another night of having my tiny TV turned up loud! Then early bus tomorrow so I can find a hostel and persuade some Yanks or Canucks to come watch the Superbowl with me! Will write again soon!

Ok so left Morelia and got the bus to Zitacuaro as I was determined to get to the Butterfly Sanctuary nearby! When I got to Zita, there was a bus going to Angangueo which is closer to the Butterflies so I got on. Squidged into my seat with my big ol' bag on top of me wasnt fun to be honest! Got here and found a cheap hotel where the toilet doesnt work and there is no hot water of course but the room is clean and warm! Forgot how fecking cold it gets in the mountains! Was freezing this morning. Got the bus at 8.15 to the Butterfly Sanctuary, I thought it took ten mins but turned out to be an hours boneshaking ride uphill. I have never been in a bus thats bounces around so much! There was a huge drop on either side of the track, with what looked like a 12 year old driving. yeesh. Anywhop got dopped about a mile from the Sanctuary, I tell you I was glad to get off the bus! Then again walking uphill for a mile in blazing sun when youre god knows how many thousand feet up can be a bit tiring!
Got to the sanc and was assigned a guide called Octavio, the most Mexican looking man you have ever seen. It looked like he had just walked out of a Visit Mexico calender. He didnt speak English, which is far enough as I dont speak Spanish! He talked about the butterflies as we walked the 3000 feet up the mountain and I did my best to nod and smile at the right points, Im pretty sure I understood some of it. Mainly that Butterflies like Sun so today would be a good day. Turns out he was right as it was amazing, hundreds of thousands of Butterflies evrywhere. They cover the trees and all the bushes, and the path and they land all over you. Got a photo of one on my nose. They are just everywhere! What I really liked was that everytime Octavio found a dead one on the path he would gently pick it up and put it under the nearest bush. He cared so much for them and always looked so sad when he found a dead one, even though there were A LOT.
I left the Sanctuary having taken a load of photos and got the horrific bus back down the hill, I noticed the driver had a picture of Jesus with the words "My life is in your hands" below it. Not very reassuring! Anywho made it safe down the hill and am gonna catch a bus out of here this afternoon, theres not much to do in this town at all. A nice church and one cafe that makes crap Chicken dishes, ho hum. Gonna head to Zitacuaro then try to get a nightbus to Palenque or Merida. Both are long journeys so would rather do them at night I think.

Miss the beach

Ok so I left Zihua yesterday. I miss it already! There was something about the place that I really loved. It was so relaxed, and living in the Mexican part of town was brilliant. I miss the beach a lot, the sea just seems to call to you all day. The touristy areas werent as nice but most people stayed out of there and just lazed on the beaches and swam in the gorgeous clear water. It was weird heading inland. I was gonna head to Barra de Navidad which is another beach further North up the coast road but it turned out that the bus was at 8pm at night and I couldnt be bothered to kick my heels for 9 hours so I got the next bus out which was going to Morelia. Its the complete opposite way to which I was headed but ho hum, can always go to beaches on the east coast! Morelia is really nice, its like Patzcuaro but a bit bigger! All the buildings are made of red stone and there is an amazing Cathdral in the main Zocalo. I got here last night and was pretty knackered, the bus journey was only 5 hours but i takes it out of you! Went to the nearby cafe and had some really good coffee and wolfed down a fantastic sandwhich. Am staying in a very cheap but nice hostal and as I got back as LA Confidential was starting on TV! In English! Bliss!
Am doing my washing today as I havent fone it since I left the farm and its starting to smell a bit as it is jammed in my compression sack in my rucksack! Also walked past a cinema today so might drop in there and catch a movie. Having said that Morelia has about 50 museums so I should try and go to those really!
On a seperate note my nail has fallen off. Ive also realised that by saying that i forgot to mention that when I was on the farm I had an incident with an electric saw. The saw was kinda jumpy and when I was cutting some firewood it caught in the wood and slammed my hand into the metal guard. My middle finger nail immediately went dark black and it hurt like hell! Also my finger swelled up to about 3 times its usual size! After much swearing and kicking and berating of the saw I soaked my finger in cold and hot water and it was fine. But yeh the nail finally came off yesterday. Ugh!

Ok so been awhile since last blog entry. But I am of course horrifcally lazy. Christmas at the farm was great, Lisa and Ian bought the workers a Mexican Monopoly set as a present and me anna and steve ended up playing it till about 3 in the morning on Christmas Eve to Christmas Day! Wild I know but it was great. Lisa cooked a big meal and we all stuffed our faces on turkey which was great, then we had a pinata and Steve swinging at it in a cocky manner then almost going arse over tit was probably the funniest thing ive ever seen. New Years was more of the same. a few beers and monopoly. Had a big roaring fire in the room and watched a few movies. Life on the farm was hard work after Anna and Amy left as it was just me and Steve and one of the pigs got ill. Had to get her into the jeep. I tell you trying to lift a 300 pound screaming pig who isnt hogtied into a car is not fun! Got bitten on the chest and she tried to get steve in the balls. yeesh. She turned out fine tho thanks to good vet. I left the farm last tuesday. Lisa and Ian were so helpful and gave me a lift to the further town so i could get the bus direct to Zihuatenejo which is where i am now.
Its a little fishing village with some great beaches, also its the place where Tim Robbins escapes to in Shawshank Redemption! Have been to the beach a lot and lazed around which is kinda what i wanted after the farm work. Went Snorkelling yesterday and saw loads of fish including Barracuda which are fast and scary. Later on me a French guy called Leo and a yank called Joe Swam out about a mile to a yacht. We were just using it as a marker but when we got there the guy let us on board! He was an Arrabic cook and he gave us some bottled water and let us laze on the deck for awhile. Then we said our thanks and dove off the boat and swam back. Went to a diff beach today and the waves were big. Was huge long beach about 10 kilometres and about three people on it. Had good time larking in the waves until one caught me and slammed me upside down into the sea bed bending me backwards in a U shape. After that id kinda had enough so retired nursing aching back to the beach cafe for coconuts. Great stuff. Back is sore but was kinda lucky i guess, will take Neurofen tomorrow! Am off to the hostel now, is really nice and have met loads of people. bye

Farm

So been on the farm for three weeks now. The work is knackering but am really enjoying it. Bit of an update on the spider bites, had to drain the venom out of them which hurt like a bastard! Seem to have healed now tho. Then when in the field the other day I pulled a muscle or something when trying to chop down stuff so have been taking it easy the last few days, everyone here has hurt themselves at somepoint, its physical work so have been lots of cuts grazes, strains and accidently walking into a cactus (yeh the last one was me, and yes it hurts!). Went to a rodeo the other weekend which was great, the whole town turned out for it and much tequila was passed round, because we were with Omero the farm foreman everyone insisted we dont pay for drinks which was great! Omero got absolutely whammoed and we had to guide him back to his house which was funny but then he demanded to drive us home. Eventually we convinced him otherwise and then had to walk the 3 ish miles back to the house in the pitch black! Got back with no problems tho, altho Amy telling about how she got robbed at gunpoint in Cambodia kinda set me on edge! Am planning to leave the farm on the 8th os Jan so about two and a half weeks. Im looking forward to christmas here as Lisa is a great cook and has promised a huge turkey, and new year should be fun aswell. When I leave im gonna try and head up to Morelia where there is a huge butterfly sanctuary, and then West to Guanajuato and guadalajara because everyone says its a great city. Have decided to travel overland to Guatemala aswell before going to Costa Rixa, as we had to wwoofers here who said Guat is incredible. Anywho have got the day off so gonna wander through the mercado and try not to make a dick of myself. bye.

Ok so been on the farm since the 28 th now so just over 2 weeks. Am really enjoying the work and am getting tanned being out in the fields. I have however been bitten by everything on the farm, including a particularly nasty spider bite on my back! Have to apply this stuff that hisses when you put it on. Fun times! It is quite weird being surrounded by so many animals, theres like 14 cats and dogs here, I always thought i was a cat person after being a paperboy and learning a mutual hatred of dogs, but the ones they have here are great! Theres one called Porque No (why not) who is half wolf half husky and when you walk into town with her by your side everyone kinda crosses the street, great stuff!
We get sundays off here so am in the local town of Patzcuarom just bought a jumper for like 3 quid, altho I did manage to get the first one I tried stuck over my head and had to struggle out of it revealing my less than toned torso to the Senorita and Senor running the store. Theres nothing like having a group of Mexicans pointing and laughing when all you can say is "haha lo siento, soy inglesse" (haha im sorry im english).
The kids here are really persistent for money and stuff which makes you feel kinda guilty, if you say no then they drop stuff in your bag/ pocket and demand money for it, also theres a lot of guys wondering round with huge bunches of knives, altho so far ive resisted buying one im very tempted to have one strapped to my leg when i walk trhrough the wildcat and wolf infested hills near the farm! Am off to a mexican rodeo tonight which should be god, went past before and they were setting up the bullring so shopuld be a good laugh! will write soon about what it was like.