From Commitan I decided to hitchhike in direction to Tonina, Maya ruins. And indeed it was an impressive Maya ruins. But my next destination was more challenging to reach - remote Maya ruins called Yaxchilan. I had two possible ways to get there. One I had to go back to Commitan and travel around on the main road or try to go on a side road. It was impossible for me to predict how often there would be a mean of transport on this side road, but it means .... adventure :)
Collectivo. Most of the road was very bumpy
and did not have asphalt but I was
too dusty to take a camera outside the beg.
Since I do not like going back, and I like adventures, I have chosen this side road. I managed partially to hitchhike, but partially I used the collectivos since they were really the only vehicles on this road. Here the collectivo meant that it was a truck, where people were standing on the back. This enabled that one could appreciate landscape, as well as ....use legs for the amortizations. The road was very bumpy, cars were very old so one needed its additional mean of amortization. On the road I met interesting people. One Mexican boy was a translator for Polish missioners who were coming to this neighborhood from time to time. The other man told me that the best marijuana is growing around the corner. And here for 5$ one can buy not one single joint, but one can buy the whole big bag of marijuana. It was very interesting conversations but I did not investigate if he is right.
When the night came, the local transport stopped. I reached a bigger village and I was told that the nearest transport will be in the morning. So I went to the center of the village and I found a place where I could get some Tortillas. In the village there were only endogenous people and after the sun set, there were only man on the street. Few youngsters were playing basketball on the field, so I went to join them. I was much taller than anyone else in this village.
My basketball friends ;)
After a game I wanted to put up somewhere my hammock for the night rest. Initially I wanted to do it in the village center under the small roof. But my basketball friends took me to someones empty house, where I could take even a shower. Before the night rest, we talked quite a bit. One of my new friends had an idea to get sparkling drink. We all collected a bit of money, went to the store. It was late in the night, but my basketball friends woke up the store owner and they bought an orange sparkling drink (kind of Fanta) and few plastic cups. We all enjoyed this drink and it was a pleasure to see how much some of the guys appreciated that they could drink sparkling, sweat drink. I told them a bit about my travel and Europe and they told me about their village and their life. I set up camera and from the timer I made one of my favorite photos... showing that I was really very tall in comparison to them....
Yaxchilan.
In the morning I went back to the main road and waited for any possible vehicle going in my direction. Local people did not know exactly when there will be the first car going in my direction, but they told me that there will be one eventually. After a while a car came and I continue my road in direction to the Yaxchilan. It took me most of the day to get to the nearest city Frontera Corozal. From there one had to take a boat for one hour on the river. I arrived to late to Frontera Corazal, so I found a place to put up my hammock and waited to the next day. Early in the morning I got one of the first boat to Yaxchilan. On the way we have seen wild crocodile. I was sooooo happy that I did not meet crocodile when i was swimming in Amazon. This side was for sure worth long travel. It is greatly located merge with the jungle.This co-existans remind me Beng Mealea in Cambodia.
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