We arrived early in San Cristobal de las Casas, as usual. The bus ride was horrible for an 80 USD deal! We were frozen and suffering from back pain!!! We found a decent hotel for 12 USD per night, which did not have a bathroom door:))) I was desperate about my laundry, as I had had only one clean pair of socks to wear on! The girl downstairs was very lovely, I paid about4 USD for a 2,5 kg load which seemed to be a good deal after a 12 USD self service deal in Salvador, Rio.We had a nice breakfast inside a colonial house and decided to take a walk around. 
The city is famous for being a nice colonial town as well as being the base for the Zapatistas. Zapatistas fight for the independence and rights of the indigenous people around the area and are not as popular as before now. We went to the main square and saw a nice market place right by the main cathedral of the town. It was a colorful market with small Zapatista dolls (dolls wearing black and Ninja masks!), lots of Che tshirts and souvenirs. Of course we bought several stuff as usual but I got mad when one guy sold me a belt for 100 pesos where I saw the same s.t for 50 pesos. 
I returned there and asked my money back...He did not give the money back, though I got 20 pesos back after making such a fuss!!!(at least). Afterwards, we had some lunch and decided to visit two famous museums in town, Mayan Mecidine Museum and Na Bolom Hotel-Restaurant-Museum. On the way to Mayan Museum, we saw a barber shop where there are dozens of hair styles and hair cuts, from the front and back which seemed very funny to me...Anyway, the museum was pretty interesting with all the models showing Mayan Traditions. We saw a video about childbearing and it was very similar to Turkish traditions. 
Also they use rooster for the evil spirits, which is an evil eye in Turkey. The wide use of herbs and different mixtures also seemed very similar. We even closed our eyes and listened to the woman in the video as she talked in Maya, where it sounded very much like a villager lady in Anatolia, Turkey. Finally, we came to a conclusion that there might be some kind of relationship between the Mayas and the Turks, so far as their belief system and medicine at least are concerned...In the afternoon, we bought a tour for one of the most important Mayan settlements, Palenque for 35 USD per person which included transportation, guide, visit to Agua Verde and entrance fee to Palenque. 
After that, we visited Na Bolom which was the house of a Swedish couple who came and did researches about the area in 1970s. We were behind a German tour group when entering the place, so they did not charge any entrance fees from us!!! Na Bolom means the house of the jaguar, as the jaguar was a holy animal for the Mayans.The next day, we left early with our bags for the tour. First, we visited Agua Verde which was a cascade very similar to the one in Manavgat,Turkey except its beautiful turquoise color. We spent a quiet hour there and continued to another cascade.
Later we visited Palenque with our guide and learned about the customs of the Mayans. They built large temples and observatories as predicting the weather was very important for them. They believed in moon and sun and devoted people and animals for
them in their temples and cenote sagrados (pools where they sacrificed the people). They had a very peculiar architectural style with reverse V shaped arches and atriums or patios, with a pyramid style. Palenque is built inside a jungle (selva) and it was terribly hot and humid. To visit a Mayan site within a jungle was very interesting, though difficult and sweaty! We came back to Palenque which is a dusty and boring town to buy our tickets for Playa del Carmen. We had to make a choice between Playa and Cancun, we looked at the bus prices and got the cheaper deal:)) The bus left at 20:30, we were tired and needed a good shower however got the patience to recover in Playa del Carmen. We arrived in Playa at 7:30 am, went to choose a hotel, found a nice hotel for 80 USD with clean sheets-towels and working remote control with a dozen cable TV channels. We spent a leisurely day in Playa del Carmen. It is a touristy town but has its own charm. I saw many Americans there having their vacations and everybody talked to me in English...After finding a great buffet breakfast, fed and showered, threw myself to get to see Playa. It is small, there is not many things around to see actually...We bought a tour for Chichen Itza, another Mayan Site which was chosen as one of the new 7 wonders of the world.(I think Tikal is better though!). In the afternoon, we went to the beach to enjoy the Caribbean Sea! I loved the sea, it was very warm and nice...We found a cheaper hotel in the center for 50 USD and decided to move there. We spent a quiet evening, had a nice Mexican meal, had our Coronas and had a good nite´s sleep...
The next day, we were going to go to Chichen Itza, woke up pretty early, left our bags to our new hotel and went to the travel agency to go to our bus. The guy took us in front of some shopping center. We thought it would be good to visit the WC before heading to Chichen Itza, so we asked the fellow, he said 5 mins and we jumped to come back in 5
mins. When we were back, we saw the guy leaving, we thought he would be back but he never showed up!!! We were planted right there:(((( Well, sure we went back to the agency, the guy blamed us for being late and yelled at us for being late and uneducated!!!! With the hope to get the money back, we left, found a bus to Valladolid first, then changed to Chichen Itza and made it there. At the carpark, we saw our bus in which we were supposed to be aboard! I talked to the driver and we decided to meet up at 16:00 right by the road junction. I was desperate about recovering our money from the stupid travel agent, so I thought at least we could use the transportation service back. We visited Chichen Itza in 45 mins!!! 
It was not as big as Palenque, so we were not very impressed with the site. The large pelota game field was interesting as well as sacred pools and the main temple...Later we told the situation to the guide and he was surprised too...We went to a nice place with the group where was like a sacred pool and some people swam there...We were still upset and nervous after all this mess happened, so just looked around and had some coffee. When we came back to Playa, the guide took us to the office and the stupid guy who left us paid the money back to us, deducting the used portion of the services... He looked like he pulled himself together within a few hours after we left him!!! After having our money, we had a nice Mexican feast and happily went back home...We were ready to move on to Belize City, however first we needed to go to Chetumal, which is the border town with Belize...Next> Belize City, San Pedro, Caye Caulker and Flores-Tikal Guatemala...
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