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| A Yucatan Amazon gets acquainted with my hat |
Palenque is a bit of a craphole. It's full of white tourists who just want to buy cheap crap and eat at Westernised restaurants. There are no beautiful churches, which reveals the fact that that this pop-up town owes its existence entirely to tourism. Everything is plastered with pictures of the Mayas. There's a Best Western Hotel nearby with a huge statue of a Maya, the contrast between the hotel and this indigenous representation perfectly summing up the crassness of this city's further exploitation of an already exploited people. The main street is cheap and nasty, countless shops all selling the same things, and even the zocalo is underwhelming. There's no soul, no Mexican colour. I'm glad that we aren't staying here much longer.
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| You can't see it here, but there is a roof dog on a building just out of shot. |
We get out of Palenque for part of the day by heading to a local animal refuge, the Aluxes Ecoparque. It's a non-profit zoo for wildlife found in Chiapis and the Yucatan peninsula - deer, crocodiles, spider monkeys, manatees, jaguars, toucans, etc. One of the unexpected highlights is a trip through the aviary where a Yucatan Jay starts pecking at the Duck's feet. It then lands on my head and begins drilling at my hat. When I see its beak swinging down over the peak towards my eyes I know it's time to try and get the bird off me.
Much like Bearizona in Arizona, I really enjoy this park. It's a genuine opportunity to see local wildlife in their native habitat. Whether it's Macaws flying overhead, or watching the water to see the dumpy nostrils of the manatee break the surface, this is how I like to see animals.
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| Our hotel |
Our hotel in Palenque has nice staff. They do their best for us despite our lack of espanol (the words we've learned so far prove to be useless as the accent is different in the Yucatan peninsula) and are happy to keep our luggage for us all day even after we check out in the morning.
So - that said - it rankles me when a loud, elderly American man comes over to the checkout and points at a woman working there.
"You... you speak English?"
She only speaks a little. The worker next to her offers to help as he speaks both languages well, but the American ignores him and continues to talk to the woman.
"I'll be checking out earlier now. I'm going to leave next week".
"Okay", she replies.
"I don't want you charging me for longer!"
The bilingual guy translates quietly for her and she nods and smiles. The American continues, "That's all I care about. I'll check out Monday so don't go charging me beyond that. Understand?"
They understand perfectly and continue smiling. I don't know why they're so nice to him. Not only is he unreasonably brusque with the staff, but there's something undeniably racist about his assumption that they will rip him off if he doesn't explicitly tell them not to. You're in their country, pal, try to be a little less prejudiced. The only stereotype being fulfilled here is that of the brash, xenophobic American.
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| Panthers are really just Jaguars with really dark skin. If you look closely you can still see the familiar Jaguar pattern. |
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| In the centre of this photo is the Manatee. I waited 15 minutes to get this shot, LOL |
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| A White-Lipped Peccary |
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