Our story last left off in the wonderful city of San Cristobal. Since then, Derek and Michael have travelled through Palenque, Campeche and now reside in Merida.

Michael and Derek arrived late in the afternoon to Palenque and were hoping to find a cheap room for 40 pesos at this jungle hostel with howling monkeys and what not. When we got there, the monkeys were howling! Not what you would think they sound like! Video to come soon! We ended up waiting for the recption person for like an hour and getting frustrated started wandering around. In that time, he ended up giving the last room to some Frenchies who arrived behind us! Then the place was sold out. We then checked a couple other places in the area...all sold out! We ended up sleeping in the car this night in the warm muggy jungle. I guess we had better get used to it if we want to save some cash on the trip later. With some reorganization, the car will feel just like home!

Palenque was a spectacular treat as we were able to see the ruins there and they are pretty phenominal. We think the best part about them is you get to touch the stone and climb the pyramids giving you a more personal experience. I don't think they would allow this in the U.S. if we had pyramids, so we are greatful for the oppotunity to experience a part of the past. These ruins are over 2000 years old and seem like they will last another 2000 years.

After seeing the ruins, Derek and Michael decided they needed to make some headway on getting through Mexico, as we have already spent an awesome 1 month here and only have 5 months left to get to Argentina. So, we drove on to Campeche, supposedly a spot we had to see. Although we were a little disappointed as there was not much to do and the city seemed void of people despite how large it was. We toured the one nice looking old church and the mall near by. For future reference, we don't believe this city is worth a return visit (except for baby tarpon fishing).

After staying one night in quiet Campeche, we headed of to Merida. The first thing we noticed is everyone here tries to sell you Hammocks! The is the Hammock Capital of the world apparently and were told that 90% of people sleep in them. We were confronted by a total salesman in the town center and against our good judgement went into the store he recommended. After sitting in a few Hammocks and bartering with the salesman, we both bought Hammocks for 1200 pesos. This is roughly 120 USD. We then proceeded to look for a Hostal to stay at and one of them we looked in had a sign right away saying... "Talk to an experienced person about Hammocks before you buy one...do not pay more than 350 pesos." Derek and Michael were pretty disappointed in ourselves for going against our instincts and buying so soon. What suckers we were. Pretty good at staying out of the tourist trap gig thus far, we were snared in Merida! However, after some research at the rest of the stores in the area and talking to some locals, we got an average deal because the Hammock is supposedly made out of sesal(not sure about spelling) that is a cactus. It is strong, comfortable and repels insects. Others say that they stopped making hammocks out of this long ago but we don't know. What we do know is that we probably could have bartered the Hammocks down to 1000 pesos each and saved another 20 USD. Oh well, we are continually learning to think on our toes and keep ourselves out of these kinds of situations. Walk away...Just walk away...