Going batty

This evening we went to a cave called volcano de Murcilagos which is a sort of cenote that housed millions of bats.  At 30 minutes before sundown they all fly into a batnado at the entry of the cave and fly off to eat mosquitos and pollinate plants.  There are 7 differnt bats here and all of them are important.  The sonar signals were binging.

You can’t really photograph them and they don't make much noise but it was very impressive.  The birds of prey accumulate at the mouth of the cave cawing and screeching before the bait ball appears and we could see a few of them catching a bat in their becks.  They all come back in the morning to nest again in the cave.  We had to wear masks because the guano of bats can be toxic.

Well we have been in Mexico for a few weeks now and this post will go into all the ways Mexico has tried our patience.  Above you can see a cabana that we stayed in at Ypijil in Campeche.  You will note there is no car in sight. We thought we would have a car by now but we are still traveling by bus, van, taxi and on foot because there are no cars available.  Yesterday we took a taxi to Chetumal airport to Enterprise after having reserved and paid for a car and spending an hour and a half getting there through traffic they informed us that they didn't have any cars.  Bogus. We are now resigned to not having a car in Mexico.  We had reserved places a bit off the beaten path thinking we would have a car but we are walking it out.

This is not the only dissapointment in our travel plans. Mexico is highly unorganized.  The fact that they are building the Maya train here in the Yucatan also makes for traffic because of construction that can be a real dolor de cabeza.  This train will start in Cancun and circle the whole peninsula stopping at major Mayan sites.  The project is massive and they are already late finishing it so they work night and day.  This will definetly change the coast here because you can already see the development ramping up.  Many environmentalist are upset as they are destroying cenote and wildlife refuges that were put aside and large hotel complexes are going up in their places.

It is not unusual in taking buses to be told once you are at the station that the bus will be 1 to 3 hours late because it is coming from Mexico City.  Also never use Viatour, they are a large company with no accountability.  We reserved through them to see the Casa Azul in Mexico City and they cancelled the tour without telling us.  We learned our lesson.  Because of protests about some students being killed by Cartel members in Jalisco part of the Palace in Mexico city was also closed so we couldn't see some of Diego's murals.  The Cartels are very tricky and you want to stay away from places where they have a stronghold.

Well carpe diem and happy trails.