LAS RUINAS

PALENQUE!  I finally made a trip to Palenque.  Palenque is the site of well known and often visited, Mayan Ruins.  It is set in the jungle, and has a humid/hot climate.  It was quite a change from San Cristobal.  I left San Cristobal on a Saturday morning and made the five hour bus ride to Agua Azul.  This is a park filled with waterfalls and many places to swim and cool off.  After taking some pictures and waiting out a rainstorm, I joined a group of backpackers and headed to Palenque.  We arrived in El Panchan which is a place well known on the backpackers circuit.  It hosts many hostels, cabanas, and restaurants.  I ended up staying in my own little cabana which was very comfortable.  It had two beds, a bathroom, and well screened windows to protect against the mosquitoes.  I slept great in my little cabana, and enjoyed listening to the sounds of the jungle as I headed to sleep.  On Sunday morning, it was time to visit Palenque.  I arrived early to enjoy cooler temperatures and fewer tourists.  All I can say is that it is an impressive place to visit.  The work of the Mayans is amazing.  I wandered through the park for a few hours, visited the museum, worked on my Spanish homework, and then once again waited out a rainstorm with a nice couple from Guanajuato.  (This is another state in Mexico)  It was a full day as I returned to San Cristobal at 11:30pm.  I was very happy to home!  I missed my Mexican family and was ready for a  post jungle shower!  I must say that the buses are the way to travel in Chiapas... much nicer than the Greyhound.  They have reclining seats, movies, and they gave us a complimentary beverage as we boarded the bus.  

Lluvia...it was a weekend of rain here as we experienced some of the effects of Hurricane Dolly.  It has been a bit cooler in San Cristobal and wet, but nothing compared to some of the other states in Mexico.  We have been watching the news in the evenings and there is a lot of flooding and damaged cities.

El Palacio...the main center of the ruins.

Me and the ruins... I drank A LOT of water!

My favorite pictures of the day!  The leaves from the trees were huge and this little guy was helping his sister stay cool.  People were using the leaves as umbrellas and hats.  

Waterfalls at Agua Azul

Welcome to El Panchan!  I stayed at El Jaguar.

My Cabana!  I stayed in only part of this building... the stairs are leading to my room.

MY DAY AT TONINA...Tonina is a smaller ruin compared to Palenque.  It has menos turistas (fewer tourists), but it is still a beautiful place to visit.  I headed to Tonina two weekends ago.  It was a good lesson in the cultural practices of public transportation.  I left San Cristobal on a colectivo and headed to Ocosingo a city just over 2 hours away.  Many, many curves and many, many speed bumps.  My biggest traveling dilemma has been several boughts of car sickness.  Oh well...Once I arrived in Ocosingo I headed out on colectivo number 2.  This dropped me off at the ruins.  It was a very quiet place as there were about 10 tourists visiting this huge ruin.  I wandered around for a couple of hours and then headed back toward San Cristobal.  On my trip back, I met a couple from France that just happened to be Spanish teachers.  I talked with them a bit, and then joined them on the colectivo to San Cristobal.  It was a cozy ride as I was in a seat reserved for four persons!  It ended up being me and three men.  Uses of space are very different here in Mexico, and this was a very good opportunity to learn about that!  Below are a few photos of the ruins at Tonina (Toe-nee-na), and the views of the surrounding area.

Daily life in San Cristobal

Here are a few photos from my life in San Cristobal.  Many different colored buildings and a variety of churches to visit.  I think there are over 16 churches listed on my map of the city, and I have two more I still need to visit.   

A few things I have been learning about the culture in the city... walking on the sidewalks.  Well, some of the sidewalks here are very narrow.  Really, there is just space for one person to walk.   In most cases, the younger person moves to toward the street when a older person is walking toward them.  This  is a sign of respect.  Also, if a man is walking toward a woman, it would be respectful of him to move to the outside and let her pass by.  These courtesies are not always followed, but I try to move to the outside of the sidewalk as I approach the more mature people of the city.

Doing your laundry in San Cristobal... well they have shops called lavandurias that wash and dry your clothes for 10 pesos a kilogram.  The first time I went, I dropped off most of my clothing and it was only a little over 20 pesos.  That is essentially $2.00.  When you go to pick it up, you will find your clothes neatly folded and packaged.

I have been visiting the markets during the week as there are many people to observe, both vendors and buyers.  One of my favorite things to buy has been roses.  They grow beautiful flowers in a village not too far from San Cristobal.  I hope to visit it this weekend.  The roses are 4 pesos each, and at some markets they are 2 pesos each.  I have enjoyed having fresh flowers in my room, (just a few) as they are a bit more affordable here.

Chedraui... this is the plaza in the city that has a movie theater and a large grocery store.  It is a bit like being in the states as you go here as they have McDonalds and a Dominoes Pizza.  I have gone to visit there a couple of times because movies are just $2.50 on Wednesdays.  I am trying to learn to use public transportation, so I headed over by taxi, watched WALLE, and then headed home on a colectivo. 

This is a city that is great for lots of walking.  Everything is relatively close, and there is a lot to look at.  The street filled with people (in the photo below) is called Miguel Hidalgo. It is a street for pedestrians only and goes through the main center of the city.  It is usually full of people during the day and in the nights as well.  

I hope you enjoy seeing a few of the sights from San Cristobal... 

Chiflon and Los Lagos de Montebello

Well, for my second weekend in San Cristobal, I headed out to visit Chiflon, which is a park with beautiful waterfalls.  As you can tell from the pictures, it was a beautiful place.  I had my raincoat on because I started to get really wet as I got closer to the waterfall.  The trail ended at a platform that sits in the middle of a heavy mist. I walked up to the top of the stairs, but I didn't stay on the platform very long.  My pants were completely drenched in about 5 seconds.  I decided to head down as those were my only clothes for the day and Chiflon was our first stop.  I am thankful to have lived in Oregon because I am well trained for walking around wet.  The mist from the waterfall definitely surpassed the rain storms in Cannon Beach.  The good news, I dried off in about an hour.  Once I hiked back down from the waterfall, it was warm and a bit humid.  Perfect conditions to dry off in.  I was ready to get in the van and head off to Los Lagos de Montebello.

The lakes were about an hour from Chiflon.  There is a park that contains over 50 beautiful lakes of different colors.  We were only able to see five of them as we had a 2 hours there. Our travel group was made up of 13 people.  Seven of us were from the US, and the other six were from Mexico.  While we were at the lakes, I ate lunch with college kids from Georgia. They had brought along PB & J and were kind enough to feed me.   My favorite part of the day though was talking to a Mexican woman and her daughter.  It was very encouraging.  It is tempting to spend time with the tourists that speak English, but on this particular tour, it worked out to spend more time with the Spanish speakers.  I thought she was a teacher at first because she was very patient and spoke very clearly.  She encouraged me to keep practicing and that I was off to a good start.  At our last lake, you could see the border of Guatemala and Mexico.  So in the mountains behind me and my patient friend, you can see Guatemala.  I thought that was pretty cool.  

A Day in Chenalo

Last Sunday I was invited to visit Chenalo with Tom and his friends.  Tomas (Tom) is staying at Coco's house too, and is pictured below with the flags.  It was a festival to celebrate St. Peter.  Many of the towns people were dressed in special clothing for the day, and many of the men wore hats covered with brightly colored ribbons.  In front of the church they had musicians playing and children dressed up in costumes dancing.  At one point, a older woman joined them for a dance before she entered the church.  That was fun to watch.  She had a good time.  Also during the music, a man ran around carrying a costume that was supposed to look like a bull.  The interesting part though was that the bull shot of fireworks as he ran around.  He ran fairly close to the crowd at times, so close in fact that the man next to me had a hole burned through his clothing.  You had to be on your guard!  It was fun to experience a local celebration and local comida (food).  We enjoyed chicken mole for lunch.   In addition to it being my first local festival, I also took my first taxi ride.    On the way there, our group of six squeezed into the taxi, but it was a bit cozy.  Poor Tom had his head nearly out the window most of the time.  So... we split up the group on the way home.  It is a very good way to travel and affordable too.  It was only 20 pesos each way, and Chenalo is about an hour outside of San Cristobal.  

El Canon Del Sumidero

This was my first weekend outing, El Canon Del Sumidero.  I caught a colectivo on Saturday morning, and headed out toward the canyon.  Once you arrive at the river, you buy a ticket and then join about 30 others in a boat like this one above.  A guide takes you through this beautiful canyon, stopping occasionally to let you see waterfalls or even crocodiles!  The tour was a little under 2 hours.

A view of the canyon

One of the beautiful waterfalls

This waterfall was my favorite.  It looks like a Christmas tree from the distance.  They call it el arbol de Navidad.  

The crocodiles... we saw four on our tour.  The best  one was at the end as we saw a mom with some of her baby crocodiles.  You could just see her head, but the babies were sitting out on the rocks.  They were very small and our driver told us they were just 20 days old.  At one point the head of the mom disappeared and I leaned back from the edge of the boat just a bit... moms can be protective you know :-)  

I met a couple from Belgium on the tour, so they kindly let me ride back with them in their taxi.  Many people from all over the world visit San Cristobal.  They spoke three to four languages each.  That surely is motivation!  

Our adventures with Heather in San Diego

The San Diego portion of my trip would not be complete without adding these photos.  Sorry they are a bit late Heather!  Dad and I drove through the California heat wave on Wednesday and Thursday last week and ended up at Heather's apartment in Pacific Beach.  We were pretty tuckered, but we still had a great time together.  Here are a few pictures of our adventures together.  My favorite place we visited was La Jolla.  If you are in San Diego to visit sometime, you should go there.

Heather and I had never had Fat Burger before, so Dad treated us to Turkey burgers.  They were very good too.  We enjoyed a nice lunch of the boardwalk of Pacific Beach.

We had ice cream on this part of the trip too.  It is sure refreshing to have a cone on those really hot days.  Right Dad?

A funny story about the ice cream.  We had cones on our way home from Fat Burger, and then headed to a drug store to find something.  Well, it happened to be cholesteral screening day, so we had a family check up. A funny thing to do on your family vacation, but it is good to know none the less :-)

The family enjoying the ocean view.  

Bienvenidos a Chipas

Welcome to Mexico City!  Yes, they have Starbucks there too.  I made a stop while I was waiting for my second flight.  Cafe Espresso Americano con hielo.  It was pretty good.

I was happy to see this sight as I was walking into town one day. I am a fan of corn tortillas and get to eat them daily at home with my host family.  It is fun to walk the streets of San Cristobal because the buidlings are all different colors.  It is beautiful.

I have been walking around town a lot trying to visit lots of different places.  This is la iglesia de Guadelupe.  I walked up the stairs yesterday and was pretty winded.  The elevation does make a difference!  This church is close by to my classroom where I study Spanish with Jorge.

A view of San Cristobal from the steps of la iglesia de Guadelupe.  The city is surrounded by green, plush hills.  The elevation is about 7000 ft above sea level, so the weather is pretty moderate.  Not too hot and not too cold.  

My first cup of coffee in San Cristobal at Cafe Selva.  I had my favorite a cafe aulait.  It was pretty good.  I came back for another today.  The coffee shop is a nice place to study and catch with things on the computer. 

I had my first Spanish lesson today.  I will be studying with Jorge, my teacher, for 3 hours a day.  I start at 9:30am and end at 12:30pm.  A typical day here is breakfast with Coco, my host mom, and then off to class.  There is time to explore or study after as we eat lunch here at 2:30 or 3:00.  More time to study, rest, drink coffee, and then a lighter supper at 9 or so.  A bit different than our traditional schedule.   

I am very glad to be here and I know I am being stretched.  Not being able to communicate can be a really frustrating thing, but that is why you come to study right?  More photos to come...