Palenque, Zapatistas march in San Cristobal, Guatemalan hot springs...and local color by Lake Atitlan.... |
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Click the eyes above to see the slide show for the January 1st Zapatista March in San Cristobal, Mexico. | ||||
While still in Mexico, we took a day trip to Agua Azul (above) and the waterfalls of Misol-Ha. The highlight of this little adventure was in the jungle where we saw the ruins of Palenque (below) which are reputed to be the most beautiful of all ancient Mayan sites. |
The town of San Cristobal de Las Casas is a cross between the old and the new. Located in the lush highlands of the Chiapas region, it has been a favorite stop for many travelers because of the abundant options of activities, such as biking, horsebacking riding, or language courses. There are also many great nearby indigenous villages to visit, each with its own unique colorful costume. |
We stayed in San Cristobal for New Years and it was quite noisy. It is easy to purchase fireworks and most everyone did. We stayed on the roof of our hotel at a couple minutes until midnight and the pyrotechnics really began. It looked like a scud missle attack on TV from the Gulf War. |
GUATEMALAAt the Guatemalan border, a taxi driver said he could get us to the bus station (which was 19kms away) to catch the 8:00 bus to Quetzaltenango. By our watches, that meant we had only 7 minutes to make it. We thought, what the hell... The driver floored his little car as fast as it would go and honked at all the locals... he flagged our bus down and we made it! |
While in the town of Quetzaltenango, we rode in the back of pick up trucks to get to the awesome hot springs of Fuentes Georginas (above) which is a natural spa high in the mountains. It has a soaking pool fed by hot sulfur springs and we soaked and soaked....then left looking like raisins. It took about 17 million buses to get to Lake Atitlan (left) but it was worth it! The lake is a huge caldera (collapsed volcanic cone) filled with clear water up to 320 meters and surrounded by three mammoth volcanos. |
We took a 4 km hike to the next town and caught some great local color. |
Brian will tell you that he is eating maggots and rabbit turds in this picture...but for those of you that know him...this is NEWS...he is actually eating RICE and beans!! He liked it so much he had it again for breakfast the next day! |
We jumped in an overcrowed "Bluebird" school bus and went to the Friday market in the nearby town of Solola. We had more fun just sitting in the center and watching people. Women get away with wearing at least four different patterns all in one outfit. |
The men don't hide from the color either and proudly wear the loudest shirts and pink or red pants with a wool piece of fabric wrapped around like a skirt...cool.. |