Up again at 5:30 for a day-long drive to Palenque. We stop at Villa Hermosa's La Venta Park, which is where you can see giant Olmec heads carved from stone. The Olmec were the predecessors of the Maya and Aztec. This is the first time that we needed mosquito repellent - but they didn´t warn us before getting off the bus, and once in the park, we couldn't go back to the bus. Many of us got eaten, but no worse than Regina in the summer. There is also a small zoo there. The neatest thing were the Cotimundi that were roaming around free, and came around our tour group. They look like a big cat, but with anteater - type snouts, and made snorting sounds like my dog. Wild spider monkeys in the trees offered ... read more

The second day we went to Teotihuacan - we really had to practice that for a long time before we could say it right - a huge ruins site about 30 miles north of Mexico City. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get there because of the crazy traffic. Then we went to the museum of anthropology and the National Palace where Diego Riviera murals tell about pre-colombian indian history. Beautiful! However, the poverty outside of the main part of downtown is stark. Market stalls are covered with plastic tarps. Houses are cinder block in various stages of disrepair, many without roofs....a really different way of living. Very disheartening to see so many people living in these conditions.... read more

Planning is half the fun! It is 40 below with wind chill...........soon we will be in the warmth of Mexico! We don't know how often we will find a computer, but will post pictures whenever we can.... read more

Well, we have a 9 hour drive ahead today, so we get an early start. Another grey day, but perfect for travelling. I try to cover up the tired bags under my eyes with makeup, and Steve jokes "I'll just eat my muffin while you're coloring." I call him a bad name. The park had big forest fires in the 1980's. Lodgepole pine makes up 80 percent of the trees here - they are the ones that have the cones that only burst open to release their seeds in the heat caused by fire. As the charred wood decomposes, it releases much needed carbon into the poor soil. You can see some tall older dead trees poking up through the carpet of thick new growth all through the park, which illustrates the natural reforestation process. Close ... read more

Finally - a sunny day! We head towards Norris - another hydrothermically active area of the park. We see Steamboat geyser, which is just spurting a few feet right now. It's still pretty impressive. Norris is one of the most active earthquake areas of the park. Small earthquakes trigger changes each year in the hot springs and geysers. Many hot springs and fumeroles (steam jets) have temperatures above the boiling point. There are also many acidic geysers here, which are rare in the rest of the world. We walk along boardwalks across the hot, acid waters of Percelain basin. The smell of sulphur is offset by the rainbow colors. Yellow is sulphur, white is calcium carbonate, orange could either be iron or some of the many heat loving bacteria that live here. Bacteria that live in ... read more