Blogs from Comitán de Domínguez, Chiapas, Mexico, North America

Wednesday the 11th we took another trip to Comitan to visit Tenam Puente, a Mayan ruin. Again, I was blown away by how great the tourist information signs in Comitan were. We drove to Tenam Puente, pulling in to the empty parking lot. In fact, I believe the cashier woke up from his morning nap, got out of his hammock, and then ran inside to take our money. Tenam Puente was an ancient Mayan ruin that was abandoned around 1200 AD. Not only was the parking lot empty, we had the whole site to ourselves. The site itself was amazing; from the three ball courts to the Acropolis, which has fantastic views of Comitan. While the ruins of Tenam Puente were very impressive, climbing to the top was a bit challenging. They were definitely not made ... read more

Tonina: the so-called Mayan Sci-Fi City??? Tonina is about a two hour drive from either San Cristobal de las Casas or Palenque in the state of Chiapas. The site is easy to locate, there are places to stop along the way for drinks and food, and part of the drive is through a cloud forest. Tonina is situated in the middle of a functioning cattle ranch. When we arrived the ranchers drove cattle through the lot where we were parked. The landscape here is very scenic, surrounded by valleys and mountains. The site is one of the larger of the Mayan ruin sites; the main palace is simply enormous and the setting is beautiful. Tonina was inhabited from circa 300 to 1000 Common Era. The city competed with Palenque for control of trade between the Peten ... read more

hello from maggie's world! (sorry cameron. yes, i did copy and paste this from the email I sent you yesterday. hope you'll forgive me) well, here i am in a town called Comitan. yep, i abandoned San Cristobal because it just wasnt working out there and here everything just seemed to fall into place. i am doing my 1 month independent study project with an organization called Educacion para la paz (Edupaz) and in particular about their Economia Solidaria program which gives microcredit loans to small cooperatives and groups. So far i've interviewed an ecotourism cooperative, a coffee cooperative , a carpintry group, a family with a chicken farm, two women with clothing sales businesses, and a man with a wood purchase/sale business - all groups that have received EDUPAZ microcredit loans. so many interesting ... read more