In the steps of the Mayas

---

San Cristóbal de las Casas

San Cristóbal sits high up in the mountains in the southerly state of Chiapas, just a few hours from the Guatamalan border and it´s cool climate so different from other ´nearby´towns in Mexico that it´s like a different country. The overnight bus - 12 hours from Puerto Esconidido - was no where near as traumatic as it had threatened to be, although I am glad it was too dark to see the cause of the winding roads. Actually, despite the near-arctic conditions on board, I slept a lot better than I did the last 2 nights in the horrible, sweaty, busy youth hostel.

The town is full of little low colourful, cobbled streets and being in a gentle valley means that there a quite a lot of nice views without any really terrible climbing. We visited the Amber museum (mined in the area) in which there were some really beautiful stones, although not personally a fan of the giant ornaments etc. We also went to a cafe and museum run by the local fairtrade coffee producing organisation about coffee growing in south mexico which was really interesting too and definately made me want to switch to buying only fairtrade coffee. The Mayan medicine exhibition explained how the traditional medical practices of the Mayan Indigenous communities are still emplpoyed today. It covered the believable: the crushing and eating of certain leaves and roots to cure stomach upsets etc; to the purely fictional: the waving of a live chicken over a new mother´s breast to stimulate milk production. Hmm. We also saw a slightly too graphic video about the traditional way to give birth including dirt floors and a dog trying to eat the placenta while it was being buried. Nice!

In the evening we went to a free Jazz concert which was excellent and had a free glass of Sangria. The music was based on Jazz-inpired sculptures which were also on display and were really good too.

After some final walks around the wet and chilly city we took a bus back down in altitude again (180km in 5 hours) to the hot and sticky jungle town of Palenque.

Palenque

The guide books say that there really is no reason to go to Palenque except to see the ruins and waterfalls and they are 100%!r(MISSING)ight. Luckily the ruins and waterfalls are worth every second in the heat and humidity. (Humidity proof - your glasses steam up every time you go outside and there´s condensation on the outside of bus windows!)

We took a tour first to the big water fall, whose Mayan name eludes me at time of writing - a pretty amazing drop of water with sprey everywhere. We didn´t walk right behind the falls as we would never ever have dried in the humidity but even from the side they were still impresive. Then onto the rapids of Agua Clara - which unfortunately weren't very clara (clear) as it's rainy season and all the crap from the rainforest gets washed into the river. We did however get a near-death experience as we crossed a very dodgey cable-plank bridge across the rapids, complete with falling, holey, split planks; swaying; and over-extended cables. Definately not doing that again! Finally it was the cascades of Agua Azul - again not very Azul (blue) due to the rainy season, but the volume of water made them pretty amazing. We also had a bit of a walk in the jungle where we found bananas growing.

Day 2 and after a night and long lie-in in our air-conditioned hotel and we visited the ruins of the ancient city of Palenque (not its original name). These are Mayan ruins, around 1500 years old, built in the jungle without the use of pack-animals or wheels - they are truely incredible. They are in a beautiful setting, with the jungle and clear streams around, and the work that they must have taken to construct such a vast and advanced site is just unbelievable. I really can't think of anything else to say about them, you really have to go there: ver es creer.

---

Photos

Agua Azul
Except it's not very Azul in rainy season.

Comments

[meals]

Looks wonderful Charlotte. Makes me feel very annoyed to be sitting at my computer trying to write a dissertation. x

[Stace]

:)
Hey Char, sounds like you saw the pretty sights in palenque. luckily i saw the waterfalls and agua azul in peak seasons, and they were just as beautiful then! did you check out the Mayan museum? (great pics too...and you're right, the smaller waterfall is misol ha.. ) Stace x