Chiapas...Yeah!

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So, I just got back to Merida from my AWESOME trip to Chiapas. Chiapas, by the way, is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place. There are mountains and it´s hilly and there are lots of trees and nature, probably due to the trees.
So, let´s take it day by day.
Day 1: Monday: Leaving Merida.
We left on a 7:15 pm bus (it´s a 14 hour bus ride, and there´s a particular forest (where the zapatistas are) that you have to drive through during daylight, so they always leave Merida at night). So the bus was fine, except it was FREEZING. I swear, I don´t think I´ve been that cold since I got to Merida (not hard, since it doesn´t ever get below 65). But I had on a sweater and couldn´t sleep because I was so cold. I was so excited to get to San Cristobal because outside would be warmer than inside. Nope. We got there at about 6:30 in the morning, and it was colder outside than in the bus. I knew it would be colder than Merida, but I didn´t think it would be that much colder that I´d still be cold in a sweater. The funny thing about this is that it probably was no colder than 65 or 70, I´m just so used to the 80s and 90s now that I couldn´t deal, so I bought a really pretty scarf. Oh, we´re on Tuesday now. Anyway, we didn´t do much Tuesday except wander around San Cristobal and shop and look at churches, but the town is really, really pretty so I enjoyed myself. It was really, cold, so we had soup for dinner. It was the coolest restaurant ever because you order a soup base and they bring you a bunch of stuff you can add to your soup to make it to your liking. For instance I got chicken and rice soup and they brought me some squash, avocado, oregano and chile to put in it (Everything´s better with chile). And they had a cool poster in the bathroom for the Zapatista movement, and I really wanted that poster. It said "Otro mundo es posible. Un mundo donde quepan todos los mundos" which means "Another world is possible. A world that fits all worlds"
Day 3: Wednesday: More San Cristobal and another bus ride
Wednesday I went to a really cool museum about Mayan traditional medicine. They had a whole thing about Mayan midwives and a video about it and everything! It was awesome! I bought a couple of pamphlets meant for the midwives, and I´m really excited to read them. Afterwards, we wandered about some more, ate some food (Mmm....we went to a restaurant called Madre Tierra, which is organic foods and has a whole grain bakery. It was super delish.) Then we got on our bus to Palenque. That bus was the most carsick inducing bus ever. Most likely it was because we were on a huge bus driving through the mountains so there were lots of switchbacks, but there was some definite vomiting going on in the bathroom (not me. But one of the girls I was with an a little boy). Anyway, we got to Palenque and went to our hotel, which is a cheap one, but that´s the idea. They had a dorm we were going to stay in, but when we saw it it was REALLY sketch. There was no door, only a curtain, and the beds were wooden cots with mats on them, and there was nowhere we could lock any of our things, so we upgraded to a room with five beds. It was the best upgrade ever because we had real beds and a bathroom and a door that locked. Yay!
Day 4: Thursday: Agua azul
Agua azul is a REALLY pretty set of waterfalls. There are a million of them. They go all the way down a mountain. It´s awesome. We got ourselves some bread from a bakery for breakfast and then flagged down a combi (van) to get there. It took about an hour, but once we got there it was really nice. I took a million pictures that none of you are going to be interested in because there are too many of them. But anyway, the bottom part is really touristy, but if you climb up farther you get past that and it´s really nice. We climbed up all the way as far as you could possibly go, which involved swimming. But we ended up in the middle of a canyon like two feet away from this crazy rushing water on slippery rocks watching a waterfall that goes around this rock as it goes down. It was SO beautiful. Unfortunately, Ihave no pictures, as there would be no way to get my camera there. On the way down I got an elote (corn on the cob with lime, mayo, salt and chile. I swear! Everything´s better with chile! The Cheetos here have chile and it´s SO good. And fruit has chile. You wouldn´t think it would be tasty, but it is!) After we got back to Palenque we ate at this restaurant. We just picked it because it looked cheap and good. It turned out the food wasn´t that great but the entertainment was awesome. And by that I really mean that the service was hilariously bad. The waiter was probably about 16, I think it was a family owned restaurant. Anyway, he came over to ask for our orders, and we all ordered except for Annie, because before she could order he walked away to the kitchen to put in the orders. So we waited for a while and then she walked to the kitchen to order. Then the guy left and went across the street to buy the sodas and water people ordered (how do you have a restaurant with coke on the menu and not actually have coke? It´s absurd.) Then all of our food came out at completely different times, and not in the order you would think it would take to make it. For instance, a chicken sandwich came out last, and some chicken in tomato sauce came out first. Hmmm....anyway, since we had a sense of humor we actually thought it was hilarious.
Day 5: Friday: Palenque, Palenque and overnight bus
On this trip I grew a fond appreciation for Mexican bakeries. Their bread is delicious. Especially the sweet kind. And the custard. Mmmm...... I could never eat anything else again. I ate it for breakfast like every day, a midnight snack, daytime snacks. Delish.
Anyway, this morning (crap. Yesterday morning) we got up and went to the beautiful site of Palenque, which as you all know, is the place that has the Temple of the Foliated cross where I want to get married. The site was REALLY pretty. I enjoyed all of it, especially the cross group and the Temple of the Foliated Cross. We took pictures of me on it so people can imagine me getting married. Hehe. Anyway, we stayed at the site until 3 or so, and then had like 9 hours to waste in town before our bus left to Merida. So we went and ate at a restaurant, and then wandered around, had some ice cream, got our hair cut (three of us did, and Annie got her nails done). We also danced in the center for a while. They had salsa or some sort of latin dancing and we danced a few songs before we had to go pick up our luggage from the hotel.Then we went to wait for the bus for an hour and a half. Except it was an hour late so we really waited two and a half hours. The end.
Chiapas was really fun. I really enjoyed myself a lot.

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Comments

[Kevin]

dining experience
It is good that you are enjoying the fine dining, it surprises me that your meals are so memorable.

[Linda]

Wow I bet that was fun!
It was so funny to hear all the things you did. I know you will remember that the rest of your life. I am thankful that you got the opportunity to experience it. Can't wait til you come home. Birmingham is waiting................