San Cristobal

As Jerry mentions below, Chiapas was burning.  Chiapas is the poorest state in all of Mexico and has the highest population of Mayan Indians.  It is the state where there has been political unrest for years with wealthy landowners and politicians considering the indigenous people to be of a lower caste.  In the 90's Chiapas was frequently in the news due to the Zapatista uprising and takeover of the town San Cristobal (de Las Casas).  The Zapatistas/Mayans are Ghandi like in their approach to conflict and ended up retreating to the mountainous villages when the government brought in the Military.  They no longer hope government will step in to help improve their lives (tho in the last 20 years many now have electricity and the villages do have some paved roads).  They are trying to subsist on the poor quality land immediately surrounding their homes and have cleared the few  trees left  and burn the rubble in order to plant corn.  It's very sad to see - most of the forest and jungle is gone and they are very much living in third world conditions while the land surrounding them is owned by the wealthy.

It was a 5 hour from Palenque thru the mountainous villages to San Cristobal but it became one of our favorite places and we spent 5 days there.  The coffee shops were everywhere and we could get a far superior cup there than in Merida and for only 12 pesos ($1.00).
Of course we met the Gringo Coffee Group who meets every day much like the group in Kayenta solving the daily problems of the world.    Interesting people wherever we go - a couple who builds houses for the poor to a concert pianist and director of PBS documentaries.

The town had a nice sense of community to it with clean streets and interesting architecture.

The San Cristobal Mercado

The ever present Mayan Women and their Children selling their handcrafted wares.

What we really loved about San Cristobal was how lively it was at night.  Many of the  streets are closed to vehicles and are crowded with people out socializing.

These street performers actually had good voices and were quite entertaining!

We loved our hotel.  The room was quite basic but spotless and the ambiance of the grounds was more than worth the $35 (U.S) per night.

Our basic room

The hallway leading to our room

The courtyard just outside our room

Lynne downloading our daily photos!

 

 

 

Can you believe the size of these leaves??

Some art work that was displayed in the Hotel Lobby

More scenes from the Mercado

The Mayan Women and Young Girls are always, always carrying a heavy load.

Up into the Chiapas Mountains

The Misol-Ha waterfall (115 ft.) located in a lush jungle environment is south of the town of Palenque in Northern Chiapas.  The name Misol-Ha comes from Mayan word for ”streaming water”. The day we were there the water flow was considered 'low'.  Apparently, following a rain, the flow literally doubles causing the main waterfall to split into two waterfalls. The waterfall was an important location of the film “predator” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I thought I saw movement in the trees !

Fire.  Fire. Everywhere.  We could not believe how many fires were burning as we passed through the mountains. Destitute Indian villagers are cutting down trees and burning the undergrowth to grow corn. After a couple of years the soil is depleted and they burn another section.  The government is attempting to stop the burning but the villagers no longer trust the government due to numerous broken promises.

We left Campeche and drove about 4.5 hrs. into the State of Chiapas and the town of Palenque.  It was an interesting drive with a story we will tell when we see everyone.
Photos of some of the sites between the two locations are below.

It was a two lane road and always a challenge to pass a truck like this.

We have now entered the State of Chiapas and the jungle.  The town of Palenque isn't much except for very hot and steamy.  The photos below were taken from our hotel balcony

You can see that the town is surrounded by mountains and jungle.

Jerry took this photo of these two Mayan woman selling their wares with his telephoto lens.

We moved the next night to a quieter, lusher and cheaper neighborhood.

The only reason to go to the town of Palenque is to travel five miles further to visit the incredible ruins.

As you leave Palenque and head out to the ruins, you see this sculpture of Pakal The Great who was considered the most distinguished leader of Palenque.  He was born in A.D. 603 and ascended to the throne at the age of 12.  He lived to be 81 years old which was quite remarkable for that time period.

This Temple is known as the Temple of the Red Queen as within recent years a large stone sarcophagus was uncovered with the remains of what are believed to be those of Pakal's mother.  She was interred with a rich collection jade jewelry and was covered in cinnabar powder, a prized red pigment.

Her remains are now in a museum in Mexico City but some of the jewelry is available to see in the Musuem at Palenque.

It was an extremely hot and humid day.  We were only able to spend about 2 hours at the ruins before we had to leave but inside the structures were the living quarters and it felt as tho the air conditioning was on and they probably spent a lot of time inside during the hot seasons.

Do I look overheated?  My bangs are plastered to my forehead with sweat!

Catching Up

 We drove to the city of Campeche which is located in the State of Campeche bordering the State of Yucatan and sits right on the Gulf.  We were presently surprised with the charm of the city and spent three days  there.

Every City and Pueblo in Mexico comes alive at night with live music and people out socializing.  Campeche was no exception.

  Javier Marin is a Mexican sculptor and had some of his work publicly displayed in the City.  We liked his work.a lot - -  ALMOST as much as Ed's (Hvlaka).

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Not sure if these planters were part of his work or not but they too were pretty cool even tho they were lacking plants....

The port city was frequently attacked by pirates and destroyed a couple times.  300 years ago they built a wall encasing the city and much of the wall still stands, houses museums and is open to tourist.

I've been meaning to include the following photo in our blob for some time now.  It is of a sculpture that is actually on display in a park in Merida.  The sculptor, Javier Marin, is the brother of Jorge Marin.  His work is interesting too and I think when we get back to Merida that I will check his work out again and take some photos of his other pieces.

We left Campeche and headed toward the town of Palenque and to check out the ruins there.  Photos to follow (hopefully tomorrow).