Its been a long time since we've posted and we've been busy! We've really tried to pack a lot into this month so we have been go, go, go - not how we normally travel at all. To put it mildly, we have loved the state of Chiapas. The mountain scenery, pine forests, the towns and cities have been nothing short of awesome.
TAPACHULA
Our first stop in the state was Tapachula. This was where we ended up after entering Mexico. We were here for only two nights. Just enough time to get our vehicle permit, find out that we couldn't get a regular tourist permit and to get a good nights sleep. In the evening, we took a walk around the city, had some tasty Mexican food and sat in the center square soaking up the atmosphere. Even though we were still feeling a bit sorry for ourselves we were really happy to be back - we love this country.
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ
Lots of military checks along the highway (six in fact). We were searched four times and questioned twice. These guys never let us drive by, we are always stopped. They usually start out so serious with us and by the end they are usually laughing (at us). Imagine these guys with their big machine guns trying to pet Anna. When they first pull us over, theres usually two or three military personnel and by the time we are ready to go theres a crowd around the truck, that we need to wave adios to. These guys are always nice to us and we never mind being stopped by them. In fact, we are glad they are there.
Tuxtla is a big city with all the big city conveniences. We couldn't help but indulge in many Starbucks and enjoy a combo meal at Burger King. As well there was an Autozone nearby where we conveniently waited out a rainstorm at Justins request. We ended up spending a second day here relaxing after our long drive and figuring out a route for our time in the country.
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS
What a drive! From about 1700 feet to 7200 feet. All up hill for over forty-eight kilometers. A really nice, but very slow drive with sometimes zero visibility up into the mountains. But it was worth it, San Cristobal is a beautiful colonial city.
What we weren't prepared for was the cold. Our first day there, after settling into our hotel, we went to go wander the streets in shorts and t-shirts. Soon after, we turned around to go back to the truck to dig out our bag with winter clothes. Shoes, socks, layers - yuck. Its been a long time since we've been cold. I guess we should of clued in after seeing a fireplace in our room.
We spent four days in the city, definitely not enough time. Everyday we wandered around, checking out shops and drinking delicious Chiapas coffee.
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| fresh roasted Chiapas coffee |
The best part of the city, we thought, was the market. We have been to tonnes of markets on the trip and they usually are somewhat smelly and chaotic. Not this one, it smelt divine. All sorts of fruits and vegetables, drying herbs, spices and teas. It made us wish we had a kitchen or at least a fridge. Not that we would know what to do with even a quarter of it. We walked out of it with full stomaches and just a couple of pesos poorer.
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| a lake in the streets |
PALENQUE
Next was a drive that was suppose to take four hours that took us nine. An absolute beautiful drive through little villages with a backdrop of mountains and mist. Other than the thousands of topes and rain that had washed away portions of the road, it was a spectacular drive.
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| we pulled over here to wait out a rain storm |
More police checks along this road, one that was kinda interesting. After being pulled over we thought there was something different about these guys. They looked like cops, they acted like cops but their uniforms had no identification. All they had on was an all black military style uniform and a bullet proof vest. There were no cop cars around (that we could see) and they were heavily armed. So when they asked for our identification, Justin asked them for theirs first. "You, no policia," as he's pointing at them. "No policia ropa," meaning in our bad spanish, that he doesn't have the uniform on. So after a couple of snickers from his co-workers and them waving their hands at him, telling him to show us his identification, he forked over his and we forked over ours (and he was absolutely a police officer). Oops. How do we get away with this stuff. They explained to us later that they don't wear id for their protection and their families. They were really nice guys and understood our hesitation - and they got a laugh out of it as well.
We made it to Palenque and the next day caught a collectivo to the ruins. We've seen a lot of ruins on this trip and these ones are definitely up there in our favourites. What was unique to these ones was that we were able to go inside and see crypts. Set into the jungle, these are impressive.
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| the royal bath at Palenque |
The rest of our time we spent wandering around the town of Palenque. According to our guide book its not much to see but we really liked it. We loved walking up and down the streets, sitting in the square and drinking Chiapas coffee observing people going about their day. We ended up in a shop that sold mezcal, run by a cute old man. He worked his magic on us and we spent about half an hour tasting every type of mezcal he sold. The last one he gave us Justin tried first and said, "Now thats got some meat and potatoes." Once I tasted it I thought my insides were on fire. It WAS fire in a bottle. We left slightly tipsy with two bottles in tow.
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| I swear, it looked straight when I took it |
Coming up, our time in the state of Veracruz.........
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| the biggest flag we have ever seen |
