Best Western Hotel Arecas Tuxtla Gutierrez

... and I don't know waht else, at home, which was quite scary). He took us to an Tour by car in Comitan, and left us in the main Square, where a band was playing. He ofered us coffe and alkohol...but Coffe at night I am not taking...I I had to say no to Alkohol (mist!!) because I had kind of gastrointeritis.... The day after he took us to the station whre we took the bus to the Frontier with Guatemala. But this would be a differnt story for other day, Amelia is waiting for me. Muaks!!!

After a 10 hour overnight bus ride, we arrived in Tuxtla Gutierrez at 7am and got a taxi into town and found a hotel. We were now in the state of Chiapas, a mountainous region of the South that has the highest percentage of indigenous residents out of any state in Mexico. Our reason for the stop was to visit a massive canyon, Canon Sunidero, from a nearby town called Chiapa de Corzo. We boarded a "launcha" boat, that held 20 turistas. I squeezed myself into the shorter mans leg space ...

First stop though was Canon del Sumidero, an amazing deep gorge, which until 20 years ago had just a trickle running through it - then they dammed (damned!?) the valley and it is now navigable by boat. Gets about 1000´ deep in places and is really lush, with waterfalls, birdlife and crocodiles. The trip continued to the pleasant small colonial town of Chiapa del Corzo further down the same river. From there I went on to ...

... about at the bus station. We finally found it, about 6 blocks away from the hotel, dropped our bags, showered and met back up with the Malteasers for lunch. I made a poor choice in deciding lunch was a good idea, but I hadn't eaten in like 24 hours so I thought it might help. It didn't. We walked around for a while afterwards, booked a tour for tomorrow that includes horseback riding and some small indingenous village and made our way to the large Mercado north of the zocalo. Being in ...

... road was two lanes and flat - it was worth it - we were hauling azz and covered lots of ground. We were going south at a fast clip, I was going about 90 for almost 100kms. If we could get to Tuxtla Gutierrez in Chiapas we would be less than 150 miles from the Guatemalan border. Another toll 150 pesos, 15 bucks!, the trip was getting expensive but the roads gave me the inclination to keep rolling into the darkness and make it to Tuxtla. We ...

... full of garbage, especially floating plastic and styrofoam. A couple of water plants also seemed quite happy floating along with the basura and sticks. Other sights of interest are waterfalls and the aptly named "Christmas Tree," a series of overhanging moss and algae mats that are huge and catch the dripping water from the a spring's outlet in the rock above. It must be at least 50 feet tall and as wide at the bottom. When you arrive at the large open ...

... celebration (maybe a token gentile was needed to complete the circle or something) and it was pretty interesting. I ate apples with honey to signify the start of a "sweet year", was told how they usually have fish heads to represent "the front not the back" and then I asked what the soup was they were passing and what it signified. I was informed that it was part of Armen's meal and they were just seeing if it was good enough to order. Anyway, apparently the ...

... for them, we chose to go it alone. There was a neat museum at right inside the gate that provided us with some basic background on the Mayan culture and showed us some of the more common artefacts. With our newfound knowledge we started down the signed path to the ruins and within a few minutes of walking we were on top of a pyramid like structure looking out over the ruins of a massive Mayan city. The entire city was designed and built on top of the hill ...

... water would just say to a Croc 'Over here!! Eat ME!! - I won't even sink after you bite my legs off!'). At one point on the shore, scores of Vultures were taking a dip, or spreading their wings on the banks to dry their feathers. Despite looking like a cross between a hawk and a turkey, and living on a diet of rotting meat, these birds are strangely beautiful. It was kind of like watching a biker rally for birds, with these big, black birds ...

... 2.50! - I went to the front of the bar, where an aging hippy with a guitar was taking requests. I asked for Wish You Were Here. He knew it, of course (Syd Barrett RIP). I went to the Amber Museum, which as you may guess has bits of amber in it. As far as I could tell the bits were categorized according to the insects trapped inside: spiders, mosquitos, bees, etc. The woman who worked there told me many interesting things in spanish about amber and insects. Thank you, interesting woman.