The story continues from Motul, Xcambo and the sea coast

Merry Christmas from Palenque: Dec 25

I made it on the night bus that undulated across every pot hole from Merida to Palenque from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Felt like I was drug through a knot hole, this being one of many I was drug through, but I must have been able to get some sleep. I took a taxi from the bus station to Hotel Xilbalba. Everyone woke up when I arrived and since they didn't speak any English they put me a room until the day shift came on duty. After a shower and a quick wink I ate some breakfast at the hotel. The staff straightened out my room and relocated me in one in the annex section of the hotel. I needed to fall back and regroup after the night ride, so I walked uptown and found an Internet and started uploading the photos. I loaded all of them on for Oxtankan, the site close to Chetumal and the Bacular area, Muyil and the beach at the Cabanas in Tulum. Then the Internet slowed down to a crawl. It will be closed tomorrow for Christmas and on Sunday. So right now I am going to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before I get blown off the net.

I could see the mountains off in the distance from town. Today it had clouds roll in and it may rain. I hope not as it may make the trip tomorrow slippery. The town is a noisy place like most of the rest of the country. People are buying things for Christmas. I've seen tables and chairs go by in trucks and refrigerators, washing machines and TV's that were being purchased from stores. Someone has money. It really looks like the last minute rush before the end of the day. I didn't think that Christmas would get to me, but watching all the people on the streets made me think of home and not being there.

Palenque sure has a different flavor. No embroidered dresses like the ones in the Yucatan. The people I saw in town all wore modern clothes except for the Mayan ladies in wool skirts and silk type blouses selling crafted stuff from the highlands. I bought several small-embroidered purses. For 10 pesos they posed for a picture.

There is a big statue of Pacal, the famous ruler of Palenque in a monument circle in the middle of the crossroads. Nice sculpture, but he had to share the space with Winnie the Poo plastic balloon and a nativity scene for the holiday. There was something wrong with that picture. There is another big statue of him standing outside the Holiday Inn.

I am going to Yaxchilan and Bonampak tomorrow on a tour arranged from the hotel. Then Sunday and Monday I will visit the Palenque site. I am going to do a round trip to Tonina and back to Palenque on the 28th then go to San Cristobal on the 29th. From there I go on to Oaxaca on the 30th. I almost didn't get a bus seat. The ticketbus.com hasn't worked for a couple of weeks and it wasn't until I arrived in Palenque that I could buy my tickets all the way to Pubela. From there I will get a grip on how to draw the trip to a close. I have to spend most of one whole day in San Cristobal as I can only get a night bus to Oaxaca.

An interesting thing, the man that owns the Hotel Xilbalba in Palenque, Senor Marco Morales, has relatives who worked on the Palenque site. His family had the original plaster casts and rubber molds taken off the Palenque lid of the Pacal's tomb in the late 1800's. They also have the casts to some other stelaes and lintels, like the famous Lady Xoc doing the blood letting ceremony and conjuring up the spirit serpent. He has a replica of Pacal's tomb lid on display under a protective roof just down the street from the hotel. When he told me I could sleep under the tomb lid if I wanted, he meant the lid replica and not at the site of Palenque. I think I will pass, as the ground is not too inviting and it is right on a gravel street. The hotel is a lot nicer. Even though I booked in advance I still have to pay primo price of 40.00 a night for peak holiday season. Oh, Well.

It is only a ten-minute walk to anything I want to find here in town, but the site is 6 K from here.

Trip to Yaxchilan: Dec 26

I arranged to take a bus tour to Yaxchilan and Bonampak, sites located deep in the mountainous jungle of Chiapas State. The hotel arranged the tour for me and I had to be up and ready by 6:00 a.m. The bus was a large van that had seating for 12 people. It was full. The van came to the hotel and picked me up. We took off in the dark down the road toward the Palenque site and continued beyond for 100 miles into the jungle. The road was recently finished and the travel was smooth and good. When it became light enough to see we were high in the mountains with the thick undergrowth hovering at the edge of the roadway seemingly looking for a way to crawl out and engulf it. The clouds had settled in and the morning was gray and damp. We stopped for breakfast at a Mayan café, where they prepared breakfast for us. It was family buffet style and we lined up to dish up our food. This was part of the pre-arranged tour features. We were going to have both breakfast and lunch that day. There were scrambled eggs, bacon or ham, tortillas, fresh fruit, juice, coffee. I was hungry and kind of chilly too. I wrapped my trusty poncho around me and dug into the good food. The kitchen part of the place was filled with women scurrying around preparing food. The building was a typical Mayan hut only bigger. It had a thatched roof and open-air sides on the dining part. The kitchen was enclosed with wooden planks.

We sat at large wooden tables, bunkhouse style with everyone sitting together. The place had a couple of resident parrots. They were not friendly enough to touch, without getting your fingers bitten, but friendly enough to talk to without them flying away.

I tucked a banana into my bag for later and climbed back into the van to continue to the site of Yaxchilan. We arrived in a small village and continued down to the river edge where the boats were located. We were going to be taken on the last leg of the trip up the Usumacinta River by boat. The boats were long and narrow with bench seats on each side. They were covered with a thatch roof and the boatman ran an outboard motor on the back of the boat. About 10 or 12 of us piled in the boat, while the other van in our party used another boat for their passengers. The trip up the river took about an hour. The boatman gave some information on the river, which was translated by a woman in our group that spoke Spanish. He even found an alligator basking in the winter sun and pulled up close to the shore for us to see.

The clouds were yielding to the sun and the rest of the day was pleasantly warm. We arrived at the site and climbed some steep stairs to get to the site. It was amazing. We had only 3 hours so I had to run at break neck speed to take pictures of everything on the way. I didn't have time to explore very much so I would have to rely on the pictures to study later. I was told by Senor Marco where the good spots to see were so I made a bee line up the mountain steps to get to them. The place was set on a hillside and the going was steep and sometimes slippery. I found structure 39, 40 and 41. I climbed down and found the temple plaza of the South Acropolis that had the lintels in the doorways. I had to lie on my back to get the pictures. I did manage to look a little more closely at that temple, but soon the clock ticked away and I had to rush back to the boat. I almost slid down to the main plaza at the beginning of the site. I rushed down the path to the boat and jumped on. Wow! I was the first one on board. I couldn't believe it. Within a few minutes the rest of the group came and we were escorted down the river to the small village where the boats were docked.

The tour company then took us to lunch at another Mayan café. This one too, was built out of wooden planks and had a tin roof. The kitchen was interesting and I asked if I could take a picture of the stove (fire pit/grill). The women giggled that I would want a picture. I was careful not to get them in the picture, as they didn't like to have their pictures taken. Lunch was served on a long family style table. We had huge pitchers of Coke, chips and plates of fresh fruit on the table. The women brought out plates from the kitchen with chicken and rice on them for each of us. Everything was excellent. There was not a scrap left over. We all piled back into the van for the short distance we had to ride to the site of Bonampak.

Continuing to Bonampak: Dec 26

The site of Bonampak was set on a flat grassy plain snuggled up against a hillside. We walked from the van across the airfield (for charter flights to the site) and up the path to the plaza area. It was amazing. The temples and most of the buildings were built on the hillside with the plaza below it. There were several buildings and stelaes on the plaza area, but my eyes kept being drawn to the buildings on the hillside. This is the site where the murals were discovered. The small building on the steps of the hillside was where they were located. I was disappointed to see how badly they had faded. The moisture had dissolved the paint and the surface was flaking off to the point the pictures were not even recognizable. If I had not seen the reproductions in the museum in Mexico City I would not have known what I was supposed to see. The sides of the door jams did have nice carvings. I climbed the steps to the top of the hillside and beyond to the upper level where some residences would have been located. That area had not been worked on and the stones were scattered about. Before I could even sit and contemplate the marvels of the site we had to leave.

I managed to buy a couple of small wooden animals from the vendors at the parking lot area. One was a wooden jaguar and the other a Toucan. The drive back to Palenque was long and it was dark when we arrived there. It was a long day and I was pooped.

The site of Palenque: Dec 27 and 28

I ate my breakfast on the patio area of the hotel. The morning was overcast but pleasant. Soon the Mayan ladies came loaded with their wares to sell. They had velvet bags, knotted twine belts, beaded necklaces and more. How can you refuse when they drug their wares through your breakfast plate? I bought one of the belts.

With a full tummy, I started off early to the site of Palenque. I didn't know where the combi taxis were located so I started walking up the road to the site. I must have walked a mile or so before a combi came by. Sure enough, he picked me up. Thank goodness, too, as the site was about 6 or 7 k from town. The combi dropped me off at the top of the hill where the entrance was. The parking area was full of vendors. I didn't look much as I was saving that for the next day. I did however find the orange juice man and he squeezed me a wonderful glass of fresh orange juice. These vendors are all over Mexico and in each market place and on corners. You don't have to look very hard to find them. I had fresh orange juice everyday on my trip. With glass in one hand and camera in the other I started up the hill to the site entrance.

Wow! And Wow, again. The shear size of the place was staggering. Marco Morales, from the hotel had a map of the Palenque site that shows over 6000 structures that have been marked on a survey map. What has been restored to date in only a small fraction of the amount of buildings to be un earthed. I walked around in awe at every temple I came to. I spent a lot of time in the palace building. When I came out of the underground rooms of the Palace the mist had thickened into a fine rain. All the vendors that were set up on the sidewalks between the buildings were gathering up their goods and seeking shelter under the trees. Not a good day for business. I wasn't going to let the misty rain detour me so I made my way up to the jaguar temple behind Pacals tomb. It was slippery going and I had to be really careful. The temple was disappointing as the fresco of Pacal on the jaguar throne bench was almost destroyed by the elements.

I slip sidled my way down and across a small bridge by the palace that was built over one of the active streams that runs through the site. I went up to the temple buildings of the cross group. The fine rain by then was coming down harder. I sat in the temple of the sun for a long time. Several guides came with different groups and I sat and listened to them. Each one had a different version of the history. None of them, I noticed, ever mentioned the fact that the sun enters the temple on the equinox and shines along a path into the corner of the back room to mark the day. This temple, too, had a recessed fresco, which was very badly worn. I could tell the day was going to be a wash out and decided to go to the museum at the bottom of the hill instead of trying to wait out the rain. Good thing I did that, as the next day the museum was closed. They also had a café in the museum building area. I had something to eat then spent most of the afternoon looking at the exhibits. No pictures of course, but I did find a couple of books at the gift shop. When I was wet enough I caught a combi back to Palenque. No wonder I couldn't find the combi stand. It was located way up at the top of the hill in town. I walked down through the town and found the Internet. It was squeezed in-between other business on the block. Most of the stores were narrow across the front and ran deep into the buildings. I did find the place was also a drop off point for laundry. Goods were hanging out on the sidewalks and the place was crowded. There were many travelers coming and going and coming into the Internet place to do the same thing as I. I walked the rest of the distance to the hotel. I ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and called it a night.

Day two at Palenque: Dec 28

I was eating my breakfast at the hotel again, when the Mayan ladies showed up to sell more wares. This time one of them had a small child of about 4 years old with them. He stood out in the middle of the street while the ladies went into the restaurant across the street. He was dressed in pants and a short sleeve shirt. He must have been cold as he kept tucking his arms under his sleeves to get warm. I watched him, and then putting some jam on a piece of toast I held it out to him and gestured to him to come and take it. Without the slightest hesitation he came and took the toast and walked back to the middle of the street and ate it. I jammed up another piece of toast and offered that to him. He came and took that one too. On my third piece of toast Marco came through the patio and remarked that was a nice thing to do, as most of the vendors and their children never get enough to eat. The money the ladies make goes back home to the father and for the most part he drinks it up in booze. I gave the last piece to the child, who by that time smiled a thank you. I took my leave of breakfast and walked uptown to drop off my laundry. It would be done while I was at the site. I walked up the street to the combi taxi stand. It didn't take long to for the van to fill up with passengers going to the Palenque site and soon we were on our way. The combi dropped us off at the main entrance again and this time I looked at the crafted art that the vendors were displaying. I bought a couple of resin cast plaques of some Mayan glyphs and a beadwork necklace. They were small items, as I had to carry them all day at the site.

I made my way back to the plaza of the cross temples. I had already spent time at the sun temple so I walked up the slippery steps to the temple of the Foliated Cross. The ground was still wet from the rain the day before and the overcast sky promised more misty rain to come. I made my way down and then climbed up to the top of the Temple of the Cross. That was more interesting as it had a fresco of the God Izamma smoking a cigar or pipe. The fresco inside the niche was pretty worn. I marveled at the construction of the room at the top of the temple. Even though most of the plaster stucco fresco work was disintegrating from the constant moisture dripping inside the room it was still grand. I could hear the howler monkeys start to yammer outside. I stepped out onto the top section in front of the steps and sat down and listened. There was one monkey behind me and another one in the trees across the plaza. They talked back and forth for a long time. I just loved the sound. I didn't want to waste the day sitting in one spot so I climbed my way down the Temple of the Cross and walked to the small section of residences behind it. I climbed in and out of those and then I crossed the small stream again onto a large grassy area behind the Palace. I could see frescos on the back of the Palace walls that had protective roofs over them. In front of, or as it were, in back of the Palace was the ball court then the row of temples in the group 10. They were built at various times and reflected different building styles from different parts of the Mayan world and its contact with other ancient Mexican cultures. From there I followed the stream down to several groups of buildings, mostly residence areas and then down the hill by a very slippery path to the Queens bath. That was a wonderful waterfall with a pool that the water made before it continued down the hill.

I followed the path to the next group of buildings. It had large trees growing out of the stonewall that made up the buildings in this plaza. This is where the whole thing became hairy. I wanted to see the tree with the huge roots and I made my way around a wall and climbed up the steps to the platform so I was eye level to the tree. Below was the next lower platform level about 4 feet down. I stepped gingerly on the damp stonewall. I took one step, then with the second step my foot slid out from under me and I fell over the edge and landed on my back on the platform four feet below. I lay there stunned. I had the wind knocked out of me. Help! (Wheeze, wheeze) I whispered. I opened my eyes and could see some people who were climbing the stairs in the distance turn and come running toward me. Oh, my God, I didn't know if my pride was hurt worse than my body. They helped me up and I said I was ok, nothing was broken, but I was just a little shaken up.

After they left, I sat down on the wall and assessed my damages. I had jammed my bad shoulder and it hurt like crazy. I saw some blood on my pants and when I pulled up my pant leg and I found I had gashed my knee. I fished through my backpack and found a sanitary napkin that I was saving in case of emergency and pressed it on the wound. I took my scarf and tied the pad to my leg and it held on OK. I found my camera on the next level down from that one and looked it over. It broke the lens and I wasn't able to take any more pictures. Fortunately I could read the digital pictures on the disk I had already taken. That cost me 400.00 dollars when I came home and found it couldn't be repaired and had to buy a new one. I sat on the wall for a while as I was really shaking. I wanted to cry, I hurt so badly. I had to figure out how to get down to the main road and get to back to the hotel. I had 600 or more steps from where I was down to the bottom of the hill. I stood up and tested the leg. The knee almost buckled under me. That would never do, as I had to get out of there. I eased down, taking each step slowly. By taking my time I was able to make the whole flight of steps down to the road without too much pain. I sort of leaned on the post of the guard station and asked the guard if he would stop a combi for me. I don't know how I managed to cross the language barrier but I did it and the next combi to come down the hill he stopped and I managed to get aboard without looking too wounded. I knew when I arrived in down town Palenque I would have to walk down the hill and pick up my laundry before I went to the hotel. When I made it to the laundry place I could hardly climb the stairs to the second floor where the laundry was located. He told me the clothes weren't done yet. I could have bawled. I went downstairs and worked on the Internet while I waited for the clothes to finish. When they were done I had my knapsack and now the bundle of clothes to carry back to the hotel. That was the longest couple of miles in the world. I finally made it to the hotel and it was my good fortune that the hotel owner, Marco was there. I told him about falling and how much pain my shoulder was in. He said he would call his brother-in-law who was a massage therapist to come and work on me. I went upstairs to my room.

Groan, another set of steps to climb. I lay down and screamed in agony. I didn't think the man would ever come, but soon the hotel porter knocked on my door and told me Marco's brother-in-law was there. I had him come in. He worked on me for a long time. I screamed each time he moved my shoulder. He soaked me in hot towels and put some liniment on me. I paid him for his services when he was done and went to bed. The next morning I was able to move my arm, so he really did a good job on adjusting my shoulder. I already had purchased my ticket to go to the site of Tonina, so I had to go. I walked to bus-station even though my knee hurt it wasn't as bad as the day before. I caught the bus and soon was heading down the road for the day trip to Tonina.

Tonina: Dec 29

The site of Tonina is located about 13 k outside of the town of Osocingo, down in the valley about 60 miles from Plaenque. The bus pulled into the station and after I got off I looked for a taxi. I walked up the road then back down. Finally I asked where I could get a taxi to the site. The man flagged a vehicle down and after asking the fare (4.00) I climbed into the taxi and we headed to the site. Several times the taxi driver upped the price and by the time we arrived at the site he charged me 10.00. I wasn't very happy about that, but couldn't argue with out speaking Spanish. He also told me there were no combis that came to the site. With this in mind, I asked if he would come and take me back to the bus station at 4:00. He said ok.

The whole place was filled with huge Brahma cattle in the meadows. Some cowboys were moving part of the cattle from one area to another and the cows were all over the road.

The site of Tonina is built up against a hillside. The museum and entrance was about a quarter of a mile from the site. After I looked at the museum, which was small but informative I went outside to walk to the site. I was offered a ride on a horse. For 2.00 I could be lead by the man that owed the horse to the entrance steps of the site. Being my knee hurt I said OK. There were several cowboys there that put their services to work to make extra money. My cowboy was a young Mayan lad of about 10 or 11. It was different to be lead than ride but I enjoyed the ride, as I didn't have to walk.

He dropped me off at the entrance and I had to walk down a path then up a flight of steps to enter the sunken ball court. From there I climbed up to the plaza and looked down its length to the hillside complex of the temples of Tonina. It was massive. It was also built from similar stones, or rather thin stone bricks like I found at Comalcalco in Tabasco state. Since all I had to rely on was my 35mm camera I had to take the pictures and hope I was getting good shots. When I had them developed they mixed up the order of the pictures and I had a difficult time sorting out the sequence in which I took them. You can get the idea anyway.

The place was full of ascending levels and each level had an interesting building, temple with frescos and art on it. There were many places to climb, rooms to go into and steps leading up to the next level from inside the rooms. The place was fascinating. After I had made my way up to the top, then halfway back down, I met a man from Washington State. He was interesting and I sat down to rest my knee and talked to him awhile. I told him about falling off the platform at Palenque after he brushed against my shoulder and asked why I winched. He told me he had some liniment at his hotel and would work on my shoulder. (Was I supposed to wonder if he had etchings to show me too?) He said he was going up to the top to see and since I already had been there, I said I would see him in the parking lot. He left and I didn't give it another thought. I made my way back to the sunken ball court and down the steps to where there were more horses waiting to ferry me back to the museum entrance. Gladly, I took them up on the ride. It was worth the 2.00 to relieve my knee. When I arrived at the entrance I found several combi taxis were there to take passengers back to town. That made me mad that the taxi driver had lied to me about that. Beside him charging me ten dollars to bring me out, I was really ticked off. As I was standing there thinking about that, I heard someone call my name. It was Bob, the man I met earlier. He really did meet up with me at the parking lot. I told him about the taxi driver and the raw deal he gave me. He told me to forget the taxi driver and ride back to town on the combi with him. For 50 cents compared to 10.00, I rode the combi.

When we arrived in town he told me again he would work on my shoulder. He took me to his hotel and while he left the door open to his room he did in fact, work on my shoulder. It was wonderful. After he was done he told me he would show me the way to take to the bus station. When we were out in the street he gave me a big hug. I told him I only had an hour to get back to the bus to go to Palenque. He told me he was arriving in Palenque in the morning. We said goodbye and I thanked him for working on my shoulder. I walked up the street and found the bus station without any problem. I went in and sat down in the station to wait. I went to the ladies room. When I came out there was a very angry taxi driver facing me just outside the bathroom door. He yelled and hollered at me. He was rude and only spoke in Spanish. I had no way to reply to tell him he was a liar and cheated me on the fare to the site. He was so loud the rest of the passengers turned to see what he was saying. He waved his arms and surely gestured that I was an equally rude American that cost him a fare from the site. He was so angry I thought I would be attacked, so I turned around and walked out of the station and boarded the bus that had just pulled in to take us back to Palenque. He was still standing out in the parking lot screaming injustices when the bus pulled out of the driveway. I was sure glad he wasn't carrying a machete. If he had been honest and fair I would have not left him with an empty fare coming back from the site.

What an experience. I was really upset that I couldn't communicate to him, so I had to just leave it alone. When I returned to the hotel Marco had company sitting with him at one of the dining room tables on the patio and invited me to join them. She was a very gracious lady of about 80 that had bought a house just outside the city limits and lived on a hillside close to the site of Palenque. She had been interested in the Archaeology of the area for many years and moved down here to be close to the latest discoveries. She was concerned that she was becoming too old to stay much longer and would have to move back to the states in a few years. I should only hope I am in as good of shape when I am her age. After visiting I went to pack up my things to be ready to take the bus in the morning to go to San Cristobal de la Casas. Being there was no way to make the connection between Palenque and Oaxaca I had to lay over in San Cristobal.

San Cristobal de la Casas: Dec 30

I left Palenque at 9:30 this morning. Marco Morales, the hotel owner gave me a ride to the bus station. He was so kind and considerate and I really appreciate all the things he did for me and the excellent tips and information on the site and what to see. I had to wait for the bus to pull into the station so I went out to the corner and found the juice vendor and bought a large orange. After I waited only a short time I was able to get on the bus. I was looking out the window and spotted the man I met at Tonina. He had come to say hello. I got off the bus and gave him a big hug. We were going in the opposite directions and he was just getting in town as I was leaving. Bummer. We said good-bye again and promised to keep in contact by e-mail, (which we did.)

The road over the curvy mountains ran up one side and down the other all the while slowly descending to the valley floor. As we approached the town I could see women down at the river washing clothes on the rocks. There were signs with Zapatista advertisements written on the sides of building. This area has been the headquarters for a lot of rebellion activity in the past.

I arrived in San Cristobal de la Casas at 3:00 pm, Dec 30. The taxi driver had a problem finding the hotel. I left my reservation paper at the Internet in Palenque and didn't have the address, but we searched every street and asked a lot of directions and finally made it after an hour of running around. I felt so bad about the run around I gave him 20 bucks for his time and he was happy. When we unloaded my bags I had to ring a bell to get into the hotel. I thought that was strange. It wasn't a hotel but a hostel. A young man opened the door. He was something out of the seventies, with dreg locks, a native wool poncho and sandals. That was strange too. He called for the hostel keeper. He did have my reservation, but there had been a mix up and he had given my room to another couple. He gave me a rate for one night in the dorm room with 8 others for 2.50. I couldn't beat a deal like that and paid him. I had made arrangements with the hostel owner by e-mail and he was away in Italy. The young man in charge was pleasant and helpful. He put my extra bags in a closet and I only kept out my backpack. The place had other rooms that were closed off with curtains, no doors. The kitchen had a long wooden table and I was welcome to cook for myself if I wanted. It was a little hard to find the table itself for the dishes, garbage, trash, junk, bags of leaves and seeds and roaches with a little smoke left in them lying around on the table. What had I ventured into? Everyone there was a young student from somewhere, mostly Europe and looked as if they were there for the social benefits. I was 40 years out of place. I had been in settings like that before, but not in a lodging. No wonder they kept the front door locked. I ventured out before it got too late and found an Internet and a pizza. The town was mostly one story houses or two story buildings with businesses on the first floor. The streets were cobblestone and the traffic was heavy with taxis. I walked back to the hostel and called it a night. The other 8 people, who by the way were both men and women, filtered into the bedroom at various times during the night. They were polite enough to not turn on a light to awaken the rest of the sleepers. Except for the noises from the street, the night went fairly well. The cot size bed, of course, was hard as a rock and the pillow must have seen at least four thousand heads in its time. The blanket was a warm woolen one and I had no problem with the crisp night temperature.

In the morning I tried to make myself a cup of cocoa from the bar of chocolate I bought in Ososingo, but it was bitter and didn't melt, making dregs in the bottom of the cup. I had to push the remnants of the party the night before aside to make room to sit at the table. Soon another couple came in. They were the ones that had been given my room. She was an Archaeologist teacher from Berkley, California. We chatted a short while and she told me she was interested in my trip and to e-mail her when I returned home. They had been down on a working vacation and were returning for the spring semester of school.

I finally gave up on the cocoa and went down to the end of the street where the bus station was located and found a restaurant and ordered scrambled eggs. They were served with rice and a big basket of tortillas. I asked for guacamole and was served some at no extra cost. I sat and ate my breakfast on the open-air patio of the restaurant and watched the people and cars come and go down the main street. Soon I was approached by some of the Mayan ladies that were selling the same goods as the ones in Palenque. I told them no. When the next one came by I put some of the rice on a tortilla and offered it to her. She took it and ate it. Soon I had a steady stream of ladies coming to the table. I served as many as I had rice to put on the tortillas and the last one I offered a dry tortilla. She took it and put it in her bag until she could find something to put on it. I felt so bad that they had to walk all over town trying to sell their craft goods just to get something to eat. Then most of them took the money home to give to their man, without eating. I didn't want to become so obvious to cause a scene and be mobbed by a throng of starving people but gave what I had left over to a few that I knew appreciated it.

I still had the whole day (Dec 31) to spend in San Cristobal as the bus to Oaxaca did not leave until 10 that evening. I spent most of the morning at one Internet and when I took a break to get a pizza, it had closed for the day. I walked up the street and found another one that shared its space with some sort of restaurant/bar. There were about 20 computers along one wall separated from the other room by a dividing wall. I spent the afternoon there. The Internet was slow, but I managed to get a good deal of pictures uploaded. I went back to the hostel and sat and watched a movie (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) with some of the other guests. It was in Spanish, with no subtitles. When it was time to go the bus station I had them call a taxi and down to the station we went. I had to have my bags loaded on a big dolly just to get them into the bus station and I stood at the check in counter for over an hour until I could check them onto the bus. Needless to say, while I was in Palenque I repacked the bags and reduced the huge bag by half the size. I didn't have any more problems the rest of the trip with excess baggage until I reached McAllen, Texas.

The story Continues with the section titled ‘Oaxaca Area’. Pictures are in the webshots.com photo album. Click on the Mexican hat on the first page of my web site to get to them.