Chiapas

The state of Chiapas is possibly best known for Subcomandante Marcos' Zapatista Army of National Liberation, an indigenous rights revolutionary group that seized the town of San Cristobál de las Casas in 1994. It is also one of Mexico's main coffee-growing regions. We found San Cristobál to be a pretty tourist town without much revolutionary fervor and with excellent coffee, arriving there after visiting the Mayan ruins at Palenque and at Toniná.

In Palenque we stayed just outside the park at the Jungle Palace, in a tiny cabin by a stream. It reminded me of the cozy cabin where we spent our honeymoon at Deetjen's, Big Sur. Palenque's temples are impressive -- I still can't quite get over the immensity of the Mayan pyramids. A beautiful stream runs through the site over unreal looking rock formations and forms the Baths of the Queen.

In the museum there is a replica of the tomb of Lord Pakal, an enormous sarcophagus covered in carving and filled with funerary offerings. You can read more about the discovery of the burial site here. Also in the excellent site museum are many fully painted pottery incense burners, each about 18 inches tall. They are elaborately figured and survived in such good shape because they were ritually buried every 20 years to be replaced by new ones.
































Toniná is a Mayan ruin outside Ocosingo on the road between Palenque and San Cristobál. We hopped off the bus, asked the people who fed us some tacos if they could watch our backpacks and found a micro to the site. The courtly guard solemnly explained to us that it was free that day, in addition to which we had the park nearly to ourselves. The site is more compact than others we have seen and you can survey nearly all of it from the top of the temple on the highest point. It also has my favorite carvings so far. At Toniná we met a man named Juan; originally from Guanajuato he now owns a restaurant back in Stockton, CA. (If you are driving that way look him up at La Posada -- Juan advises, "Ask any Mexican you see, they'll know where it is.")

















San Cristobál is a town of beautiful churches and plazas, made for strolling. We also have to plug a great bookstore there, Abuelita Books. Chris moved to Mexico from Washington state and she has a fantastic used and new bookstore with lots in English as well as in Spanish. She also bakes cookies in the store. Chris named the shop for her 91-year-old grandmother who is still catching enormous fish in Alaska and traveling the globe. Abuelita Books is at Calle Cristóbal Colón #2.















From San Cristobál we headed off for the Pacific coast in Oaxaca state to meet our friend Scott and get down to some beach lounging.