Jan 05 Mexico Chiapas - thru Zapatista territory
From Zipolite we headed inland into the beautiful Chiapas region in southern Mexico, home of the
EZLN and Zapatista territory...
these first pics are from friends from Uruguay, Elianna and Jimene, who we actually did not meet until briefly in Guatemala and then met again in Nicaragua, where we became much 
closer...they went to a village 
and were invited to meet some of the EZLN... the Zapatista movement has been somewhat "put down" by the Mexican government, but as we see is still alive in the more remote villages...they don the balaclavas whenever "outsiders" are around.Jan 5th - San Cristobal de la Casas
I really like the city of San Cristobal. Standing in the square brought back vivid memories of the last time I was here with my good friend Joseph in Jan '07. I had bought a Toyota truck in Puerto Vallarta and we traveled down the coast intending to go into Guatemala and further south, but when we tried to cross the border they wouldn't let the truck in as it 
wasn't titled correctly. We 
came back to San Cristobal to assess the situation an decided to separate, me heading back 5 days to P. Vallarta to sort out the truck and Joseph carrying on into Central America. It was a special moment as we shared a final "Boots" cigarrette, one of many on that trip, and said our goodbyes...good to be back to revisit that.
this dude was a very strange marketing gimmick indeed, his job to entice the tourists into their "store" to buy something!...from a Farmacia?...condoms maybeeeee?
Readying to leave our hostel for Palenque with Stefan ad Nicole...
A very cool moto spied by Stefan...
Can't remember where this was but dem Grosses are everywhere!..
Drying coffee on the side of the road in the Chiapas highlands coffee growing regionJan 8th Cascades de Agua Azul enroute to Palenque
Some very spectacular natural beauty(s)" here...
and still in the heart of Zapatista teritorryJan 09.09 Palenque
Palenque was my first Mayan ruins, pretty amazing...(more pics in Photo Albums on the right tab)
Our camping spot near Palenque required navigating over some small narrow bridges to get into the "jungle"...was a great spot however we were kept up all night by a "loco mujare" (crazy woman) camped near us in her hammock who was traveling and camping with no less than 3 little yappy white dogs that she would leave by themselves all day and go party...wee bit of a bitch me thinks...very often hard to get a good nights sleep in Mexico...This bus had come from California and was full of "muy bonita muchahchas" on an
adventure ...they were very inviting and I was very tempted to ditch mi moto and climbed aboard for a while!
To our surprise we met up with Baz (from the U.K.) again in Palenque...first connected with him in Zipolite but he was anxious to get moving and headed out days ahead of us. Turns out he had a bit of an "encounter" in the village of Chiapas de Coro when he hit an old man who stepped out on the street unexpectedly resulting in a broken. The police came and after assessing the scene suggested that they leave now as the crowd that had gathered was getting snarly...they took Baz away in the police cruiser while one of the cops rode his bike...he thought they were becoming "mates" as they fed him and took him for a test ride in the cruiser getting to 160mph all the while assuring him it was not his fault...then they unexpectedly took him to a grungy "Mexican jail" off the main square where he spent a very unnerving night amongst another 100 or so "inmates" grasping at him thru the bars...the story made the front page of the local rag...poor bastard!After Palenque I was still uncertain weather I wanted to go up around the Yucatan or keep heading south...that morning I left with Stefan and Nicole but after 30 minutes driving my body/mind kept hollering me to turn around, so I signalled to them to stop and we said our goodbyes and I headed back to San Cristobal. Upon turning around I immediately began to feel relaxed and knew I was on "the right path" as they say....in San Cristobal I ran into to Baz again and we crossed the "fronterra" into Guatemala the next morning together...the journey continues...
