Feb 5, 2010 - Cañón del Sumidero

Cañón del Sumidero We made a trip with Luis and Luciana to beautiful Cañón del Sumidero. A van picked us up at Luis’s house, drove us the 45 minutes or so to the boat, and we spent a couple of hours on the boat, in the canyon. It is just an amazing place. The canyon is formed by the Grijalva River, which eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico. In some spots, the canyon walls reach up over 1000 meters, yes, more that a kilometer high. There are crocodiles on the riverbanks, as well as numerous species of birds, and the usual iguanas and...

Jan 2, 2010 - Chiapas

Puerto Vallarta is not my favorite place to be during the Christmas holidays. It is just too crowded and I am a bit spoiled and tend to get impatient with all the crowding. It seems like a good idea to take off for awhile if the opportunity presents itself. David never seems to care much about being on the beach for his entire vacation so we decided to take the time to explore some of the ‘real’ Mexico with a big change of pace and scenery. Exactly four years ago we made friends with someone from Mexico City who was in Vallarta for the...

Feb 17, 2008 - So WHERE IS EV??

I guess you have been wondering what happened to me....well we never did end up at the house with the tunnel in it..lots of bats and bat crap so Dr. Al did NOT want to go in there. Mexicans have a thing about BATS apparently. That is why the locals called him in the first place!!lolol We did however go to the same little town and set up an independent radio station for the people. They were BESIDE themselves!! It was a really cool experience to be there with Al and his wife Yenny. That night, I got home and found out that there had been a...

Jan 26, 2008 - If you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream...

Well, today I was awoken by a mate of Manuel the hostel manager trying to get into the room at 7.30am. He seemed to find it quite strange that I had the key in the lock, and kept asking why. He wasn't to know that if he had been able to surmount the key in the lock issue, he would have still have had to overcome the bookcase wedged against the door as well. After establishing (through the very small window that I barely opened) that, yes, I was staying in the hotel, in this room, could he sod off?, he disappeared. In his defence being faced...

Jan 2, 2007 - Tuxtla Gutierrez

We left this morning at 5:00 am and stopped for breakfast at 9:00 am. It has been rainy the whole way so we didn't stop sooner as planned. Ended up in Tuxtla Gutierrez at the Holiday Inn but Tuxedo has to spent the night in the vehicle. We spend a few hours in San Cristobal but it was raining the whole way so hard to do much. The country side is beautiful, i believe the elavation was about 7000 ft. and the roads are narrow and curving throughout the mountains. The drive was nice and when we left San Cristobal you go directly down through...

Mar 26, 2006 - Sumidero Canyon - photo journal

About an hour and a half from San Cristobal is the spectacular Sumidero Canyon - created by the mighty Grijalva river. We bought a package tour that included round trip to the canyon, and a boat ride up the Grijalva river, through the canyon. Our embarkation point was a cute little pueblo of Chiapa de Corzo. The two-hour boat ride took us on a spectacular journey through the canyon, with some of the walls towering more than 2,500 feet above us. The length of our river trip from Chiapa de Corzo to the hydro-electric dam is around 35kms....

Feb 7, 2006 - San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapis, Mexico

The Struggle Goes On San Cristobal de las Casas is a beautiful old colonial city at 2120 meters (approximately 7,000 feet) in elevation in the mountains of Chaipis. Once the Capital of the State of Chiapas, when it was under Guatemalan rule, it may still have been but for its reluctance at first to join union with Mexico. In 1892 it fell out of favor with the powers of the day and the capital was moved to neighboring Tuxtla Gutiérrez. The indigenous people of Chiapas are among the poorest in Mexico. The Zapatista uprising occurred when...

Dec 30, 2004 - San Cristobal de la Casas

San Cristobal de la Casas: 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....

Oct 2, 2004 - Mexico: San Christobal

...cont From there, we intended to continue our journey to San Cristobal Las Casas but soon realized that no buses were heading that way from Chiapa de Corzo. That's what happens when you try to save money the wrong end and consult a 13 year old travel guide. In the last decade they actually built a bypass around Chiapa de Corzo and tourist buses no longer serve this little town. Fortunately, we managed to hail down an overcrowded second-class bus on the highway and a few hours later we arrived in San Cristobal. San Cristobal is a quaint,...

May 22, 2004 - San Christobal

What a backpacker hole. I can see why everyone stays here- it is very cute and has a great artsy feel and atmosphere. I really enjoyed the town and its music in the streets and the people here. I also decided to splurge and went on a horse trek up to an indian village nearby. WE had a great ride through the forest and along the streams. We saw many native indians going about their daily tasks, like farming, washing, cooking etc- something that is difficult to see while on a bus or walking around the cities and towns. It was very...