Now, I will describe the whole road trip.
We started on Saturday by leaving Romeo´s house. The members of the trip were: Romeo (dad), Romeo (son), Obdulia (Romeo´s mother), Maribel (my sister), Rosario (my mother), Cristel (Romeo´s girlfriend), Leo (the driver) and me.
We started by going to Chiflón. Chiflón is a place where you can swim and at the end of the path you see "Velo de Novia" a beautiful waterfall. On our way to the waterfall we would see people come back soaked in water, I was thinking they went to swim, but then when I got up there (it was a path going upwards) I saw how there was a little island where you could go to watch the waterfall as closely as nature permits. And if you stand in that island you get soaked from the waterfall ricocheting the ground. The view is amazing, very hard to describe with words. We also rode a "tiroleza" (zip-line), but in short description we tied ourselves to a rope and swung from one part of the hill to another, in the way we could see the waterfall and beautiful rainbows on the bottom. Velo de Novia is very beautiful.
During this tour, I had a big stomach ache, so it was pretty hard to walk and enjoy the scenery, but it was also very funny having to run to the bathroom a couple of times. After 2pm, I had no more troubles with my stomach for the rest of the trip.
In the evening we went to Chinkultic, where a little kid (12 years old Edgar Giovanni), helped us convince the guards to let us in, eventhough it was closed. Giovanni was our guide. We saw a ruin on top of a hill, and we could see the huge Cenote underneath. I took many pictures because there was a thing in the water that looked like Loch Ness. On our way back to the car, we could see a beautiful rainbow, it looks like it sprung out of the ruins, beautiful sight.
We went to Comitan and ate at a restaurant. I ate "Pollo a la Clavel". I wanted to taste something new, it was chicken with a sauce that was made with carnation milk, chipotle and tomato sauce. It was delicious. Comitan had a beautiful weather, like 20 degrees Celsius and very breezy. We walked around town. Great night.

The next day, we picked up Giovanni near Chinkultic and went to see the Lakes of Montebello. Giovanni would be our guide. We saw 12 lakes, all of them beautiful. The Ensueño Lake was mesmerizing. In the last lake we were able to walk a bridge and cross to Guatemala. So we stepped into Guatemala. After that, we left Giovanni on the road and started our trek in the Mayan Route. Our first stop after the lakes was "Las Nubes". On the way to Las Nubes we would see beautiful views, since the road is full of curves and into mountains and stuff. Las Nubes had a beautiful cascade and it was nice. I learned a lot about the zapatista movement, although it would take too much time to write down in here. After Las Nubes, we stopped at Guacamayas. The road was awful, rains had destroyed parts of the road, so it was tough. In Guacamayas we were to take a little boat and explore the jungle for a couple of hours, unfortunately we arrived late and couldn't do that. So we only ate there. We could see monkeys and the songs of birds, but we couldn't go in the river and explore further. The mosquitoes were really bad there, so I started using repellent from that moment on, quite successfully (although the repellent doesn't work against ants, and my feet got ant-bitten pretty badly). The food was good simple stuff. This day was finished at 11pm, when we finally reached the town "Benemérito de las Américas" (as a sidenote, I live in Cd. Juárez, city named after Benito Juárez. Benito Juárez has nicknamed the "Benemérito de las Américas"). We slept in a hotel there (the only hotel in town).

Next day, we went to Yaxchilán. First, we had breakfast. I had Tamales Chiapanecos. I love tamales, and I definitely loved the chiapanecan style of cooking them. I forgot the ingredients by now, so I guess I'll have to email Romeo and ask him. Yaxchilán is a place that was a big Mayan city in the past. To reach it, you have to take a boat on a 45 minute ride. There is no way to reach it in car (you could reach it by foot). Yaxchilán was very big and it had very nice ruins, the trek to get to the acropolis of Yaxchilán was quite tiresome. I loved the fact that you had to go by boat, it was very refreshing because of the breeze. After being in Yaxchilán for two hours under sunlight and humidity, it was great to get the breeze of riding a boat. After Yaxchilán we went to Bonampak, another important Mayan city. Bonampak is much smaller (it had a population of 300, while Yaxchilán had little over 1000). But Bonampak is famous because of the paintings that were found there. The paintings explain a lot fo deals between Yaxchilán and Bonampak, a war with a neighboring place (they won because of their allegiance to Yaxchilán) and the sacrifice ceremonies that kings have to do (the king has to pierce his penis and the queen has to pierce her tongue). After Bonampak we drove to Palenque. We reached it at about 6pm. We ate and then walked a bit in the city, then we slept.

Palenque was by far the best Mayan ruins in Chiapas. It was comparable to Chichen Itzá (maybe even better). As a little explanation, the ruins in Chiapas are of the Classical period of the Mayan culture (300-900 A.D), while Chichen Itzá and the ruins in the Yucatán peninsula are of the Post-Classic period (900-1500 AD). Palenque was a Mayan city with about 30,000-35,000 inhabitants (compare this to the population of the other two mayan ruins I mentioned). The ruins that have access for tourists are only 2% of the ruins since it is hard to dig up the city (all of it was under the jungle). The ruins that can be seen are the palace, the pyramid where the main ruler (Pakal) was buried, where his mother was buried, the cross temples and other things. Pakal ruled Palenque for 69 years. In his tomb there is a hieroglyphic that looked horizontally looks like a man in a spaceship but looked vertically looks like some symbols regarding life and death. It is clear which way was the intention of the Mayans (viewed vertically there are plenty of symbols that are considered Mayan).
I asked Carlos (a guide there in Palenque) a lot of things about the Mayans, it was really interesting. Carlos is a good example of how one can work to be successful, he is a 17 year old guide (has been working 5 years), works in the summer and holidays to pay his tuition, he will start university in San Cristobal in a couple of weeks. One thing that was interesting about the Mayas was how social classes influence height in people. The rulers have been found to be around 1.80m tall (According to tests on the bodies found), yet the normal person was about 1.40-1.45m tall. The reason is that wealthy people had better food and didn't have to be walking around carrying heavy stuff, also there wasn't any genetic mixing, so when the first rulers came to power, they probably did using force and tall people look more powerful, hence the first rulers were probably taller and the genetics, plus the food habits, plus other factors made for the incredible disparity.

After Palenque we went to Misol-Ha, a beautiful waterfall. You could walk below a rock formation and see the waterfall from underneath. We kept on our road trip and headed to Cascadas de Agua Azul. Cascadas de Agua Azul are immense waterfalls. On the way there, a lot of indians would be on the road selling stuff, it was incredible, some would tie a rope to a tree and then pull up the rope in the middle of the highway to make you stop. I got a bit scared. We made it fine to the waterfalls and enjoyed the view. We walked a long the river for a bit to see more waterfalls and then it started raining pretty heavily, so we looked for a restaurant to get in and eat. I don't remember what I ate, but I had a lot of empanadas besides the main meal. We left the Cascadas and drove all the way back to Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Last day in Chiapas was in Tuxtla, it was mostly a day to relax. We went to eat pollo asado (I don't know how to translate asado), then we went to the mall to eat crepes. Mine were delicious (banana with milkcandy). After that, we went to see Garfield 2. I didn't want to see it, but it was that or nothing. I had a lot of laughs, mainly because my mom, Romeo and Maribel laugh a lot and I was in laughing mood. After it was night and we went back to the house and we saw "The Perfect Score" a so-so movie that can be appealing to men because Scarlett Johansson looks gorgeous and it has a very funny character (a doped up asian kid who doesn't care about school and is not afraid of being weird and sincere). I started reading Freakonomics and Romeo told me I could take it with me. It is not the first time, I read a book of another person in a trip. When I was in Italy with a couple of friends 4 years ago, I would always be first to wake up, and there was a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" in the table in the living room (where most of us were sleeping), so I picked it up and read while waiting for them to wake up. In my last trip to NYC, I picked up a book of short stories of Asimov to read while I would take trains between NYC and Greenwich, Connecticut (where my friend lives).

So, that's my Chiapas trip.

I have visited Chiflón, Chincultic, Comitán, Lagos Montebello, Las Nubes, Guacamayas, Yaxchilán, Bonampak.
Tomorrow Palenque, Ocozingo, Cascadas de Agua Azul, Misol-Há.
I will write with detail about the trip in another post, I will say now that it has been one of my best trips. The beauty of the landscape and the Mayan ruins are incredible.

Wednesday noon, I boarded an airplane alongside Maribel and my mom. The plane stopped at Monterrey, Guadalajara and finally Mexico City. There we finally got off (the first two stops we had to remain in the plane), then we boarded a plane to Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas (Tuxtla meant bunny in some language of the region and Gutierrez was one of the first governors of the state). In the plane, I solved a problem I had been working on for 4 days, I am happy about that.

Romeo, a friend Maribel met while studying abroad in Calgary 3 years ago, picked us up and he´s our host. His house is amazing, big and beautiful. He has three maltese dogs (the same as me) and has an extra puppy for the time being (while the buyer leaves him here). His two parents are also very nice. The house is open (just like my mom likes it) and it has connections with the outside everywhere, there is a big window or a big door at many parts of the house to connect with the outside. We eat breakfast outside, really nice. The weather here is warm and nice.

Thursday: Went to the zoo. The zoo has only animals that you can find in the state. The state animal is the jaguar, and it was really nice seeing it. We also got to see crocodiles, tapir, toucans, many other birds and monkeys (I love watching monkeys go from one tree to the other). The animals have a lot of space, it seems like they are in the wilderness, it would take me at least one minute to find them, because each animal had so much space and most of them have colors that camouflage them. I also met Ivan, Romeo´s cousin, who plays american football and talks a lot, a really funny guy. Also met Crystel, Romeo´s girlfriend, a warm and friendly girl.
After the zoo, I went to "Pichanchas" and ate Tasajo Chimol. It is dry beef with some interesting sauces. It was delicious. I also enjoyed the bananas filled with beans (black beans). I like how they have black beans over here instead of brown beans or liquidy beans.
Right before dusk, we went to a place where we could see the whole city. Beautiful, the city full of green and the hills, beautiful. Then darkness came and we got to see the city getting full of lights.
Close to 9pm we went to "Parque de las Marimbas". It is a plaza downtown. A band plays marimbas and people dance around the plaza to the music. It is impressive how many people go. Romeo claims (and I believe him) that daily so many people go. Things like this really give a city life, people dancing and enjoying a fun time regardless of their age or their daily problems. Next to the plaza we went to TepozNieves. TepozNieves is a place where they sell exotic ice cream. My favorite is "Nieve de Xicun". I tasted a couple more and ended by selecting "Nieve de Xicun" and "Reina de la Noche".

Today (Friday), the day started by going to "Cañón del Sumidero". Cañón is a canyon. We took a boat and sailed across the river crossing the canyon. It was beautiful. The thing I liked the most was the "Árbol de Navidad" (Christmas Tree), which was a little waterfall that made green leaves appear next to stone in exactly the form of a pine tree. From far away it looks like a palm tree, yet it looks like the green parts are tiny and that the water falling is not so much, but when you go below the "tree" you notice how much water is falling and looking up was incredible, it was one of the most beautiful images I have seen.
It was fun, unfortunately we had no sun block, hence I am red right now.

After the canyon, we went to see a cavern that had stalagmites and stuff. It was "Grutas de Rancho Nuevo". The thing to point out is how little kids give you a tour and they have a lot of imagination on what the stalagmites form: "here is Simba", "here is Mufasa", "you can see the Arch of thriumph over there", "two World Cups are down there", "this is a mamut", "this is a shark but without its teeth because it bit steal", etc. It was fun.

We went to San Cristóbal de las Casas. A beautiful colonial town. It reminded me a lot of San Miguel de Allende. First, we went to a restaurant called Titanic. The food was called "variado" and they brought several plates for us to share: Pig with x sauce, pig with y sauce, chicken mole, pig with z sauce, beef, breaded fish, chicharrones, nopalitos. The tortillas were great too. After that we walked around the beautiful town, looking at the different churches, the beautiful plazas. We also stopped at a place that sold crepes, I had one with strawberry, chantilly and peaches. It was great. Walking through San Cristobal felt great. I love Mexican towns.

Tomorrow we start our journey to Palenque. Palenque is about a 7 hour drive, but it will take us longer because there are several nice towns we will visit on the way. I am very excited about Palenque because I love the Mayan history.