|
Day Five--- 
Page 1
2 3 4
5 6
7
8
9
10-19, Minatitlan, Veracuz to
Villahermosa, Tabasco to Palenque, Chiapas to Cascadas Agua
Azul, 1706 miles
Stopped to see Agua Blanca Falls and Cave Ixta-Ha just before
Palenque. Palenque is our favorite of all of the Mexican
Mayan ruins, and it is better cared for now then we have
ever seen it. The Howler monkeys have returned, Nestle of
Switzerland has undertaken huge new restoration projects
and the park is altogether more beautiful than ever. We
found a guide to take us on some jungle trails and we had
a great afternoon. We ended the day at the HUGE falls of
Agua Azul in a rustic cottage. That sounds romantic...it
really means no lights or running water !
 
Day Six---
10-20, Cascadas Agua Azul, Chiapas,
to Huehuetenango, Guatemala, 2050 miles
 We
awoke today to a beautiful sunny morning and we found that
we had NOT been captured by the rebels. The local roads
all have signs on them saying that we have entered Zapatista
rebel territory and we had teased ourselves into being genuinely
fearful. For example, we would tell ourselves if we come
to a roadblock, this is what we are going to do........and
we hid our money in various personal places.....silly behavior,
you get the idea. By the time we had talked about the signs
and these thoughts, for 100 kms, we were primed for disaster.
And the MINI clearly marks us as turistas, ripe for the
plucking ! We found out that the road to Bonampak,
another fantastic Mayan ruin, is only undertaken from here
in a convoy every morning with Mexican military at the front
and the Green Angel mechanic truck at the rear to tow any
stragglers. We decided to skip that, another time, we hope.
We got to Agua Azul in the dark, and had a bit of a restless
night-----every truck, every light, every noise, every bug-----all
woke Debbie who promptly woke Terry. Not true, he snored
all night long. Big help against the rebels he is. 
But this morning,
all is beautiful again, the sun is shining, the locals are
friendly, the falls are ROARING past our delicious breakfast
place. Unfortunately no swimming as the river is in flood.
We hiked for a couple of hours, then headed on past San
Cristobal through the border---after they sprayed INSECTICIDE
all over Lil Schmutzi! Into Guatemala we go.
The roads are better here, for the most part,and there is
much less traffic and best of all, there are none of the
dreaded TOPES. The MINI has 17 inch wheels with run flat
tires, giving a rough ride anyway, but the concrete topes
are a nightmare. Guatemala is  immediately
beautiful, driving thru deep mountain gorges and into a
country that seems a bit less spoiled than Mexico. Villages
are smaller, cities are less planned and have narrower streets.
People are very friendly, but the Spanish is a bit harder
to understand. The local language is actually not Spanish,
but Mam. We don´t know no Mam. Terry says, I want my Mammy.
We are now spending Quetzales and the dollar goes a little
further than the peso in Mexico.
The MINI continues
to shine, particularly after a helpful local washed all
the mud off of her with a dry rag in the night. OUCH. She
is a total rarity here, no big surprise, but EVERYONE else
drives 4 wheel drive little pick ups. Mountain roads are
where Schmutzi is most at home, we can seemingly accelerate
out of any situation, outhandle anything on the road, and
pass most of the gas stations. The seats are actually better
than we expected, and it is still great fun to drive. I´m
sure a stock MINI would be just fine, but our 200 hp is
a delight. It´s a good thing we love her so much as we are
going to be good friends for another many more thousands
of kms.
|
