Palenque, San Cristobal De Las Casas, Oaxaca

The ancient city of Palenque - hundreds of Mayan ruins are spread over a 15sq km area. Some of the buildings are very impressive with amazing carved detail - including the glyphs (bottom photo) which tell the myths and history of this Mayan town.

Misol-Ha waterfall with a 35m cascade tumbling into the natural pool where you can take a quick dip to cool down.

Camionetas pass up and down the roads between Pelenque and the waterfalls every ten minutes or so - just flag them down like a bus.

Agua Azul (Blue water) is another big attraction in this area - normally the water here is much bluer/turquoise in colour but because it is rainy season the rains have stirred up all the mud at the bottom the colour isn't as vivid but still it was pretty.

Feliz tries to use his charm on he local kids to see if he can get some goodies.

The drive to the falls took us through some pretty scenery and small villages though I never did work out why there was so many police at the road turn off to Agua Azul!

I didn't spend much time in the town Palenque but there didn't seem to be very much there other than some restaurants and small shops.

I stayed in the small travellers village of El Panchan outside of the town near the ruins in this little cabin - luckily the rain didn't come down to much the night I was there as I found out later that the day before the occupants had woke up to find their cabins flooded - shows how quickly the water rises!!

Several people told me not to miss the town of San Cristobal De Las Casas and it was good advice. This beautiful town is set in a valley with lots of quaint cobbled streets with colonial buildings but throughout the town you can see the influence of the local indegenous tribes that live in nearby villages.

No matter how quaint there is always the signs of the rebelious youth!!

I liked the mobile shoe shop!!

The Museo De La Medicina Maya was fascinating - not only a museum but an active health centre where traditional Maya medicines are still practised - this involves praying to the spirit, using different plants/flowers for treatment, using candles, bones, chicken sacrifices amongst other rituals. Whilst I was there I got to watch a medicinal service in the little church it was quite fascinating.

I was glad this dog was actually chained to the roof as he was not very friendly and looked very capable and eager to jump down and chase me!!

Glad they don't sell knifes like this in Glasgow!!

The local villagers come down to San Cristobal to sell their goods to the town and tourists.

The tallest person I met in Mexico by far :-)

The Na Bolom museum was also very interesting it was the home of Trudy and Frans Blom, Europeans who seperately came over to Mexico in the 1930's and worked as anthropoligist and/photographer and archealogist respectively and after meeting and getting married they did a lot of work with some of the indegenous tribes helping them keep their traditions and also discovered some of the old ruins. They also did work with the Lacandon people who were discovered deep in the jungles of the Chiapas region and are believed to be the only full Maya tribe still in existence in the world.

The village of San Juan Chamula is about 10km out of San Cristobal - here the people still follow the unique religous practises of the Tzotzil people of this area. Though Catholicism was introduced here the strong religous beliefs of the locals have pretty much won out in the end - the church is used but a priest will only attend for Baptisms all other services are conducted by curanderos (curers). Inside the church the floor was covered in pine needles which are used to clear away spirits, the statues of the saints were decorated in shawls and traditional prayers and rituals are carried out (including some using sacrificed chickens) - when I asked why all the worshippers were drinking coca cola etc I was told that it was because it made them burp and it is believed that this frees evil and sick spirits from within - they used to use a local made drink but find it much easier now to use coca cola - could be the next advertising campaign for coca cola - a can a day keeps the devil away!!!!

Once a week the ladies from the village come out and queue up for the equivalent of the UK 'Family Allowance' pay out.

The local men all dress in cowboy hats and wool tunics - the black one's (i think it may have been the other way around) are only worn by the wealthier men - no embarasment about showing off your wealth here.....

The sacrificial chickens - we got into trouble for taking photo's of this guy with all the chickens as they do not allow photo's of any part of the religous service (though to be fair we didn't know they were part of it as he was just sitting in the market!!)

There was only Helen and I on our tour and we stopped off at another little village where we got to see behind the scene of the family shop where the ladies were busy weaving some beautiful table covers etc, we were invited to stay and have a little lunch with them in their kitchen.

The locals in the villages wear the traditional dress - the men with the ribbon hats or are some kind of local priests - bright and colourful stuff.

Amber mining was a big industry in the Chiapas region of Mexico - the Museo Del Ambar de Chiapas had some beautiful carvings and stones on display.

The very pretty colonial city of Oaxaca where I visited the Cathedral and the Iglesia de Santa Domingo a 15th Century church where the joining monastry is now a history musuem - one of the best museums I have been to in a while probably because I was able to rent an audio guide in English so could understand what some of the history actually was!!

A city of celebrations and the Death is one of the many things celebrated in Mexico and hence the many skeletons and skulls that are seen in and around the place.

I just happened to walk into this parade where the local students and lecturers were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the University. Bright colourful and some pretty interesting costumes and dances - well until I got dragged up to join in!!

Next morning I passed these girls getting a dance lesson in one of the local Plaza's.

The Museo Rufino Tayamo had some of the best preserved Mayan and other pre Hispanic sculpures I have seen.

And the textile musueum had some slightly less traditional displays.

When I went up to the main square one afternoon and found it crowded with lots of balloon/food stellers I thought it must be another celebration but angry voices over a tannoy soon warned me it was a demonstration so I quickly got out of there and went back to my hostel where I was able to watch as gangs of youths with their faces covered challanged the riot police, throwing fireworks & graffiting.

Turned out that this is an annual demonstration in many Mexican cities on the 2nd of October to mark the Tlatelolco massacre where 20 protestors were killed when students took up a demonstration against political corruption and it is believed the police/government set them up to look like they were firing at them giving themselves the authority to shoot into the crowd!! This year due to recent unrest against the corruption the demonstrations again turned violent.

The small town of Mitla is a tourist stop a short drive out of Oaxaca for the ancient ruins where the high priests made human sacrifices. But when the Spanish arrived they built a church on the site using some of the original bricks and it sits in the middle of the ancient buildings.

The Oaxacan countryside was pretty stunning and we passed through some small villages.

My favourite stop on the tour I took was at the Hierve Algua (Water Boils) - a bubbling mineral springs, though the water is cold. The water dripping down the side of the cliff over huderds of years has created a mineral formation that looks like a large waterfall. The walk around here provided some breathtaking scenery and beautiful wild flowers.

Sunset on the way back into Oaxaca.

Feliz makes another new friend.

Last stop on the tour was at El Tule where has what is claimed to be the world's largest tree, a Montezuma cypress, with a trunk which is about 11m in diamerter - it was so thick it was impossible to get it all in one photo due to the surroundings!

Back in Oaxaca the locals were enjoying Saturday night at the Plaza with street entertainers, vendors and some music.

I popped into Teatro Macedonio Alcala on my way back to the hostel to see the elaborate French style entrance and by luck there was a local concert on which had not sold out and I was able to go in and enjoy some of the show.

Even the grasshoppers here are colourful.


Keep going some more to come........