Guatemala to Palenque

Pretty uneventful at the border leaving Guatemala. No attempted shakedowns or scams.Lou had some gramma time on the bus to the border. Kids here in Guatemala are the nicest we have ever encountered. Probably because they are are not overstimulated and need to be constantly entertained.

So arriving at the border left us a small distance to Mexico. Choices were taxi or shuttles. We started to walk to find the best alternative and soon found ourselves at the edge of town. About 5 miles walking later we found the Mexican border. Nobody would stop to pick you up in the no man's land between the 2 countries.Crossing the border by foot was straight forward and 10 minutes later we were on a shuttle to Comitan de Dominguez .

 Comitan De Dominguez is an unremarkable city of around 100000 people. We stayed with a young CS host named Karen. Lives with her mom and grandmother. We spent a night here and left for our next stop San Cristobal De Las Casas. Comitan had a nice church. Always get a kick out of the stuff you can find inside.

I got to hang with the boys

  Lou found her spot 

 

Kids play for hours waiting on parents

San Cristobal is a very pretty town. Lots of churches, restaurants, hostals. We spent 2 nights here and loved the cobbled stone streets and buildings. It is a very touristy place. The hotel we stayed at was about 15 dollars a night with breakfast included, hot water and private bathroom.It was owned by a Quebecer and his Mexican wife. San Cristobal has 5 major churches. One has a famous Black Christ. The Pope was here about a month before us. SC is in the state of Chiapas which is probably the state with the highest percentage of indigenious people. They are protests and rebellions here frequently. When we left by bus for Palenque which is normally a 4to 5 hour ride it took us over 9 hours because earlier that morning some Chiapas rebels stopped and burnt a bus blocking the main road forcing a long detour.

This little girl was here all day 

Lou trying a new version of  Flan

The ride to Palenque was long and tiring. We arrived at night so grabbed a cab and took off for our hotel. We had chosen one just at the entrance to the park in the jungle. Was an okay rom with a bored staff. Woke up in the morning to the howler monkeys. They make an unbelievable amount of noise.
Today we were off to the major site of Mayan ruins, Palenque.