Villahermosa & Palenque

This past weekend we had Monday off due to the Dia de Revolucion in Mexico, so Danna and I headed to Villahermosa and Palenque with the French teacher, Aurelie, and her friend, Lalo. We had a blast!

Villahermosa was nothing much to look at (the seafood on the riverfront was delicious, though!), but we did stop at the Parque Museo La Venta where various Olmec archeological ruins are displayed.

We drove two hours west to Palenque, an ancient city of Mayan ruins in the jungle (http://www.mesoweb.com/palenque/). It's an amazing place with interesting history and incredible ruins. It rained a lot which made for very green pictures.

Our adventure was especially exciting when we attempted to check out on Monday and found that the road back to Tuxtla was blocked due to support of the APPO (the chaos going on in Oaxaca City that has been on world news) by the EZLN (aka Zapatistas). Apparently, we were going to enjoy a second night in our rustic jungle guest house with live music and good company.

We spent an additional night in Palenque, enjoying beers in the town plaza while approximately 70 police officers in full riot gear stood watch. I wanted a picture of them, but was too afraid to attempt it until we were on the second floor of a restaurant. Thinking I was sneaky, I snapped a photo only to have the heavily armed officers excitedly wave back!

I'm not sure if you've heard much about it, but there's a major situation going on in Oaxaca, the state bordering my state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. The current President, Vicente Fox, is due to step down after 12 years on December 1, 2006, and there's been a lot of chaos going on ever since the elections started.

It began with a group of teachers striking and has turned into a massive protest demanding the resignation of the current governor, Ulises Ruiz.

There are several sides to this story, one being that he was elected by the people and the APPO are out-of-control, ignorant communists that are succeeding at destroying the main source of income in Oaxaca, tourism. Others believe Ruiz is corrupt and people have died in the streets due to the extreme force of government authorities. I don't have enough information to have an educated opinion, but for info and incredible pictures of the mess, check out http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/25/18333275.php.

Tuesday morning we headed toward Tuxtla, stopping to visit the falls at both Misol-Ha and Agua Azul. We decided to do some hiking at Misol-Ha, attempting to reach the top of the falls for a beautiful view, but instead we ended up sweaty and dirty in chonklas (flip-flops). We rinsed off and I decided to take a bath in the waters of Agua Azul - cold, but worth it.

On our way home, we saw no signs of a road block or any danger and we arrived in Tuxtla a day late, but safe. Appropriately, we returned through several villages around Ocosingo, one of them Patria Nueva, considered autonomous and a supporter of the Zapatistas. We couldn't pass up the photo opportunity and stopped, meeting several villagers who were very kind and excited to see us. The kids were adorable and it seemed they'd never seen themselves in a picture. Aurelie and I let them use our cameras to take pictures of one another and they acted as if they were making fun of you if they caught you on film.

We resumed the trip back to Tuxtla and I was happy to take a nice, hot shower and sleep in my own bed.