Thursday, December 06, 2007

Is it really two weeks to the day that I come home? That is really bizarre to me. But contrary to popular belief I actually HAVE been busy writing papers recently and still have plenty more to do before this coming weekend is over.

This past weekend I hopped on what turned into a 15 hour bus ride to the southern mountains of Mexico close to the Guatemala border. It was beautiful. I stayed in a little city from the colonial era and every building had those awesome red brick roofs. The city is named San Cristobal de las Casas, and it is pretty much THE place in Mexico to buy very quality artisan goods for a very low price. These people are all very talented in their trade, whether it be jewelry making or knitting..., but they have no means to come down out of the mountains and sell their products so the prices are naturally lower. Saturday morning my friends and I woke up and took a boat tour through this beautiful canyon that was an average of 1 km over our heads most of the time. I wonder how it compares to the Grand Canyon...it can't be far off. The Grand Canyon is probably a little bigger but you don't get to see crocodiles and Spider monkeys there. Sunday however, was the coolest day of all. I went and saw three breath-taking waterfalls on my way to the Mayan site of Palenque. I'd argue that Palenque is the most impressive Mayan city of them all just for the fact that it sits at the base of a giant mountain chain. Well, that is really all I can do to explain this past weekend. It's unbelievable how hard it is to try and portray this stuff in writing...

Pretty Church in San Cristobal...there are many more, but I liked that this one was yellow...

The beautiful streets of San Cristobal

Entrance to Sumidero Canyon

Waterfall at Misolha

Behind same waterfall

Waterfall at Agua Azul...yes the water really was that blue. More actually

Palenque