Where do I start?

Wow.

THAT was a cool trip. I've been wondering since about half way through last week how best to chronicle our adventures. I don't know what else to do except to launch into a full explanation... follow the links to see the pictures. Sorry this is long...

A little background - (in case you were unaware): my sister and her husband are archaeologists. Bruce has a project going, in its second year in Chiapa de Corzo. They've been down there for almost 5 months, with about 4 to go. So we went to stay with them, hang out with our little niece and nephew, see the site and do lots of off-the-beaten path stuff.

We stayed at Holly and Bruce's beautiful colonial era (17th or 18th Century?) house in Chiapa de Corzo for several nights (more photos here). They made a space for us in the hallway/courtyard. Their house is a few blocks from the center of town. Which was very convenient for visiting the markets, historic buildings, and enjoying the month long festival of St. Sebastian, going all night, every night we were there. Two of Bruce's assistants, Carlos & Hoover, live at the house with them. Nice guys. Hoover has a habit of singing early in the morning.

Chiapa de Corzo is an old, old city - predating the Spanish, though they made it a colonial city when they came. Our first day we walked around a little before Carlos drove us up to Tuxtla in the NWAF suburban, dropping us off at the Regional Museum of Chiapas. We saw lots of cool artifacts, one of them: The earliest example of the Mayan long-count, found at the site where Bruce is excavating (8th Mayan cycle). Day 1 photos.

The next morning (after trying to sleep through an entire night of fireworks right above the house) I went with Holly down to the open-air market to buy produce. Later on Hoover drove Mike & I and Holly& kids up the plateau into San Cristobal, the town Holly and Bruce just moved from. San Cristobal is more of a resort town: more well-to-do. A few dozen gringo ex-patriots live there and some dreadlocked touristas were hanging around, for the proximity to native villages and the Zapatista/Che Gavara atmosphere.

We had a great time in the textiles markets there, good food, colonial churches. We stayed in a great little hotel, and Mike and I went to a performance of Palenque Rojo. Bruce's project artist, Ayax, wrote the production about war between Palenque and Tonina, and designed the costumes. Bruce pulled a few strings, scoring some sweet seats for us at 1/2 the price. Day 2 photos.

We began day 3 with breakfast at a little bakery with really good croissants, as well as the usual Chiapan chocolate. Holly and I made a second visit to the textile markets, then took a taxi to meet Mike, Bruce and the kids at the New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) - where Bruce gave us a tour of the lab there & showed us a few artifacts from last year's dig. From there Bruce drove us deeper into the highlands along a very windy road, scattered with tope's (speed bumps that the kids got a great thrill out of whenever we slowed down suddenly and then lurched over, screaming "Tope! Help! Tope!") to Tonina. Tonina was AWESOME. It sits out in the middle of large tracts of ranch land, pretty isolated from much else. Not too many tourists make it out there. The museum is great, and there's a little mom & pop restaurant at the edge of site serving beef from their own cattle ranch. After a few hours at Tonina, we drove on to our stay for the night: the Santa Maria Guest Ranch, a 19th Century ranch in the middle of nowhere converted into a cool 8 room inn with top notch service. We arrived late at night, starving. The staff informed us that the restaurant kitchen had closed - but then offered to warm up some soup for us. That sounded perfect. The next thing we knew the guy was carrying a table on his back out onto the veranda in front of our rooms, then chairs, then candles, steaming bowls of outstanding vegetable soup (made from the veggies in their own gardens), tortillas, fresh squeezed OJ, & Chiapan chocolate. If there was ever a meal that hit the spot... (Day 3: NWAF, Tonina, dinner at the Santa Maria Guest Ranch)

Sunday we left the guest ranch, went to church in Comitan, then on to hike up El Chiflon to see the falls. Beautiful aqua blue water.

Stuff you see in Mexico: truck load of clowns on the way back into Chiapa de Corzo

We had to hurry to drive back into Chiapa de Corzo that night so we wouldn't miss the Parachico dancers. The St. Sebastian festival goes on all during January, the Parachicos dancing a couple of those days. Parachicos dance in commemoration of the rescue of the Chiapanec townspeople from famine by a grateful Spanish colonial woman who's son had been healed in Chiapa de Corzo. When she heard that the town was suffering from famine she sent her Spanish servants with food; when they arrived they danced to make the children happy. The blonde fro wigs and masks with facial hair and blue eyes are supposed to be the Spanish servants who danced (para chico). It is a really cool festival. Check out this quick video of one of the small processions. It was tough getting into town with all the traffic, and the house was right in the thick of the festivities. We were swarmed by thousands of them after dark. So cool. (Day 4 photos)

We spent Monday morning visiting Bruce at the site in Chiapa de Corzo. It was nice of Bruce to make time to show us around - we loved it.

Down in the famous axe pit of last year

The site is pre-Mayan, Zoque around 700 B.C. Afterward, Holly and the kids went with us down to catch a river launch up the Sumidero Canyon - a spectacular canyon with 3,000+ ft. walls, alligators, spider monkeys...etc. Our last night we took the kids down to the center to ride on a few carnival rides and to sample some sweets from the local vendors. It was great to relax with them... Again the music went strong and loud until about 2 AM - but with an iPod in you can sleep through almost anything. More pictures from this day.

We left the house at 5:30 the next morning to catch a 7 AM flight out of Tuxtla to Mexico City - and then home.

Thanks Holly and Bruce. We had an incredible time.