24 Jan 98

Buenos Noches from San Cristobal de las Casas.

I flew back to L.A. and spent three days in the office. I got all my gear together, planned a few trips and hung out with the other tour leaders.

Then on a Saturday, bright and not too early, I started driving. I spent a night in Tucson, AZ, one in Fort Stockton, TX, one in Brownsville, Texas and then crossed into Mexico. I drove all day, slept in the van on the side of the road, drove the next day and again slept in the van off of a really long dirt road. The next day I had some spare time. I passed a sign for the ruins of Dzibanche. These ruins were not mentioned in any of my guide books, so I drove the one hour on dirt roads necessary to check them out. It was fun the have the ruins all to myself and my guide, Sergio. Even though Sergio only spoke Spanish, I was able to get quite a bit from his tour.

After Dzibanche, I returned to my favorite beach. At Xcacel I hung out with a bunch of tour leaders, some of whom were working and some of whom were on vacation there for the winter. The next day I sat on the beach and recovered from my 3200 mile-6 day solo drive halfway across the U.S. and most of the way across Mexico.

Last Saturday, I drove up to Cancun and met my new group. The next day we went to Chichen Itza and then on to Merida. We spent two nights there buying hammocks, looking at flamingos at the Celestun Nature Reserve, and eating at a Mayan BBQ in the town of Tixkokob.

From Merida we headed south to the ruins at Uxmal and then on to Palenque. After a day in the hot jungle we played in the 35 meter tall waterfall named Misol-Ha. I brought my flashlight and explored the cave behind the waterfall. There is a waterfall and a large pool in the cave. I think it would be a great place to bring a group and a bunch of candles and hang out for a few hours one night.

Friday we drove to Agua Azul, hiked along the river and waterfalls for a few hours and then came here to San Cristobal de las Casas. Today we went on a tour of San Juan Chamula and Zincatecas. These are two small Indian villages. Our guide was a mestizo woman named Mercedes. She gave a most excellent tour and touched on Indians, history, women's rights, politics, religion, and any thing else we had questions about. If any of you get here, it would be a shame not to go on her tour.

Now I am in the Cyber-cafe, waiting until it is time to go meet my group at the bar for a night out on the town. More likely though, I will just make a short appearance and head back to my room for a good night sleep in a bed.

In one of my college anthropology courses I learned that when you go to study a new culture, it is very important to write down your impressions for the first month or so. I now see why that is so important. What seemed so alien and unique during my first visit to Mexico now seems normal and ordinary. I am having a pretty good time, but I don't feel like I am seeing too many new things. Now that the novelty of working in Mexico has worn off, I realize that there are too many cities and too much shopping on my tours and not enough hiking and adventure. Of course, the trip I am on now is a short two week trip to places I have been before. For my next three trips down here I have planned a few new things to see, including a trip to Guatamala, a climb up a volcano near Mexico City and a drive up Baja Califorina with a stop to pet the whales. Hopefully, Trek will send me to the Canadian Rockies this summer.

Other than that, for a job it really is enjoyable most of the time and even down right fun often enough.