Hi, Well, today - or I should say night - is April 8th. We are actually in Pelenque tonight, for the second time. We were here for four days after leaving San Cristobal de las Casas a couple days after I last did one of these fabulous narations !! We've been to three ruin sites and they have all been very interesting, beautiful and different from one another. Chiapas is the state we've been in for about two weeks now. It's wonderful. I have four of these emails to write so here we go.....no idea when we'll actually be able to send them!! The city of San Cristobal de las Casas is high in the mountains, so it's cool. The entire city is a national monument here in Mexico. I'm not sure which other cities have the same destinction, but it is definately one of them and for good reason. The last few days we spent there were diverse. The first, we did nothing because Mike got "tourista" once again. We don't know why because we ate the same stuff, but it was a cool and cloudy day so no big deal. The next day we decided to go walking to the "big" grocery store. It was about two or three miles away and we were able to see different parts of the city than we'd previously visited. One of the well known places to visit in S C de las C is the Amber Museum. This state is famous for it's amber and the museum is pretty cool. It's funny because one of the main things they mention as you go through the place is that the "amber" that the street vendors are selling is actually just resin. Hummmm, no wonder it was so cheap. Anyway, there were beautiful pieces on display and the amber with a bug or leaf inside is a highly prized piece! Go figure. We also did some shopping on the way back and bought a cat - made of wood - but's she's pretty cute! We call her Chalchi, of course. Everyone said that the road to Pelenque was awful - tons of topes and windy. Well, it's true. We didn't go all the way to Pelenque because we wanted to see Agua Azul - a place of waterfalls and fun. It was Semana Santa 1/2 https://outlook.office.com/mail/inbox/id/AQMkADAwATE2ZjgxLTI1MWYtZWNmNi0wMAItMDAKAEYAAAP6jDLEJTp7QKOGnCi3earqBwAN66eNrUzT… 5/28/24, 11:05 PM Mail - gayle hughes - Outlook (Easter Week) and it's one of the times that the Mexicans ALL go on vacation. So it was nuts - but fun. We paid a couple bucks to park in their lot and stayed the night no problem. It was crazy busy but it was a quiet night after all the bus loads of tourists left. The road, as promised, was pretty awful. The pavement was good but we went through a zillion villages and they all try to outdo each other for the amount of topes (big, horrible speed bumps in case you've forgotten) they can put into a short distance. Plus, and I know I've mentioned this many times, the drivers are truly, truly crazy. If we die down here, they will be the reason why. It's strange because the Mexican people as so calm and patient in most every situation, but put them behind the wheel of a vehicle and they become psycho! I am not kidding. Maybe they're just so religious that they think it's no big deal to die but I truly hope they don't take me with them as I've got more to do in this life. We had our closest call yet on this road. We came around (lumbering uphill) a blind corner and there was this BIG (bigger than us) truck barreling down the narrow two land road right in the middle. Mike says "look out" and he moves us over the bit that he can (without us going over the side of the cliff) and somehow the guy makes it back into his lane and doesn't sideswipe us. I don't know how he made the corner and I've been curious as to what the drivers behind us were thinking. Of course, they were just waiting for a chance to pass us on a blind curve themselves it seems. They truly are nuts. We have only seen one accident so far and it was in town with a cab involved. Enough said!! But there are lots of crosses by the side of the roads. We will win in most bad situations as our truck is pretty hefty but that truck coming at us was the worst. Yikes!!!!!! So the next day our drive to Pelenque was only a couple hours and we arrived at the wonderful Mayabell campground with the ruins of Pelenque a short distance away...... Stay tuned.
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