We spent two and a half days in San Cristóbal. It's a beautiful town to sit back and relax. The people couldn't be nicer and it's a blend of local culture and Western tourism. David and I had a great time just stroliing around the city. It's one of those places that didn't really get good until we exhausted all the major tourist destinations and just wandered around.... go on »

I'm going to put all of San Cristóbal on hold for a second and talk about what happened the next day because it was one of the most bizarre experiences I've ever encountered. We celebrated "Fat Tuesday" in a small mountain town called San Juan Chamula. Unfortunately, the one experience that is the most difficult to describe is the one place we were absolutely not allowed to take pictures. The locals strongly believe that it steals your soul. There were signs posted as we got to the main square saying "NO PHOTOS ALLOWED AFTER THIS POINT".... go on »

Today was our first "festival" day. We went to a town called Tenosique where they have been having this very bizarre festival for hundreds of years. It's a bit hard to describe. It takes place every Sunday starting in January and ends with lent. A few select people dress up as jaguars - they paint their body orange, use a Coke bottle to make black spots on their skin, and drape an actual jaguar pelt over their back. We got access to where some of those people were preparing to get some good pictures.... go on »

Today we had an early start. We met at 6:30 to visit all the stops. And it's a good thing, because we had some surprises later on the trip that delayed us for a few hours. We started off with about a 45 minute drive to lunch spot. I forgot to ask for the details of where we were, but looking back at the map now, I think we were at Rio Chancalá. It was a small tourist stop on the road with excellent homemade breakfasts under a thatched roof. There was a large German tour bus that stopped for breakfast at the same time we did.... go on »