Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Chiapas adventure continues...

Our new amigo...Jorge
Xenote which can be seen from the ruins
On the left is Guatemala, on the right, Mexico
We spent a most amazing weekend in the city of Comitan de Dominguez with Jorge, his wife Marisol, son Daniel and friend Artemio. We met them through their son Jorge Jr whom we met in San Miguel a few weeks ago. They invited us to stay in this town, about 2 hours by bus from San Cristobal. We arrived and were taken to a lovely home with an amazing garden. Then we were whisked away by Artemio for a day in the surrounding National Parks ... the ruins of Chinkultec and Los Lagos de Montebello followed by an amazing meal in another garden setting.

We are in Mayan country very close to the border of Guatemala and in fact, were able to cross the border and walk right into the country of Ricardo's mother. It was quite a moment in time for him as most of you know the story of his family. The countryside in this part of Mexico is amazingly beautiful, green, with lush forests, xenotes (deep pools), the national park of 53 lakes in various colors of blue and green and waterfalls.
Artemio and our local guide at Chintultec
The day was full...we joined Jorge at night with his nephew Sergio to attend a talk about a famous patriot of the town .... Bellesario Dominguez. The whole day, including this talk was in Spanish and I did understand most of it. I see how far we have come with our language study when I realize that we can understand so much. We saw the city at night and it is beautiful. Here is another place we shall return to.
In our garden



At the restaurant in the countryside

One of the over 50 lakes 

Comitan de Dominguez at night
















Our new family at the waterfalls
Sunday began with a breakfast in the gazebo at our Casa followed by a trip to the Cascadas de Chiflon (waterfalls). At the top we were soaked as the spray and water from these amazing falls was so strong that it felt like a very strong rainfall in fact it was too wet to take out my camera. We mostly dried by the time we got to their home in the countryside of Comitan. When we arrived Marisol and I picked veggies from their garden for comida...chayote squash, zucchini, corn, onion and then combined our culinary talents teaching each other ideas for spices, etc. She made home made tortillas on the comal as well a drink. She is very interested in vegetarianism and I had already sent her information that I have in Spanish via email. It was an amazing moment in time and cooking together is a very bonding experience.
Cooking together

Los lobos!



Na Balom.









Today on the roof for breakfast
A view from our roof
Now for our last few days in San Cristobal...several museums such as Na Balom which was the home of archeologist Frans Blom and his wife Gertrude Duby Blom, a photographer journalist, enviornmental pioneer and jungle adventurer.We also went to the museum of Amber and the Museum of Traditional Mayan Medicine. Today we had sunshine in the morning so ate our breakfast up on the roof and had a lovely Indian comida with our host Teresa...another new friend. We have grown to love her faithful friend Chooch and we know we shall see each other again soon.





Nueva familia
Church in San Cristobal

Another church in San Cristobal

My new art jewelry made by a mayan from the jungle


Typical designs of Chiapas


We leave tomorrow for Palenque and back to San Miguel early next week. Once again amigos, thanks for traveling with us. Love from Ricardo y Susanita.

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