The market in Palenque town in Chiapas was a great place to grab breakfast, and is where our neighbor in Chicago, Beatrix, is from. This is where we had the best salbutes ever–salbutes are a local dish in the Yucatan, made of a crispy tortilla topped with a bean sauce, pickled onion, slow-cooked shredded chicken, cabbage, avocado and fresh cheese. We tried salbutes at many other places but this stand in the market in Palenque was the best!

We drove up the windy roads of Chiapas to go to the beautifull waterfalls of Aqua Azul, where minerals in the water cause the water to be really bright blue. On the way, we entered Zapatista controlled autonomous zones, which reminded me of "Free Derry," but the Zapatista run check points were very friendly.     

Definitely the high point of the trip, Palenque is the Paris of the ancient Mayan world, with beautiful palaces in a lovely, misty, mountain backdrop, with lots of streams, all overlooking the plains of Tabasco, with the sounds of screeching monkeys in the background Miles was sad in this photo as he had just been told not to touch the inscriptions with his fingers! He cheered up pretty fast Sometimes it rains in the rain forest, but not for long

The Mexican bus system is pretty impressive, but what's really impressive is their bus shelters which are all the same shape, built to withstand a nuclear blast, and painted in a variety of pretty colors

The most popular way of moving people, freight and regular supplies were these bicycles that were ubiquitous throughout the Yukaton, but almost universal in Chiapas

Overlooking the Gulf of Mexico while eating very fresh fish for breakfast outside of Chompoton

The Spanish were pretty brutal, but their fortresses were very pretty

The regional market outside of Campeche was where all the Mayan farmers brought their food, some had pretty bit stalls of vegetables, meat or fish, others just brought up 5 or 6 live Turkeys to be sold for Chirstmas. One lady was selling about 2 dozen honey cakes that caught Miles’ attention. She was nice enough to let us take her photo

The manager of the Hotel Colonial said we wouldn't want to stay in his hotel more than one night, and while very basic, with posted signs saying they offered no blankets, room service or TVs, we managed to stay for two. Still it was very clean, had lovely common areas and was not bad for $20 a night