From coast to coast

In need of a tan, the temptation to make the long journey to the beaches of the Pacific got the best of us. After 10 hours of the windiest, scariest, make-you-sick mountain roads through beautiful coutnryside, we landed in surfer's heaven. Peurto Escondido, on the Pacific Ocean south of Mexico City, is a stretch of beach with international surfing waves anda few hostels, restaurants, surf shops, and lots of surfer dudes, along one sandy road. All we did was play in the waves all day, or they played us. We'll surf when the waves aren't 10 feet tall!

Somehow we tore ourselves away from the beach bum lifestyle that we were told we'd never leave, maybe our sunburns played a part in that. We stayed a day ina quaint colinial town in the mountains, San Cristobal de las Casas. We got lost in a maze of colors, smells, and sites of the Sunday market. Chickens, dead, alive or cooked anyway you like, fruit, clothing, barbequed armidillo, music, and anything you could ever want surrounded you through short, narrow passageways stuffed with people shopping and hollering in Spanish as far as the eye could see.

We took off from there for the jungle and the ruins of Palenque. The true experience of Palenque began when we visited the Mayan ruins. We arrived shortly after dawn as the gates opened and the surrounding jungle was filled with the roar of Holwer Monkeys, yes roar like a lion! The intense howls, lush jungle and incredible ruins gave it all a very mystical feeling. The next day in Palenque was a day to play and bask in the beauty that surrounded us. Our first stop of the day was the mighty waterfall knwon as Miso-hal, you may remember this from such films as Predator. Next was Agua Clara, not so clara but nice all the same, and then on to Agua Azul. We arrived and were awe-striken to find a series of turquoise cascades extending endlessly from a huge waterfall up into the jungle mountains. By mid-day the heat was incredible and we plunged into the beautiful pools between the falls. We frolicked under the cascading waterfalls for hours and picnicked by the shore until alas, we had to leave for it was on to Belize!
Adios for now!!

Check out some more pictures:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/id=2117251335 And more: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2116232478