Lagunas de Montebello

This is the park that I work in, Parque Nacional Lagunas de Montebello. Its in the southern part of Chiapas and sits right on the boarder of Guatemala. There are 50 lakes within the park, they are pretty incredible because they are all different colors. None of these pictures have been altered the lakes are these actual colors! Everything from bright royal blue to turquoise to green. The really cool thing is that when you get close the water is totally clear. these are very healthy lakes. My project is to write a public use plan for the park. I have a lot of work ahead of me!!

Laguna aquatina
Angel and I on the Mexico-Guatemala boarder - the kids here told us these boarder markers were made by the Myans. Something tells me they were mistaken...
Lago Internacional - This lake sits right o nthe boarder of Mexico-Guatemala - hence the name

A donkey in Guatemala at Lago Internacional - donkeys even in Guatemala

Cinco Lagos (5 lakes)

Cinco Lagos look closely there is a traditional style raft on the lake. Made only of logs and rope.

Travis and Angel at Cinco Lagos

Its amazing what you can find under pieces of wood on the ground

Canyon del Sumadero

We headed down to the Canyon del Sumadero yesterday. Its this spectacular canyon only about 15 minutes outside of Tuxtla. Our first stop was in Chiapa de Corzo which is a tiny pueblita at the mouth of the canyon. In Chiapa de Corzo we boarded our lancha and headed into the canyon.
The Canyon del Sumadero did not disappoint. It is 800 meters deep and has lush green vegetation all over. We saw tons of birds and even a few crocodiles!

Chiapa de Corzo

"El Arbol de Navidad" (The christmas tree) a rock formation on one of the walls of the canyon

Canyon del Sumadero

The most beauttiful things in the canyon (ha ha)

San Cristobal de Las Cases

Well you can't come to Chiapas without visiting San Cristobal de Las Cases. Its a quaint, colonial town set high up in the mountains. It has beautiful churches, artisanias, ambar and coffee. And more gringos then you can shake a stick at. The funny thing about hippy gringos travelling in Mexico is that they won't make eye contact with you. I think they assume if they don't see you they will be the only white person in Mexico. Which makes me wonder if they want to get so far off the beaten track why do they pick places that are famous for being tourist destinations? If Lonely Planet designates 8 pages to one place you should assume that everyone else travelling in Mexico is going to visit too. We met some cool burn out, ex-pat hippy types and ate some kick ass thai food. I know a travisty! Eating Thai food in Mexico. Hey give us a break we have been living on tacos for the last 4 months. Delicious, delicious tacos but change is good.

Pedestrian street - great for gringo watchingChurches - there are always churches

street

Street, oh look a church in the background

me, oh and look a church in the background

Acapetahua

Its been a bit of a week for us down here. We took off to Acapetahua which is in La Encrucijada and is the location of the office that Travis works in. Acapeatahua is a sleepy little coastal town. Both of us went to small communities inside of the Bioshpere reserve La Encrucijada. I went out with the tourism person, Saide to Playa Grande which is a small stretch of beach with a community that supports small-scale ecotourism. Muy buena gente (Very good people) live in these small communities. Travis and I also visited Rio Arriba wich has some small scale community supported acuaculture. We were very popular in these small communities because we are so tall and have blue eyes. The kids wanted us to talk in english because they only ever hear english a few times on TV. We were told by a group of ladies that we should have babies because the would be 'beautiful and giant'.

La Playa Grande
Acapetahua; a one trike town

This is a baby cocodrillo (crocodile) that was the pet of a guy in Rio Arriba. He had caught it and was keeping it until it got too big.

He's cute but I don't want him too close to my face. In case he's snappy.

The Ruins of Chinkultic

These are the Ruins of Chinkultic. They are a sieries of pryamids and feilds built during the Myan Civilization almost 1000 years ago. These are located outside of Comitán, Chiapas.

Travis feeling likt a Myan ruler

The view from the top

The ruins from the bottom

Playa Ventinilla

Here are some pictures of another beach we visited called Playa Ventinilla (Window Beach) on the Oaxaca Coast.

Thats why they call it window beach

It IS Mexico...Donkeys all over the place.

Milestone reached: Our first speech all in SPANISH!

Travis, Ambassador Tony Garza, Myself and our house mom Cata.







Well we are officially volunteers now. We were sworn in by The US Ambassador to Mexíco, Tony Garza. Trav and I and our friend Andi each gave a speech IN SPANISH to all who attended on behalf of our companions.

Andi,Ángel and I yukking it up!

Vay-Cay in Zipolite

At long last here are some pictures from Zipolite. Zipolite is a small beach town on the coast of the state of Oaxaca. What a great spot. it was the off season so there weren´t any crowds.

Here is our cabaña. Front row Joe right on the beach.

The west end of Zipolite beach

Beach life can be rough...








You knew I couldn´t forget a picture of Trav playing guitar on the beach.