Hola Companeros!
So the past couple of days I was in Palenque, a place about a 5 hour bus drive north of San Cristobal in the jungles of Chiapas. I went with my friend Liz and we arrived on Monday afternoon and checked into a little hotel in a town called El Panchan on the outskirts of the national park. Monday afternoon we went into the national park and into the ruins site where there's pretty big sized concentration of Mayan ruins. The pyramids are amazing- It's pretty mindblowing to be able to climb and touch 1,000+ year old ruins. After we looked at the ruins for a bit we went to a waterfall nearby and went swimming- It was definitely the most vacation-y part of my trip to be relaxing in water in the middle of a jungle. While in Palenque we also saw a bunch of monkeys and geckos- The monkeys make this horrible sort of growling noise that's super loud. It was definitely something out of a horror movie to be wandering through the blazing hot jungle, occasionally stumbling across more outcroppings of ruins while listening to the otherwordly screams of the monkeys.
My second day in Palenque I got really sick. We thought it was just a case of "turista" at first, so Liz left on a day trip to see some waterfalls while I stayed back at the hotel- I ended up going to the doctor that evening with Liz and getting diagnosed with a kidney infection. I was given some antibiotics and pain killers by a really nice doctor and the whole checkup plus five different medicines only cost about $30 US! Imagine healthcare that cheap in the states!
The next day I was still feeling pretty weak so we just went to the museum nearby the ruins then returned to San Cristobal. Unfortunately the pain is still pretty constant and I haven't had much of an appetite for the past two days- That combined with the fact that I really just want to come home has made me decide to leave Chiapas early- I'll be returning to Seattle this Monday the 23rd. I'm hoping my kidney infection doesn't get any worse before then!
I've had an amazing time in Chiapas and I plan on making my last couple of days memorable (infection permitting)- Tonight I'm going to a meeting about campesino movements over at UniTierra. I'm going to Oventic again tomorrow and possibly Saturday for the first days of the encuentro and I'm sure I'll find something fun to do on Sunday. I'm adding some photos of Palenque to the newest album and make sure to check back on the albums next week- I'll upload a lot more photos when I get a faster internet connection!
The following albums have photos of my trip:
Oldest Album: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177801&l=e9617&id=1226304
Middle Album: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2181297&l=b3db7&id=1226304
Newest Album: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187242&l=e610c&id=1226304
Portraits: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2184516&l=af262&id=1226304
Hasta Luego,
Morgan Weinert
So the past couple of days I was in Palenque, a place about a 5 hour bus drive north of San Cristobal in the jungles of Chiapas. I went with my friend Liz and we arrived on Monday afternoon and checked into a little hotel in a town called El Panchan on the outskirts of the national park. Monday afternoon we went into the national park and into the ruins site where there's pretty big sized concentration of Mayan ruins. The pyramids are amazing- It's pretty mindblowing to be able to climb and touch 1,000+ year old ruins. After we looked at the ruins for a bit we went to a waterfall nearby and went swimming- It was definitely the most vacation-y part of my trip to be relaxing in water in the middle of a jungle. While in Palenque we also saw a bunch of monkeys and geckos- The monkeys make this horrible sort of growling noise that's super loud. It was definitely something out of a horror movie to be wandering through the blazing hot jungle, occasionally stumbling across more outcroppings of ruins while listening to the otherwordly screams of the monkeys.
My second day in Palenque I got really sick. We thought it was just a case of "turista" at first, so Liz left on a day trip to see some waterfalls while I stayed back at the hotel- I ended up going to the doctor that evening with Liz and getting diagnosed with a kidney infection. I was given some antibiotics and pain killers by a really nice doctor and the whole checkup plus five different medicines only cost about $30 US! Imagine healthcare that cheap in the states!
The next day I was still feeling pretty weak so we just went to the museum nearby the ruins then returned to San Cristobal. Unfortunately the pain is still pretty constant and I haven't had much of an appetite for the past two days- That combined with the fact that I really just want to come home has made me decide to leave Chiapas early- I'll be returning to Seattle this Monday the 23rd. I'm hoping my kidney infection doesn't get any worse before then!
I've had an amazing time in Chiapas and I plan on making my last couple of days memorable (infection permitting)- Tonight I'm going to a meeting about campesino movements over at UniTierra. I'm going to Oventic again tomorrow and possibly Saturday for the first days of the encuentro and I'm sure I'll find something fun to do on Sunday. I'm adding some photos of Palenque to the newest album and make sure to check back on the albums next week- I'll upload a lot more photos when I get a faster internet connection!
The following albums have photos of my trip:
Oldest Album: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177801&l=e9617&id=1226304
Middle Album: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2181297&l=b3db7&id=1226304
Newest Album: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187242&l=e610c&id=1226304
Portraits: http://berkeley.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2184516&l=af262&id=1226304
Hasta Luego,
Morgan Weinert
*huggerz*