Palenque salutations

Hi everyone! We are in the jungle. Abby and Mom and I. In Chiapas. We just arrived from San Cristobal.

we took a 6′hour bus ride from san cristobal de las casas to palenque, which made us all sick to our stomachs. so we staggered out on the bus station street and went to the first cafe that wasn{t blaring loud music <they promptly turned it on) and ordered sparkling melon drinks and soup. and not
long after we saw a young man leave, and a few minutes later he returned iwth a canteloupe. and then a very queeny, ambiguously sexed manperson brought out my fresh’squished canteloupe sparkling water drink. at the time i was taking a picture of toot reading the menu, which translated liquados
de leche as “snakes in milk.” abby figured out that they were going for “shakes.”

so then we ate our vegetable soup, consisting of cubed, slightly raw potatoes and carrots in flavored water (i should add — much of the food has been scrumptious), and then we took a colectivo — a taxi minibus for the people – out to the jungle. and we got ourselves a room with three beds and then we went waaaaay up the hill 3 km to the entrance to the ruins. but there was only an hour left of ruin-allowed time so instead we scoped out the scene, trying to find the bird guide mentioned in the guidebooks. several people referred to him as The King of the Jungle and couldn{t give us his phone number because, duh, he doesn{t have one — he{s the king of the jungle. but a young hopeful dude tried to convince us of his credentials by pointing out to us a monkey in a tree. which we probably would have noticed by virtue of the 6 tourists staring up at it. there it was! a monkey in a tree! and what was next to it — a baby monkey! which picked something off its mama{s butt and ate it. so that was good.

and then we walked waaaay down the hill, looking for and at birds of several mysterious shapes and colors. and we found ourselves a giude named paco for tomorrow, who{s going to take us in to the jungle to look for motmots.

oh, and we heard howler monkeys! which is prpobably what the two in the tree were too. but they were quiet. but in the woods we could hear this insane jungle-soundtrack roaring like flying phlegmy lions and it was howlers howling! paco says maybe we can see some tomorrow. he has embroidery on his pockets and his grandparents are from this area.}

internet cabana is closing now. love to you all,

deborah