Maya

After 3 days in Ocosingo waiting out Lisa´s mysterious illness, we rode the stretch everyone had been telling us about: Ocosingo to Palenque. Cutting through the Chiapas highlands we saw beautiful waterfalls, as well as the worst poverty of the trip. We slept near a turquoise-colored river where children stared at us as we set up camp. It was easy to entertain them when we have an alien-looking tent and tiny stove that runs off gasolina. Today we visited the Mayan ruins of Palenque, definitely a highlight of the trip. The rain was pouring down the entire time we were there. Instead of being a bummer, it made a cool fog around the trees and eliminated lots of the trourists that typically flood the place. Tonight we´ll camp in the nearby jungle one last time, probably being serenaded by howler monkeys again. The call from those monkeys was LOUD last night, sounding more like dinosaur than primate.

Now we will probably ride longer days in the flat country of Tabasco and the Yucatan peninsula until we hit the Mayan ruins of Calakmul and then the Caribbean coast.