Winter Break V: Misol-Ha, Agua Azul, Villahermosa, Tonina

January 1^st: We spent New Year´s Day at 2 different waterfalls, Agua Azul (blue water) and Misol-ha. Misol-ha is a super tall waterfall that you can walk behind.

Agua Azul lives up to its name and even as you drive along the highway you can see the turquoise blue water below. Agua Azul is in the middle of a heavily Zapatista area, and just after we left there were clashes between the local camesinos and the Zapatistas. The Zapatistas have set up an unofficial ticket gate where they collect money before you get to Agua Azul. Though they don’t own Agua Azul, they control the road that leads to it. Another nearby waterfall, Agua Clara, has been closed since October when the Zapatistas took over the area and the ticket booth.

January 2^nd: On the 2^nd we took a day trip to the neighboring state Tabasco and its capitol, Villahermosa. Last October the state of Tabasco suffered tremendously as 80% of the state was flooded. While damage from the flooding wasn’t widely evident, the now permanent sandbags along the river in downtown Villahermosa is a constant reminder of the tragedy that struck.

The main reason for the trip to Villahermosa was to go to a park called La Venta. There was, and still is, an archeological site called La Venta, but when oil was discovered nearby the contents of the site were threatened by the exploration and so all the major sculptures (including 3 huge Olmec heads), were moved to a park in Villahermosa. Cuatis (see picture below) were roaming the park, but amassed into a begging horde by the food stand. I’ve never seen anything like it, but at one point about 8 were all up on their hind legs begging for food that I didn’t have. On the way back, we though we were lucky and took the 3^rd and 4^th seat on the bus, the 1^st seats which give you a nice view of the road, I think that is the last time I will sit there. Unfortunately, we almost collided with a minivan that cut us off and later saw the same van flipped over on the side of the road after a dangerous curve. Maybe it’s better to sit in the back of the bus and just watch the movie.

January 3^rd: As vacation started winding down, we packed up the now humidity drenched tent and all our belongings and headed back down to San Cristobal via Ocosingo for a quick stop at our last set of ruins, Toniná, after quickly ducking back into Palenque before the bus. Toniná was different from the rest in that it was pretty much 1 solid pyramid instead of a collection of different pyramids and temples. Toniná actually defeated Palenque.

After the ruins we had our final combi ride (2.5 hours) and arrived back in San Cristobal. We bummed around San Cristobal on Sunday before returning to Puebla on an overnight bus.