I just returned from Chiapas, Mexico where I was visiting some good friends of mine, Anne Comrada and Jay Martin. They have been living for the past several months in San Cristobal, a beautiful town in the mountains. Chiapas is the southern state of mexico and not at all like the cancun vacations of which most people are familiar. I had heard of Chiapas already through my job at Starbucks where we sell a brand of coffee called "Fincas de Chiapas". The word "Fincas" describes a large farm or ranch. We went on a road trip for five days and drove along the gautamalan border through some amazing mountains and while in the mountains we passed by many fincas with coffee plants growing right by the side of the road. The towns we drove through in the mountains consisted of colorful shacks with people milling outside along the road with chickens and mangy dogs. The dogs in mexico are the mangiest I've ever seen anywhere. Jay and Anne have a dog of there own, a miniture Italian greyhound named Ramseys. It was imperative to keep the mangy dogs away from Ramseys, so Anne and Jay taught us how to scare the other dogs off by making a small "ch ch" sound. We made that sound a lot and thus all four of us were champions and protectors of Ramseys.
We spent one night in the mountains in a hotel that had been built by German immigrants in the twenties. It looked a bit like a swiss chalet, though in the years that had passed many concrete architechural additions had been made, so that hotel had become a spawling mamouth. That town was called Union Juarez. We saw lots of A frames there and drank really good coffee for the first and last time on the entire trip. After our night in Union Juarez we drove a down the mountain a ways to the olmec ruins of Izapa. There are three different sites for the Izapa ruins. As we were getting out of the car to visit the first site a group of children came running out of their bus screaming "Gringos!!!". We were swamped with children for quite a while. Some of them wanted to practice their english and some of them just shouted rapid fire questioning at us in Spanish. Jay was the best spanish speaker among us, so by the end of our visit with the school children he was quite worn out. We didn't spend much time with that site of ruins after the children got back in the bus, but we did manage to photograph ourselves doing some yoga on the top of a ruin.
Jay took us to the cloud forest our first day there. We woke up very early because he said that's when all the birds would be out and about. We didn't see tons of birds that day and the cloud forest wasn't very cloudy, but we had quite a vigorous hike and we saw lots of birds later on in our travels. The sub plot of the trip was birdwatching, and I learned a lot about seeing and in particular about how I tend to look at things. Usually if I look up into a tree I see a mass of leaves and light and sparkles. To bird watch you need to pick a specific detail (bird) out of the entirety of the tree. Often the bird is well camoflaged, but with practice I started being able to pick out birds from the leaves and sparkle and each time I did I gave myself one point. Point!
The final destination on our road trip was a beach called "Playa Azul". We drove up and down Rt 200 passing the same military check point (they always wanted to look at the dog because they thought it was very funny to own a dog and drive around in a car with him) about 3 times. We didn't find Playa Azul, but finally in a town called Pijijipan we asked for directions. We asked for directions many times, and were directed to "La playa grande". La playa grande was in the nature reserve that Jay had originally wanted to stay, but had decided that it wouldn't be a good idea because of the uncertainity about parking the car. We drove down a long dirt road for about 30 kilometers. Jay kept checking to see if the electrical lines were with us. It was getting dark and the road seemed very desolate. I had a feeling that we would end up at a beautiful beach, but I could feel Anne and Jay's nervousness. I could feel Ramsey's nervousness. It was totally dark when we got to the end of the road where we found a small family owned resturant. There's always a resturant in mexico no matter how desolate the road. This particular resturant served us fresh catfish a few days later. After a series of confusing conversations we parked the car safely with the family and got into a canoe. We crossed the mangrovee lagoon and hopped out onto a sandy beach. We set up camp and then had a fish dinner. The fish was delicious and fresh and entire. There was no sugar coating it with this fish. It still had its eyes and bones and fins. Anne and jay tore into the fish with practiced skill and precision while Travis and I worked bravely though gingerly on ours.
The next day the father of the beach (a family lived there) took us on a canoe tour of the lagoons. He told us that he would show us the cocodrillos (crocodiles). Apparently the people on this beach spoke in a dialect that was difficult for Jay and Anne to understand, so we never got the man's name. We just called him Senor. Senor rowed the four of us gringos and our little dog all over the lagoon. It was truly amazing. First of all, he was very strong to do that. Secondly, this man lived in a very beautiful place and it was so inspiring to see how proud he was of it. He showed us many birds. Jay was in heaven and Travis took many pictures. We saw eagles, hawks, these ducks that looked like snakes in the water, and a spoon bill. We even saw a stork! Then of course there were the cocodrillos. The first one we saw was pretty large laying by the water. Senor began to row the boat closer, and as we neared the cocodrillo flashed quickly into the water. I nearly wet my pants. Soon after Senor took us to a cocodrillo cul-de-sak. We rowed into the small space and then stopped. I thought, "what are we doing here?" Then I looked. There were cocodrillos everywhere! Classic cocodrillo eyes in the water, cocodrillos chilling by the banks hidden by mangrove trees, smiling cocodrillos, baby cocodrillos and large cocodrillos. This was my limit for adventure. I had seen the power in the movement of that previous cocodrillo and I was not so hot on staying around for very long. Anne told me "They are more scared of you than you are of them". All I had to say was, "famous last words"!
That was the only time I was afraid the entire trip except for earlier in the day was I was in the ocean and got caught in a rip tide. If you are ever caught in a rip tide make sure to swim parallel to the shore and don't panic. I did panic of course. The currents of the pacific ocean are stronger than what I'm used to in Rehoboth, De. You'll never here me claim ever again that, "I'm a strong swimmer". I'm not. I'm a terrible swimmer and I havn't got a chance against the cocodrillo.
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