Part 5 Getting back to San Cristobal through Flores and Palenque

"Where to next?" I asked Faith as we walked up from the dock into the city of Rio Dulce. We now were faced with the dilemma of how to get back to San Cristobal safely and timely. We had the option of pioneering into unchartered territory and see some new sites such as Antigua (a colonial town similar to San Cristobal near some famous lakes and volcanoes) or retrace our steps. We chose the latter mainly because it was familiar and more of a sure thing.

We only had a matter of minutes between when we purchased our bus tickets and our departure so I scrambled through the outdoor vendors to find some road food. There simply wasn't enough time to get anything substantial so I settled on a few mandarin oranges and two bags of unripe mangoes covered in salt, lime, chile, and hajuashte (ground up pumpkin seed powder). Not exactly a well balanced meal, but we had to make due.

Everyone piled into the bus and we set off for Flores. We met some interesting people along the way like a Guatemalan man, who teaches Q'eqchi' youth in Guatemala, that spent seven years in Bakersfield, California. He explained to me how even though he would have loved to have taught in the states he wasn't able to and had to settle for a position as a cook at a P.F. Chang's. He has since returned to do what he truly loves- teach children. Talking about food from home didn't help our hunger pains, but we were then surprised by a woman on the bus who began selling fried chicken, fried pork and rice. It seems I have become a gambling man while on this trip because any chance I get I always play the "Let's See If This Will Make You Sick" game. I ordered a little of everything and ate off my lap on the bumpy road, you would have definitely been impressed with the ratio that actually made it into my mouth.

Once back in Flores we raced Tuk Tuk's with some of our new friends and stayed again at the Hotel Lacandon. I enjoyed a good swim in Lake Peten happy to be able to experience it again. We couldn't get too comfortable though, we had to leave at 5:00 a.m. the next morning to get to Palenque, an estimated seven hour trip.

The next morning we groggily went downstairs and waited for our pickup. San Juan Travel and their off-roading bus came by and we were on our way. It was a nice ride until we got to the dirt road. I had the back of the bus and the tirewell allowed for absolutely no leg room and the window slid open on its own from the reverberating bus. Our hair felt like straw from the amount of dust we were collecting in it. We could have been mistaken for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill after she unearths herself when she was buried alive.

Along the way we made friends with a Kentuckian couple who have been all over the world. They told us amazing stories of their times in places like Malaysia, Botswana, Thailand, and France. We explained to them our journey and they decided to join us on our way back to San Cristobal. At Palenque we had to jump on a Combi bus and ride for another five hours. This was the longest traveling day we had had on this trip so far- 13 hours. We did get to see interesting things along the way though. Since it was New Year's Eve there was definitely parties being prepared and we got to see how different regions celebrate. Our favorite was seeing life size dummies fully dressed along the roadside, on patios, even on second story balconies. We asked our driver (who had the smallest steering wheel ever made) who told us it is a tradition to dress dummies in old clothes and at midnight strike a match and burn them to the ground. A symbolic letting go of the past, very neat, but we didn't get to actually see any of them go up in flames. Around 8:00 p.m. we finally got back to our home away from home- San Cristobal de las Casas. We had been gone for 14 days and it felt good to be back. We helped our friends find a decent hotel and showed them around our little town. We had a nice evening with them and even were able to stay up until midnight to wish them a happy new year.

Our epic journey had come to an end. We still can't believe all the things we saw and did and couldn't have asked for it to have gone any smoother. We didn't have a single thing break, get lost, or stolen. We made friends we will keep in contact with for a very long time and made memories that will stay with us our entire lives. We appreciate all of you who have read along with us and hope some day you get the chance to make it down here for yourselves.