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so yeh, one of the interesting things about going on the tour with 3 people who actually live in Mexico was hearing more about quite how amazingly corrupt the government here is. There's strong military presence everywhere, especially in Chiapas where the zapatistas are strongest, and police check points all over the place. The zapatista rebellion grew out of a change in the constitution which denied indigenous people rights to their land, and instead of the protests leading to more indigenous rights it lead to a massacre of the zapatistas and portrayal of them as terrorists and drug dealers (although in fact the military have come under much scrutiny about its drug dealing... but of course noone ever gets prosicuted).

The german couple who live in Mexico live in Oaxaca. I'd read around San Cristobal grafiti supporting the people of oaxaca but didn't know what it was referring to. But apparently last year there were peaceful demonstrations in Oaxaca by teachers about their wages, and instead of raising wages which was what usually happened, they responded with violence and tear gas. This escalated into bigger protests, with people being disappeared and barricades set up by the people to protect the people from the police. Many protesters were put into prison. None of this made it into national or international news until an american journalist was killed. There was a film of him being shot and still noone was prosicuted. Within a few weeks all demolished building were rebuilt, the city was tidied up, graffiti painted over and the government pretended that nothing had happened.

Other little things such as the fact that opposite the Ciapas office for animal protection there is a house, in the garden of the house there is a wild macaw with its wings clipped being kept as a pet give you less and less faith in Mexican beurocracy.

Anyhoo, back to the trip! Day three we went to some more ruins right on the guatemalan border which we went to by boat. Amazing carvings showing self sacrifice to the gods (women pierced their tongues and men their penis, thankfully the carvings are more symbolic than graphic representations). In the afternoon we went to the lastplace that we'd sleep. The cabins were much more basic but right on the river with little porch and hammocs. From there we went for a walk to a little pool of cool clear water where we swam and dived for shells.

Last day of the tour we went to Bonampak, some more ruins, which have the most incredible preserved painted murals. Two are celebrating the birth of the new emporer, with more images of self sacrifice, dancers, musicians, actors. Another is celebrating a battle with various gruesome pictures of beheaded slaves etc.

From there we went on the Palenque, the tour included a guide of the ruins there but as 4 of us had already been we had a refund instead of the tour and left the rest of them to head back to San Cristobal. We stayed one night in Palenque and then went to Campeche, a town known for its history of being invaded by pirates who raped and pillaged. Our hostel was El Pirata and in the doorway there was a life size plastic pirate sceleton whose eyes lit up red and who shouted whenever you walked through the door. There was not too much to do in Campeche, but having slept in a different bed the last 6 nights we were quite content to do nothing for a couple of days so we wandered about the town, did a little shopping and caught up on sleep.

After 2 days there we came here to Valladolid last night. There are Cenotes here (natural pools) and it's near to Chichen Itza so I think we'll go for a swim thisafternoon and then head to Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the world,tomorrow.

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