Toniná Maya site and zapatista villages

I was really close to stopping this trip and booking a flight home, given the food poisoning and especially the fever and forced bedrest. Luckily people from home supported me, and luckily things turned a bit better slowly. I left from San Cristóbal on Tuesday morning feeling fine again, just a tad weak, but definitely good enough to continue.

After a day of cycling through coffee fields with amazing views — and having a "gringo!" shout on camera — I decided to not go for weird rooms over a pharmacy that someone mentioned online, but to ask somewhere if I could camp somewhere. And after a (really beautiful) downhill my legs and body really screamed that it couldn't go on with the next uphill— that I did start—so I turned around and asked at something that looked like a Restaurant, a Restaurant with a big garden behind it, if I could maybe camp there. They were super accommodating (even if there was garbage lying around everywhere and the dogs were a nightmare) so I had a safe night of sleep. Turns out, this town was actually a "Zapatista" town, of local government and not following what the government says, primarily advocating for the rights of Indigenous people in the southern state of Chiapas. I ended up seeing a lot more of those towns — basically all the towns past Ocosingo. It's a bit of a rebellious community-driven anti-capitalist movement and a very local form of government, as far as I could understand, also from talking with the guide of the Toniná Maya site; more on the Maya site in a bit. (What definitely didn't improve from their self-governance and resistance is the quality of the roads.)

The following day was again a lot of climbing, that would bring me to Ocosingo. I was warned of this place—two cyclists were murdered here a few years back—so I was extra weary. However, everything was fine, no weird looks, no weird faces, just a hectic (due to traffic, like every Mexican city we've been to except Oaxaca), chaotic, and not exciting city. Also asked for a quesadilla without meat there, and that wasn't possible; I really thought I explained well to just make one sencilla, but still ended up getting one with ham inside. It's difficult. Nevertheless I managed to get to the campsite near the Maya ruins: The Maya ruins that turned out to be closed for two years, due to land disputes between the owner of the land and the government. (I wasn't the only one not to know, I talked with other German guests and they also had no idea.) I was explained the entire story from a lady from Czech who came to volunteer here for a while and has a big interest in Maya culture (not the one we saw in San Juan Chamula, where the culture seems to be a tourist travesty of what it once was, and they just drink and have tourist-funded posh-ceremonies all day long), and she also told me seeing the site IS possible, just have to ask for a private tour and pay more.

That campsite was nice, but the campsite the following day (Friday) near Nahá—after another super heavy day of cycling—is even nicer. Really quiet with lots of birds around and a beautiful area. I also met two Belgium cyclists who did the same route as we did there.

So, about the Maya: I watched a documentary before from National Geographic, and researched wiki a bit to learn about the many battles between Palenque and Tikál, where one kidnapped the leader of the other and vice versa, and that many times over (slight oversimplification there). It was really a lot of wars and fighting, despite the beginning of Maya civilization probably having been unification through religion and worship. The guide also talked with some pride of how the Tonina rulers captured the palenque city, and how Toniná became the dominant city that got paid tribute to from everywhere around, because it was so powerful. (Except, as I understood it, fighting and diseases also caused all Maya cities in the area to fall apart and be deserted, except highland and places like Chichen Itzá that were farther away.)

In the town I am now in, Nahá, live Lacandon Maya who still preserved most of their traditional culture and habits, and live only in a few remote villages. (They do have blenders in the kitchen, and they seemed all to eager to let me hear it.) It's an interesting read on Wikipedia; and I did see some people in traditional white robes.

Tomorrow I will go to the border town of Frontera corozal, and visit another Maya site there (by boat), to then enter Guatamala the next day (also by boat).Read more