March 12, 2005
Gringo Collapse Tour

nyjunglesmall.jpgYes, it's true. On Monday Nicco and I head down to Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico and other jungle destinations, on what I'm calling the Gringo Collapse tour. We'll be sending back bits of news on our travels, recording some podcasts, pondering a civilization that disappeared under the jungle over a thousand years ago, and joining the mashup of cultures that we see in the region today - living Maya, modern Mexicans, Zapatista rebels, international tourists, archaeologists, expatriates and fugitives.

We'll be traveling on the Usumacinta River to the Maya site of Yaxchilan, a small part of the rafting and mapping trip I took with Ron Canter last spring. I'll be posting Ron's map here in the next couple of days.

To cool off, we'll take a bus up the winding road to San Cristobal de las Casas, one of the oldest towns in the hemisphere (1528), now a bustling colonial tourist center surrounded by Maya villages.

And we may drink some beer and ask ourselves "Is it just me or is it collapsing around here?"

pacalsmall.jpg

Posted by Dave at March 12, 2005 04:11 PM