sorry it has been so long between noticias. i am not dead or anything, i have just spent a stretch of 15 days where for nine of those days, i was sleeping in hammock, and 3 of those nights i slept on a bus, so i havent been near computers for 2 weeks.

shortly after i last left you, i went to the mayan ruins of palenque, probably the nicest ruins i have seen so far. they are not as big and impressive as tikal, but they are set on a hillside in the jungle, and you can climb up the temples and look out over the flood plains below, and everywhere you walk and everywhere you look, beautifully crumbling ruins are appearing between the ruined walls of other ruins, rising up out of the jungle. simply put, the place has great sight lines.

i slept in a hammock at a place only half kilometer from the ruins in the jungle. at night you could look up and see the milky way and hear the howler monkeys in the jungle. one night i woke up and opened my eyes just as a drak shape about the size of a dog trundled passed my hammock. the place i stayed, and i didnt�know this till i got there, also was home to a large community of european and mexican hippies, who had bonfires and blew on conch shells and had drum circles every night. they were very insular and unfriendly hippies tho, sort of like a clique of cool kids in high school, looking down their noses at us squares passing thru who didnt have the courage to drop out of our plastic fantastic buttoned down world like they did, tho they appeared to be the kind of hippies we call in america "trustafarians", since none of them seemed to have any means of support. i shared a palapa shelter with one of them, and even tho he spoke english and i tried to speak to him in spanish, all i could get out of him was that he was born in mexico city and now he lived there, at the ruins, selling trinkets for a living.

next i was in san cristobal de las casas, arriving the same day as the zapatistas arrived in mexico city to demadn the rights for indegenous peoples. san cristobal is very nice, set in a mountain valley and full of colonial buildings, but, and mac i guess is the only one who will really understand this, it is kind of the Antigua of Mexico. meaning, it is beautiful and colonial and it is one of those place where indigenous peoples rights are being oprressed nearby, but the actual city is safe enough so self satisfied young colleged lilberals can sit it cafes and talk about the rights of indigenous peoples while drinking capucino before finishing there spanish lessons and going home to america where they can tell all there friends they bought a zapatista effigy from a real live indigenous person, instead of actually doing somethign to help the indigenous peoples, like joing tht peace corps and spending 2 1-2 years living in a dirt house and planting potatoes like mac. but it is still a really nice city to visit

after san cris, i went to a beach on the pacific ocean. there i slept in a hammock on the side of a hill about 75 yards from the pacific ocean for 4 days. the oaxaca coast, which is where i was, has everything over the caribbean coast, where i spent 1 night. its quiet, laid back, the beaches are relatively deserted, and i slept right next to the ocean for 2.50 american a night, falling asleep to the sound of waves and waking up the the sun coming up over the ocean.

next was a marathon where i spent 17 of 18 hours on buses to reach the michoacan coast, even more beautiful and deserted than the oaxacan coast. i spent two night sleeping in my hammock slung beachfront restaurants for free. the only ettiquete i think is that you eat a meal or two in the restaurant. but both beaches i stayed at, i was the only person there. which is nice if that is what you are looking for.

now i am in guadalajara, the 2nd biggest city in mexico. according to my calculation, i should be standin on american soil again in el paso texas on march 30. after that, if all goes to plan, i should be arriving in chicagos union station at 4:30 pm or so on one of the days between april 9-12, for those of you who want to hold nightly vigils awaiting my triumphant return. i calculated last night that i have come, in a direct line, not counting sidetrips, so far rouhgly 5,551 miles by train, bus and boat in the last two months. this is probably the last time i will be at a computer before i get home, since i will be in copper canyon in a few days and then ther are very few interent cafes in america. see everyone in a few weeks. jim