El retorno del rey in Chiapas

Feliz Año Nuevo to everybody ! May all your 2004 wishes come true and much more ! Hopefully, my 2004 willl go smoothly as well, with more travel (yessss), lots of time with Leen and not too many sorrows in June when I'll turn 30... My New Year went very quietly, since Kris, her sister Karen (who arrived from Peru on Dec 30th) as well as myself were struck by some major stomach aches and consequent diarrea... Yes, getting sick is part of the game I guess! We suppose it was something in the beans we had for breakfast (well the beans just by themselves might have been sufficient for me). Anyways, we ended up doing not much more than cramping away the first few hours of 2004, and we went to bed early so we'd be fit for the bus the day after into Chiapas. Honestly, I have had better New Years ! Luckily, all the 3 of us were much better the day after (unlike some of you??), and with a hot bottle of herbal tea for the road, we made it to our destination just fine. Tony, a Mexican friend of Kris is travelling with us as well, so free Spanish lessons for me and no troubles at all getting a cheap hotel (he does the best bargaining)! We have touched down in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital of Chiapas, from where we will travel further to San Cristobal de las Casas and the Maya site of Palenque. Chiapas probably rings a bell for the most of you, it being the scene of major uprising and violence in the nineties. In 1994, the so called Zapatista National Liberation Army took over several towns and installed 'autonomous municipalities', demanding equal distribution of land and proper health care and education for the impoverished peasants and indigenous people of Chiapas. The Zapatistas were brutally evicted by the Mexican Army, but persisted and in their struggle managed to draw lots of international attention and sympathy for their cause. A peace agreement was finally settled in 2000, and with the new President Fox, things seem to go finally a bit in the right direction. We haven't seem much of Chiapas yet, but just by the feel of Tuxtla, it's quite different from the rest of what I've seen so far. People are very friendly, less fresa than in rich oil towns like Villahermosa, and you see a lot more Maya people in the streets of small towns like Chiapa de Corzo. Chiapas is one of the world biggest banana and coffee producers, and said to have lots of oil as well. A town like Tuxtla, surprisingly modern and clean compared to other places, has a nice feel, hell it even has a cinema where I went to see El Señor de los Anillos last night! Nearly all alone, with Spanish subtitles, for not more than 30 pesos (not even 3 euro!). It also has some major tourist potential: good weather, beautiful sierras and highlands, mystic indigenous pueblos, waterfalls and canyons (check out the pic of Cañon del Sumidero we speedboated through today!) and Maya sites like Palenque and Bonampak. But it does also have poverty, something you can see through each bus window, when you're passing through all these non-tourist areas that aren't in any guide. Chiapas, it seems that the King hasn't returned to here for everybody just as yet...