The Camioneta

Hi there! We are in Guatemala currently, for a week...then we head back into the jungles of Mexico. We love it there!!

First off, a hint for the pictures...if you double click on them, you can seem them in bigger form.

Well, we headed into the jungle about a week or so ago. We went from San Cristobal de las Casas to Ocosingo and spent the night there. Then, we left and headed out on a camioneta for Zapata, a town in the jungle about 2-3 hour hike from Laguna Miramar, the most pristine and remote lake in Mexico.

The camioneta was quite an experience, and I was relieved that there were two other women and a guy from Italy on it with us. Imagine a 1 ton truck with the sides built up about 5 feet in wood and a metal frame overhead. Then imagine about 25 people in the bed of the truck, another 3 on top of the cab and another 3 or four inside the cab...now you have in mind how it looks. Add to this a couple of 50 gallon drums of gas, and another 10 gallon plastic drum, a 5 gallon drum, an extra tire, a few boxes of chickens, about 15 industrial sized packages of maza, a few flats of tomatoes, some 5 gallon buckets filled with machetes, saws and other various tools....PLUS everyones backpacks, packages, boxes, etc. You get the picture. It was crowded. And it was hot, and dusty, and sweaty. If you can believe it, Sierra slept for a few hours under these conditions!

We passed by little communities and the kids would all laugh and point at us gringos and wave and yell out HOLA...they seemed fascinated by us. As we were standing in the back of the camioneta you had to duck as we would go by trees and vines. At one point, Sierra didnt duck and got smacked in the eye with a branch and had (another) recuerdo...a souveigner. She had a big scratch on her eye, but was fine.

We were on the camioneta for roughly 8 hours. Eight lllloooooooonnnnnnngggggg hours! We were the first ones on and the last ones off. It was actually a beautiful, if bumpy, ride. Oh..did I mention there was not a road...at least not one to speak of. It was kind of an exciting adventure...but this is the kind of adventure that you would only want to do once!

At one point, the front tire blew out, so we all had to disembark while they changed the tire. There was a little stream nearby, so we got our faces washed off and got our hair wet, along with our hats. We both had to go potty, and it was a jungle experience complete with drip dry. We tried to shield each other from anyones view but as we were driving away a few minutes later, two guys with big machetes were sitting right by the place we relieved ourselves. I just hope they didnt see my white bum flappin in the wind!!!