Book of Mormon Tour Day 8 Tuxtla Gutierrez

We got an early start and we passed through the post-classic site of Zacueu which was the capital of the Mam May group.  (Don't ask me what that was, it seems like we just passed through it and I didn't even get on picture.  Then we stopped at a tetil shop.  These looms were amazing.  They had cards, the middle of the picture  and they had holes punched for the different patterns and colors.  They don't make many things now, but we were lucky to get blankets if we wanted them.

 This is what may be the river Sidon, it runs South to North.  I don't remember the name of it now, but it was pretty impressive, in a couple of days we will be taking a boat ride up it.

 We were headed to the Guatemala and Mexico Boarder.  It was very common to see people riding in the back of pickups.

 Coming up to the boarder, we had to 

have our passports ready and be

very aware of our luggage, that is

was going to make it from our bus, 

to the next bus.

 We went through as a group, so we

were kind of like "sheep".

 Nesha and I carrying our new blankets,

Nena Earl in the back ground photo bombing us.

 Getting all the luggage on a "wagon"

to be hand drawn across the boarder.

 There were shops on both sides, of the boarder.  I 

was too nervous and excited to even look 

at what was for sell!

 We had a moment to grab some lunch!
Here's Nesha showing our nutritious fare.

 Chips, cookies and ice cream!
This is "my friend Sandi"!
What a sweet heart!

Then we just drove through some more of "the narrow strip of wilderness" which separated the land of Nephe from Zarahemla.  Then what may have been the valley of Gideon and the land of Monoh and Manti.  We arrived in Tuxtla Gutierrez to the Hotel Cameno Real. in the Chiapas Valley, considered by many to have been the Land of Zarahemla where the Nephites had their headquarters for 550 years.  

I wrote in my journal, This was one of the most amazing days traveling through the narrow mountain pass and seeing the shantys right up to the highway and with the back of them propped up with poles because they were built on steep cliffs.  Every available patch of ground was planted with vegetables.  There was so much filth and poverty, many women were right in front of their houses, almost next to the street, hand washing clothes in double cement tubs, which must have been a great luxury for them.

I can't believe that my pictures literally stop at the border, the only thing I can think of is that the bus was going the whole time and it is pretty hard to take pictures through the windows of a moving bus.