Touchdown Tuxtla Guttierez!

We´re here. At an internet cafe in central Tuxtla muttering in English at how slow these computers are. Until Tara asks me to visualize someone sitting next to me reviling their computer outloud in a foreign language. Point taken. Now I suffer in silence. Trying to upload pictures, but we´re at the mercy of a power much great than us, namely, the world wide web. And the Webcoffee Attendant. The following photos are not in order, and they´re just a few choice morsels taken Tara, master photographer. Trust me, if you want to see legions of pictures of trees, this girl has got your back.

Try as Nick and Zoe might, they failed to derail our journey leaving their passports at home, and revealing this as soon as we got to the border. Crystal valiantly came to the rescue. Try as I might, I have been unable to update because we´ve been staying at the Assembly Hall in Tuxtla Guttierez, boating down crocodile infested canyons, and eating enormous amounts of fried foods.

Apparently I thought I was going deep into the African sahara, because I brought headlamps, flint, first aid kits, knives, compasses and all sorts of delightful things, but as of yet I´ve only used my Swiss army knife for grooming. This has not stopped me from practing with my flint in the night.

Julian y Mimi are caretakers for the Assembly Hall, and they work incessantly. However, they have 10 days of vacation saved up, and they decided to use 5 of those to escort us around all the natural wonders of Chiapas. While we were intent on going out in service at once, we could not resist their travel itinerary and have seen some of the most beautiful sights imaginable. At least we´re following the direction to appreciate Jehovah´s creation...no argument there.

Mexico...is...amazing. We are all enjoying ourselves immensely. Julian and Mimi are likely the most hospitable people in the country, if not the world. Staying at the Assembly Hall has has been an eye-opener. Certain things are unacceptable, like...women wearing the short pants of a man, while other things, like the volunteer security guards cooking carne asada in the parking lot at 3 am, is completely agreeable. Contrary to popular rumors propagated by my mother, we were not courageously boating down the crocodile infested river to reach seldom worked territory. Our hosts simply took us on a boat ride. However, we gave an excellent witness to the crocodiles. We have one Do Not Call, but I´m still convinced he´s a sheep. ¿Si?
On the way back, a light drizzle turned into an epic downpour, and our boat guide kindly gave us a community tarp to cover ourselves.

The brothers and sisters are amazing. Crystal made one especially close friend, who took great delight in massaging all of our shoulders. As you can see, I think no one was quite as delighted as Crystal.

Hopefully I have to post service pictures before Mimi comes and picks us up. She´s at the doctor with Nick and Zoe. Nick has become un poco inferma, por que el es un loco mono. A little rest and some habeñero peppers and he´ll be feeling fine so that we can make our way to San Cristobal today, and take a bus to Oaxaca, Oaxaca tomorrow, for the next leg of our journey. Chiapas will live on in our hearts now and...FOREVER!