December Tour Days 4 & 5

On the first stage of our road trip we travel by coach to Ocosingo, two and a quarter hours away. The journey may be short, but it is incredibly twisty, and we’re all pleased to arrive at Hospedaje Esmeralda, where we are the only guests.

The guest-house is owned by an American couple. We stayed on their ranch here seven years ago, but it has since been seized by a community allied to the Zapatista cause (which is particularly strong in this region and brings with it a dislike both of tourism and of any non-indigenous land ownership).

Ocosingo is not very touristy, and is real cowboy country, with boots and hats in all of the stores and lush green grazing land all around.


In the morning we visit the local Tianguis (market) where Paul and Daisy become the major attractions. The market is for women only, who squat in the dust in their traditional costumes selling the produce from their land. Any fears that anything here is put on for the tourists is soon quelled by Ocosingo, where there are no tourists and the Tianguis appears not to have changed for centuries.

We later travel to the Tonina ruins, the major reason for being in Ocosingo at all. They are some of the least touristy ruins in Mexico, beautifully preserved but not very famous. Tonina was a warlike city which conquered nearby Palenque, and is full of crazy murals of people having their heads chopped off and visiting an Underworld ruled by a large rodent.


We pass Rancho Esmeralda and other ranches seized by the Zapatistas on the way back. They are right opposite a large army barracks. Ocosingo was the scene of the bloodiest fighting in 1994 and the organisation is still strong here, but no longer martial. Our taxi driver says gloomily that the problem is that the ranches seized by Zapatistas are now not being used for anything at all. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, this seems a shame.

Leaving Ocosingo we travel to Palenque, in the depths of the jungle, packing everything up yet again. It isn’t easy travelling light with a baby, which isn’t helped by the fact that I smash a thermos flask we use for keeping water warm for Daisy’s bottles. Luckily they sell more in Ocosingo.