March was filled with wonderful experiences at both work and play. Our volunteering was recognized throughout the community of Ajijic. We rewarded ourselves with a three-week vacation in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Here Glorine is celebrating her 74th birthday with friends the day we arrived in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas.

Fat Tuesday remains a large celebration with parties into the wee hours of the morning. Flour is their form of confetti and we were not scathed as we arrived at our friends' house along the parade route.	Friends, Chuck and Jean, hosted their annual Fat Tuesday party with a front row seat to the parade on their second floor patio. Revelers managed to nail us with flour despite our location.
FoodBank Lakeside was featured on its second year of operation at Open Circle.  The presentation was great as it spotlighted their entire leadership team, including Glorine as one of the three founding mothers.	In addition to awesome publicity, FoodBank Lakeside received 17,000 pesos in donation. In addition, FBL was the featured charity at the Concerts in the Park, which raised an additional 30,000 pesos.
Friend Sueki, hosted a small dinner party to celebrate the beginning of a new life after being sequestered due to COVID. At 80, she bought a small RV and plans to travel the country with her new puppy.	This Concert in the Park was a tribute to Elton John and Abba and one of the best ever. Both individually and together, they wooed the audience. These fundraising events kept the doors open at LCS.
Here Larry is speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the Lake Chapala Society, which was held in person and on ZOOM. He focused on the accomplishments of LCS 2.0, the long range plan he help create.	Larry introduced Leon Felipe, a professor with the University of Guadalajara's Architecture School to Luis Pacheco, the head of LCS to create an opportunity for architectural students to get firsthand experience by helping LCS redevelop its campus.
Art, in its many forms, is one of the things that make Ajijic such a magical place. Here LCS is hosting an Art Festival featuring Mexican and international artists.	During our first stop on our vacation to Southern Mexico, we spent the night in Tala de Allende, where Larry learned of Saint Lorenzo at a local art gallery.
The road trip gave us an opportunity to learn more about Mexico.  This is Pico de Orizaba, the third largest mountain in North America with glaciers on top.	Our next stop was Coatza, a seaport on the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz, home to the largest concentration of petrochemicals in the world.
We dipped our toes in the Gulf of Mexico, which we found to be both warm and very clean. However, the town reminded us of Cuba, which shows the scars of too many hurricanes.	As we were driving in Chiapas, we found this road closed, due to a protest sparked over water rights that were taken away. Chiapas is Mexico's poorest state, made up of mostly rural indigenous people.
Not knowing how long the road would be barricaded, we took an alternative route along this one lane mountains road at 6,900 feet above sea level. We made it safe and sound.	Our first day in San Cristobal de Las Cases we took a free walking tour (in English) and learned of its rich history as a major cultural and political center for the Maya and other indigenous people.
We started out in one of the main plaza, in front of the Cathedral of San Cristobal, built in the 1600, but currently under restoration.	This city has many diverse agricultural industries, but their largest economy is tourism where many of the handicraft goods are produced are sold.
The Temple and ex-convent of Santo Domingo show cases the best example of Baroque architecture in the Western hemisphere. It is surrounded by a huge craft market filled with textiles and other handicrafts.	We stayed at this Airbnb with friends Ron and Jean. Here Ron and Glorine spent the day attending a cooking class where they learned the art of mole.  Jean and Larry extended the tour by visiting pubs and galleries.
Cooking Class. First to the market to buy what we needed to make mole. Everything green went into the green mole while the red mole had a little more variety. The red mole was with chicken and the green was with pork. The favorite was the green - more flavorful.	Now to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  What a delicious meal.  We also got to try some produce unique to the area including a pineapple mango.  Our instructor is the lady in pink and Ron is sitting next to her.  The couple on the right are from Germany and the young man on the left is from California.  What a fun time.
We toured the community of Zinacantan, where 99 percent of the population are Tzotzil Maya with roots that date back to 300 BC. On special occasions, both men and women dress in colorful flowering clothing.	Their religion is a mix of Catholic and Mayan religions. We arrived just as these newly baptized children were leaving the church, stopping for family photos.
A church in Chamula allows no photos. While Christian in appearance, the bible is not used. We learned that Shamans heal people by sacrificing animals to rescue the souls from the god of the underworld.	We stayed at this awesome B&B with the most exquisite grounds.  Each room had a fireplace that we used, as nighttime temperatures were quite cool at this elevation.
The city sits atop a high plateau, which is mainly flat. Our apartment was a few blocks from the city center, which we walked to.	Other than breakfast, most of our meals were out in one of the hundreds of restaurants that are designed to serve the needs of a very diverse tourists.
One of most significant sites to see is the Sumidero Canyon National Park, about 40 miles west of San Cristobal. The Grijulva River begins in Guatemala and snakes through the states of Chiapas and Tabasco.	After we boarded our tour boat, near a major hydro dam, our first stop was a floating bar, where Glorine and Jean each got a Michelada, a spicy Mexican beer with a tomato juice cocktail.
This reservoir produces over 30 percent of Mexico's hydroelectric energy. This narrow passageways is about 8 miles long with depths of up to 860 feet.	As we toured the canyon, we could see why this is the second most  important tourist site in Chiapas with vertical walls reaching as high as 3,300 feet.
This vacation with be a birthday present that Glorine will remember for a long time. This canyon was formed some 35 million years ago, and features waterfalls, beaches and freshwater springs.	We were surprised to see this American crocodile resting along the riverbank.  We also learned these waters are home to the Central American river turtles an endangered species.
Our boat tour ended along a marina near Chiapa de Corzo, the first Spanish settlement in Chiapas in 1528. It has the most unique city plaza structure.	After saying farewell to Ron and Jean, we drove to Palenque and stopped at Misol-Ha waterfall, which we walked behind and saw more smaller waterfalls.
The ancient ruins of Palenque are not as large as Chichen Itza, but have some of the finest architecture, and sculptures that the Mayan produced.	The present-day ruins is about one square mile, which represents about 10 percent of the entire city, as depicted by this rendering.
Palenque, meaning big water, comprises over 1,000 different structures, making it one of the most densely populated Maya cities.	The Temple of the Cross sits atop a step pyramid containing panels depicting stories of Palenque and its leaders.
This picture was taken from a hill on the edge of the jungle looking out to the pyramids.  It is easy to see how easy it was for the jungle to consume these buildings.	As we walked through the ancient city we were amazed at how sophisticated the Mayan people were before the Roman Empire.  And how little attention it has gotten in American textbooks.
Here Brian and Marilyn posed with us on a bridge over a water tunnel and aqueduct running along the western side of the city to distribute the excess water throughout the city.	This temple is the Pyramid of the Inscriptions has eight platforms and built to house the remains of Pakai the Great, who ruled from 615 to 683 AD, in the height of Palenque's glory.
As we walked into the jungle, our tour guide pointed out this entrance into a temple that is completely covered by the jungle.  We did get a glimpse of a monkey, a tarantula and termite hives.	After touring the modern city of Palenque, Brian and Larry showed how much they enjoyed their visits here. The weather was hot and humid, which was so much different than San Cristobal.
On our drive from Palenque back to San Cristobal, we spent an hour touring Aqua Azul (Blue Water) waterfalls.	We walked a man-made walkway along the Xanil River for nearly a mile and either way we looked; the sight was phenomenal.
Back in San Cristobal, we toured the Mayan World Textile Center, founded in 2000 by Banamex Foundation to preserve textiles throughout the Mayan region.	This is one of several rooms with drawers that display unique garments designed to promote the development of indigenous artisans. As a drawer is opened, a light above would come on illuminating the garment.
The Mayan Medicine Museum promotes ancient medical practices among indigenous populations. This scene was similar to the one we saw in Chamula when a shaman sacrificed a chicken over the candles.	This exhibit shows the birthing practices where the  women kneels in front of her husband, who, sitting on a chair supports her arms, while the midwife gently presses the mother's belly downward.
Twelve blocks of downtown San Cristobal are  dedicated to pedestrian traffic only and crowded with tourists from throughout the world day and night.	Two-for-one happy hour worked to lure us for drinks then on for dinner.  Evening cools off a bit, which meant we ate indoors.
A short 20-minute drive took us to El Arcotete Ecotourism Park, which has an incredible cave system we accessed  by crossing a river by this swinging bridge.	The cave is a huge archway about 1/4 of a mile long, with a river running through it.  This winding walkway led us up to the top of the limestone where we could look down to the river below.
Of the hundreds of caves we have toured in the past we have never seen this many pillars, where stalactites and stalagmites joined together.	Here Glorine is posing in one of many small caverns that are about six foot high, with pillars seemingly holding the roof up.
For the more adventuresome types, the park offers zip lining above the tree canopy and rock claiming as this young women is doing.	On the drive back to town, we caught this epic picture of the mountains, jungle and sunrays streaming through the clouds.
This family was herding sheep along the road as we drove by.  The kids had wide smiles as we took this picture.  The sheep were all wearing pink or blue masks. Even they take COVID seriously!	On our last night together, the city was having a concert in the main plaza featuring some modern Mexican musicians where people were dancing and taking in another great experience.