Seventh Day:   Surrounding San Cristobal dc las Casas arc beautiful little valleys separated by meandering rows of low mountains. In each one lies a small village populated by an indigenous group with dialect and costume distinguishing it from any other. Then visit two villages that are within a few miles of each other, separated only by a ridge of hills but with customs and cultural roots that are vastly different.
In Xinacantan you’ll note men and women wear clothing woven of bright pink thread, embroidered with large pastel flowers and edged with bouncing tassels. Their neighbors in San Juan Chamula wear black, wild, tangled woolen shawls with white wool tunics. In both towns you'll see interesting primitive churches, copal incense floating around the natives sitting on the ground, candles burning before them.
Breakfast Included.

Eighth Day:  This is your free day to explore the inviting streets and great shops on your own, where you will find handicrafts of rare beauty, native only to this area.. Admire the antiquity of Santo Domingo Church. Then visit Sna Jolobil, a cooperative established to assist local women to improve and market traditional needlework. (a subject of National Geographic articles).
Breakfast Included.

Ninth Day:  Follow the road through valleys and villages down the mountains, away from the pine forests to forests of giant ferns and thick vegetation. You might pass a  barber standing beside his portable chair engaged in giving a haircut  right along the highway. Pass Oxchuc, where women wear broad red striped huipils and down to Ocosingo where they wear navy blue skirts with brilliant blue ribbon stripes. Then explore a side road leading to the incredible turquoise Blue Water Waterfalls, Las Casadas de  Agua Azul — the pride of the state of Chiapas.
You’ll come to the tropical lowlands, cross the Chacamax River and arrive at your hotel for the next two nights, the Nututun Viva, situated on the riverbank. This evening, circle the plaza in Palenque, a unique town that has long served as the last outpost to the jungle. Go to sleep in the land of the Maya,lulled by a melodious chorus of frogs!
Breakfast Included.

Tenth Day:   Exotic bird songs of Oropéndola and Pijije provide a jungle-style wake-up call. After breakfast in your thatched-    roof dining room, drive to the most beautiful of all archeological zones. Palenque. This five-minute drive once took days of hacking through impenetrable jungle growth with machetes. Cortez marched past the ancient city unknowingly, while through the passing of hundreds and  hundreds of years, the great ruler Pacal has rested in his tomb in the Temple of the Inscriptions, lost in the jungle, deep under the canopy of vegetation.
Breakfast Included.

Eleventh Day:   This morning board your  motorcoach for the drive to the state of Tabasco. You will see many   lilies and Bird of Paradise plants along the road and in the ponds  formed by the abundance of water here. Check into your hotel, the beautiful Cencali Hotel, situated on the banks of the Lagoon of  Illusions in the prosperous city of Villahermosa.  You’ll visit La Venta Museum for a stroll along the paths underneath  giant trees. Mischievous little coatemundis (tree-dwelling animals)  play underfoot and among the giant Olmec heads and monuments on  display. Afterwards, lounge by the hotel pool and enjoy the tropical gardens.
Breakfast Included.

Twelfth Day:   Travel through volcanic rich fields of tobacco crops and mango trees on the way to the most     important port in Mexico, tropical Veracruz. You’ll do more  sightseeing — there’s so much to see here! Downtown on the square  (plaza) all types of musicians, from marimba bands to Mariachi  groups, offer their music for a few pesos. Relax, with free time to stroll  the seaside promenade. Your host hotel, the Hotel Deligencias, faces the water.
Breakfast Included.

Thirteenth Day:   You’ll drive northward along  the scenic coastline through coconut groves, with brahma and zebu cattle lazily munching in the shade below. Then you’ll arrive at the oil  boomtown of Poza Rica, where you will enjoy a good night’s rest at the lovely Poza Rica Inn, to be ready to see El Tajin in the morning.
Breakfast Included.

Fourteenth Day:  Enjoy an early morning walk through the ancient city of the Totonacs, El Tajin, where new excavations reveal more each year of the remarkable site, dedicated to the Hurricane God.  It's often photographed Pyramid of the Niches, six Ceremonial Ball Courts and many exceptional temples will astound you! (Enjoy the Flying Men of Papantla!) Then continue your drive to Tampico, to your host for the evening, the Hotel Holiday Inn, right in the heart of the Centro Historico, which you can explore on foot this evening.
Breakfast, Box Lunch Included.

Fifteenth Day: Following a city tour of Tampico, you’ll head for the border.  Mesquite and sage follow the road home through the spacious northern  ranch country. You’ll cross to the U.S. through Reynosa and arrive in the Valley at about 5:30p.m.. 
Breakfast Included.

Mar. 22