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Published: December 28th 2009
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Church
One of the many churches lit up with the strong sun. VISA RUN TO MEXICO Contents 1. Visa’s and San Cristobal, Mexico
2. Indulging
3. Bugs
1. Visa’s and San Cristobal, Mexico. So our visa situation in El Salvador is this: were tourists and we have to leave the region every 3 months. The tricky part is that Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua are all on the same visa. So in order to renew our visa, we have to high tail it to Costa Rica or Mexico. For our first visa run, we chose Chiapas, Mexico. Chiapas Mexico is home of the Zapatistas, a marginalized indigenous group that has been fighting for human rights for the last 10 years and gained international fame when they stormed (and took) the city of San Cristobal.
But enough boring history mumbo jumbo, onto the fun. We went to San Cristobal, Mexico. It’s a quaint, gorgeous Colonial town. It’s up high on a mountain (higher than Denver, take that mile high) and very clean. For our trip we mostly just indulged (see # below) and relaxed in the city life. A big bonus is that everything here is really cheap: $16 for private room/private bathroom in a colonial guesthouse, $1
ahhhh! ahhhh!
Fun in the hotel room x 2 beer, $1 cappuccino from a posh cafe, $10 dinner for 2 at a nice restaurant with many drinks, etc. etc. It seems to be a high tourist destination, but the tourists here are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There are no American tourists, zilch. Almost all the tourists are Mexican and Latino travelers, and some Europeans. We never heard English on the streets, and when we saw white-appearing tourists, they were always speaking fluent Spanish, even amongst themselves. And lastly, there were hippies everywhere, but they’re all Mexican. Its so similar and yet so different to every other place I’ve been in Central America, and its totally whack. And after a week of indulging, we made it back to El Salvador.
The traveling consisted of 24 hours on 3 buses to get from San Salvador to San Cristobal. And another 6 hours another day to get from San Salvador to our life in the campo.
2. Indulging. San cristobal is a beautiful town with lots to do. But the best part of our time there was indulging in the comforts of life, which we don’t have in El Salvador. Just to name a few: cold beers,
Flags on the Street
The city was getting ready for the festival of Guadalupe, a Saint's holiday celebrated every December hot showers, a sink AND mirror (the difference of shaving with a combo sink/mirror is incredible), ice cream, and kahlua. I want you all to take 1 moment and think about how incredible those simple things are. Ok, now you can go back to your Irish car bombs, Jacuzzi’s, electric razors and double chocolate sundaes with whip cream on top. On this note of indulgences, when I get back to AZ for my sisters baby, I plan on (in addition to spending quality family time) eating nothing but: peanut butter, chocolate bars, pizza, ice cream, cheese and crackers, margaritas, beers, beers, BEEF, and anything else that comes in a package.
3. Bugs So there are an obscene amount of Bugs in San Cristobal. Im talking Volkswagens. I’ve never seen so many bugs, and you can basically consider it punchbuggy heaven, don’t punch back. Id say about 5-10%!o(MISSING)f all cars are Volkswagen bugs, and of those, ALL are the old ones. I only saw 1 new one in my week there. But to give you an idea of how many bugs there are. I’d say in 1 block, at least 1 parked car is a bug
Bugs!
Bugs were everywhere and a line of 4 or 5 was not uncommon. and at least 1-2 (sometimes many many more) pass. And this is an old colonial town, so one block is only about 30-40 meters. And it is completely normal to see 3-4 parked in a row. I don’t know what there all doing there, or if its just a little hippy bug heaven and all the hippy bugs from around the world flock there to take part in the revolution. But it’s retro.
4. Other Interesting Side Notes While in Mexico some funny things happened. A drunk proposed to Becky in front of a church (on camera). I spent an embarrassingly long amount of time choosing a Mexican Poncho that I liked, but, in the end, I now have a bad-ass poncho. We went to a Mayan Medicine museum and learned all about the history, culture, and approach of Indigenous Mayan Medicine. We saw lots of churches. We visited many bars, most with 2x1, or as we call it, happy hour specials. I tried hot wine for the first time. It was awesome, like hot cider, only a million times better. We ate A LOT of street food, especially chicken mole enchiladas. It was cheap, authentic, and
Street Food
Enjoying a romantic BYOB dinner at the street vendors. perfect. While drunk I bought a handful of Hanukah Gelt, chocolate coins, from a liquor store. Only to find out, just like in the US, i could have bought twice as much for half the price at the convenient store next store. The lesson here, even in Mexico, don't buy snacks from a liquor store. . .and lots lots more. . .
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Evan
non-member comment
Looks good
I like the stories and photos! Life is sounding pretttyyy good. The more I read, the more I want to come visit.