San Cristóbal de las Casas

12/8 - 16/8 San Cristóbal

So friends.. On the bus again.. this time we were doing the nightbus, which went okay, except Mies feet swole up for two or three days (mie: which could KILL me).

As expected, San Cristóbal is nice and cool .. the high mountain air and the evening rain chills the place down. That means t-shirt during the day, something waterproof in the evenings and two thick blankets at night, a weather that suited us fine after the Escondido sun.

S.C is great. Women in traditional dresses all over, carrying their young in slings - the people here are low and compact. The center portion of the city is all shops, cafes and street vendors, little cute girls trying to hustle us for pesos and tourists of all shades. As always, it is unnerving to sit and eat a 250 peso breakfast, with little cute faces and starved elderly begging for money.

This towns surreal dinner experience came, when we waited an hour to get our postres - which turned out to be a little plate of salt with a spoon in it. Yummie .. salt ... We shared a great little 4 bed dorm with the germans, where I almost killed Mie, when one of the carrying beams in the top bunk, suddently gave way in the middle of the night. Dazed and confused, I staggered out of the bunk and huddled up besides Mie, who was more shocked than hurt. The germans left the following morning and we got a great little double room for us selves. The hostel is pretty standard, and again the damn internet is not working. The place is filled with cuddly cats and puppies, the free breakfast is weird marmelade and wonder bread.

What we pretty fast discovered, SC was having some sort of big fiesta. That meant loud mexican music most of the night, and loud fireworks at all hours. It basically seemed like we were being shot at for three days straight. Boom, boom, boom. Thats mexican fireworks .. no colors, no fancy explosions, just boom boom boom. Although charming in the evenings, it turns annoying at 6 am. The fiesta itself was pretty charming, with modern mariachi cross salsa music.

We did a canyon tour, which turned out to be an evil tourist trap, 20 scared tourists in orange lifejackets, huddled into a motorboat and off we go. The canyons were pretty impressive, some gators, pelican, and even a pack of spidermonkies. The biggest impression though, was the massive pools of shit and plastic all over the river. Seing massive puddles of plastic remains, knowing that it will never break down and just stay here, was depressing. There were people on little boats trying to clean it up, but the effort needed at least 20 times as many boats to matter.

The following day we went for a tour of the city, visiting the Cathedral of San Cristóbal, one of the highest points in the city. The thin air is a killer. the view was nothing fancy - but the streets of SC are very enjoyable.

We decided to take a break from the world, and spent our evenings with beer, cards and books - getting ready for Palenque. It turnes out, that it´s impossible to book hostel in Palenque, so after many hours of wrong phone numbers and weird web sites, we got a semi-booking and decided just to go and see what happens.

Listening to: Loud mexican salsa
Reading: Moby Dick & Dafoe: Plaque Year
Mood: Pretty easy

Next, the jungle :)

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