San Cristobel de las Casas

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We grabbed the night bus and it was all about holding on! Round and round the mountain we went ,Orianne holding on as she slept as not to keep bashing her head against the window and me, not so lucky, for the first half of the journey holding my tummy as for nothing to come up and when that settled holding for the bottom half!

San Cristobel is as beautiful as i remembered. The lovely spanish colonial buildings and cobbled streets. Famous for the Zapatistas and the indigeoneous Maya villages. The town has expanded a lot, the before dirt roads now paved and many new funky cafes/hostels etc. The influx of tourists has sadly seen a burger king and subway but its not overkill and the town still keeps its charm with plenty of hippies down the tea and coffee houses.
We found the most amazing lil getaway hostel nested up the eastside mountain. No frills, quiet and buena vista...Bliss! Is only a 20min walk from town and is closer to our local market and panaderia and a bargain to. We paid 600 pesos for 5 days for both of us todos! We had one other companion in the place a young 21 yr surfy chicka from Puerto Escondido travelling solo. We got to practice our spanish over brekky. The room wasnt big enough to swing a cat but not bothered cos its all about the balconies!! Chilling out more and more as the days roll on.
Back to our trekking training. Lets walk to San Juan Chamula only 10kms up the mountain.Yeah right! As to stop arguments O gave me the map for the walk out of town and i muffed it! Sheesh on 50mins the wrong way. We decided to collectivo it up and walk back.Better! This place see a few tourists ,famous for its church with pine needle floor and its indigeonous inhabitants. We went to the Maya medicine museum which gave us a better understandind of there prayers and rituals. Ok the kids see you coming selling handicrafts and asking for money. We bought some wristbands and gave the others lollipops. Not many photos as the believe if you take a photo it steals spirits. The walk down wasn,t bad, great views as we passed along the girls working in the fields in their little black sheepskin skirts and colourful tops. They were as curious in usas we of them staring and smiling. Orianne scored two massive blisters one an each foot ouches!
The food isnt as good as Oaxaca. We missed our little quesadilla stands and our daily boiled or grilled corn on the cob with chilli.Yummy! It was hit and miss even with the touristic vegetarian places(soup of the day- broccoli). It left us a few times rushing to the nearest loo and leaving with our bums looking like the japanese flag. We seem to get a good weather day then the rain comes. So we copped a few wet days in the mountains sending us to museums and watched a 2hr doco at the mini cine on the history of the Zapatistas movements over the last 10 yrs. Bloody polotics hey.
We got our Cuba tix and decided to celebrate at a funky lil bar El Gato Gordo, the waiter kept bringing us plates of peanuts so we had to keep drinking cervecas with them. The place was full of travellers and an old hippe jazz band playing sped up reggae versions of 'stand by me' and the police's 'Roxanne'. The argentinean guitarist with his permanent cum face on ,if you know wat i mean he he! We got a little rowdy after our 5th beer each and Orianne asks the waiter if they do salsa just at that precise moment when they finish the song and everything goes quiet. The singer lets her know over the mic that its to good for them but she can find some in the kitchen if she likes. A blushing orianne finishes her bee and we head around the corner to the 'Latinados' bar. Close to 11pm aas all the mexican start pouring into the club. A brilliant 8 piece band starts of with 'Guantanamero' and the dancefloor is flooded with couples.Fantastic dancing everywhere and it stayed like that as we stumbled out the door home for our early bus to Palenque con hangovers!! Hey Lizzy and Vivvy if you have time any tips for cuba would be a blessing mwasxxxxxx

ps pix later as this puter is defunct!!

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