Up in the highlands with bangers and burps

We left the jungle and headed for the mountains, taking the bus to San Cristobal de las Casas. After the long, straight roads since Cancun, this definitely wasnt a book reading ride. We were twisting and turning up and down all the way. The ride was long enough to watch 2 ¾ movies, all based on the same theme - anacondas. In fact, I think they were even called Anaconda I, II and III, and all involved mutant anacondas devouring people, either in the jungle or suburban USA.

San Cristobal is at 2120m, much cooler than the coast or jungle, and much less humid. We were looking forward to sweating a bit less, and also to a few days without ruins.

We spent the first afternoon wandering around the town centre. San Cristobal is a lovely old town, some beautiful buildings with a backdrop of green hills (mountains?!). The only thing spoiling the picture was the haze over the hills. And for the first time in ages, since leaving home probably, we didnt go out in shorts and t-shirt. We needed either long sleeves or long trousers to offset the slight chill in the air. Lovely!

We walked up to the zocalo, ringed by old fancy buildings and a large cathedral, then up a pedestrian street to the old church and ex-convent of Santo Domingo. Very impressive, the mix of complex and decorative church and the simplicity of the convent. Inside the old convent was the town museum, and it was free in Sundays - bargain! The museum was pretty interesting, and had these little folders we could carry around with explanations of the displays in English. The displays covered San Cristobal from pre-Colombian times through to the Indians revolting against the Spanish and the Dominican friars. Outside this museum was a big artisan market, full of awesome clothes and jewellery, I decided to come back another time with some cash!!

We got woken up early the next morning by all the noise outside, the traffic was really bad, not just engine noise, but all the horns, radios and bells clattering. It was enough to make us change rooms, to the only other one free, a pokey little inside room with only a window out onto the lounge area. Small hostel, and we knew all the other people staying there, had shared the same snake movies on the bus with them!

We went out to Canon del Sumidero from San Cristobal. The canyon is about a 50 minute drive away, on the outskirts of a town called Chiapa de Corzo, the old state capital. Well, the canyon is actually slightly further away, but this is where the boats leave from. Feeling a bit lazy, we ended up taking a tour rather than making our own way over on the bus. It didnt work out to be that much more expensive really though. And certainly easier to get on a boat in a group than trying to add ourselves to another boat full of other groups, waiting for a boat with space and / or people willing to share. Or maybe we were just lazy for once. Doesnt matter.

The boats were just long wood or fibreglass open things, usually seating 4 across though there were a few larger boats. We were all given lifejackets to wear too - one size doesnt fit all! We didnt see anyone there that they did fit! Its not that we would have fallen out of them, more like when we sat down they rode right up under our chins..

We went down river a fair way to get to the canyon itself. The most impressive part of the Canon del Sumidero rises up a good 1000m, straight up from the river edge to the top. There was the odd piece of flatter land at the bottom, but mainly either side of the tallest part of the canyon. There were trees and bushes, and a fair few cacti, growing on these parts, and also some growing off the sides of the cliffs. Impressive! I know our pictures wont do the place justice, partly as we couldnt get the full scale of the place in a photo, and partly as it was again hazy. Wrong time of the year. Same story all through this trip really.

There were some waterfalls tumbling down the cliffs too, in some cases coming out of a hole in the cliff face rather than coming over the top. One, the “trademark” waterfall, is called the 'arbol de navidad' as the way it comes out of the cliff and tumbles down some moss clad limestone outcrops makes it look like a pine tree.

The river widens out into a lake at the end of the canyon, man made to feed a hydro station. The lake that is, not the canyon, thats man made. The boat took us across the lake to near the edge of the powerstation.

Apart from cliffs and waterfalls, we also saw some crocodiles, an iguana, monkeys (not all that close though), herons, egrets, pelicans and other birds. It was a bit of a murky day, the sun came out now and then, but there was plenty of cloud and haze. But despite these hinderances to a perfect view of the canyon, it was still so impressive!

After the canyon we went into Chiapa de Corzo town. We had an hour there, which was ample time to find some tamales and fruit for lunch, sit in the zocalo to eat it while looking at the fountain in its octagonal bandstand like structure and an ancient tree from before the conquistadores arrived (and still alive now having survived fire and other attacks), and time for a quick look round the church and the market.

The following day was still ruin-free. We took a collectivo to San Juan Chamula, a neighbouring hill village about 8km from San Cristobal. This is the closest and most tourist-visited village, but unfortunately also the only one we have time to see in this whistel-stop tour of ours.

The guidebook had some interesting things to say about Chamula. Its name means “the place of adobe houses” in the local language of Tzotzil, and is slightly higher than San Cristobal at 2260m. (Ruapehu is 2797m for those wanting something to compare to.) Whether the following things are totally factual or are slightly over exaggerated, well, thats for you to decide. We have added in a few of our own observations too. San Juan Chamula has apparently “opted out” of state religious and secular authority, and resists as much as possible the governments ideas and views. Religion is still a mix of old and new. Catholic saints are selected to represent what people were already worshipping. Catholic bishops are only allowed in the church (and town?) once a month for baptisms. The local priests also function as medicine men - ilol - and the government medical clinic is only used after traditional Mayan medicine has failed. This last part is actually pretty good, as frequently traditional cures are better than the modern chemical alternatives. How often now are people, including those in the medical profession, turning to ancient, traditional medicine?! Its got to bbetter than being prescribed penicillin just so you dont go away empty handed.

There is more, but we'll go back to what we saw and did in Chamula. There was a festival of some kind that week, the plaza was full of market stalls (food, clothes & the usual market stuff, just bursting out of the market area), the village centre was crowded and the whole place was buzzing. Men and women were out in traditional dress, and the towns “civic police” were going round strictly enforcing the no photography rule to all the tourists wandering round. Its believed here that cameras capture a piece of the spirit. We've met this belief in other places too.

Traditional Dress:
Men: black or white woollen fluffy tunic, leather belt, cowboy style hat, shirt & trousers
Civic Police: white woolen tunic, white shirt & trousers, belt & hat (all male)
Women: more of a mixture including woollen fluffy skirts like the mens black tunics, bright shirts and shawls, they often had a shawl folded on their heads.

In a couple of places round the plaza were bands playing trumpets and other brass instruments and drums, the music fast and high pitches. There was some kind of dance or display in the plaza in front of the church, or maybe a reenactment of some thing, we couldnt find out, with kids dressed in off white clothing, faces masked, chasing or being chased by men under bull framework characters covered in fireworks. Talking of fireworks, they are everywhere here. Not like we get at home, but more bangers and rockets, basic containers packed with gunpowder, all done for noise rather than light or colour. And they were noisy!!!

We went inside the church and found it packed with people praying to their chosen saints. The floor was covered with pine needles, except where they had been cleared so people could light their candles, usually at least 20 per person, many no bigger than tapers. The air was heavy with smoke and incense.

Another belief here, one that we partaked in, is that the bubbles from fizzy drinks, or the after affects from these bubbles, releases the sins from a persons body. Whether this is still believed there now or not we cant say, but everyone was drinking coke, fanta or pepsi. There were crates and crates of full and empty bottles, huge amounts of the stuff.

That afternoon we left San Cristobal and headed for Tuxtla Gutierrez, a large town next to Chiapa de Corzo. We only stopped for the afternoon, meeting a great guy from Couch Surfing, Rudy. He took us out in his Beetle up the side of the Sumidero Canyon to the viewpoints along the top. What an awesome trip, and an awesome guy! The canyon was even more impressive and spectacular from these viewpoints than from the boat. Looking down 1000m or so of sheer cliff face to the river below...those boats looked really tiny! There are five viewpoints at different places along the canyon, giving you different views up and down its length. One had a walk through the bush to get to the edge, but no monkeys there though!

The Sumidero Canyon is supposedly where the Zoques threw themselves off the limestone cliffs rather than be conquered by the Spaniards. There is nothing at the viewpoints preventing people from doing the same now. A waist high concrete wall is all that separates you from the plunge to the rocks and river below. Just think of those crocodiles waiting for you...!

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Part of trip: Cuba and Mexico 2008

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