San Cristobal

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Alright guys, apologies for being 4 weeks behind.... having way too much fun...

This is what happened, since we last wrote...

(we travelled from Mazunte - San Cristobal.. read on for more details)


San Cristobal is a beautiful highland town with cobbled streets, markets and surrounded by nearby indigenous villages. There is hence a larger indigenous presence in the town as many come in to ply their trade. These people are very proud of their background, culture and religion and still wear their colourful traditional garb that are unique to their village - it's pretty special to see.

We were fortunate to be able to visit a couple of these villages - on horseback! Our horses were carefully picked by the owner to match our personality and character; Alex´s horse was a beautiful mare with with four fantastic legs (the fifth leg was bit dodgy mind you), and liked nothing better than eating grass and gossiping with it´s mates in the field. My horse was a strong muscular looking beast which had a tranquil temprament and a slight flatulence problem.

After an hour of trotting, farting and cantering we were in the highland village of San Juan Chamula. This crazy wee Mayan village has its own laws and rituals - you are only able to reside here if you were born into it and maintain their strict religion - a weird mixture of Catholicism and Mayan beliefs. We visisted their local church and were fascinated by the goings on. There were thousands (literally thousands) of candles, and the worshippers sat on the floor (covered in pine needles) chanting and offering eggs and soft drinks to the Gods (they believed burping the gasey Coca Cola burps released evil spirits). They then reached for their chickens and sacrificed them right before our very eyes. We were not able to take any photos in this church due to their beliefs about photography, but to be honest, we felt we were feeling pretty intrusive just standing there gawping at them. And then there was all those gasey burps and open flames... This was certainly a highlight and eye opener of our trip.

Unfortunately we´ve (hopefully temporarily) lost the photos of this part of the trip... sorry.

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