San Cristobal- appologies for the spelling but the computer I'm using doesn't have spell check...

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Hey guys!

So first things first, no one has the runs anymore, wooooooop!! Back to normal eating and normal toilet trips but still playing it safe! anyhoo, back to three days ago, we arrived in San Cristobal. it was nice and hot when we arrived in the morning and booked in to a hostel where we found a few of our fellow travellers from Peurto Esondido- pretty sure that a pool of travellers at each time just books the same hostels off hostel world and ends up seeing each other along the way! First dorm we stayed in that was full, 14 bed mixed, so pretty lively.

So went into town to get some cash out only to find that my card had been blocked (Alas it was a matter of time) so after confirming it was blocked by trying to pay for lunch I had to ring the bank and get it unblocked which was actually easier then i thought it would be. They'd blocked it as when I was using it in Mexico, one of the transactions I booked the hostel with went through in Ireland (my, do those guys pop up everywhere!?) but was all fixed pretty quickly! So after visiting a couple of churches during the day, one of which included a child who said to me 'screw me' after i wouldnt give him money, something lost in translation there that made me smile, we went out on the town to meet some of the people from our old hostel meet some more, was a good night apart from these mental aussie girls who managed to get themselves ropped in with some dodgy mexicans, we left them to it and thankfully they survived! The next day we milled around a bit before watching the mexico football in the evening which was quite fun as there was lots of local support out.

The following day we went to an authentic mayan town called Chamula, which was quite enlightening! It was the second day of a three day festival for St John the Baptist but what we quickly found out from our tour guide that all the Christian Symbols were just that, sympols for other things that they actually worshipped. So three crosses repressented the tree stages of the sun - rise, high and set and the pictures of Jesus and Mary were just images for man and woman. It was all to do with the Spanish introducing Christianity and how the Mayan people almalgimateing it into their own religion. Also there were fireworks going of literally everywhere and some were basicly gun powder blowing up these things that felt like small hand grenades, they let them of and the air would literally rush past you as your ears were bluggened and I'd wet myself a tiny bit....But it was all very fun and interesting. After this we saw some tradititional Mayan woman making rugs and cloths that took months each and looked like something my mother and aunt would have bought lots of but was ever so slightly lost on us- much as appreciated the hard work!

We screwed up our bus times that night so we stayed another and it was deffinately for the best. We went on this boat trip to the canyons and it was amazing! The sun was blistering down and we all had our life jackets on in this speed boat thing and we set of down between these cliffs. While we were going all I could think of was Avatar and Jurrasic Park (skxawng that I am) as these cliffs were either straight rockface about a kilometer or had sgrubs and green trees growing of them. the width varied but was probs around 200-300 meters so it was awesome, saw loads of these odd birds that reminded me of birds from England but they were different (and again my imagination ran away) and crocodiles (imagination overload!) I didnt stop grinning the whole time!

So then it was on to a night bus of to Merida which is where Im writting this, had a great day by the pool where we were told it got up to 37 degrees, BOOM! but what I havent mentioned is that in San Cristobal around 3 every afternoon it would rain like people were turning over swimming pools in the sky for about half an hour and then on and of for the rest of the night. Its 6pm here in Merida and it's just started doing that, 'Everywhere you go always take the weather!' it's certainly raininy season! Hope your all good!

Sam

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