Blogs from Chiapas, Mexico, North America - page 2

We know it’s the weekend - the Mexicans were up till gone 1am shouting down the corridors, laughing loudly and banging doors. Our hotel owner, Suzanne, is shrugging her shoulders in annoyance - it’s always the same, she tells me. We have a strict ‘no alcohol on the premises’ policy but they ignore it...all they want is the local Oxxo for booze and a big TV screen for their soap operas! I don’t know why they don’t just stay at home, she exclaims! Anyway, suffice to say, she prefers European guests. :-) We say our goodbyes to Suzanna and Petra, the cleaning lady and general live in help who seems to have adopted us. She looks at least 100 but Suzanna has told me that she is 53 and has worked for their family for over ... read more

We have woken to a slightly nicer day. I’m not sure if St Cristóbal is any nicer though! We’re also not sure how today’s van trip will go either - 8am to 9.30pm on a van tour could be a bit much! We are collected promptly at 8am and thankfully we are first pick up today so we secure the seats behind our driver. ‘Non ang-lazy’, says our driver to let us know we will be on our own today. ‘Non Es-span-nol’, we reply to let him know it’s much as we expected. We all laugh. The van proceeds to circle St Cristobal for the next hour, picking up other clients or returning when they are not ready - the Mexicans are not known for their meticulous timekeeping. Finally the van is full and we are ... read more

SC writes.. More trips out to different communities today, each of which has their own culture and way of celebrating the Day of Dead. See more on this below. I tried the local brew, called "Posh". Not quite fire water but a clear tasteless 36% proof variant on Rum. Many locals drink it mixed with Coca Cola which has assumed mythical status in these parts. We saw many Coke bottles left on graves (the departed's favourite drink) filled will this hooch. We also saw many locals filled with it too...very very drunk indeed at 11:00 in the morning. Also today we saw more evidence of the damage caused by last year's earthquake: some 25 churches in and around San Cristobal were badly damaged and remain closed. One where 3 massive bells had fallen to the ground ... read more

Wed-Fri Oct 31-Nov 2 - Day 5 to 7 - San Cristóbal Ascending into the mountainous Chiapas region we arrived at the fascinating colonial city of San Cristóbal de las Casas after travelling overnight. It was 7.30 am when we arrived. After walking 10 minutes to our hotel Palacio de Moctezuma from the bus station, we found our rooms would not be ready until 12md, so we all walked to the Zocalo and found a restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast, our guide did the obligatory orientation walk. Part of the walk was through the Plaza 31 de Marzo (Zocalo), and then through, probably one of the best artisan markets we had visited. It was massive. We noted the few Amber outlets and was shown how to detect which was real amber and which was fake ... read more

Today we're leaving Chiapas. It was quite an adventure! Our flight is not till six in the evening, so we had the morning to spend. We wandered around town, went looking for the Mayan Medicine museum because it seemed interesting. We walked through some of the poorer parts of town in our search, through a local market full of stalls and small shops selling pretty much anything you can think of, all mixed together. Fruits and cell phones, clothes and furniture, piglets and CDs. My favorite, I think, was a carpenter shop that sold bed headboards, chairs and fresh bananas. Eventually we found the museum and ere a bit disappointed. Such a museum has such potential, but it's placed way away at the edge of town, it's dark and gloomy inside, not well kept and nothing ... read more