San Cristobal de las Casas - Am I back in Peru?

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The bus ride from Palenque was quite interesting with some very hairy tight turns through the mountains of Central Mexico.

We eventually made it to a rainy night in San Cristobal de las Casas. After checking into our accommdation a few blocks from the zocalo we headed out for a look around and something to eat.

Being a Friday night the zocalo and the markets were buzzing with folk out for a night. This city would have to be the most lively we have been to up to date. Plenty of bars with music blaring and plenty of people on the sidewalks enjoying a few drinks.

As we were a little tired after a long bus journey we started to head back to our hotel. Now we love restaurants that don't try to be something that they are not and when we saw the sign on the restaurant "Beer & Tacos" we were quite intriqued. The place was full of locals and yes, all they served were beer (only one brand of beer) and tacos. We ordered 6 different tacos for the grand total of $10 and being the inquistive types we then ordered a mixed taco plate. Oh my god...so much food!! But we got through it all with many beers. A very good restaurant if all you want is what the name says - "Beer & Tacos".

Doing the tourist thing the next day we went for a walk up to the San de Dominican church that was built in the 18th century. The church was beautifully adorned with many religious paintings that were done for the church anonymously.

At the front of the church were the local village craft markets that we wandered through and after making a purchase we sat down to relax and struck up a conversation with a retiree from Florida. He was in town with his wife who was looking through the markets. Now, we know we may not travel in the lap of luxury but we are not paupers when we travel either. But this man tells us that he is not a rich man and his retirement money has to last a long time. He then proceeds to inform us that the interpreter he hired for the week is looking after his wife and he hopes his driver that he hired as well is not too far away. This was okay as he was newly retired and maybe this was a good way to travel for them. But no, he will be coming out to Australia at the end of the year because he wants to buy a plane from a private seller in Wagga Wagga. This is the type of travel that we aspire to!!!!

After this conversation we headed back to our hotel for a siesta and to contemplate how cheap we are when we travel.

That night we braved the wet weather (that seems to settle in each evening) and find a place for some local music. The rain made our choice for us as the first bar we passed that offered shelter from the rain and some latin music was the pick for the night.

And what a night.......three bottles of red wine, a jug of sangria, 2 tequillas for Danny, a funny blue cocktail for Bonny and a few beers and we were comforting a lady from Oaxaca who had come to town with a friend to escape her husband who was cheating on her. The music at the bar also kept us there till after 2am. A solo guitar player was singing sweet latino love songs followed by a 3 piece band that all the ladies thought had a cute saxaphonist.

It was a very enjoyable but when we had a midday checkout and were not due on a bus until 7 that evening, the afternoon wandering the streets were not too enjoyable. We even had our first "I'm never drinking again" said by Danny.

But, we survived that day and the decision had been made to head to our favourite destination from our last visit so we were very excited as we boarded the bus to Pochutla and eventually Mazunte - Yeah yeah!!!!!

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