Blogs from San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, North America - page 6

We left Antigua on Thursday morning and headed for our final destination in Guatemala, San Pedro which sits on Lake Atitlan. This was not the greatest destination for me as I spent the entire time feeling rather ropey and unable to eat much let alone drink. Blooming livid, the drinks were dirt cheap and you got a free shot with everything bought in happy hour which was actually happy 8 hours as it went on from 4pm-12pm. Not sure the Guatemalans have quite got the hang of this happy hour business, they seem to run them all day. Bargain for us though or in this case Will and Oli who like top lads took full advantage! I on the other hand struggled through a couple of beers before feeling like I had a small person punching ... read more

We have been in Mexico for seven months. As I look back, I can remember crossing the border in Nogales. We were nervous, not sure if we wanted to do this big adventure, barely knowing the language. Now that we’re going to cross in to Guatemala, we’re nervous and barely know the language. The only difference is we can’t imagine NOT doing this big adventure. When I think back on all the stuff I’ve done, it seems rather surreal. I can not only drive you around the tunnels of Guanajuato, I can find shortcuts in the tunnels to get around the traffic. I have climbed a mountain (okay, maybe a big hill) to take part, albeit vicariously, in a religious experience. We watched men, hanging from their feet, spin to the ground in Mexico City. We’ve ... read more

Finding a place to live was a bit of a challenge. I had to do a lot of knocking on doors and asking around. The few that I did initially find were not suitable. After some pounding of the pavement, as it were I found the house we now reside in. It is not perfect but nothing is here. I take the good with the bad. The house is in the historic center on Calle Benito Juarez just behind the Mercado de Dulces y Artesanias and the Cathedral San Francisco. Location Location Location. The rent is a bit pricy considering where we are. That said I do have five bedrooms and six baths. Getting services such as telephone, cable and internet was a bit of a challenge. Telmex says 10 days but that really means about ... read more

Day 28:Very cold this morning about 47F. Made coffee and went up to my rooftop terrace. The impressive mountains were veiled in fog, it is very cold and humid this morning. Still I managed to put on some warm clothes a comfortable pair of walking shoes and walked to the Mercado. As I walked through, I could not help but notice how clean and well organized the vendor stalls were. The colors, smells and lanscape really are an attack on all your senses. The stalls have a variety of animal carcasses on display varying from pigs, cows and others that I did not recognize. Everything you can imagine is sold here. I purchased salt dried fish from the interior Mercado. The mountains of fish are packed 8 feet high in some stalls. They sell tiny smelts, ... read more

On December 4th we arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas. We knew that Virgen de Guadalupe fiesta going on until the 12thof December. For those unfamiliar with the Virgen de Guadalupe fiesta, like me, please read the following paragraph from Wikipedia. Two accounts published in the 1640s, one in Spanish and the other in Nahuatl, tell how, during a walk from his home village to Mexico City early on the morning of December 9, 1531 (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Spanish Empire), the peasant Juan Diego saw a vision of a young girl of fifteen or sixteen, surrounded by light, on the slopes of the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in the local language, Nahuatl, the Lady asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor, and from her ... read more