Madre de Dios!

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Two aeroplanes we boarded in Los Angeles suffered technical difficulties before take off. We had to exit the first aircraft before it moved off from the terminal for reasons nobody explained. No problem, although we knew a delay of over two hours or more would probably mean we´d miss our connecting flight from Mexico City to Chiapas.
But the second incident that caused us to have to disembark an aircraft before take off was more memorable. As the plane accelerated during take off I was looking out of the window when in practically the last moment before the aircraft left the earth the pilot suddenly put the brakes on. All the passengers were thrown forward and it felt like being in a car when the brakes are slammed on at high speed. The pilot must have been struggling to keep the plane in a straight line because it swerved left and right for what felt like.....far too long, until eventually the plane slowed down.
In the actual moment I was frozen speechless to my seat, but ordinarily I would have found it funny hearing so many terrified Mexican women exclaiming in whimpering voices "Oh Madre de Dios!!!" ( Mother of God!!) had I not been so scared myself!
The reason given by the pilot for the high speed dramatics was that during take off a warning light on the flight deck had flashed suggesting a door was not closed properly.
So there was a trip back to the terminal, more delay and a missed connecting flight. But we got to San Cristobal De Las Casas in the end, and we´re alive, which is always a bonus.
But for some of the Mexicans on board deeply religious and superstitious as they are the drama was more than enough. About ten well built buxom Mamas clinging to their rosary beads left the aircraft at the terminal and failed to return for the third, final and succesful attempt at take off.

The town of San Cristobal De Las Casas is a sprawling maze of streets some of them so narrow they were obviously built for the horse and cart. It feels old and it is, the town dates back about 500 years and was built in the colonial style of and by the Spanish. There are no horrific shiny shopping centres or modern buildings whatsoever, and I like it here for that.
Although on the first day arriving here in a taxi early in the morning I had thought San Cristobal looked like a dead end town. All I could see out of the taxi window were street after street of closed and bolted wooden doors and swing shutters that looked like they belonged to private residencies. The taxi pulled up outside a single door that matched the address we had for our apartment, a door like any other another hole in the wall door on the same street. Nobody answered the bell, we stood on the pavement in the rain for a bit and after a while I started to think to myself "tell me once more....what are we doing here?"
But eventually we did find someone to open the door and when it opened it opened into large attractive gardens with buildings facing the surrounding mountains just like the School had described in their email. The apartment was sorted out for us by the Spanish language school we´re attending for one month´La casa en el arbol (The house in the tree). Its nice, and cheap, and it feels alright after over five months living out of a bag to be able to get comfortable in just the one place for a few weeks. We have a two floored apartment with a balcony upstairs and log fires. Log fires because although the weather here is mostly sunny and warm during the day it does get cold at nights because San Cristobal is at a high altitude.
Humming birds visit the flowering bushes in the garden and they are amazing to watch in flight. The wing design that allows them to hover while they extract the nectar from a flower. Fly in reverse, stop, and hover again while identifing the next nearest flower head. They´re so fast in flight though, irridecent bullets flying around you can only follow with your eye if the sun shines directly on them.

It turns out that just like the door to our apartment buildings all the wooden doorways that I had at first presumed belonged to private homes hide deceptively large interiors. They all swing inwards and inside each door is a business. Inside the smaller doors are basic shops, little cafes and bars. And the larger doors open into the courtyards of what once must have been wealthy homes but are now hotels or restaurants. This is how San Cristobal is no matter which direction you walk in or for how far. To look down a street you might think it looked bereft of commerce, but walk on and in fact your in the world trade centre for that part of San Cristobal.

The people of San Cristobal are a bit reserved. People won´t usually go out of their way to speak to you so that feels like the total opposite of being in Asia. But, it could be because the people here have just got tourist fatigue. Judging by the never ending amount of hotels and places to eat and drink I think that San Cristobal must see hordes of tourists in times not dominated by media scare stories about flu.
The main difference though is the language barrier. NO ONE other than people connected with the tourism industry speak a word of English in San Cristobal, that´s probably true of the rest of Mexico, and that´s the way I expect it to be in most of Central and South America.
But we´re finding out quickly that if you engage people in Español the barrier comes down and the smiles soon come out. I´m grateful for the little Spanish we already knew from the few lessons we had last year. People appreciate you trying to speak their language and they´re always patient. I don´t think a non English speaking Mexican on a Manchester street would get the same time and consideration that they are giving to us. In general, the people here are reserved but honest people.

Someone told me tourism is down by over 90% in San Cristobal, it looks like that could be true. The waiters are falling over themselves to get you into their restaurants. Its a real real shame for the working people here.
The latest information I read on swine flu was around about the 20th of May, and that was that 150 people had died in Mexico city. Of course its not good that anyone dies, but I wonder how many people die each year of normal flu in Mexico city anyway? (a city of 20 million souls).
There have been 15 cases reported here in the wider region of Chiapas, and one man has died. But he died because he lived far away in the jungle and he wasn´t even aware of what was wrong with him until it was too late.
I think its an acceptable risk coming to Mexico. There is a true statistic that something like one person dies of Malaria every few seconds in Africa, yet today Africa will be full of tourists and backpackers right? There is no prophylatic againist getting malaria, the pills only reduce the symptoms if you do get it. People have soaked up the recent media hysteria like sponges.
Our Spanish teachers believe that there are politics are involved. There is an election coming up in Mexico and they think the ruling party encouraged swine flu to blow out of all proportion in the media so that they would recieve aid money from the Obama administration, money to be diverted to fund their re-election campaign. I don´t know the truth of that. But I do know that I´m more worried about being taken out by a meteroite piloted by Che Guevara than I am of dying of swine flu.

(I've just heard today 27/5 that the UK foreign office have lifted their NO TRAVEL TO MEXICO, YOU´LL SURELY DIE! advice. They should have consulted me earlier, it would have saved a lot of messing about : )

To look at I don´t know who´s who in the diverse ethnic mix of San Cristobal, but I think that its Mayan Indians that come into town each day hawking their wares. Bustling little women, the tallest ones about four feet and one inch tall with children at their heels and babies in wraps strapped to their backs. They wear these black rough woollen skirts that look like they were tailored with garden shears. Some men wear black or white ponchos of the same material, and with the same tailored by Freddie Kruger look. Clothing that looks like it would keep out the cold, but probably remove your skin for the pleasure.
I feel bad having to tell these women " no gracias" when they approach us every single day. Some of them look at least 140 years old, their faces betraying the hardship they´ve probably known for every one of those years. But what am I going to do with multi coloured scarfs and textiles? woollen lama toys, beads and bracelets?
I think they probably do ok though, there´s business to be had for them with the...... 'I´m getting down with the indidgenous population by wearing their clothes, type traveller'.

Saying that we had to buy some things we didn´t need off some kids the other day. Just walking around town we found a tiny hole in the wall tapas bar. It was great, you order a glass of red wine and you get a plate of two free tapitas (small tapas, cheese olives and meat on crusty bread) You order a bottle of wine they come out with a big plate full of free tapas and olives for ya. How good is that? A real bar!
So anyway there were some kids sat at a table in the centre of the room drinking coca cola and I was thinking to myself it looked odd seeing them there because, we were in a bar. Then I noticed a small boy come in and go up to the bar with his wooden shop on his chest, held in place by a leather strap around his neck like an organ. The thing was nearly as big as him, made of wood with slots for all the bits and pieces he sold like cigarettes and chewing gum. The owner leaned over the bar gave the wee boy a drink, and I looked once again at the kids on the centre table, noticing just how scruffy their clothes were for the first time. And I realised that they were all street grafters and the boss of the bar must help look after them by giving them something to drink when they feel thristy. What a nice guy.
So they all finished their drinks and pulled on their moblile body shops, and before they left for the street they tried to make a sale or two with the customers in the bar. I dare anyone to be able to resist buying just some thing from these kids! Lynn bought herself some vastly overpriced chewing gum, and I purchased a clay cat figurine, it was a fridge magnet, to put on a fridge I don´t posess in a house I don´t even own.

In many interesting ways its like stepping back in time coming to Mexico. There are customs, traditions and businesses still thriving here that were part of life in Britain not all that long ago. Here´s just three examples,

1, 'Public Band Stands'. Most public parks in England had band stands at one point. I remember on a hot Summers day in 1975 or 76 going to the park on my chopper and there was a brass band playing on the band stand. Never happened again after that, and in the years that followed the band stand rotted away and was eventually demolished. In San Cristobal shiny shoed suited up brass bands still play for the public´s pleasure most evenings. Mexicans just can´t get enough of stuff like that, the TV is full of it.

2, 'The Sunday Best'. Once an integral part of Sunday life in England now vanished. But people still wear their ´Sunday best´ clothes here. That goes double for Mexican children, looking all uncomfortable in their suits with their hair plastered down in a side parting for Sunday. There are white Saturday night Fever tuxedo suits for four year old´s hanging up in shop windows here!

3, 'Shoe shine boys', that´s probably going way back in time in England, back to the first half of the 19th century probably. But here the trainer revolution has not encapsulated Mexican life in the near total way it has in other countries, and blokes with big mustaches and cowboy hats still like to be able to see their faces reflect back in their boots.

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Photos

Lynn
As you can see, no tin of paint goes to waste in Mexico

Me and Minerva,
Outside the school, La Casa En El Arbol, pity this nice woman who has to teach me.

courtyard garden restaurant
Homemade pasta in homemade pasta sauces, two courses for under a tenner for two people, served in a beautiful 300 year old building, cos of the scare there's never anyone else eating there when we've been.

flu humor
Art in a bar, with a paper mask placed over the mouth.

nice to see there are people thinking
In red in the coca cola logo writing it reads, Anti Capitalists - enjoy life

Comments

[Tim V]

humming bird
I want a humming bird, i want one, i want one, i want one!!!!!