San Cristobal de las casas

After 13 hours on a bus, we arrived in San Cristobal in the Chiapas district of Mexico. This historic colonial town feels like a step back in time and, like many cities of Mexico, is at  a decent altitude (2200m). There is a large indigenous Mayan population in the city and surrounding hills who are beautiful but mostly speak local dialects and little Spanish. We rode up to a village called Chamula in the back of a collectivo (read literally the boot of a kombi, they really pack in the fares). Here we went to church Mayan style. Their faith here is a fusion of catholicism, Mayan rituals and superstitions. They have a  cathedral with a floor of pine needles and glass boxes with wax models saints in them adorning all the walls. The service consists of lighting different candles for specific purposes; illness, fertility etcetera, while a collection of indigenous instruments play and people wave cloistering incense around. At the end a brass band played and a guy set off a bunch of giant bottle rockets. Unfortunately there are no photos from that excursion. The Mayans are very superstitious and believe that a photograph steals a part of your soul. Needless to say, the camera stayed in the bag.

This is the inside courtyard in our hostel. Called La Puerta Vieja (the old door) its an ancient colonial building in the middle of the Centro.

The street outside. All the streets are cobbled, and quite a few are pedestrian only. As all the colonial streets are narrow, most streets in Mexico are one way.

This is the Real De Guadalupe, a sort of bohemian street, full of cafes,   art shops, trendy world people and kids trying to sell trinkets to them. There is actually a variety of good local coffee here, as opposed to nescafe like elsewhere in Mexico.

The local markets are unreal. Vibrant and colourful. A huge bag of fruit and vegies cost us about 30 pesos ($2.50).

In Mexico, If your car runs under its own power, after a push start, its considered roadworthy. At least that's what it seems like.

I've never seen so many kinds of beans. I guess you want some variety when they accompany every meal.

This is San Cristobal's Guadeloupe church. There seems to be one in every city. There are churches everywhere and they seem to run services all day, every day.

They take fence jumpers very seriously. I liked the colours in this fence. Its actually a really common sight to see yards walled in with cement topped with broken glass. Mexican ingenuity. 

I'm actually writing from San Pedro in Guatemala after we managed to find our way across the border and through the Guatemalan mountains to Lake Atitlan yesterday, but that's a whole other story. Bye...