San Cristobal De Las Casas - 'Euro-esque' village in Mexico

San Cristobal

We had heard so much about this little town, how beatiful and stunning it is, the things to see, the things to do etc.  But they all forgot to tell us how incredibly cold San Cristobal is.  We had spent nearly 3 months in pure heat and all of a sudden we were two weeks into a cold snap where jumpers were required and many of them. Even after the week in Xela it was still cold.

A very old church,construction started in 1550 or thereabouts.  We were wondering why it was so busy........ they were in mourning for the local guru priest. 

Same church as the first shot, but at night. 

At both ends of the town are two huge churches - perfect views, but a huge climb to attend a service!  Petrina thought she would check this church out herself and wondered why all the puzzled looks from the locals.  She quickly exited the church to be met by a Bride coming in.  30 seconds later and things could have been real awkward.

The mountains surround the town and create an amazing backdrop no matter which way you look

Our first walk down the main street revealed what everyone was talking about, a city of beauty and of design similar to European cities.  Cobblestoned streets lined with 16 century or earlier architecture.   Stores of colour and art lined the street with many pubs and small boutiqe eateries set up between them.  

One of the typical pedistrian steets, doesn't really look like the Mexico we have seen to date, but amazing none the less.

Muchos colores....colours galore. 

The streets were spotted with local Indigenous ladies trying to sell their crafts or with little kids who have been sent out to sell little nick nacks rather than go to school.  It was a very sad sight to see but something we soon learnt more of, as explained below.

A loca lady walking down the main street in typical dress

A local girl selling Steve an arm band.  Children of the indigenous people rarely go to school in Indigenous communities, partly due to lack of schools in the villages and also due to a lack of available funds.

Early morning before most people are awake, the town has a different feel with just the odd person around.

On our first night we went to check out a local documentary on the Zapatistas.  Zapatistas are local indigenous people who, like many countries' locals, have endured many years of inequality and neglect.  San Cristobal was the site of a kind of civil war in 1994 that lasted over 10 years where the Zapatistas revolted against the Government of the area and Mexico in general.  The result was the pushing out of locals (Zapatistas) to outer regions and mountains.  It is the Zapatista women who come into town to market their goods as social security is non existent.  

The local hair style of the Indigenous women. 

The general relationship between the Zapatistas and the Government at firsrt glance seems ok, but by looking at things more closely (the huge army presence through town and undertones of local graffiti) it would seem another revolt could be easily staged.                                 

A group of local women taking a break from the hard sell in the main tourist strip and below - two examples of local pro Zapatista graf pieces

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

But all that aside the town is AMAZING. The market was the most colourful we have seen, like a rainbow had thrown up there (see photos below)!  However, in between buying more jumpers etc we both came down with some funky gastro... (third lot this trip, we are averaging about one bout per month!  Steve's struck about 1 hour into a drive to Palenque (one of Mexico's most celebrated Mayan Ruins), so we jumped out of the mini van, he emptied his stomach and  we were then left to catch a local ute back home in the freezing conditions.  Now that in itslelf was an experience!  Travel plans were soon adjusted and Palenque had to wait for another day.  

Even though we have been sick we are loving the food in all towns we have visited. Below are some samples of what we have been eating in San Cristobal, and possilbe causes of a bit of gastro.  (Petrina will prepare a detailed food blog in the weeks to come)

Mmmm Mole, Steve is keeping a running score of Mole rankings across Mexico.  It is a savory chocolate based sauce with many spices.  Oh so good.

Even Dogs enjoy the local cuisine.  This is 'Salsa' enjoying some left overs at one of our favourite Vege cafes in the town.

Yum, Eloté (Corn) served with Mayo, Chilli and rolled in Cheese from the man in the photo below.

Naranja peeled via an Apple slinky machine (Petrina's work colleagues will understand this reference) and ready to eat

                                                                                                                                                                                                            

  Not sure if Angelina Jolie was due to be wandering through the market at all... but this baby had prime selling location.

Petrina deciding what store to check out next

The locals even had some stylish wheels to fit into the ecletic mix of locals and tourists that walk the streets. 

Quetzeltenango (''Xela''), Guatemala

Hola amigos!

Having been away from Australia for just under 3 months, after leaving the MM orphanage we needed to do a quick 'Visa-run' over the border into Guatamala so that we could then re-enter Mexico to continue our travels there for the next little while (Australians can spend a maximium of 3 months on the free tourist Visa in 'North America', which by definition for the purposes of the Visa-powers-that-be, incorporates Canada, the US and Mexico). 

Bienvenidos a Guatamala!

Looking back at Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, the border town on the Mexican side.  As you can see from the background (and like most of Guatamala), this area is quite mountainous and were were somewhat elevated.  As such, the temperature here was a lot colder than anywhere we had been so far on our trip.  No more shorts, singlets and thongs for a while!

Mujeres Indigena (Indigenous women) on the Guatamalan side of the border, wearing traditional dress of huipiles (''we-pil-es'', or tunics) and cortes (skirts).  The garments they wear are mostly all still hand-woven.  Each pueblo (village) has its own distinctive huipile.

The border crossing was scary-as!  We had no idea what was going on, just passports being handed back and forth between all the immigration officers...Made you feel really nervous, as if you were going to be interrogated at any second! Yet 10 metre away outside the immigration office were Mexicans / Guatamalans freely walking back and forth across the border (we assume illegally - see photos above, in which the boom gate in the background is level with the actual border - but the boom gate was always up allowing foot traffic across unregulated!).  Some of these people were clearly carrying all their worldly belongings, preparing for a long illegal stay.  Our friend said she even saw one family carrying a couch!

After the 'excitement' of the border, we had to change buses, which ferried us another few hours towards our  destination.  At a totally random spot called Cuatro Caminos (four-ways), about half an hour away from where we were going,  our bus suddenly stopped and we were told we now change into a taxi for the last half an hour!  Thank god we met some friendly Canadians who spoke excellent Spanish, so that we knew we weren't being 'taken for a ride' literally!  Ahhh, central America, good old lack of organisation and any kind of order, gotta love it!  We are pretty good at going with the flow by this stage of our trip!

Lots of action at the Cuatro Caminos with cargo, animals and people being loaded on and off the 'chicken buses' (that's actually what the Guatamalans call them), which is the public transport of choice here.  They are all ex-US School Buses that have had a paint job or two.  Not sure whether the name chicken bus originated because of people using them for the transport of poultry (we also saw sheep, dogs and goats on top of them), or whether its just cos you're sandwhiched-in like chickens.  Since both these functions are performed continuously every day, its probably for the two reasons we think!

Although we only needed to do an over-nighter in Guatamala to renew our north american tourist visas, we decided to spend a full week there, in a city called Quetzeltenango, or Xela (''Shell-a'').   Lonely Planet described Xela as the perfect town for tourists - not so overrun with gringos to prevent you from experiencing the 'real' Guatamala, but with just enough ex-pats to support a good cafe / restaurant and entertainment scene.   It is also becoming more and more well known as being a destination of choice for learning Spanish (again because there's not too many Americanos there and thus hardly anyone speaks English).  And not to be disappointed, we found Xela to be all this and more....

So as you will have worked out, while we were here, we took the opportunity to take some formal Spanish classes in the mornings, which really consoldiated what we've learnt so far.  The school we chose also offered homestays with a local family, which we opted to do.  So with the stumbling (on our part) conversation around the meal table, and the unavoidable 5 hours of practice a day at school (with both family and teacher who didn't speak English) this week obviously improved our understanding and also confidence with spoken Español!  Steve is even forming the odd full-Spanish sentence now (and without English words thrown in to boot)!  And Petrina has been dreaming and sleep talking in Spanish.  This all bodes well for our skills!

Above: Outside Juan Sisay escuela de español.  The late Juan Sisay is a famous Guatamalan artist.  Below, left and right: Petrina with 'su Maestro Luis' (her teacher Lewis) and Steve with Maestro Mario, respectively.  Petrina's Maestro Luis said Pet is 'muy inteligente' and 'una estudiante dinámica y activa' (she is very inteligent, dynamic and energetic Student).  Steve's teachers wished him luck with the waves back in Mexico....(-;

Our homestay family's place.  They were a lovely -  and very wealthy by Guatamalan standards - family.  They even had a maid!  Needless to say, we ate, slept and lived in 5-star luxury compared to our basic backpackers hostel accomodation thus far on our trip!

The view to the mountains from the upstairs window of our homestay family's house.

Petrina with Grandma Estrelita.  Two well-known curiosities about Guatamalans are that they are even shorter than Mexicans (so that's short! Exhibit A, above - despite bending down, I am still a good head taller!), and they add 'ita' or 'ito' to the end of the usual names of things to indicate relative smallness (hence the name Estrelita perhaps?).  Also peculiar to Guatamalans is that they speak noticably slower than Mexicans.  Perhaps this is a result of being located geographically further away shields them a little more from the influence of the US 'hurry lifestyle'?  Whatever the reason, it was a plus for learners of the language! 

 

Left to right: Our Grandma, Mama y Papa for the week (otherwise known as Estrelita, Lili and Jovani)!

While in Xela, Petrina took the opportunity to explore on her daily runs.  But at an elevation of over 2000 metres above sea-level (on par with Mt Kosciusko, Australia's highest mountain), it was a little colder and there was a little less oxygen then she was prepared for!  Although she thinks she started to acclimatise to the thin air on the last day, she couldn't hold out on the purchase of extra layers of exercise clothes.  Mind you, there were leggings-abound at the local mercado (which required some hard bartering!), so getting her hands on these wasn't a problem.  We did wonder whether the leggings were still left over from when they were in fashion in the early 90s though, as, like Mexico, the fashion here is definately stuck in the Brittany Spears era!

Petrina after returning from a morning run, with newly purchased cold-weather gear (still too cold to remove gloves and beenie during the run)!  It got down to zero degrees overnight.  Who thought running in this cold at this elevation was a good idea again???  Not too mention the cobblestone roads (nearly sprained my ankles a dozen times), street dogs, and the traffic that definately doesn't give pedestrians right of way!

But the fashion wasn't the only thing stuck in the past here in Xela.  Like Mexico, the place is still full of little family owned tiendas on every block (corner stores).  Nestled between internet cafes and restaurants with wi-fi are clothing repair shops with latino men sitting behind old-fashioned Singer sewing machines, feverishly repairing clothes that westerners would count as past their use-by in a heartbeat.  Indigenous women still get around in traditional ropa (clothing), carrying produce and their wares se vende (for your purchase) in huge baskets on their heads around the streets, door to door (see photos immediately below).  On our bus into Xela, Indigenous families herded tethered sheep along the road, and donkeys stood, tied to fences, chewing cud.  This holding-fast to tradition, juxtiposed with all the modern comforts of modern life, made Xela a really interesting place to visit.

Top, left and right: Indigenous women on the streets of Xela.  Above, centre: At Xela's central park you can have you shoes shined while youu eat an healda  (icecream) from one of the many mobile vendors

Why, a bridge for pedestrians.............what a good idea! They have crossings that the cars dont stop for, people walk down the middle of the street as there are no footpaths in some areas, but for some reason many years ago someone thought a foot bridge would be gold in this one street.  Maybe it was a made as practice for trade-school apprentices back in the 1800s?...

The beautiful gothic / european-style buildings in Xela's central plaza (see photos immediately below also)

Every city centre we've been to so far in Mexico and Guatemala has a co-located church and a plaza / park.  Always lovely.

Petrina outside the municipal theatre

And again, with Steve this time

Coke has been embroiled in a number of legal battles with Indigenous communities in central america over disputes over water and wells.  Despite having a discrete wet-season every year, the large populations of Mexico and Guatamala mean they are, relatively speaking, water-challenged countries.

Out and about on the streets of Xela.  While it was achieved more through disrepair than conscious effort, once agin, we loved the old-school vibe of the place,

Cacahuates (peanuts), left, or Dulces (sweets, centre and right) for 1 Quetzale (the Guatamalan currency).  Guatamala - perhaps because it is so undeveloped and bitterly poor in comparison - was a lot cheaper to get around and live in than Mexico has been.

On our way back into Mexico, we came across this budget version of roadwork traffic control (see photo below), Guatamalan style.  You just throw a couple of rocks on the road to block one lane, then get a few of your amigos to wave a bit of material (or heck, an orange plastic bolsa will do for that matter) around attached to a stick, and Bob's your uncle, you're ready to do some roadwork!  Well apparently anyway... (see below)

Hambre numero uno (guy number 1, left) waves a pink scarf, while numero quatro, far right, does his thang with an orange bolsa on a stick.  Tidy work, boys (-;  But hey, we stopped, and didn't get hit by oncoming traffic, so who's to judge...

All jokes aside, although we would never previously have considered Guatamala as a travel destination, we were really impressed by it.  Its affordability, beauty and uniqueness are going to be pretty hard to top.  So pressure's on, Mexico...  In the next blogs we'll cover our upcoming time in San Cristobal and the Yucatan peninsular, including some of big the Mayan ruins which are amoungst the 7 wonders of the world.

Chao for now!

Petrina & Steve.