Our super coach arrived late into San Cristobal 2hrs late at 1030am due to additional police checkpoints during the night and a longer detour due to damaged road. We instantly fell in love with San Cristobal de las Casas (Pop 215,874). It is also high up at 2150m but what makes it attractive is its main pedestrian road surrounded by colourful hotels, cafes, bars and restaurants. It is surrounded by mountains and has the feel of an Alpine Ski Village even though no snow falls here. It is however quite cool in the mornings and nights falling to 10C but during the day it is a comfy 22C and dry.
After a nice sit-down breakfast (enjoyed an egg, tomato, cheese, avo empanada) we boarded a private van and headed to nearby Zinacantan only 35min away to visit a family run textile shop. Their specialty is woollen and cotton clothing but they also do hall runners and rugs. As usual they cover every colour imaginable and took the time to explain how they weave the already purchased coloured threads. This method uses a hand-supported assembly in a kneeling position, much harder than the stand-up machine we saw in Oaxaca. After the weaving demo we enjoyed a veggie taco made on a wood fire in front of us with beans, cheese and a sweet tomato salsa. This was washed down with POSH, the local distilled spirit made from corn. You can have pure clear posh or posh with cinnamon or hibiscus, the latter tasting like Commandaria or Cypriot Port used in Greek Orthodox Holy Communion.
Our next destination was indeed strange and “first time” in the neighbouring village of Chamula, which is named after the local indigenous peoples of this area. The Chamula people do not want to be filmed or photographed since they believe that their souls are taken away. This is common amongst many older belief systems across the world. What makes Chamula unique is their “synchrotheistic” religion. It is a mix of their original indigenous beliefs in gods in nature and Catholicism. “Synchro” means mixed and “theistic” means god or belief, both Greek words. You see, the local Chamula did not fully embrace Catholicism when the Spanish colonised Mexico and this area in the 14th Century. They rebelled but eventually agreed to accept Jesus as long as they could carry out their original belief rituals, which involve sacrificing chickens to win favour with their gods, which would now be replaced by Jesus, His Holy Mother and the Saints. What does this all mean you ask ? The answer was clearly visible in the Iglesia de San Juan (Catedral San Juan Bautista), the Catholic Chamula Church in the town centre. Inside was something I had never seen before, even after 118 countries !!! This was not an ordinary Catholic Church. There are no lights or windows or seats or organ or elaborate pillars or chandeliers. Instead the marble floor is covered in freshly picked green pine needles (yes, from the surrounding pine trees) and filled with hundreds of candles stuck to the same floor with wax. The walls are adorned with large cabinets with life-size, doll-like manikins of actual Catholic Saints. There are no services here. No baptism. No confession. No communion. Instead families will turn up with kids and their elderly and sit on the floor to pray to the Saints and then sacrifice a chicken in the church !!! We saw the live chickens but no sacrifice due to shortage of time. Maybe next time. This was belief-systems at their strangest and it is surprising that the Catholic Church tolerates this – anything for Jesus I guess…
We returned to San Cristobal with free time in the late afternoon to explore it for ourselves. It is a compact place and easy to cover on foot except for the various churches up on hills with many steps to overcome. Antonia and I are visited the following places: Iglesia de Santo Domingo, Museo Textiles de Mundo Maya, Artisanal market, Walk south Andador 20 de Noviembre, Catedral de San Cristobal, Templo de San Nicolas, Plaza 31 de Marzo ZOCALO Historic Centre, Casa de las Sirenas, Hotel Ciudad Real Central Historico, Monumento Suarez, Palacio Principal, south along Avenida Miguel Hidalgo to Alberto Dominguez to Sol Maya steps up to Iglesia de San Cristobal (Scenic Lookout) then down steps to Iglesia Le Merced & Plazuela de La Merced.
The highlight was not exactly a building or monument but the central pedestrian street itself adorned with colour and the vibrancy of music and street-side drinks. After a quick shower we returned to partake of $3AUD wines and $7AUD Margaritas. Antonia and John were in Heaven !!! In fact, San Cristobal is even better at night. There is always something going on. We watched a marching street band that night.
The next day was a day to remembered. Our second day of high drama since the ESTA kafuffle of our very first day of Ai Cultura. Our tour bus and guide for a whole day trip to the Sumidero Canyon (Boat Trip), Chiapa de Corzo village and Miradores (Viewpoints) DID NOT TURN UP !!! The agreed pickup time of 9am came and went. At 930am we asked the hotel tourist office to ring our tour company and she delivered the devastating news: our van had broken down on its way to pick us and others up from local hotels. It could be repaired and there was no replacement van so they just cancelled the whole day trip via email at 940am. We went back to our room and checked and behold it was true. We raced around to three tourist offices to see if we could book with another provider but no deal – all had departed at 9am. We were gutted but not defeated. I decided we would walk to the town centre and do a day-long fixed-price deal with a taxi driver to take us to all the sites. On the way down along the busy main street, a guy dressed as superman (I am not joking), stops me and asks me if I want to go on a day trip. I got excited. We did a deal at $180AUD to do the same trip that cost me $175AUD. We were saved. I left Antonia there and rushed back to get more cash. On my return, Antonia’s face was pale. She took me aside and said – there is no way I am going with this guy. He asked me my age and started texting his mates. Additionally, there was no office, no desk, no paperwork. No deal. I declined politely and we continued to the town centre. After 3 taxis offering $200AUD with time restrictions, along comes a taxi with an older smiley gentleman and he offers $180 with no time limits – he and his car was at our disposal the entire day. Deal. At least this guy was a licensed and registered driver. Part of deal was to switch cars to his own family car, which was in better condition and would allow him to pocket the price without a cut to the taxi company. We were OK with that. And off we went. Another close save !!!
Our soon to be close friend, Raymond drove us 60min to the boat that would take us through the canyon. He called his wife to tell her what he was doing and spoke to his son so we were confortable that this family man would not do the dodgy on us. Lucky for us that there are many boats that travel the canyon constantly as soon as they gather a minimum of 20 customers. Once again luck smiled on us and we turned up at the same time as a van of 18 Mexicans visiting from Mexico City. So we put on our life vests and off we went at 1130am, approx. an hour after we would have travelled with our original now cancelled tour.
Sumidero Canyon is simply spectacular. It is 30km long and surrounded by huge vertical cliffed mountains rising to a high of 1,000m from the freshwater below. It took us one hour to reach the end at 30km from our start. We stopped along the way to observe the cliffs above us and the local wildlife, which is mainly birds (cormorants, black eagles, egress) but included a capuchin monkey and even a crocodile !!! Our return was non-stop at a thrilling 60km/h.
We then spent the next 2hrs driving to five viewpoints (or Miradores) spread out above the canyon giving us a view down to the river we had just travelled. Amazing views. Amazing heights. Three of the Miradores were perched right on the edge of their respective cliffs giving me sweaty palm pictures and clips.
Our final stop was the surprise of the day. The goal was to photograph the central plaza of the city of Chiapa de Corzo which features a central sculpture known as the La Pila Fountain. Instead we find the whole plaza is crowded by thousands of local people, dancing and singing to the sounds of local music with the ladies dressed in multi-coloured long dresses like opera singers. We went nuts. Into the crowd we went brandishing our cameras. Antonia started to dance with the ladies and was even given a shot of POSH, which she shared with me !!! Amazing. Ray explained to us that this occurred EVERY Sunday with not only the locals but people from neighbouring cities attending. So much so that our return to San Cristobal was via a high windy mountain road so we could avoid the traffic on the freeway that brought us there in the morning. Ray did a great job driving and saved us a lot of time. He patiently waited 2hrs for our boat ride and was always courteous and even gave us Spanish lessons in the car. The cutest thing of all is he used Google Translate to communicate with us since he hardly spoke any English. We even took a selfie with him when he dropped us off. Another valuable lesson that language is no barrier to friendship or respect.
What a day. What a lesson for Antonia. A classic example of the sometimes unpredictable barriers to travel and how you can overcome them – never give up on what you want to see and do !!!
We celebrated our day’s recovery with a huge margarita and several local beers and our first Burrito and Quesadilla.
Please join our celebration with the images of our last-minute adventure below…
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