San Cristobal..Grandiose

With all the rain that fell, one would expect copious amounts of water at our enroute stops on the way to San Cristobel. We were not disappointed.

The first falls called Misol- Ha were used in the Predator movie they were one of the highest falls we have seen. They were 38 metres high. So noisy with tons of water the power was enormous. You could walk behind them as some of our group did . We wanted to swim but the under current was so strong.

Moving onto the next ones the Agua Azul (blue water) we were hopeful of a swim, these were completely different they cascaded over a very long distance and a lot of water. Very spectacular indeed. But no swimming allowed.









We arrived in San Cristobal in late afternoon taking a little longer because of washed out roads, not from this rain but quite some time ago. Some places only had barely enough room to slowly edge our way through glad we were on a smaller bus. Great scenery as we were in the mountains again though the road was very windy resulting in most of us feeling queasy, combined with altitude sickness as well .





What a beautiful city, they are in the middle of an arts festival so the town is pumping. Our hotel room is on a courtyard, very pretty. The streets are narrow and the buildings are brightly coloured and very clean. Very busy place surrounded by very high mountains covered in mist in the mornings then clearing to warmsunny days ,wish you could feel the atmosphere here , lots of cafes, great coffees and food.
















The market place

Day one was very busy we hired a guide to take us out for the day. First stop was the most incredible village Chamula some 6000 resident Mayans there. All the womenwear traditional clothing consisting of a very heavy woven skirt made from the wool of awoolly sheep similar to our mohair goats. Their upper clothing was intricately patterned blue green and purple wraps very attractive.






We were taken to a catholic church built by the spanish when they conquered the place. Before we entered it was explained to us about their traditions. We entered the church armed with a lot of information but what we saw blew all of us away. As the door opened the floor was alight with a mass of candles amongst pine needles scattered around the floor. Squatting or kneeling in family groups were a hundred or so Mayan men, women and children.The aromas were quite incredible they were burning offerings of pine needles, scented flowers, incense, in little urns and waving them around, it was so overwhelming . The church was dark as well, which added to the atmosphere .There were statues of saints all around the walls covered in flowers and offerings. As we walked around amongst this mayhem we stopped to watch women with live chickens waving them over their family members to heal them, the chicken was to take all the bad spirits away. They then proceeded to gently kill the chicken first by mesmerising it then wringing its neck. They were also doing similar things with eggs then placing them in a bag to bury them late . They then finished it all of with a drink of alcohol brewed in the village, kids and all, they then drank Coca cola of all things so when they burped the spirits would be expelled from the body. How odd was that?. They come there every 6 months or so or when someone was sick. The smells. Even though we were told what we would see, it did not prepare us, the sounds and the sights of that day will stay in our minds forever. Noone is allowed to live in or work in the village from outside. The church is owned by the Roman Catholic religion and they are conducting a court case to try to stop this town of Mayans from using the church as they are, but local feeling is even if the church won the case the people would not stop using the church.

The cemetery was so incredible also , very plain crosses, several on each grave. The black crosses for adults, the white ones for children and the blue ones for the people between.










On to the next village, as we arrived they were running around frantically tidying up for us. They have dirt floors and share their home with all the family, mum, dad, kids , inlaws , grandkids . They cooked us delicious tortillas filled with beans and their local goats cheese. Yum!









Driving on and down into Canyon Sumidero we boated down through the deepest gorges we have seen, deeper than the Yangtse river . Very speccy.











We saw huge crocodiles basking on the banks and saw one slide into the river . At that stage I felt we were not high enough in the water. Even though we had life jackets on I would not have fallen in for anyone. It was a glorious hour and a half seeing caves , wildlife and incredible formations. At the end of the day we decided to doll ourselves up to attend a dance performance for their festival. I loved it. Nick was ambivalent.






Today the weather was great again so we decided to walk up lots of steps to see a church and with that a great view of the city .Tonight we catch a night bus to spend a couple of days in Pueblo. 11 hours drive from 10.30 pm tonight. We cannot go to Oaxaca as there is too much trouble there with strikes and burning of cars etc. , not safe for anyone. Shame about that.