Mexico or bust
Trip Start
Feb 23, 2008
1
11
32
Trip End
Aug 23, 2008
San Cristobal de las Casas,
Mexico
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
After a short stop we headed for La Mesilla on the border. this part of the trip was anything but uneventful. the bus broke down after about 1 hour. The driver and his assistant spent 20 minutes hitting the engine with a hanner and eventually we were on our way again.
One thing about the assistant. His job is not only to collect the money and get people onto the bus but when people board with large sacks of produce, he grabs them, runs to the back of the bus, climbs up a ladder, attaches the bag to the roof and jumps back on the bus. All while the bus is hurtling down the road.
Coca cola church
The bus next stoped at a gas station to pick up some people, as it took off there was a sudden thump and an awful howl. I thoght we had hit a dog but soon saw it was a local man whose foot looked completely crushed. the driver ran around frantically as crowds gathered around the injured man. After some money exchanged hands we were on our way again. Karma must have visited the driver because 30 minutes later the bus gave a terminal splutter and we were all on the side of the road waiting for another bus.We finally reached the border after 6 hours. You could tell we were near Mexico as the shops sold pinyaters and all the guys wore cowboy hats and boots. It was also hot. We had descended from the highlands where it was always so cool. The border crossing was surprisingly hassal-free. After being stampedout of Guatemala and catching a cab the 4km to the Mexican side i was stamped into Mexico.
The bus to San Cristobal was nothing like the chicken buses i was so use to - individual seats, air conditioning, badly dubbed hollywood films and cautious drivers. After a total of 11 hours, i finally arrived in San Cristobal - a colonial town high in the mountains. San Cristobal hit the headlines in 1994 when Zapatistas (the left wing peasant group of the EZLN) stormed and briefly occupied the city.
I headed to the Magic Hostel (now called Hostel de ponderosa). The rooms were clean and cool, there were a lot of travellers and the showers hot. At $8/night it was more expensive than Guatemala but i got the feeling that Mexico wasnt going to be cheap
After a good night sleep i headed out to San Juan Chamula, a mayan village about 10kn away with an english girl. Sunday was market day but that was not the reason we were visiting. We wanted to visit the local brightly coloured church with pine-covered floor where local worshippers drink coca-cola to usurp evil spirits
close up of church
. And we were not disappointed. Amidst hundreds of burning candles and incense that is what they did. The story goes that the locals use to make their own soda until one day a man turned up with some coca-cola. After drinking this, it produced a more forceful burp than the local stuff and so ridding the body of more evil and thats where it all began. I dont think Coca-cola know about this place as there was no advertisingMy second day in San Cristobal i spent walking around town looking at all the churches with their ornate fascades. I visited the Museo del Ambar de Chiapas and saw bugs encrusted in the fossilised resin. I also wondered why there were so many VW beetles in San Cristobal or was it Mexico. I climbed the steps of the Cero de San Cristobal to the Igesia de San Cristobal and watched the city on the cool afternoon. Tommorrow i was headed to Palenque and my first Mayan site in the lowland jungles of Mexico where i had been told by other travellers it was anything but cool
