San Cristobal de las Casas

As Michael told you all, we are currently in San Cristobal de las Casas. It is lovely here. Yesterday we spent the day wandering down the small streets with brightly painted houses and exploring the museum at the Na Baloom House, which is a house that was owned by a couple in the 50's, I think they were American, and is now a museum about their life and work. The husband of the couple was an Arceologist and spent his life mapping the territory around San Cristobal and escavating a number of the ruins near here. His wife worked with some of the indigenous groups in the nearby jungle and advocated for their rights. The best room in the museum covered the culture of this group of people. It had artifacts as well as a mini replica of a "God House" that was made by a group of children from the tribe as part of a project to encourage intergenerational communication about the traditions and beliefs within the community. It was interesting to read the writing of the Blom's. Despite the wonderful work they did the language of colonialism and superiority still pervades their writtings. Calling the indigenous people "savages" and things like that. Of course this language was par for the course when they were living and working here, it makes me wonder how some of our current work with indiginous groups will come across 50 years from now. I hope we keep making progress toward respecting and valuing one anothers' cultures.

Last night we went out for the big celebration in the main plaza. We ate dinner at one of the small booths set up as part of a fair and believe we were badly overcharged, but the food was good. We thought maybe the prices were just high until we spoke to an Argentinian couple that we met today and they also felt the prices were outrageous and that we all probably had been carged a bit extra for looking like tourists, but asi es la vida. We wandered around people watching and listening to the music, provided primarily by a military marching band that I can't say was very good. There were all sorts of people out and about. From young indigenous girls selling woven bracelets and belts, whole families with children dressed in red, white, and green, faces painted the colors of the flag, groups of young boys running about loudly blowing horns and generally making a rucus, to large blond tourists waving mexican flags. At 11pm with much fan fair, the municipal president arrived on the balcony of the palacio municipal to initate the "grito." He would shout something, along the lines of, "remember the heros of our war for independence" and we would all shout in reply "¡VIVA!" and he would say something like "The great country of Mexico, a democracy that we have fought to perserve and that we are all proud of" and we all would should "¡VIVA!" in return. Then the fireworks, music and dancing began. We can only asume the this went on well into the night but we didn't stay much longer than the fireworks. One of my favorite moments from the night was standing next to a family during the grito. There was a young boy, maybe 2 or 3 years old on his mother's shoulders. He was dressed as a little cowboy, with chaps, a holster, a button up the front shirt, and a cowboy hat to boot. His father was standing next to him and everytime something happened his father would check in, "Do you see the big flag?" The little boy, nodding, "No, the big one, up, with the president, do you see it?" The little boy nodding vigoursly in return. At each ¡viva! the little boy and the father would look right at one another and shout together. Tying together the love in their family with the love of country that the little boy will surely grow up with. Their connection was preciosa, and the moment, muy lindo.

This morning at breakfast (which is conviently included with our already really cheap hostel!) we met a wonderful couple from Argentina who have been working here in a travel agency in Mexico City for the past two years. They are between jobs now and traveling before finding a new one, as the Argentinian agency they worked for decided to close up shop here in Mexico. We all decided to sign up for a tour to a nearby canyon for tomorrow and set out around 10 to locate the travel agency we had found yesterday with the cheapest tours. As it turns out there was a parade. And the parade, as it turns out, included almost every single school aged child in San Cristobal and was about 2 miles long and wound about the city streets in a way that made it nearly impossible for us to arrive at the travel agency a few blocks away from our hostal. After a few attempts to get around we gave up and went looking for the Amber Museum, which, as it turns out, was closed. We ended up having to run across the parde path 4 times (don't worry, everyone was doing it) to eventually arrive at the travel agency--2 hours after we origionally set out. We saw a good bit of the city as well as heard the talents of many of the local school bands along the way, it was quite an adventure. I decided that the cities band teachers need new drums, while Michael decided that it would be cheaper to buy the rest of the city ear plugs. Despite the quality of their drumming, the children were adorable, although many appeared very hot and a bit miserable after 2 hours wearing their sweater-sets and long pants or heels and nylons while marching in the sun.

After this adventure we all decided that maybe something outside the city would be a good idea and grabbed a cab for a nearby ecological reserve. The reserve was just a little outside of town and had a guided nature trail that wandered up into a cloud forest. We were given printed guides that had the answers to questions posted on tiles along the route, such as "Why do these tress have twisted trunks?" The answer is that they are twisted from being cut over and over again by the local people to use for wood. By cutting them mid way up they keep the tree alive and can keep using the wood as it grows again. The thick twisted part of the truck was the oldest part, the skinny straight parts on top was new growth. It was very educational. But more importantly the trail wandered through some truly magical landscape. The trees had moss and lichens covering them and bromeliads growing in the nooks between their trunks and branches. I saw a bug that was hot pink and silver, but it flew away before anyone else saw it. We saw 2 of the alleged 100 species of birds. It was a very well maintained trail and thoughtfully put together nature walk. In addition, the latrines, at the start of the trail, despite being really just a pipe into the ground with a wooden cover, were some of the least smelly, most nicely kept bathrooms that I have encountered in public here in Mexico.

We took a collectivo back to town, ate a delicious lunch at a place with posted prices, and then returned here to the Hostel just in time to miss the afternoon downpour, which should stop in an hour or so, as it did yesterday.

Tomorrow we are off to El Canyòn del Sumidero.