Up in the Mountains

After a long day of travel yesterday, Emily and I are now in the mountain town of San Cristóbal de las Casas, located in Chiapas. Here's the story of our wild ride up the mountain (plus some extra):

Yesterday started off lazily: Emily and I had decided to take a tour to two waterfalls in the area that left at noon and promised travel all the way to our next stop, San Cristóbal. The starting point for the tour was supposed to be a hotel around the corner from the bus station, and when we arrived no one affiliated with the tour group was there, so one of the hotel workers called him in. When this man, Iván, arrived, he explained to us the tour and then, when told that the day before had been my birthday, added a brief history of his 20's, which apparently included much in the way of partying, women, drinking, smoking, and cocaine. This information he volunteered freely--we certainly weren't pressing him for his life story. Maybe we should have been worried right then. But we pressed on.

After grabbing a quick breakfast down the street, we came back to the hotel to meet our ride for the day and were met, several minutes late, by a driver and an empty van already loaded with our bags. We went to get into the side door of the van and were told by the driver that, no, we were to sit in back, with the luggage. The back of the van had two removable chairs, apparently unattached to the van itself, facing each other amidst the four or five backpacks stacked in the rear. The arrangement might have looked fun when we were kids, but it wasn't our ideal. We protested the unreasonable request to sit in the trunk space of the van when all of the rest was available, but we were told that because the other people who were taking the tour had been in the van earlier in the morning for an extra piece of the tour (a visit to Palenque), that they had claimed the seats and that we had to sit in back. Well, fine. Don't mind us if we throw up on everyone's luggage.

After picking up the rest of our group, we headed to the first set of falls, called Misol-Ha. Misol-Ha, in Mayan, literally means "water falls." The site has a beautiful fall cascading over a ledge and into a smallish lake that you can swim around in, if you so choose. There is also a path leading around the back of the falls, so you can see it from all angles, which is fun. We'll post pictures soon--I think my description of both sets of falls cannot possibly do them justice.

After spending about 30 minutes at Misol-Ha, we drove on further to more popular site, Agua Azul. A note about the drive: winding through the Chiapas mountains, we passed a great deal of poverty. A great many people here live in terrible conditions. Houses in the small villages abutting the highway stand mostly unfinished, some with no roof, many with no windows. To the extent that businesses seem to exist, they don't seem to get many buyers. We passed one tailor's shop that stood out to me, as I noticed the tailor himself sitting near the door to shop and the shop itself--a simple concrete block with one table inside--barren of any clothing. I don't know what more to say, really--the poverty is disquieting. I can understand why Chiapas was the birthplace of the Zapatista movement.

Anyway, we made our way finally to Agua Azul, at which we had about 2.5 hours to spend. Emily and I walked to the various lookout points onto the majestic falls, a wide cascade out over a pile of large boulders that apparently has a bluer color other times of year (it's the rainy season) but was still quite impressive. We also walked higher upstream and saw some smaller offshoots of the falls and some other lovely spots hidden within the site. After a bit of hiking around, we decided it was time to get lunch, and we passed some time eating before walking out again. While at lunch, though, the weather took a turn for the worse. Great rolls of thunder sounded while we were eating, and once we left to look at the falls some more, not 5 minutes went by before the rain started. And when it started, it started in earnest. Because we still had quite some time before we were scheduled to leave, Emily and I took shelter at another restaurant and bought some ice cream to justify our presence. Most of those who could got in their cars and drove off right away. The rain continued unabated, and we finally decided to hoof it to the van and wait for our departure. So, we ended up getting great views of the falls, but our full enjoyment of the trip was a bit dampened by the weather.

The next stage of the trip was the worst. We drove back down the highway a bit until we came to the designated stop for our bus, which would pick us up and take us the rest of the way to San Cristóbal. We got on the bus and got the first available pair of seats, unfortunately located well to the rear, near the bathroom. The bus ride is not hard to imagine. The road to San Cristóbal is entirely in the mountains, winding left and right incessantly as it works its way through the sierra. There is not a single quarter-mile of road that goes anything like straight. The twists and turns of the road were amplified for us in the back of the bus, and Emily and I quickly had to work to keep from getting sick. We took some Dramamine and worked on concentrated, deep breathing and proprioceptive exercises (thanks to my occupational therapist wife) to try to keep our systems in check while the drugs got to work. We held on without anything nasty happening; I can't say the same for the poor girl who was sitting in front of us. At one point we stopped at a restaurant for food, restrooms, and some air. I got out and walked around, but it was like stepping onto land from a very rocky boat trip, and I felt like I would fall sideways any minute. The bus ride was nearly 5 hours of the same, and I'm frankly not sure how Emily and I kept it together. At some point, with maybe an hour left, we both even managed to fall asleep (thank you, drugs!) for the duration of the trip.

Finally in San Cristóbal, two hours later than expected and exhausted from the late hour and the drugs and the overall stress of the trip, we grabbed a cab and went to find a hotel. We had made reservations at one B&B for Monday and Tuesday, expecting a slightly different itinerary, so we went there first to see if they had a room available for us a day early. They unfortunately did not, but the hotel across the street did, so we took it, hopped into our large bed, and fell soundly asleep.

We've now spent almost a full day in San Cristóbal, but a description of the day's events will have to wait until tomorrow. We're getting ready to go out to dinner soon, and then to head down to the Zócalo (the central plaza) for the beginnings of festivities for Mexico's independence day, which officially gets kicked off with "El Grito", literally "the yell", where the mayor of the town yells out about how great Mexico is and how happy we all are, or something like that, and everyone yells back, and the party begins. Fun times. We'll fill you in tomorrow.