San Cristobal de las casas and more......high in the Sierra Madres

Hi - thought we'd send another quick email ... So much to tell!!!

What an interesting place San Cristobal de las Casas is. Reminds us a lot of Nelson, BC! It's everything Nelson would like to be...dreads and all.



Our tour of a neighbouring Indian village was very intriguing!




We got to see how these people create beautiful pieces of art in their clothing, sometimes taking months to complete the hand stitching.

This was called a waist loom.

Shayne tried a traditional outfit on but didn't buy it.

These women belong to a cooperative of abut 20 families that design and
sell their handicrafts.


After we toured their 'shop' we went into the back room where other family
members served us fresh made tacos cooked over an open wood fire...  very delicious.

After this village our guide took us to a second village where there was unrest in the morning due to a municipal election. They didn't like who got in so they started throwing stones at one another. Trucks and barrels had stones in them ready for further confrontation.  Seems things are a bit edgy in the villages surrounding us. We aren't advised to travel in on our own. Hopefully not so at home!

Traditional Chiapan 'native' clothing.

So, we continued to the temple and were told to put our cameras away. We watched women in their traditional clothing going into the temple carrying live chickens.





There is no furniture in the temple, only tables with thousands of lit candles. On the floor is dried grass and pine needles along with incense burning. Families came in, sat somewhere on the floor, than started chanting, waving the incense around each other (usually around a sick member), then proceeded to strangle the chickens while they were chanting. Then we had to leave as groups of men started entering the church. These men were dressed in their traditional black clothes made out of local sheep's wool. There is no police in these smaller villages, just self appointed men who seem to keep the peace, or not!  Police seem to stay out of regions that aren't theirs to police. Our guides were a bit nervous about it all, especially when these men gathered in the church and in the church plaza. They shuttled us away to keep us safe. We never did find out if there was more trouble.

San Cristobal seems to exist in some happy chaos. Music, parades, church services, political rallies and fireworks all seem to happen at the same time and occupy nearly the same space. People take it all in stride. Parades go on and on at seemingly random times...

Some costumes were very interesting too...

The San Cristobal Market is very well known for not only its size but also for its
unique wares.  Have a look...

One of  the entry points...


Yes, those are plucked chickens.  The live ones were in a different area.
















Here are some live chickens...





And there ends my Market pictures.

We're getting tired of the cold here so tomorrow we're heading to  the Puerto Arista area and Boca del Cielo on the Pacific, west of Guatemala, and follow the coast up from there.  

More adventures to come!

Hugs to all!

Road south along the Gulf - Campeche...the walled city....

Hi again.  

Kind of random comments today.

Since we last wrote, we spent a great day with our new friends driving to the nearby town called Izamal - east of Merida. This town has 95% of its buildings painted in bright yellow with some white trim. Simply stunning!

Convent at Izamal.








En route saw a small Mayan ruin...





 an old henequen factory where they make sisal...


The henequen plant...


The old carts used to transport the plant...

The finished sisal...

And we saw flamingos in a lagoon.

Next we went to the gulf town of Campeche after a 2.5 hour bus trip that cost about $20 per person to get there from Merida.

Such a beautiful town where almost every building is a different bright colour and lots more yellow buildings.





And cute statues everywhere like these ones...

After two days it was off south to Palenque in the Chiapas region of Mexico.  The bus system sure  is efficient here in  Mexico. They leave on time, arrive on time, have plenty of leg room.  Was kind of strange to see the sign: Guatemala Frontier. Lots of police everywhere in Mexico.

One great aspect of restaurants here is that they provide a special coat-hook-type stand to hang your purse. When you sit down, they bring it to your table right away. It's as high as your table and has many hooks. Think we could use those at home rather than having to put our purses on the floor!  Huh!

The world famous Palenque ruins were pretty spectacular!  They are in the middle of the humid jungle with well groomed pathways and plenty of steps to climb!!!  We found Pikal's sarcophagus inside one of the pyramids as well as frieze's.  Just for you Susie!

Look at these pictures of this magnificent site!

Yesterday we arrived in San Cristobal de Las Casa 6 hours further south again down/up a windy mountainous road. Yvonne had to really concentrate...  We watched 3 movies in Spanish to help with the ride while the driver listened to his music. Beautiful scenery but much of it was fogged in.



San Cristobal sits at 2100 metres, so it's quite cool.  The first thing we did after finding a room was to buy a cheap sweater. Got down to 8 C overnight. Part of the Arctic Chill effect going on at home. 

Felt like fall camping in our room.  Today we are taking a tour into some mountain villages ...

We are in the middle of nowhere in San Cristobal. Blue, crisp skies this am.

 Not sure which direction we will head in the next few days.

 Distances in the mountains are long and slow.

Take care. Drop us a note when u can...

Hugs to all!

Merida - Day of the Dead festivities...Language School....learning new words is easy, but trying to remember the Spanish will drive us loco!!

 And the adventures continue... 

Our 4 hour bus ride inland to Merida was great, in a Greyhound style bus. Everyone very helpful everywhere we go. Merida is a clean, friendly city where we feel very safe.

The Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebration was very interesting. "This holiday is celebrated throughout Mexico...  It focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey."  On October 31, various community groups decorate altars in the Grande Plaza or city park, that are made of sticks and palm fronds held together with rope and the odd nail into the shape of a little hut about 3x3 m.





Inside the hut they have a table with photos of dead family members along with some special memorabilia and favourite foods.


On the floor in front of each altar was a cross made out of marigold petals, candles or sand.

Members at each altar were dressed in traditional Mayan outfits ready to have their photos taken.

The thousands of spectators shoulder to shoulder, parade in front of the dozens of altars hoping for free food and taking as many photos as possible.


We were given fresh tacos made by hand and fried on a pan on an open fire. Yummy! The woman was thrilled that we took it.




 Most people dressed up in traditional garb for this 3 hour event. Music plays everywhere either at the altar or in a separate section.




Turtle shell drums...



Such a great event to be part of!  TV cameras were rolling everywhere so maybe we were even filmed being only two of very few tourists.

Later in the evening we went to the area where they have the 'parade' of people who are dressed up at the family altars area.   Thousands of people were in these closed off streets. We kept waiting for a parade but soon realized that the 'parade' that they were talking about was not a parade as we know it but rather an area where people walk from a specific area to the cemetery - so, they 'parade' to their dead ones. It is to honour the dead. When they leave the cemetery it is symbolic of telling the dead to go back to where they belong now.

We eventually found a face painter for $2.50 for both of us. It took about 10 minutes each with lots of people watching. Many people smiled at us and gave us the thumbs up all night. When we later asked why we got such a response, we were told that Yvonne looked like a popular Mexican character, Catrina ... Ha. Who knew!

We walked for several hours during this parade of people seeing musicians, altars, food vendors and dressed up people.


There was a huge police presence especially when the mayor of Merida officially opened a game of 'Pok  Ta Pok' - a heritage soccer game that involved hitting a 4 kg ball with the hips, knees, heads and elbows before hitting it through a stone hoop. The losing team's captain would then decapitate the winning team's captain!  This was considered an honour in the Magan culture!  Luckily they just used some kind of crude ball for this ceremony now.  So, we r certainly happy that we decided to come early to Merida to partake in this celebration.

Here are a few other interesting, random shots of Dia de Los Muertos:





 Grandfather and grandson.

On the weekend we took a local bus to a northern beach town called Progresso. Cruise ships come into this town 2 or 3 times a week. The cruise dock is apparently 7 km long because it is too shallow to get closer. We certainly couldn't see the end of it. Too bad it was so windy and churned up that we didn't swim.



Local fisherman working his net off one of the peers by the long dock.


A stormy afternoon in Progresso.

Our language classes at Calle 55, are going well - intense though. The 4 hours is definitely long enough. Most students are from  Canada and recently retired too. We're having some great conversations and fun at the cantinas in the evenings. Our neighborhood pub has 2 for 1 drinks most mights for about $1.25 plus huge amounts of free snacks so we haven't needed to buy dinner.

Merida is very much about their culture so most evenings they have free events in a park. This could be traditional singing and dancing, or bands playing where streets are shut down for locals to dance. Many dress up in their fine clothes and show how it is done. We have of course tried to mimic them but I think we have to come back again to just do dance lessons. Ha. Not a bad idea!

We know that we are getting into the Mexican way of life when we walk on the shady side of the street, have a siesta in a hammock in the afternoon,


shower several times a day, eat guacamole and beans with our eggs in the morning and wear sunglasses from morning until night!  Ha. Not so at home we hear!

This weekend after our course is finished, we are going to rent a car with a couple from Quebec and drive south to Campeche via a town called Pomuch.  

Wait for our next email to hear about something special that they do to human bones...Should be interesting!

That's all for now.

Take care everyone!  Drop us a line and let us know how you are doing too.

Hugs,

Yvonne & Shayne