Hola......from the Pacifico,,,black sands, bus it forward and what's that river doing in the the middle of the bay??

En route to the Pacific..

Ah, it's so nice to be warm again after the 6 hour ADO bus journey to Puerto Arista. Back to 30 C and an ocean breeze. Nice. Can't remember the last time we swam  in the Pacific. 


No problem finding a hotel with so few people here at this time of year.

This beach is apparently 32 km long - so, similar to Varadero, Cuba. This sand is nearly black though with very few people on it. It's one of the few undiscovered beaches left here.  Fishermen are about, pelicans and frigate birds are diving and people buzz about up and down the beach on ATV's.



Musicians stroll about trying to find someone to play for.


Main Street of Puerto Arista

Our first dinner was on the street prepared by a family. They prepared the 4 chicken tacos out on the street on an open wood fire. Grandma was making the shells, the daughters were cooking the meat in a pan over an open fire as well as cooking the shells. We ordered a drink of fresh squeezed orange juice that grandpa prepared. It took quite a while to get and when it did, it was a pint and a half!!!!  Way too much but really good and a nice change from beer.  All of this for less than $5!

And look at these sunsets...








Typical street scene here.

On the beach by 9:30, 100 m from our hotel.  We were the only ones here with our own private waiter all day long. How nice is that!  The hammocks are for the choosing... ahhh....



We watched 2 fishermen set their net out from the shore on the incoming tide. Threw an anchor out into their surf and attached the other end of the net to post way up on the sand. Then they left and let the tide bring in the fish.

Trying to leave town meant a 2 a.m. departure by bus. Rather than waiting, we just started hopping up the coast by taking whatever bus was heading north. Always seemed to be a bus going north for us as we jumped from town to town.


Massive amounts of wind farms on this entire journey.

After overnighting in the big, industrial, port city of Salina Cruz, we left on a bus for what was supposed to be a 3 hour  ride up the coast. However, we got stopped for about half an hour in this tiny village due to the revolutionary day celebration - Nov. 20. The schools were having a parade down the highway so, of course, the traffic was stopped to let the parade go by. Students were in uniforms, they performed routines and smiled at the two tourists watching them. Some were even brave enough to say hi. When we replied, we got the biggest smiles!

Now we are in the beautiful beach town of Huatulco - Santa Cruz Bay. 

It's a lovely fishing town with a few restaurants, lots of locals and warm water.   We took a 6 hour boat ride up the coast with some new friends from Saskatchewan.





We toured along the beautiful coast,  snorkeled a few times, had a snack and beers on a beach and thoroughly enjoyed this day!  The snorkeling was some of the best we've had in a while.

At our first stop by an island, Shayne jumped in, but with the rip-roaring current flying by the boat, he quickly grabbed for and held on to the anchor rope. Yvonne jumped in, didn't grab the rope on time and within minutes was several hundred meters away from the boat!!! Ha!

Needless to say, they pulled up anchor and came and got her right away. We of course, went to a calmer spot without such a current for further snorkeling. Was fun!

Stopped by the local fish taco truck. A couple of tacos - shrimp and cactus, finished with ice cream from the corner store. All a few $$. Swimming/snorkeling every day here. Getting some good long swims in. Nice to get the body active.
Huatulco Bay


Huatulco Bay from a nearby viewpoint en route to a different beach. Don't want to stay
in town when the cruise ship is in port.

Tomorrow we're off to a nearby beach for a change of scenery. 

Such tough decisions to make every day. The hardest one is always "where shall we eat tonight?". 

Life is good!

Adios for today!  Take care and drop us a line when you can. Hugs to all of you!

..Shayne/Yvonnea

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!