SAN CHRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS - MEXICO

12th - 15th May 2011

El Sub-Comandante Marcos

The bus trip from Mexico City to here, 13 hours, was a 'semi-white-knuckle' ride through the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains. Some vertiginous drops and sharpish bends which, thankfully, became somewhat concealed as night drew in. One truck had skidded off the road into a ravine. The first people on the scene were certainly not the emergency services because queues of pick-up trucks had arrived and lots of 'wreckers', like ants, were carrying away the plunder of sacks of something. Its an ill wind etc.....

The town of San Christobal de Las Casas is a jewel of a place and a complete change from the big city. It is 'Stow-on-the-Wold meets Cortez'. The district here, Chiapas, is supposed to be the poorest in Mexico but from the look of the town you certainly wouldn't think so. It is immaculately clean and almost entirely only one or two stories high with picturesque narrow streets which conceal, behind what look like plain brown doors hotels, bars, restaurants and shops with beautiful courtyards featuring gardens and fountains. The colour of terra-cotta prevails with houses painted in pastel shades. No graffiti.  It is all most tasteful. They must have strict planning regulations. Even the pavements, made of some amber coloured flagstones, literally shone. At 5000ft up the skies were blue but it wasn't too hot.

The district of Chiapas is the stamping ground of the Zapatista guerrillas ( EZLN ) under the leadership of the charismatic and popular ( in the area ) El Sub-Comandante Marcos. They have continually sought autonomy for the district. It was on January 1st 1974 that his boys captured the town and have also captured a few tourists in the past, but didn't do them any harm. They still mauintain a presence and are actually semi-tolerated by the Mexican government ( the area doesn't have any major resources! ). 

It is also the home to many indigenous Maya tribes, a famous Maya area with lots of ancient Mayan ruins.

Left: One of the 'Plazas'. There were several including the one with the mandatory Cathedral and bandstand.

The streets were very narrow and laid out in a grid pattern. There was plenty of traffic but, lesson to be learnt here, absolutely no traffic lights. The idea was just to give way and it seemed to work brilliantly. No aggro and few traffic-jams. 

Right: A typical street. Lots of interesting things were concealed behind these innocuous looking doors. Again, there were a surprising amount of old VW Beetles about the place.

The place is also noted for amber jewellry. Many shops advertised this stuff. I'm told you check it is genuine by rubbing a bit on a soft cloth and it should then develope enough static electricity to hold a piece of paper.

  

Left: The courtyard at my cheap end of the market hotel ( $40 per night ). There were many more up-market places with glorious gardens and 'water-features', all invisible from the street.

Right: A collonade along one of the plazas in which were hidden great restaurants, coffee shops etc.

At night lots of Maya folk, beautifully and colourfully dressed in their national costume, set up stalls ( well, rugs on the ground actually ) to sell knitwear, jewellry, carvings bags etc. It all looked well made and was certainly authentic stuff. No tat. It was also, for them, a good social gathering.

Left: A couple of Maya 'giants' dancing down the street. Especially at the weekend there was a happy carnival atmosphere to the place, and it wasn't even the tourist season. I suspect they just like to amuse themselves. There were also firework displays and much music, notably at..............

......and around the bandstand. The chap on the xylophone thing was impressive. Reminded me of that astronomer bloke whose trousers came up to his chin, ( Patrick Moore was it? ), who was a virtuoso on one of these. Maybe he still is, and continuing to amuse his fans, along with Herb Alpert. Couples were waltzing , although, as always, I failed to capture them. 

A day was spent on an outing to the famous Mayan ruins at Palenque which is about 160 kms north-east. There were 14 of us in a minibus. Various nationalities, and I struck up an aquaintance with an amusing French lady, Sabina ( a geologist ), an Aussie girl, ( Vedora ) and a Mexican girl ( owned a shop ). They all spoke English. These trips can be very social at times. The drive to Palanque took over 7 hours because this time it really was a 'Glutus Maximus Clenchus' roller-coaster ride through severe mountainous pine-covered terrain, and we had a breakfast pit-stop and two other short 'visits' en-route. The road tried to tie itself in knots. It was quite spectacular but taking pics was difficult when you are hanging on to the seat in front for dear life! Fortunately there were lots of  'sleeping policemen' to slow us down and even a couple of military check-points. Maybe they were out searching for El Sub-Comandante Marcos? Maybe they were El Sub-Comandante and his boys! They didn't detain us too long. 

Left: A short stop en-route at the Agua Azul waterfalls. Several of our bus load being hot and dusty went for a swim in the inviting clear blue ( azure ) coloured pools below it.

I was hot dusty and thirsty so decided to have a beer instead ( on safety, monitoring and life-saving duties, of course ).

Left: Another quick stop on the way. A 100ft waterfall called Misol Ha. It was possible, and fun, to walk along a ledge underneath the falls, which led to a cave.............

.........which, reputedy, went quite a distance to an underground lagoon. I saw some people following a dim torchlight into the stygian gloom and then I heard a scream. I didn't see them again. I had absolutely no intention of joining them because a) I would miss the bus and b) because I suffer from claustrophobia.

Left: And so to the Mayan ruins at Palenque. They covered a large area. Impressive, maybe, but still a lot of 're-construction'. Not so much as at Teotihuachan or Tenochtitlan though. Not so many sacrifices were carried out by the Maya ( sacrifice-lite ) who were a well educated and, for their era, knowledgeable people. They were the first civilisation to work out and design the 365 day calendar and also to discover the mathematical significance of 'zero'.

Above: More ruins. There was a signposted 'route' around the site which gave explanations of the various temples and went through woods and over streams crossed by rope and plank bridges. All very scenic. It did, I began to notice, continue a long way downhill to the 'exit'. When finally spat out there was, to my horror, a 2km walk up a steep road back to the bus which was due to leave in 15 minutes! It was also very hot and humid. Bloody hell! I made it but was I sweating! Some sort of ancient Mayan joke I suppose.
So, another long and tortuous drive back to San Christobal. I think I've seen enough old ruins now.

Right: Rat meets a fellow traveller in San Christobal.

Below: I promised our faithful barman I would post a photo of him. There was excellent service in the 'bijou' Hotel El Paraiso and the food was delicious. A much more cosmopolitan menu than up north.

So that was San Christobal de Las Casas. It was, in my opinion, a lovely place with a jolly, friendly and colourful atmosphere. 
Next off to Guatemala. I have not had my passport stamped in Mexico. No visitor's pass. They just waved us through in Tijuana. I was assured by a lady in the immigration office in Mexico City that this 'should' not be a problem. I might have to fill in a form and pay 'some' money at the border. I have visions of being stranded forever in the no-man's land between Mexico and Guatemala. If you don't hear from me again, that's where I will be.