We were supposed to be in Belize by now! I had to change our reservations! You see,we are still in Mexico and will be here for another week or so. We keep finding more stuff to do and see here, It really does feel like home for me - I have felt that way since I first started going to Ensenada when I was 16 years old.
OK, here is what we have been up to since the last post. I have tons of pictures. but they are not yet in a downloadable form. We left Tapachula and took a bus to San Cristobal de las Casas, an awesome town we went to about eight months ago on our last sojourn before leaving Mexico. traveling around Mexico by bus is great. The buses are really nice, comfortable, and clean. When they stop, people come aboard and sell food and drinks. It was a seven or eight hour bus ride, and they showed movies the whole way. The only catch was that the movies were all dubbed into Spanish. However, they were pretty easy to follow since they were either kids movies or action films. We stayed at a wonderful hotel in San Cristobal - st a very reasonable price, too. The town itself is lovely - with lots of people in traditional dress everywhere. The women wear blouses made of satin with embroidered plaques and short, puffy sleeves. They wear skirts made out of heavy, shaggy black or brown wool that are gathered up in front and secured with these beautiful embroidered wide belts. The craftsmanship that goes into the embroidery is amazing. I bought three blouses - one of them is satin - and two different belts.
We also took a horseback ride down into a traditional Mayan village and saw the most interesting church I have ever been in. it is nominally a Catholic church, but different because there are Mayan traditions woven into the mass and the other Catholic aspects. To begin with, they revere John the Baptist (San Juan Bautista) more than Jesus in some ways - his statue is at the very top of the alter with Jesus on the cross kind of off to the side. The sides of the church were lined with mannequins representing different saints, all beautifully dressed in handmade clothing made of beautiful fabrics. There were no pews - the entire place was open. The floors were covered with pine boughs and the people had row upon row of candles lit and burning right on the floor with the pine boughs. I at first thought what a fire hazard but then I saw there were people going around tending all the candles. People grouped around the candles and chanted and prayed, whole groups of them. There seemed to be a leader of each group of people, There was a priest in regular priest clothing at the alter doing something with a crowd around him, but I felt intrusive enough and did not get close to see what they were doing. At the same time as all this devotion was going on, other people were standing around in small groups just visiting and shooting the breeze. I also noticed that many, if not most, of the people were drinking coca cola and other soda pop drinks right there - I found out later that is to encourage burping, which is believed to drive evil spirits out of the church. I am not making that up. It was an incredible experience just to be there. We have pictures of the outside of the church but not the inside - the Maya do not like to have their pictures taken, especially in religious situations. I do not know how much longer this will last as the pentecostal are converting these people as fast as they can. The pentecostal are fully in charge in El Salvador - the women cover their heads with white scarves and they have a whole big church that is uses all Jewish symbolism - the star of David and the menorah. They also refer to themselves as Friends of Israel. About half my Salvadoran friends go there.
The next day we went on a boat ride through a canyon. It too was wonderful. The canyon walls rise to 2000 feet or more as you ride along this river. We saw crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks of the river, which made me think twice about going in the water, no matter how hot I was. There were waterfalls going down the sides of the canyon - it was not as big and impressive as the grand canyon, but it is certainly up there with it.
We also met an interesting expat - living in foreign countries does attract some unusual people. This guy was an old hippie, and he had been living in Mexico for 30 years. He knew a lot about the area and the people. He flirted shamelessly (but harmlessly) with the Mayan women selling things on the street and they seemed to love it, giggling and teasing him right back. It was the first time we saw them really let down their guard with non-Mayans.
The next day we took a van to two different ruins that are off the regular tourist route. The first one was located an hour and a half down a river and accessible only by boat. The other one was deep in the jungle, and was only "discovered" in the forties. The wonderful thing about this ruin (Bonampak) is that much of the painting was till visible. They used red, blue, green, orange, and black and white. It was really incredible to see it and think about how old it is. I touched a wall (not a painted on) and thought about how someone back in 200 AD had touched that same wall in that same place. We spent the night in a cabin in the jungle - no bathroom except down the path, one light bulb hanging from the ceiling, mosquito screens that were only partially effective, and I slept like the dead. We also stayed at the same jungle lodge we stayed at eight months ago near Palenque - we even got the same room.
So now we are in Campeche, which is on the Gulf of Mexico and is a beautifully restored colonial city. It was originally surrounded by walls, because of pirate attacks (Pirates of the Caribbean) and some of the wall and some of the balustrades are still standing, We went to two museums with gorgeous Mayan artifacts in them, artifacts from the ruins nearby. We are skipping these ruins only because we are leaving for Yucatan today and have a lot to see there. It would take years to see all the Mayan ruins around this area. And we have more coming up in Guatemala and Belize. So many ruins, so little time! Even for us. We have to get back to Magda jean at some point, but we know Santos is taking good care of her.
So anyway, that about brings us up to date on where I have been and what I have been doing. I will post pictures as soon as I can do so. Since we will be in Merida in a hotel tonight, maybe we can watch the debate. We did watch the vice presidential debate, but it was on CNN Mexico and dubbed in Spanish! If the hotel has internet, we can stream it and watch it that way. I am so glad I am not in the US for this election cycle - the ads would have made me crazy from what I am hearing. Today it is on to Merida in a couple of hours, and it is only a two and a half hour bus ride. And blessedly, we have time for breakfast first!
"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." (Dorothy Parker)
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