Stop 4. San Cristobal

The overnight bus from Oaxaca to San Cristobal took us 12 hours. Nobody can say that they like travelling overnight on buses but this one wasn´t that bad. The bus itself was quite new and the seats on the bus recline nearly into beds there was a film laid on as well.

At around 3 am, just as we´re starting to go to sleep, the pulled into a truck stop for the passengers to stretch their legs and get a bity of fresh air. this was also the time to change our drivers. I couldn´t believe it when a bloke climbed out of the cargo hold underneath the bus and got settled into the drivers chair. Our previous driver then waved us goodnight and climbed into the hatch under the bus and got settled for the rest of the night journey! I had a look in at where the drivers were sleeping and it looked a lot more comfy than the set up we had upstairs.

A lot of what we`ve traveled through so far has been tropical wilderness.

We got into San Cristobal about 8:30am. We dropped our bags off, quickly freshened up and caught a tour out some of the traditional Mayan villages. We visited two very culterally different villages. The first one we visited was in the middle of celebrating the festival of St Anthony. There was lots of fireworks being let off at random in the main square and a lot of drunk locals staggering around babbling incoherently, and this was only 10 am. Our guide, Ceaser, allowed us to go into the church and have a look around.

The religon that´s practiced in this village is a form of Catholicism but it´s fused with traditional beliefs as well. While we were in the church we witnessed a chicken being sacrificed and local shamans working their magic. Funny to think of all the different versions of Christianity there are. In this town it´s okay for a bloke to have more than one wife (if you wanted!). Our Guide told us that the Catholic church, in Rome, sent it´s last priest over in the 1920s but the locals killed him?

After we´d spent an hour looking around the market we piled back into our van and headed a bit futher into the hills to the second village on our tour.

The next place was completely different. For a start it was a lot more clean on the streets. No piles of rotting garbage and no drunks rolling around the place or packs of dogs. This place was a lot quieter. The people here are a lot more reserved. They also tend to practice a more orthodox form of Chistianity. We spent about an hour here being shown how to weave cloth and how to prepare and cook traditional meals.

The second mday here was spent on a day trip with the rest of our tour group exploring the Sumidero Canyon. For about a fiver we were transported to the canyon by bus where we then spent the afternoon zipping up and down the river on a motor boat looking at the sights. Our guide beached the boat along one of the river banks so we could all take pictures of a 1.5 meter croc basking in the sun. There was a bit of a scarey moment when everybopdy stood up in the boat to take photos and the boat started to rock wildly. He shouted at us all to sit down as we were only 3 meters away from the beast. About 20 meters around the corner we saw a clutch of around 30 baby crocs, no more than 15cm long. They were all curled up together in a ball. They looked quite cute when they were small.

One of the things that`s suprised me is how green Mexico is. A lot of what we`ve traveled through so far has been tropical wilderness. When we got on the boat we quickly left civilization behind. All along the river bank it was teaming with monkeys, parrots and whenever we pulled up we saw tonnes of tropical fish in the water. There was also a lot of kids swimming in the water and guys fishing off the bank (nobody`s told them about the crocs and piranhas?).