The owners came back and were so nice, and they apologized for not being there. We were just thankful that they didn’t give our room away! Our room was huge and had a king size bed.
We discussed our plan for our time here, went for dinner, saw a little bit of the downtown area ,and then came back to our hostel to get some much needed sleep. The downtown area here is a lot different than any other city I’ve been to. There’s a ton of people here because a ton of people in Mexico have vacations during semana santa (holy week, the week leading up to Easter). However, the town itself is still so tranquil.
Saturday was spent exploring the town. We climbed a hill, that has the Iglesia de San Cristóbal on top. The view was supposed to be really impressive from the top, but I think the view was better from half way up because at the top there were trees in the way.
The hill:
The view:
Either way, it was good exercise. Next up was the amber museum. Chiapas is the third largest producer of amber, so that’s kinda a big deal here.
We walked around to some of the places that we had seen the night before, like the main square, the arc, and the Cathedral.
The arc:
Cathedral:
After lunch we walked to a plaza that was absolutely full of people selling crafts. There were so many gorgeous things, but between the fact that I don’t NEED most of them, and anything I buy I have to carry with me, I didn’t buy anything. We then walked to the market. It’s always interesting to see stand after stand selling the almost same foods. What isn’t interesting is the smell of fish, watching the flies land on the meat that is just sitting out in the sun, and seeing things like chicken heads and feet.
After the market we wandered back to our hostel for a quick break, and then we were on our way to the Casa de Na-Bolom museum. This is a non-profit public trust. It was started a woman who came to Mexico after World War II. She married a man from Denmark, and they studied the indigenous people here and fought for their rights. She took over 50,000 pictures.
The museum:
One of the pictures:
On the way back to our hostel, we climbed the other, smaller hill, with Iglesia de Guadalupe at the top. Less steps and an equally good, if not better view.
The hill/church:
The view:
We ate dinner, and then went to a store to pick up some water for the next day. What was weird about this was the system at the store. You had to take your purchases to the counter and get a receipt showing the amount. Then an employee took your purchases to a different counter, while you went to yet a different counter to pay. They gave you a receipt showing that you had paid, and then you collected your purchases. We were both so confused.
On the way back, we stumbled across this mural:
Back at the hostel, I met a girl from Atlanta who is volunteering in Guatemala for a few months, and took a week off to come here. We shared stories about weird cultural things we have experienced as well as our difficulties with learning the language.
New foods: churros, "the spanish doughnut" Ours had a little bit of chocolate on them. They were alright, but I think I’d like to try the ones that are filled with stuff from a real restaurant, instead of ones sold on the street.
Pozole – this is a soup with a red broth. It has chicken and big pieces of corn in it. I’m talking pieces of corn bigger than my thumbnails. We put some avocado in it. Katharine said it wasn’t as good as the pozole she’s tried before, but I thought it was tastey.
Here’s a link to my facebook album from the first two days: San Cristóbal
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