Heading for the Hills

Hello again :)

We had had enough of the heat and humidity of the coast and headed inland seeking cooler climes. It was a 9-hour bus trip so we decided to split it across two days. This gave us the opportunity to (very briefly) visit the town of Juchitan. This town was heavily impacted by an earthquake in late 2017. It was even hard to book a hotel in advance because they all closed down for a while, however we found one that was open. It had gaps in the staircase walls though.

We explored the town. Signs of the earthquake were everywhere. This building was one of the largest and oldest buildings in the town and it was still being repaired.

The earthquake was 8.2 on the Richter scale and Juchitan was one of the worst impacted towns. Even the murals weren't spared.

There was still rubble everywhere. So many buildings were damaged that it'll still be some time before they're all repaired. 

The sign on this building says, "Danger: House Damaged". Kind of stating the obvious really!

As the sun set, thousands and thousands of birds settled into the trees lining the streets. I've never seen so many!

That night, we went to a bar after dinner. It was more like a beer garden and you could get food there too. A mariachi band turned up. Unlike a lot of the people who play at restaurants for tips, this was a real mariachi band. They were all dressed in white. Some had silver studs down the sides of their pants and they all wore big belt buckles with the name of their band on them. They went from table to table and would play songs that people request. We accepted but didn't know a song to request. My only request was that they didn't play "La Bamba". God, I don't know how many times we've heard that song on this trip! Anyway, they played something. It cost us about $7 which is pretty expensive, but there were six of them and they were very good.

One thing we've noticed as we travel around Mexico is that certain things are completely different from one town to the next. This town was full of what we would call tuk-tuks, however they're called moto-taxis here. In Juchitan they were all like these ones below. Only 15 minutes up the road, in another town, they were all completely different - they were just motorbikes with a trailer contraption that people sat in. At the following town they were a different style again!

Also, the clothing changes from town to town. Here, all the women wore long skirts with embroidered blouses.

I don't like sticking my camera in people's faces so it's hard to get good shots of the local clothing. This lady is wearing the traditional blouse.

The next morning we were at the bus station early. We had time for a few tacos for brekky. We bought them from the ladies in the background.

Bus travel in Mexico is interesting. It's very organised. You buy your ticket in advance in an office and choose your seats. The buses run on time and play movies en route. The movies are usually American movies dubbed into Spanish. The problem is that we've done a lot of bus travel so we're getting repeats. We've seen The Life of Pi twice and even watched the Spongebob Squarepants movie in Spanish! 

We travelled onto Tuxtla, a larger city. As soon as we stepped outside the door of our hotel, we saw this group of people parading down the  street. We could only find out that it was for 'una fiesta'. There are so many fiestas here!

We had dinner at a popular bar. It was Saturday night and young locals were out for a good time. There were deals where you could buy multiple shots or beer poured into pineaples. There were drinking competitions where a ratchet was sounded. It was all very noisy and lots of fun!

We had heard that there was a lot of action in the town square though so we headed down there. The crowds were unbelievable! There were hundreds of seats set up and they were all taken. Like all town squares, there was a bandstand in the middle. This was decorated with balloons and full of musicians. 

The big instrument here is the marimba, which is like a wooden xylophone. Everybody was dancing. The band finished and everyone waited patiently while they packed up and another, less traditional band started. Again, everyone got up and danced. I couldn't convince John to dance - he felt he was way out of his depth as everyone here, young and old alike, can really dance!

There was a 'king' and 'queen' of the Carnaval which is due to start late Feb.

The next day we headed out to the zoo. We don't normally visit zoos but this was was supposed to be a good one. Sure enough, the enclosures were generally well-sized and the animals were well fed. We saw so many unusual animals. These animals are all from the state of Chiapas.

Crocs are always impresssive!

We've seen a few of these herons in the wild. This was a wild one that just chose to live here. It could fly out any time.

I'm guessing this is a bittern of some kind. It was very tame. It was in a walk-through aviary and we could get really close to it.

These raccoons were among my favourites. They seemed so intelligent. 

One of the few sad things we saw was this raccoon trying to climb out of its enclosure. I must say though that it had a very large enclosure.

A King Vulture.

An iguana.

There was a reptile section with some very cool snakes. This one was sliding along a wall.

Another highlight was this black jaguar. As we came up to his pen he came right up to the glass! He laid there in front of us and even licked the glass. Unfortunately, his licking has really dirtied the glass so the photos aren't very good. We later met a ranger who spoke English and he told us that this jaguar had been raised in a zoo and loved people. He certainly seemed to!

Another jaguar.

A white-nosed coatimundi.

Every now and then we would hear these really weird noises coming from the trees. Wild howler monkeys were moving through the treetops above us. These ones were letting it all hang out!

Their calls were amazing.

There was a lovely place where we could have some lunch. This well-fed bird was scavenging for scraps and was doing very nicely thank you very much!

You can hear the howler monkeys in the background again.

We left the next day and made our way to the town of Chiapa de Corzo. This town is the launching place for boat trips down the Sumidero Canyon. We arranged to leave our bags with a hotel there while we went on the boat trip. In return we ate lunch there. It was a win-win situation!

The town was surprisingly lovely. Someone has made a list of Mexico's 'Magic Towns' and this is supposed to be one of them.

As usual, the back of the sign had the sunshine on it!

Long, covered walkways lined the square. These were filled with handicrafts. A local thing here is items made from lacquered gourds.

Some of the local clothes were really bright and colourful.

We hung around waiting for a boat for a while as they don't go until they are full, then finally a group of local tourists turned up and we were off. We sped down the river that funnelled through a huge canyon. It was pretty good.

We stopped at points of interest along the way. At the place where the cliffs were the highest, there was a terrible occurrance in history. When the Spanish invaded here, an entire indigenous group threw themselves off the cliffs rather than be enslaved by the Spanish.

On a lighter note, there was lots of wildlife along the river. We saw herons and pelicans as well as these spider monkeys. They're called spider monkeys because they look like spiders as they move through the trees. (You might need to look closely).

We also saw a croc. The boat came to within a few metres of it!

The river finishes at the dam wall where boats were pulled up ready to serve us food and drinks! I watched in amazement as a local tourist boy bought a packet of chips then had some sort of sauce poured all over them.

We caught a couple of 'collectivos' (mini buses) to our next destination - San Cristobal de las Casas. This is a gorgeous colonial town. We had booked five nights here as there is a lot to see and do. It was a great town but it had one problem - the owner of our accommodation. We arrived hot and tired only to find that our arty-farty designed room had huge windows with no covers and it was like a furnace inside. We ended up upgrading to a sensational room with fabulous views. 

The problem was that the owner lived above us. He played his music all the time - loud. We ended up having angry discussions with him over this. Another couple moved in the same day as us and had problems with him too. Some people just aren't meant to be in hospitality.

This is what the music sounded like from our apartment. Nice and peaceful hey?

Apart from this, San Cristobal was lovely. It had pastel-coloured buildings and flower pots lined some walls.

There is a local drink here called 'pox' (pronouced 'posh'). Signs like these are good for a laugh!

There were some spectacular clouds at sunset one night.

One of the most interesting things about the town was the variety of clothing being worn by people, particularly women. The clothes they wear depict which village they are from. If a woman marries a man from a different village, she moves to his village and wears the clothes of his village.

Both men and women carry these woven bags. This man is wearing a traditional tunic.

We were in the square one morning and it was pension day so people from many villages were lining up to get money from the banks. The ladies here in the white tunics with blue trim are from a village that has a very different costume to many others.

The costume for San Cristobal is a shaggy black woollen skirt and a blouse like this one. The temperature here in the daytime is well into the 20's - those skirts must get hot!

Twice John and I hired bikes. On our first ride we went to various places but, on the recommendation of the bike hire place, we also visited the cemetary. It was amazing! Tombs were built like houses. This one even had a verandah!

Like the town itself, the colours here were gorgeous.

This is a tomb! There's always someone who thinks they're a cut above the rest!

There were also some really old, more traditional tombs, scattered through the more modern pastel ones.

While we were there, a funeral was taking place. We didn't go too close but we could hear lovely music playing.

The next day we wanted to visit some outlying villages. We had read that you should take a guide as tourists don't know about local customs and can easily cause offence. We met up with a recommended guide in the morning and, along with five others, headed off in a minibus. It turned out to be a fantastic day.

Our first stop was San Juan Chamula. We were shown some handicrafts, but more as information on local designs than any pressure to buy. Juan looks the part don't you think? Actually, these are pretty amazing clothes. Everything on this is hand-stitched!

I'm not sure which village these ladies are from. We didn't see these shawls anywhere else. Note that nearly all these photos are taken surrepticiously - I literally shot these from the hip as we walked along so they're not great photos.

A local tunic.

This lady was spinning wool with a spindle. She gave us all big smiles and put a bowl in front of her for coins! I was happy to pay to photograph that fabulous face.

Our guide, Cesar, was fantastic. He explained a lot about how the local government systems work. These villages do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Mexican law enforcement. They have their own judicial system and beliefs. In these villages, the community is more important than the individual. If you do something to a person from one of these villages, the whole village will retaliate. Everyone knows this and there is subsequently very little crime.

The photo below is of the town's jail. It rarely gets used. The last time it was used was when a man got drunk and "grabbed a lady's boobies"! For misdemeanors like this, he would go to jail for three days. If he can afford to pay a fine he will be out in one day. For serious crimes, like rape or murder, if the attacker is caught in the act, he will be killed.

The highlight of the day was this church - or what was inside it. It was a beautiful church on the town square.

Men wearing sheepskin tunics looked after the church. These men and their families volunteer for a year at a time to help look after things for the church. It's an expensive thing to do and people save up for years to do it. It's considered a great honour.

The greatest experience was inside the church though. It's forbidden to take photos so I trawled the internet and came up with a few.

Even though the church is Catholic, it is not administered by the Pope. The locals have their own way of worshipping. Every now and then there is a formal service run by a Catholic priest from San Cristobal but most of the time they do things their own way.

We stepped inside the church and were blown away by the beauty. Instead of lavish displays of gold there were thousands of candles burning in the semi-darkness. The floor was strewn with pine needles and the scent of the pine mingled with the scent of incense. The roof was being repaired and shafts of sunlight sifted through the smoke. It was amazing. These photos from the internet don't do it justice.

Even though we were there on a Wednesday, which is not a big day for praying, there were a few groups of locals there. They have some really unusual customs. These people's ancestors used to come to church and drink drinks made from different coloured corns - red, yellow, black, white and orange. I think this had something to do with the importance of corn. Today, it's easier to drink soft drinks, so we could see people sittig around sharing soft drinks between them. They clear an area of pine needles on the floor and light many candles. These candles are often in the same five colours as the drinks. Then, they sacrifice a chicken! While we were there there were two groups praying and each had a chicken. The chickens were waved over the candles (not too close) while the person chanted or prayed. Then the chicken's neck was wrung. No blood was allowed to be spilled. We didn't actually see the sacrifice but one of the chickens wasn't moving when we left.

This was such a special experience.

Outside, the roof repairers were working a long way above the ground with no safety equipment.

We then moved on to another village called Zinacantan. It was only about 10 minutes drive away but it had different costumes and customs. Their church was more westernised.

There was a town sign here so I got our group in front of it.

We were taken to the home of a family of weavers. Backstrap weaving is the thing around here. The loom ties around the weaver's back.

Of course we could buy things at this place. I don't mind this. It's an opportunity to buy straight from the source. A lot of work goes into these items. John and I generally don't buy anything as we have to carry it all, however John spied a black and yellow scarf, the colour of his football team. He's going to have a unique Tigers scarf when he goes to the footy! We're still airing it though as the family's cooking fire drifted smoke over all their woven creations!

A friend of theirs dropped in. She had one of the more elaborate shawls on.

Mexico has many types of coloured corn and the candles that they burn in the churches here that are the same colours as the corn.

The next day we made our own way to another village, called Tenejapa, that was having their market day. We caught a collectivo taxi, which works well. They wait until it fills up before they leave but, as it only holds four passengers, this doesn't take long.

This was an even more remote village and many people here don't speak Spanish, only their local language. There were more amazing costumes here. The people from this village wore black woven woollen skirts with a particular embroidery design around them. Their long hair was often worn in plaits with a ribbon plaited through them.

This lady has an embroidered and woven shawl as well as the traditional skirt.

Babies are always carried on women's backs. How cute is this little one?

Most men wore western clothes, however officials wore traditional costumes. The variations on the costumes were related to their position in society. The men below would be officals in the church or in law and order.

This one is just the standard tunic.

Western clothes are often worn with sombreros.

These beribboned hats are worn during religious or official services.

We wandered past a room called the Cultural Centre, assuming it might be some sort of museum, only to find a local meeting in progess. The rooms was full of people in traditional costumes, including the hats! 

It was time to catch a collectivo taxi back to San Cristobal and this time we shared it with a local couple. She was in full traditional costume. Luckily for us she spoke Spanish and we learned she was from another village and was at the market selling coffee that she grows. She was lovely.

Note her plaited hair.

Back in San Cristobal we went for another bike ride. This one was a bit hotter and harder for me but it was still fun.

We spent one morning checking out museums but John came down with a really bad stomach bug. Luckily we were still in our gorgeous room, complete with Netflix, so we binge-watched Outlander for a while. Unfortunately, we then had to move on the next day and John is still in pretty bad shape. Let's hope he gets better soon!

Cheers,

Heather