The night bus from Oaxaca City to San Cristobal was another long 12 hour stint of not much sleep; however the bus was remarkably comfortable again. We could tell that we were steadily ascending in the early hours of the morning as we all experienced popping ears and could feel the bus wind around tight, bendy mountain roads. On arrival at the bus station, we bumped into a very nice French man who was promoting his B&B & decided to have a look. For 200 pesos per night we got a private room with shared bath plus free breakfast and WIFI, so decided to take him up on his offer.
San Cristobal is a beautiful and very colourful town perched in the heart of the mountains at an altitude of around 2200m. All the houses are painted in vibrant colours and the streets are narrow & cobbled giving the town great charm. The surrounding luscious mountains give promise of exciting outdoor opportunities & really highlight just how misguided the West is in its view of Mexico being a dry, arid place full of Cacti & cowboys. The main attractions in the town are the numerous churches, which have beautiful interiors & are regularly on top of hills, giving a spectacular view as a reward for the hot, sweaty climb. The Artisan & Food markets are very interesting, offering numerous types of Jade & Amber jewellery, embroidered clothes/bags & leather goods. I managed to resist buying anything – it’s amazing how restrained you become when you know you have to carry everything on your back for the next 5 months! The food market is full of interesting smells, herbs, fruits & meats – for a few of your finest pesos, you can purchase a whole cow’s hoof, mud on the bottom thrown in free. Another bargain is the dried innards, which are hanging everywhere for you to absorb as you walk past.
We were lucky to meet two really fun girls from Belgium, Maggie & Veronique, who accompanied us for some dinners & shared the experience of our horse riding day. The five of us set out with some others to make a large group of about 15 riders. We were taken by pick-up truck to the ‘ranch’ which consisted of a broken fence and some fairly skinny looking mule-ish ponies. Size of person did not seem to matter according to size of pony, although I guess it was less distance for them to fall if something went wrong! The ride was very picturesque, taking us up through the forest and into a village, where we stopped to have a look at the market & enjoy some refreshments. The blatant lack of safety was very amusing – our group was led by a 6 year old & 12 year old both on the same pony, who seemed to find it hilarious to whack the back of people’s horses to make them go faster. I did actually find this quite funny and asked them to do it to me, which they did and we all went galloping off down the road together. After they could see I actually enjoyed going fast, every opportunity was spent having a race each time we got to some open land or road – it was quite hilarious – lack of control, no riding hats, galloping along roads on these tiny ponies – I think my DC at pony club would have had a nosebleed if she had been present. I did feel quite guilty about making mine run when we got back to the ‘ranch’ as I realized that another group had just arrived to do the afternoon ride on the same ponies and it contained some quite obese Americans – poor beasts!
The following day it was Mark’s turn to choose the activity so we went mountain biking. The first part involved a 3 mile steep ascent up the winding mountain road, which was very rewarding getting to the top but definitely caused the thigh burn! Then onto a track & the fun began – lots of grassy/rocky paths to bump along and totally stunning scenery – it reminded me more of Switzerland than Mexico, again like my comment above, it opened my eyes to what a varied and beautiful country we were in. It was a 4 hour ride, around the mountain plateau and then back down a different side – I can shamelessly say that I preferred whizzing down the bending road with the wind in my hair to the slog up, but I suppose one comes with the other. Feeling starving, we happened across a little restaurant, which had two tables inside and a sweet old lady with her two daughters who were cooking up a storm. We picked our dishes and boy were they good – beautiful homemade soup, pork loins in mustard with mashed potato & fresh orange sauce & lemon pudding to finish – all for a meagre 50 pesos each & service with the cutest old lady smile I have ever seen! We went back the next day for lunch as it was so good!
Mark and I did much walking around the town, exploring all the little streets. One of the strangest things we saw was a dog who enjoyed biting cars as they drove past. It was so bizarre, like some kind of extreme dog sport, for he would wait patiently until one came close, run out alongside it, then try to attack it – a losing battle. We hoped we would find a cure for such madness in the Mayan Medicine Museum, which I would highly recommend. It has interesting displays on the old traditions of the Mayan tribes, including all of the local remedies used to cure different ailments. The museum concludes with a video you can watch which shows how a midwife delivers the baby. It contains some interesting rituals, such as the mother kneeling in front of the father in his lap while the midwife kneels behind to deliver the baby. To speed up the process, the midwife makes the woman drink a raw egg, and then she rubs the egg over her face. As an egg lover, I found this pretty repulsive; however it seemed to work for them. The placenta is buried face up or down inside the house depending on if the couple wants a boy or a girl as their next baby. During the next part of the video, i.e. once the child is born, I heard somebody sniggering beside me & found that I could not help laughing too, so much in fact that we had to leave the room. A live rooster or chicken is held over the child and rotated in circles to ward away evil spirits - I know you should not laugh at people’s traditions, but the sight was just so ridiculous that it set Mark and I off into hysterics that did not stop until we were in the safety of the street. JG
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