We have spent the last 3+ weeks in Chiapas and the Yucatán Penninsula. Leaving Oaxaca, we spent about a week in San Cristobál de las Casas, which is a beautiful city in the highlands, with lots of indigenous presence. There are lots of women with beautifully-embroidered clothing and babies slung around their backs, selling sweaters, belts, etc. We went to a really interesting museum: Museo de la Medicina Maya, which had full-sized representations of the inside of traditional huts, and showed a pretty graphic but facinating video about the birthing process in traditional Mayan villages. We also explored the city, the market, ate a banana-split, got to know a funny retired Texan guy who lived at our hostel, and went out to a bar called Latino´s and did some salsa-dancing.
Our last day there, we went on a great tour on bikes to a local village called San Juan Chamula, where they were celebrating the last day of Carnaval, which coincides with the Mayan new year. Seeing the area outside the city on bikes was beautiful, and the celebration was facinating. When we arrived, the town, including a large main square, was packed with people in indigenous dress from the town and surrounding villages. We saw groups of men leaping around in colorful outfits and cone-shaped hats with colored ribbons hanging from them. Groups of children ran around with handfuls of dry grass. We peeked in the church, where people were sticking candles to the floor and lighting them, and saying prayers in monotonous voices in the native language. They were blessing bottles of coca-cola (which seemed a little strange!) and some were rubbing others with egg to heal them. We walked around the town and for 2 pesos (about 15cents) we tried a cup of posh, a sacred alcoholic drink that is especially used at celebrations . Eventually, in the square the men had laid down the dry grass evenly on the ground and they lit it on fire and ran back and forth across it. Then a bull was pulled out with a rope and it ran around the square with everyone yelling and running, and some of the ones who wanted a really wild time tried to get on the bull to ride it. David and Jason ran around a bit in the center, but it was crazy enough for me being on the sidelines!
San Juan Chamula (from the internet--you weren´t allowed to take photos)
After San Cristobál, we headed to Palenque and saw the ruins in the jungle, and hung out with our friend John who we met at the second farm we worked on. We went to a river with him and his co-workers at a medical organization he has been volunteering for. Jason unfortunately was feeling sick, so he went to the doctor and got some medication and has been taking it easy.
Ruins of Palenque (from the internet, since I wanted to show you it but I don´t have my camera with me:)
From there, we went to Mahahual, a beach town that is a cruise-ship stop. It was interesting to witness the town sort of from a local´s perspective, since we stayed in town after almost all the other tourists went back to the ship. It was pretty funny to see the parade of tourists ride in on ATVs every morning at 10am. It was interesting to hear the locals´ mixed feelings about their dependency on tourism. The town was also hit by a hurricane in 2006, so it is still recovering from that.
We continued on to meet Dave´s friend Will in Tulum, a coastal town farther north on the Caribbean. Tulum has ruins that are in a spectacular location on cliffs above the turquoise Caribbean Sea. This is basically what Will came back to Mexico to see. And maybe to see us, too. We´re not sure. This was pretty epic.
The ruins of Tulum (also, not my photo. But I promise this is how I remember it, too!)
So from there, last night we arrived in Mérida, the main city in the Yucatán Peninsula. THIS is where the Mexicans in the Yucatan live! There are actually few tourists here, which is nice. Merida is a really attractive, modern city with lots of art to see--music, dance, fine art, etc. We are going to an aviary nature reserve tomorrow called Celestún. We hope to see a lot of flamingos!
Much love! I hope everybody´s doing well!
