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Hola Amigos!
Another little entry to update you on our last week, but not such a long one this time (you will be glad to hear!).
Right, we left Palenque on Monday lunchtime and got a bus to San Cristobal which is a City in the mountains and about a 7 hour drive from Palenque. San Cristobal is set at about 2500m above sea level and the drive takes you through the mountains, with, at parts, just cliff edges and leafy drops either side which makes for a pretty scary ride. Holly, thankfully, is like a baby in that any rocking or moving in a car sends her to sleep in about three minutes... Anyway, we arrived in San Cristobal at about 7pm and it was dark and raining. Because of the altitude, although it is very warm in the sun it gets absolutely freezing at night. We got off the bus wearing trousers and vest tops and felt very English to be surrounded by Mexicans wearing hats, gloves and raincoats. It was quite embarrassing...
We hailed a cab and picked the first hostel in the Lonely Planet guide - a place called Posada Mexico. The driver threw our bags in the back and then the boot wouldn't close. He seemed to think that was fine, so Holly and I jumped in and drove the 15 minute journey through town with our bags hanging behind us. We got to the hostel and stayed in an 8 bed mixed dorm. The hostel was centred around a courtyard and was full of lots of lovely people. The first night we popped into town, which as are most of these Mexican villages and Cities was based around a Municipal Square and a church. We were shattered and got an early night, but not without buying a traditional mexican jumper for about 3quid first. It was so cold neither of us could feel our feet!
The following day we made friends with some people staying in our hostel. Mainly Oz, German and one English bloke. Holly and I took advantage of listening to another British accent, something you don't really hear very often! We spent the day time exploring the City, which is a place we have both fallen in love with. It's quite bohemian but filled with markets and old restaurants and cafes and so so much colour. Being a big Catholic country the whole town was filled with Christmas decorations and looked stunning, with bunting haning down from every street. We went to the markets and saw (you must look at the pictures!!) a toy shop filled with the most colourful things; very sweet. I crumbled and bought a little dog that looks like Krystal (but more lime green and bright pink), and Holly bought a sheep. Lovely.
In the evening we got chatting with the Aussie guys and started playing a drinking game that came about from having a pack of cards that instead of featuring aces, clubs, spades and hearts had wood, swords, cups and coins. It also had no 8's or 9's, so we were pretty limited as to what we could play... We headed down to a bar called Cafe de Revolucion and stayed there most of the night. Our group wasjoined by a lovely German girl called Sonja, as well as some others. The group had grown from about 6 to 15 by the end of the night.
The following morning, after fighting some heavy hangovers and not eating very much breakfast, the 6 of us (Me, Holly, Cameron, Hugo, Henry and Sonja) strolled through town to a bus station that consisted mainly of a load of old VW Campers that had had their insides taken out and replaced with benches. We were heading for a local indigenous village, which was about a 20 minute bus ride. There were already 5 Mexicans sitting in the bus, but us six climbed in too, leaving not much room for anyone, and Sonja and Hugo sitting in the boot. The village was slightly higher than San Cristobal and as we climbed higher in the beaten up camper the engine started to burn up and Sonja and Hugo in the boot thought they were going to ignite. We laughed.
We arrived at the village which was freezing cold and again centred around a church and a square. In front of the church was a large yard, filled with children running around. Because Christmas is close, the markets were selling fireworks and crackers and the children had been buying them. We watched as about 20 children aged 3-7 years old (all boys, of course) thought it was hilarious to light crackers and fireworks and throw them at each other. Mum's, you would have had heartattacks. The boys we were with also thought it would be a good idea to play with fire, so they bought a load too and walked back into the yard carrying about 10 mini rockets. Cameron looked like the pied piper as he walked in, with 20 little boys running behind him screaming. He had to hold them abuve his hea to stop them snatching - check out the pics.
We walked into the church, which we were given a ticket for that read "anyone taking pictures inside the church will be punished", so that is why you will not see any photos of this bit. The church was huge inside, and the cold tiled floor was covered completely in pine needles, which smelt amazing. The were no pews or chairs at all and the had been replaced with candles. I have never seen so many candles in my life (not even in your house, mum), and they alone lit and warmed the whole church. Holly and I joked that it would have been shut down long ago as a fire hazard had it been in England...! We walked to the centre of the church and there was a young woman in her 20's knelt on the floor in front of three rows of thin tapered candles that had been stuck to the floor. Beside her was an older woman in her 50's carrying out some type of ritual. The older woman was holding a chicken in her hands and stroking along the younger woman's hair and shoulders while talking non stop. I watched as she finished the ritual and broke the chicken's neck before lying it down. It continued to flap around a little, before stopping. I wish we could have taken a photo as there must have been about 1000 candles burning, it was the most amazing thing I have seen.
In the evening we played cards and went for supper, but not much else as we were feeling pretty tired from our 3 hours sleep the night before.
Yesterday Holly and I got the 8pm night bus from San Cristobal to Oaxaca which got in at about half 6 this morning, so yesterday we took our time walking around the markets and around the churches and had a lovely meal at Madre Tierra. We are now in Oaxaca for 2 nights before heading to Puerto Angel for 2 nights, and then on to Puerto Escondido for Christmas!! We were very lucky to manage to get a hostel over the Christmas perios, especially on the beach! I'm sure you will all be glad to hear we found somewhere right on the beach and we intend to cook a full roast dinner before checking out the surf! Lush.
Anyway, that's all for now, hope you are all well and not missing us too much. Thanks for all your nice emails and things.
Also, Mum's and Dad's - we will try to call or skype or something, somehow on Christmas day so please keep an ear out on your electronic equipment!! And remember we are about 6 hours behind here.
Lots of Love to all, Bride xxxxxx
P.S - I think in the other blog Holly might have meant ´wailing monkeys´as opposed to ´whaleing mokeys'. I am no expert but I'm pretty sure they don't make those...
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