Oaxaca and San Cristobal

Well after bragging about our luxury bus trips so far, Mexico decided to put us in our place with our journey from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca. We decided to catch a night bus and were pretty proud to find a ´1st class´ bus deal for only 9 dollars each. When we told our hostel manager about this, he took us aback a bit when he desperately tried to talk us out of it, saying that is was in fact a low budget bus line.

We were already determined to move on however and headed off to the station. When the bus drove up we indeed discovered that ¨first class¨ has a wide variety of interpretations in Mexico, with this one being among the most creative. The bus itself was big, however the airconditioning was ´natural´(i.e - open windows) and the sinking seats and no ¨banos¨ made for a rather uncomfortable trip. Okay, we admit it, we are Bus SNOBS !! We did however survive the trip, and Doug and I wearily disembarked into a busy Oaxaca hub at about 6am the next morning.

We headed off to the Mezkalito Hostel and were lucky enough to score a beautiful and spacious private room where we happilly crashed for three hours before really looking around at our new surroundings. Oaxaca is quite a vibrant city with about 180,000 people all trying to make their mark. It is visually quite appealing with its colourful architecture, cobbled streets, lively Zocalo, and all round cleanliness.

During our walkabout, one of our favorite memories was turning a corner and stumbling into the largest, craziest market we had ever set eyes on. It was one massive maze...as if the architect of the city decided to cut out the middle 12 blocks, cover them up with a low roof, and lease out tiny cubicles for the locals to sell their wares. I have never seen so many pig hoofs, cheese balls (which Oaxaca is famous for), sombraros, figurines, and local handcrafts in my life.

We had heard that San Cristobal was a much better version of Oaxaca, so we didn´t spend a lot of time there and quickly moved on.

Here´s a little gallery of our visit to Oaxaca...



If you can´t see the above gallery, or want to see the photos in a bigger size with comments, check out the link here - Oaxaca Pics

We decided to again brave a night bus for our next trip to San Cristobal, only this time we weren´t falling for the old $10 first class bus trick. We paid a few extra bucks for our luxurious ADO-GL bus and 12 comfortable hours later, we pulled into San Cristobal.

We headed off to our hostel (the Magic) on advise from the Lonely Planet only to find out from our taxi driver that it no longer existed and was now called the Los Palomos. At 7am we were not in the mood to be fussy. We arrived to be openly greeted by the owner who seemd overtly excited to see us and eager to know our story. We soon discoverd that the new Hostel had only been open for 3 days, and we were offically guests No.4 and 5. Due to the emptiness we got the ¨suite¨ for a very low price and stayed in our best room yet. With fresh towels (rare these days), a huge bed, beautiful bathroom, fireplace and kitchen with fridge and a microwave, we felt like we were in the lap of luxury.

The rest of the day was spent walking the enchanting streets of San Cristobal. The people are friendly (the hawkers were actually not that pushy) and wear their colourful native clothing with pride. The tiny streets are cobblestoned and filled with beautifully painted buildings and mosaics. Every other building is a quaint little shop, cafe, or immaculately decorated restaurant.

The big adventure of the day however was during dinner that night. Not long after we sat down, we began to feel our table move from under us and the floor begin to sway. Doug and I looked at eachother in confusion and disbelief at the force of the others ¨footsies¨ when it became apparent that we were actually in the middle of an earthquake. It lasted only a minute, but certainly made for an interesting meal experience.

After dinner we went next door to a local Jazz club. It was a great little spot with a relaxed atmosphere for both locals and tourists alike. We did however have a chuckle at the band itself. You would be hard pressed to find another Jazz band where the members are `fashionably` decked out in dirty hoodies and ripped jeans. Man could they play though- what a sound.

The next day (on advise from Stewy and Matty) we took a tour of two local Mayan Villages San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan. Our guide was very knowledgeable and made a lot of stops on the way to point out various areas of interest with respect to the local communities. In San Juan Chamula, we had a chance to visit the Mayan/Catholic church which was established in 1970 after the locals weren´t happy with some of the restrictions placed on them by the Catholic Priest of the time. They instead, invented a version of the Catholic religion with certain new Twists if you will.

Upon entering the building we were quickly overcome by the strong scent of pine that covered the floor and the glow of thousands of lit candles. Around the room were little groups of people huddled in prayer, each having one family leader in charge of the prayers. The local Mayans come to the church when there is a family member who is sick and in need of healing. They only go to a doctor if there is an accident or for vaccinations. They pray to John the Baptist who they hold at higher level than Jesus because he baptized him.

During their prayers they drink their local concoction of corn and sugar cane which tastes a lot like tequilla (children included). They also hold a live chicken to the sick person so that the illness can be transfered to the annimal. They then proceed to break its neck to illiminate the illness. If you have ever seen a chicken killed this way, you know that their bodies continue to shake for a good few minutes after they die. The locals have to hold onto the chicken for dear life for fear of the carcass bowling through the hundreds of candles lit on the floor. Very bizarre to witness.

Here´s a little gallery of our visit to San Cristobal...



If you can´t see the above gallery, or want to see the photos in a bigger size with comments, check out the link here - San Cristobal Pics

One of the other interesting ( and rather humourous) beliefs these people have is in the spiritual power of Coca Cola. We noticed as we walked around many of them would pray earnestly on their knees, stand up, and down an entire bottle of Coke. They believe that the gas in the coke enables you to communicate with the Saints and God above. It was no surprise to learn that the richest man in town was the distributor of Coca Cola....

Overall San Cristobal was a beautiful town and well worth the visit. One last little anticdote involved our trip to the post office. Doug wanted to post a simple letter back to Australia. We had no envelope but figured we could get one at the Post Office (failry reasonable one would think). No such luck. The man behind the counter at the Post Office gestured to us that we could buy one a couple of blocks away. Okayyyyyy....

When we finally found the right store and asked a seniora there for our envelope, she smiled and quickly grabbed one from behind the counter. Doug went to reach for it but she instead walked it around the corner and handed it to another sales lady. This woman proceeded to fill out a full reciept for the single envelope and handed that (but not the envelope) to Doug. We were then directed to ANOTHER woman behind a counter on the other side of the room who took our money, stamped the reciept and handed it back to us. We were then ushered back to woman No.2 to finally collect our capitve envelope. All this effort for a massive 0.23 pesos (i.e. $0.02)!!!

We are now heading off to the nearby ruins of Palenque before moving on to Guatemala.