Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 62

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 62

Mexico 

3/4/09  - San Cristobal Tour

We wake refreshed.  The room here at Hotel Ciudad Real is spacious, clean and cool.  We love the bed with all the fresh linen and firm mattress.  We eat and rush outside for our own tour of this city that has that “old world” look and feel to it.  Right across the street is the city plaza (Centro Historico).  We walk through it and to the cathedral.  The cathedral is impressive without over statement. Around the cathedral courtyard were artisans selling their goods, many featuring some of the different clothing styles. In general, women of all ages in Mexico dress more ‘dressy’ any time they are in public as compared to US and Canada (Vag opinion).  The children also appear ‘in public’ more dressed, pressed, and clean.  The men, on the other hand, could all be from Wyoming, just looking at their clothing. The different areas of the Chiapas have very distinct styles.  Sam selected a top and a llama jacket for me.   We are hitting much higher altitudes.

Weaver

We are then taken for a tour of the marketplace.  It is huge, covering several square blocks, mostly indoors in a maze of shops and aisles.  One could easily spend most of the day shopping for fruits, vegetables, flowers, bakeries, tortillarias, meats  - in all stages of preparation.  Many women were standing around, usually by a butcher, holding their live chickens by the feet, head dangling down.  The chickens were calmly looking around from that position.  I don’t know why. Weird. The Bean shops caught my eye. All sorts and colors of beans in baskets were sitting side by side in rows.  The assortment and colors were staggering.  I bought a multicolored assortment to take home and put into a jar. Then I had to have some of the lavender hued pintos.  Sam had to drag me out of there so we could keep up with the group.  As we were trying to find a way out of the indoor marketplace, we spotted a nut shop and Sam selected a couple of the many flavored nuts available. I have always said that it was a good thing Sam likes nuts. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours, learning much about the area and having fun interacting with the friendly locals.

Marketplace

We had the rest of the day on our own.  Yeah! No planned activities, other than the meals at the restaurant.  We walked, shopped the regular stores.  Found a Farmacia and in general, had a good time.  This area in Chiapas underwent revolt in 1996 (or thereabouts) against the Mexican government.  This area still follows its own ways and ignores much of the government. We spent the last rays of sunshine sitting on the main statue in the central plaza, watching the armed policia come in on jeeps, and trying to identify the ‘bad guys’.  We must not have done a very good job, since just before we left, the guys we thought were the bad guys and the policia shook hands and patted backs. The policia all got back into their jeeps and left.  So did we.

Towards The Plaza