Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 63

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 63

Mexico 

3/5/09  - San Juan Chamula – Estado de Chiapas, Mexico

Today we get up relatively early, grab a breakfast and walk to the bus.  We had to carry our luggage and any new purchases.  Sam and I made it.  In fact everyone but Judy and Peter made it.  They went on a little detour.  While we waited, we kept the street vendors busy.  The bus barely fit in these streets and it was amazing that the bus driver was able to maneuver us out of there.  When we were all together, we went on down the road.  The bus pulled up, stopped and waited, while we went though a weaving shop.  We were able to watch a woman actually weave a fine thread, that was later made into table dresser-uppers, jackets, vests and capes.  Very bright colors and many decorated with embroidery as well. We got back in the bus and went to another woman’s residence.  She showed us how she made tortillas (very similar to tortillaria and street vendors, except on smaller scale).  She also provided small tastes of many different local dishes, which went well with the tortillas. My favorite ‘especial’ – the chirozo sausage.  Mmmmmm!

Homemade Tortillas

Off we went again.  We arrived at a remote village, rather high up in this country.  It is called San Juan Chamula and it is very typical of this Chiapas area.  We were warned not to take pictures of the church at all and to only take pictures of the locals with prior permission, which would most likely require peso exchange.  We left our camera on the bus, because our guide also indicated they could get aggressive if they even thought you took a picture. (Sam still had his phone.) He also warned us not to accept any gifts, as the expectation was that you then purchase the gift or more on the way out. 

Path Down To Church

The cathedral at this location was very colorful on the outside, but still looked like a normal Catholic Cathedral.  I heard that it was still considered a Catholic Church, but find that hard to believe.  Why?  Well, the first thing I notice when the doors open, is that there are no pews or seating of any kind.  The crucified Christ is still depicted at the front of the church, as are several of the saints around the sides.  But there are two young couples with their young children, who are preparing to offer animal sacrifices on the colored ‘straw’ that is strewn all over the tiled floor.  There are other Mayan looking figures in the paintings and pictures.  I get a little antsy here and so does Sam.  We take a quick look and leave.  We buy some postcards of the area, check out the wares lining the walkways and Sam buys one more drum on the way back to the bus.  This is an uphill trek and we are glad to rest once we make it. The guide indicates that the people consider themselves Catholic, but also worship ancient Mayan gods and also perform voodoo in the church.

Church

We go back through Tuxla Guiterrez and stop at the large zoo there.  It was an amazing zoo.  Instead of attempting to gather all the different kinds of animals in the world, it focused on the animals native to Mexico, with the apparent goal of showing them in as natural habitat as possible.  We spent every available minute that they would give us here.  Sam and I really enjoyed it.

Jaguar

On to the restaurante for dinner.  It was called Las Pichanchas.  We had the pre-ordered meal and it was very good.  The different thing about this restaurant was the house alcohol drink.  One was ordered for every two people and as it was completed, the ‘bartender’ and server and anyone else that knew what was going on yelled out “PUMPO”.  The drink was served in a very large gourd.  If and when you finished one gourd, if you wanted another – you yelled “PUMPO”.  Quite good and quite fun.  I got the recipe for the drink (It was posted on the door).  So you will be able to make your own, or at least tell us what it all meant. 

“PUMPO – Bebida refrescante que se prepara a base de pina, vodka, hielos, agua mineral azucar, y limon entero. Todo se licua y se vacla en este envase termico llamado:

Tecomate, guaje O PUMPO, este ultimo da el nombre a esta bebida que de ha servido en diferentes muestras de comida Chiapanecaa, en diferentes est ados de la republica y extranjero.”

Back To Camp

We ride in comfort back to Villahermosa.  The constant road construction, even on this remote, whine-dee, narrow road bothers us very little, unless we look out the window.  I made a new Mexico joke…What does 2 cars, 1 semi truck and an old woman have in common? They can all be found abreast on this Mexican highway.  I was worried about the old woman –but she probably was stronger and was more maneuverable than the semi.  The group voted to stop just one more time – at the chocolate factory. We get back to camp and find that they had actually buried the electrical wire hook-ups to our sites.  Sam smartly ignores this, turns on the generator for about an hour, and we are off to sleep.  Another very full day and tomorrow we have another travel day.