We jumped on another shuttle early on Tuesday in Antigua and rode all the way to San Cristobal. It took another 12 hours. Riding in cars for that long isn’t very fun and curves make it worse. Jill cooked some oatmeal before we left and we packed it to eat at a more reasonable hour. It was a little awkward on the bus, pouring coconut milk on a mountainous road never works well. We did have some delicious blackberries from the market though and it made the ride better. Crossing the border was a snap and we didn’t even have to pay any suspicious fees. Mexico seems quite distinct from Guatemala. The roads are a little better and the land isn’t as mountainous. There definitely are not jungles everywhere. It seemed to take forever to reach San Cristobal. Apparently the sign that said 33 kilometers meant 1 hour somehow. We arrived at the Plaza Central in the late afternoon sun. I dragged the drugged Jill to a bar and we drank some soda water while I figured out how to get to our accommodation. It was only a few blocks. We walked to a hostel that called our host Fernando. he came and brought us to a garage door on the street behind which lays an enormous house, an enormous yard, and 2 enormous trees. There are also 2 dogs that live here. A fat Chihuahua named Frijolito is visiting to from Mexico City.
San Cristobal has two walking only streets. There are innumerable restaurants catering to any palate. Yes, there is a Hare Krishna restaurant. It is mind boggling to be in such a well established tourist center. Coban was a working city and Lanquin is a working village. San Cristobal seems vibrant, cosmopolitan, and clean. We met our friend Amy for coffee yesterday and it was so neat to see her. She lives in Minneapolis so we haven’t seen her for six months. The coffee shop had a brewing contraption that I haven’t seen before. It was called a sifon. It is like an hourglass. The water in the bottom chamber boils over a gas jet. It boils up through a percolator and filter into the second chamber containing the coffee grounds. When the upper chamber is full the flame is removed and it fallls through the filter back into the bottom chamber. Then the upper chamber is taken off and the bottom chamber is a pitcher for the coffee. The coffee was the smoothest I’ve ever had.
We went to a chocolate museum after coffee and learned a bit about the history of chocolate. I didn’t get a lot out of the museum because all the signage is in Spanish. The Ivory Coast produces the most coffee in the world and the USA eats the most chocolate. I bought a nice chunk of chocolate and coconut. I’m eating it right now. It’s dark chocolate and I can’t say anything bad about it. I think the cinnamon chocolate may have been a better choice. We also went to the Ambar museum. That’s Amber to gringos. Amber is fossilized tree sap that’s often made into jewelry. It is mined in the state of Chiapas and a few other places in the world. There was a video of an artist polishing and carving a piece of amber into an American football. There were several other more impressive carvings on display. The museum is in the Exconvent de la Merced, a building which was a convent and several other things. It is now being restored back to its convent image.
New Year’s Eve found us at a party at Amy’s friend’s house. We ate tacos with mind-blowingly hot sauce. I chatted with some fiends in Minneapolis over the internet phone. It was a wonderful evening with a few fire crackers.
Great pictures! What have you been up to now?