after the eleven-hour-plus bus ride, i woke up to find myself in san cristóbal de las casas in the state of chiapas. home of the zapatistas.
it was a really, really cool city. it's at a high altitude, so the weather was perfect for me. chilly, brisk, and a little bit rainy. one of the best few days i've spent in mexico, aside from being a little bit sick.
there was a fantastic market, with tons of really cheap amber jewelry (which i, unfortunately, never got around to purchasing any of.) it was also a city in which you were swarmed at every patio restaurant table by young kids selling bracelets. my inability to say no to young vendors in chiapas has left me roughly twenty small bracelets richer. it gets too difficult after awhile.
on tuesday, we went to the cañón del sumidero in a boat that toured us through the river and the canyon itself. absolutely breathtaking. with the added bonus of spider monkeys, crocodiles, and a variety of odd-looking birds.
wednesday brought us to two small towns to observe indigenous religious ceremonies and homes in the area. it felt more than odd to be a tourist in someone's homes, regardless of whether or not the people in the home were used to it. i never feel quite right about things like that. i feel like i'm participating in further alienating "them" from "us." it was very interesting, and the women in the home were very nice, but it's still a stranger practice.
i ended up getting really sick on wednesday night and the bus ride to palenque on thursday morning didn't make me feel any better. i more or less wished we could have stayed there until playa del carmen rolled around.
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