Domingo 24 Julio

Hola que tal ?

Early waking up, there was music in the street at 7am, am my alram was about to ring one hour later. Iris and Amy left for the Cañon, Charlotte (another french girl) was still asleep, Helene left for Palenque and I decided to left for Chamula (indigene village in the valley).

The indigenes of Chamula are really private, I was able to take some pictures of them only from their back. The men and women were wearing beast fur, even if it was really hot. The women were also wearing colorful tops. The other pictures are from the policemen of the town.

I put my bag in the reception of the hostel, took my breakfast in a french bakery !! (croissants and pains au chocolat! ) Met Iris and Amy waiting for the bus. At 9am I left to find the collectivos for Chamula. Thanks to the inhabitants I found one! 20 minutes later I was in Chamula.

To visit the church in Chamula you have to go to the tourism office, and pay a right to entrance: Once inside you are not allowed to take any photos. From the outside it's a regular church, white and blue, at the end of a big place, next to the market. Inside it's another story, the priest is only allowed to go inside once a year to baptise the children. There is no bench, not really an altar, statues in boxes everywhere on both sides, and in the middle the ground is covered by branches and at some places they had been put aside to "glu" candle on the floor, plenty of little candles, really thin and colorful. It was really impressive.

I wandered a bit on the big market, the people here are really strange, I read that you need to ask to take pictures, so I did and everytime they told me to give them 50 pesos, which was kind of ridiculous, especially because i only wanted to take what they were selling and not them. So in the end I did some, in their back.

 

 

Once back in San Cristobal, I had some time before my bus, so I went in an internet cafe. After an hour and a half, I went back to the hostel to pick up my bag, On the way to the station, I stopped in the restaurant Jungle, hate some quequas. 

At the station I met a really nice Californian girl, Monica, and by chance she is the only "white" and she is sitted next to me. We had a nice chat on the way to Palenque, we also sleept a lot. Once in Palenque it was already night time, we took a taxi to go to the hostel I booked with Stephanie. Those idiots made a wrong reservation... so we had to take another room. 

With Monica, we left the luggage and after a shower we went for a walk and to find a place to eat. She also booked a trip for tomorrow to do : the ruines, Misol-Ha and Agua Azul in one day. After diner, we went on the Zocalo to listen to music and hate a crepe, apparently a dutch thing with nutella and cheese (I asked without the cheese !!).

Back to the hostel around 10.30pm, exhausted, and sleep !

Hasta mañana

Caro