Day 7-9, San Cristabol ( Steak Eating competition & Indigenious community visits )

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Photo Album: San Cristabol ( a beautiful little town )

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The night First class bus did not go well for me, because I did not prepare well. 

The first 7 hours of the 13 hour journey was unrelenting winding road, up and down, left and right, and I was using my laptop.  On noticing  a quesy feeling was developing in the stomach, I quickly shut it down.  But it was too late.  Sitting in the darkness, I had nothing to distract the swaying sensation. An hour later, I went from bad to worse, and ended up with serious motion sickness effect....fortunately, I had a small plastic bag on hand.

That’s the problem for not being at the wheel driving.......

Still we arrived in relatively good shape after this 13 hour ordeal.

San Cristobal is a nice little town for a 3 day layover of our journey, we can all spread out, relax and catching up on little chores like laundries, emails etc.

The next bus ride in two days time will be even worse, I was told....well that means a trip to the local pharmacy.

That's the problem for not being at the wheel driving.........

Guadalupe Church on Cerro Guadalupe

View from Cerro Guadalupe

Guadalupe Church on Cerro Guadalupe

Cathedral de San Cristobal

San Cristobal Church

The town is a little town with plenty of characters, calm and fully of colourful houses near the town centre, however, the further away, the more indigenous it gets.

I enjoyed walking around the town for hours, and marvel at the colourful fruits and vegetables on sale in the open market.  The odd thing was, for 10 Pesos I can get a large bucket of fresh fruit compote, which is quite a lot cheaper to buy then fruits from the stalls....something is not right here!

Visit to San Critobal would not be complete without a visit to Casa Na Bolom Museum / cafe, originally set up by two Swedish journalist and environmentalist, who spent much of their professional life researching Mayan culture in the nearby area during the 50s -70s.

Casa Na Bolom or the House of Puma

After a day of walking around, a Steak Eating Competition....is the thing that you do to fan up an otherwise very cheerful team of adventurers in San Cristobal.

And the final count was...6 steaks in a single setting...

Here's how it progressed..

 Still a few left, they are onto the 4th...a Rib Eye each

And they are still going....now the 5th, a piece of their most favourite

After a slight hesitation.....they then moved onto the 6th...all smiling!

Not to be outdone....

Who else is there to egg everyone on....Yours Truly, the vegetarian, of course! Even, I still gave in to a fish dish.

And........the winner is...after the Sirloin, New York, Rib Eye, T-Bone, and some repeats..all freshly bbq.....

By the way, they were all fit, fresh and ready for a whole day of walking the following day, when we went visiting a couple of the remote Indigenous communities.

We visited a couple of the indigenous tribes in the nearby highlands, and were introduced to their customs, tunics, agricultural and their religious practices.

Some of the local communities have the right to apply their own traditional tribal laws and dish out punishments, within the framework of the Mexican laws. For most small community crimes, they have their own tribal police forces, courts and penal system, however, on serious criminal cases, the Federal Mexican system takes over.

Tribal Policemen

Meeting of Tribal Chiefs

When we visit the local Cathedral, we were introduced to the concept of mixing traditional belief and Catholicism.  The Catholic priest is only allowed to come to the Cathedral when permitted or required, mostly to attend to Christening or Weddings. In ordinary times, they are kept away from the area, and the locals practice their traditional religion in the Cathedral, worshiping their own Gods.  In fact, when we visit inside the Cathedral, it is very much like a market place, where people burn candles to their own icons and there are shaman running ceremonies wherever they find a space, which bears no resemblance to the normal Catholic faith. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside.

A local Cathedral

In the vicinity of San Cristobal, it has one of the richest deposits of Amber in the World.  The Amber Museum in town, showcases the mining of Amber as well as the fashioning of Amber into jewelries and ornamental objects.

Amber blocks

Amber jewellries and objects

We finished our last night in San Cristobal by enjoying an Opera. It was the story of King Pakal, the legendary Mayan King who built the huge and majestic Palenque tombs, which happened to be our next destination. 

The Production was very well presented and entertaining, the only regret is, I could not understand the language.

The visit to culture rich San Cristobal has been extremely interesting, and educational, certainly has opened my eye to the pre-Columbian history this part of Mexico.

Next Post: Palenque - the tombs of the Pakal


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