We made it through the 13-hour night-bus journey and are now in San Cristobal. It`s a really lovely city and we`re staying in a very laid back hostel owned by a Swiss lady and her dog, Che.
Yesterday we went on a little trip on one of the minibus shuttles to San Juan Chamula, an Indian village that hosts a large market on Sundays and where the women wear crazy black goat-pelt-looking skirts held up by bright belts around their middle. The men wear the same kind of material but as sweater-vests, sporting them in white as well as black. We had to pay to go into the local church, and unfortunately weren´t allowed to take any pictures inside, as it was quite a site. Each family files in and throws leaves and grass on the (highly slippery) floor before setting out hundreds of candles and gathering around them to pray. Some families bring in some sort of incense-type burners so the atmosphere inside gets quite hazy. And the strangest part about the whole thing is that they also bring in crates of Coca Cola as drinking it apparently gets rid of the evil spirits within the body - what an evil coop for the marketing team at Coke!
Today we`ve been quietly pottering around the town. It has a colourful market right next to the cathedral of San Domingo, stocking amazing pieces of jewellery and bright rainbows of scarves and clothes. You can pick up corn on the cobs covered in salt and chilli, or chunks of mango with 
lime and chilli sprinkled over the top as you wander around. We wanted to nose around a few of the museums, but unfortunately it`s Monday and they are either closed or being refurbished here... Tomorrow we're heading off on a trip to see a series of waterfalls (7km long) called Agua Azul, the waterfalls at Misol-Ha and then on to see the jungle ruins of Palenque. We were originally going to go and stay at Palenque town, but are running out of time, so on Wednesday will be heading to Playa Del Carmen on the coast for a little more beach action, before going down to Tulum to see yet more ruins, then on to Guatemala.The last day at Puerto Escondido was fun - we hired a surf board and gave it a good try... Unfortunately neither of us, or some of our hostel pals managed to stand up, but we all enjoyed running into the waves with our surfboard clasped confidently under our arms!
We're going to post some other pics on the previous blogs if you wanna take a peek.
xx
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