moldfarm

So we are in San Cristobal de las casas. It's a fairly touristy city, but it pretty nice.  It is a very old city with old churches.  We are staying at a nice bed and breakfast place with an American expatriate. It's a very nice place to stay and fairly inexpensive and there are 3 cute dogs in the house. IT has an indoor courtyard with lots of hummingbirds flying in and such. 

 Today we went to a couple of indigenous communities and got a tour of their cities and their bizarre religious customs.  They are Mayan and got converted to Catholicism, but they have mixed it with their traditional customs and Cola cola. So, you go into this cathedral and there are pine needles on the floor and people bringing chickens to kill in there and candles, and CASES of Coca-cola, Strawberry Fanta, and Sprite. They burn lots of pine resin incense, and kill chickens, and then drink coke of strawberry fanta and burp! All the while in the extremely smoky church, people are dressed in heavy wool clothes, praying, and there are like 3 different bands playing at the same time in side, and there are also people setting off fireworks that were crazy loud like every 30 seconds… Apparently the elders of the town have deals with Coke or Pepsi.. IT's really strange, because these people are generally anti-imperialist and they have deals with coke and pepsi.. there are coke and pepsi logos all over the town, too..

   Anyway the tour was actually very inter sting and educational, and we learned about how bad the missionaries are to these indigenous people (although we already knew that), but it was still very educational.. 

  Yesterday, before arriving in San Cristobol, we visited another ruins, Tonina'. It was really really amazing. It is always an experience taking a colectiva (a collective van) up into the mountains. There are all kinds of zapatistas and indian people on it and it's fun to look at them. We were pretty much the only people at Tonina'  and it was really amazing to be able to wander through the ruins and be the only people there. They were amazingly impressive. There is no way that they would allow a place like tonina to be wandered through in the US due to insurance and liability. Seems like it would be so easy to fall down and then you'd fall like 100 feet and probably be seriously injured, but alas, there are no danger signs anywhere, and the stairs are the original Mayan stairs that were made in 700ad; uneven and giant and steep. Also there are crazy passages that have no lights at all, pitch black with stairs down and uneven footings, etc..  Although, actually, in San cristobol it's not that much better. I've slipped and fallen like 20 times here in the narrow sidewalks; kicked bits of sidewalk, fallen in holes in the sidewalk; etc. The streets are made of cobblestone and so many people have walked on it that they are worn smooth..

  So that's pretty much what we've been up to.. We haven't found any wild mushrooms yet, and have wandered through the markets looking for them. We've been told that it isn't the season.. But it ripe season for stinky meat which is everywhere in the markets… Upton Sinclair is rolling over in his grave at the health violations we've seen.. giant pieces of meat in the back of pickup trucks without any plastic or anything on it.. then thrown onto a dolly.. Watermelon and fruits with flies all over them, etc.The markets are also pretty interesting, though with lots of varieties of beans and corn and fruits and coffee and mysterious powders and cute little old ladies selling them.  Also there are lots of really cute dogs wandering around everywhere.. they are very very smart and know how to cross the streets and how to maneuver in a crowd, etc.. We want to take a dog home, but I don't think we will..

  So that's my update.. There is a big political campaign going on and a big rally just came through the street so we are gonna check it out.. there is a huge election here soon and people are really excited about it…. lots of fireworks and stuff..

 

Burping our way to salvation….

/miguel y myriam