san cristobal, itīs supergood
yesterday went with some basque kids to some local villages. 6 of them are from iruņa, pamplona in spanish, where they run the bulls, and the other is from san sebastian. we went to chamula first, the starting point for trips to the local villages, it was ok, the church was weird, candles on the floor and people drinking boch, a religous alcohol drink made from sugarcane. i guess the day before someone was there and people were bringing their chickens in to wring their necks, the combination of the religions, catholicism and maya based stuff, makes some weird combos. there were a ton of tourbus tourists showing up so we caught a colectivo volkswagen bus to this town called zinacantan.
nested in the mountains as they say, this town of 400 people was much better. we looked in the church, all the saints had mirrors hanging from their clothes, this was because when the spaniards arrived they traded gold for mirrors cause the natives had never seen themselves before. after that we walked up into the hills a bit, the basque kids were game and we went up about a kilometer, till we were sitting on one side of 2 hills that form a valley that drops down into the town, surrounding us were pinetrees and the sound of natives chopping trees. we had given away most of the mandarine oranges weīd bought to the kids, they all spoke tsotsil and not really any spanish, all they could say was Ļone pesoĻ and Ļone foto,Ļ which the spaniards took and the kids knew just what to do, they perked up and the fotos were snapped and they out came their hands for money. itīs like that all over here, which is why we brought the mandarinas, cause the staple diet of beans, rice and corn doesnīt include much fruit or vitamin c.
it was great fun for me to hang out with basque folks, earlier this week some catalans were at the hostel, but they werenīt as friendly. you can tell a basque person from a mile away by their dress, all colorful weird sweatpants and braided hair. they got a kick out of me speaking a little basque to them and tried to convince me that i hadnīt lived till iīd seen the running of the bulls, which some year i may go to.
anyways, today is the anniversary of one of the many mexican revolutions, so there is a parade outside of this internet cafe, which is neat to look out at, all the boys dressed up like zapata. my mexican history gets all confused, what a crazy history this nation has had.
been hanging out with my new friend roberto, heīs always up for going out so iīve seen a bit of the bars here, itīs great fun. anthony and eileen are off before too long to live in some village, iīll be sad to see them go, itīs been fun.
havenīt heard from the lady in cancun about cuba, but got her number today, gonna go call her. ok gotta get back into the street to watch this parade, hope all is well everywhere.