San Cristobal de las Casas

We arrived in San Cristobal which is an old colonial city at night and I could not see very much of what the city was like. We decided to all stay in the same place and went to a small hostel that was very cute and looked like a very cozy home. The first thing I did was accompany Justin to the doctors because he had an ear infection and he did not speak spanish so he needed my help. When we got there the doctor told him he had a pretty bad infection and it was good he went to get it checked out and ended up giving him some antibiotics and other stuff. It all turned out to be very cheap in comparison with how much you would pay in the US and I was happy to have gone along and know what to do in case I find myself in a situation in which I should need to go to the doctors.

The next day we had breakfast at the hostel and went to walk around the town. San Cristobal is beautiful and surrounded by mountains. The town is full of small buildings all in different colors and tiny cobble stone streets with cars zooming by. We walked around town, visited some of the sights, went to the market, churches and just admired the delicate beauty of the city. San Cristobal is small, magical and full of culture. You walk around town and you just feel very comfortable, at home as if you could really live there. Women are walking around in traditional dress, with their babies wrapped around their bodies by cloth and breastfeeding as they run their daily tasks. It really is an amazing place and I felt like I could be there forever. I am also having a serious crisis of not being able to buy things to decorate my house because it wont fit in my bag. Everything is so beautiful!!

Here in San Cristobal I was able to taste some of the best tamales I have ever had and was very happy to eat such a delicious cheap meal. We then went to the open market and bought some food to cook for dinner.

The next day I got an e-mail from Tyler saying he would be arriving soon and I could not be more excited! Justin and I walked around town, visited some new places and got caught in the rain on the way back, and even though it was raining and I was wearing flip-flops and that was the coldest I had been since I had gotten to Mexico, there is something about the town that just makes you very happy to be there. We decided to spend the afternon in the hospedaje reading and waiting for the rain. A few hours later Tyler arrived and we went to the market to cook ourselves some delicious food. 1great thing about San Cristobal is that they have Churros filled with Cajeta and I was so happy to be able to eat some of that deliciousness!
The next morning we went to the Sumidero Canyons which are absolutely stunning! There is a river that cuts through huge rock walls making the canyon an amazing sight. They go up as high as 1000 meters and are also very deep. The tour is very beautiful and you go across the canyon on a lancha observing different shapes in the rock walls and looking out for wildlife, including a few crocodiles that we were able to see (quick question, does anyone know the difference between crocodile and alligator? i remember doing a project using zooboks about it,but it was a long time ago...)

Oh! very cool and I forgot to mention earlier is that on our way to the Canyon we met a great guy who was actually from Nimbim in Australia and it was great to chat with him throught the day and listen to him play his harmonica on our ride back to San Cristobal. It really was a magical beautiful day!

On my last dayI walked with Justin to a spanish school to help him with taking some classes for the next few days, and that afternoon Tyler and I took a bus to Oaxaca where we would be spending my birthday and Dia de los Muertos.