Mexico – poco Español

31 December 2019 Post 3 of 4.

Week three in Mexico contained Christmas. I thought by being in Mexico I would avoid the never ending ear bashing of Christmas carols, but no. I even learnt the Spanish words to some of the simple carols because we heard the songs so many times!

To accompany the carols there were huge Christmas trees in the main squares of every town with businesses and churches getting in on the action too. The city centre streets were decorated with a beautiful array of coloured lights, flags and pinatas, and a variety of free concerts were performed every night.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me that the government was handing out free firecrackers to anyone who voted for them because the sky was filled with the sound, smell and dull smoke of cheap firecrackers for the 10 days around Christmas. Detonation location didn’t matter – out the front of church, after work on the front step, in the backyard, in the town square, or on the street outside your house – wherever it took your fancy!

We arrived in San Cristobal del la Casas on 23 December. San Cristobal is a town of 210,000, high in the mountains towards the Guatemalan border and quite a tourist destination for domestic and international visitors because the surrounding area is home to many of Mexico’s indigenous communities. The tourist factor meant the town was buzzing during the week of Christmas and had lots of good people watching.

Christmas in Mexico is mostly celebrated with the family on Christmas Eve. We could hear firecrackers, yahooing and music going until sunrise. We met a local GP who was working long hours on Christmas Day because “people had eaten too much the night before”. We weren’t sure how the GP was going to help them with their over consumption but he was having a busy day!!

We spent Christmas Day on a 9hr bus trip to warmer weather. The direct route is about 5hrs but we were rerouted to avoid political rebels that are active in that part of Mexico. I wasn’t too keen on the 9hrs until we met some Australians traveling the opposite direction who had taken the direct route two days before during the day and had been stopped at gun point. Fortunately they were just asked to record a video message supporting the rebel’s cause to be sent to various Mexican politicians. The Aussies said it was a stressful and dangerous situation all the same, so I was ok with my 9hr bus ride cause it was safe, we saw some beautiful countryside and we had a really tasty $4 lunch for two.

Just so you know, Mexican people are pretty short compared to Abhi and I. We’ve hit our heads on doorways, struggled to sleep with blankets that only cover from our shoulders to knees, and tested our ability to fold into local buses. On Sundays there are often free concerts in or near the town square. At one of these I persuaded Abhi to dance with me and all the locals. Once we were out there amongst the crowd, we realised 90% of our fellow dancers hardly reached our armpits in height. We had an amazing view of the band simply because everyone else had such little legs! (Picture at the end). It was a bit embarrassing.

We have done a number of walking tours in the different places we have visited and have found the quality and content to be wide ranging. Juan in Oaxaca asked for relationship advice and sang to us. Erica in San Cristobal took us to all of her friend’s shops/cafes. Adriana walked us all of 3 blocks and then plied us full of cheap local liquor – pox (posh). Maria in Mexico City showed us loads and loads of interesting places. And I could have listened to Tonio’s stories about Merida for another few hours. They’ve all been special experiences.

We are now immersed in 98% humidity and gearing up for 2020, but that’s for next week’s post. Feliz Navidad 🙂