My First Backpacking Trip: Zapatistas in San Cristobal De Las Casas!

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Direction: Chiapas... Villahermosa was a 6 to 7 hour trip from the Eyipantla Falls. but we got here safely, found a hotel, got some hotdogs and went to bed. That night was a good night, we had an air conditioner in the room. In the morning we left our bags at the bus station (you gotta pay for that, we didn't leave them in the middle of the bus station or anything like that!). We looked for breakfast and got in a bus (a small vw bus with tons of people in it) that took us around town.

Villahermosa's a nice small city where the people are friendly and those small vw buses swarm the streets. We got off at the cathedral, it's another one of those bigger than the eyes can see structure, very clean and surprisingly without vendors roaming around it all. After our walk around, we headed back to ADO (the bus station), exchanged some money and got on a bus to the small Mayan village of Bochil.

The bus ride was beautiful, the landscape started to change very quickly from flatlands to mountains (probably because the driver was going way too fast). The mountains of Chiapas are amazing, very green with palm trees, banana trees and all other types of trees you can imagine a jungle to have. After about 6 hours we got to Bochil. Since it was already 6pm, we decided to keep on going all the way to Tuxtla Gutiérrez so we wouldn't get there at midnight catching the next bus out of Bochil. Plus Bochil wasn't that small of a town anyways.

Shortly after leaving town the vegetation in the mountains changed with lots of pine trees, very much like something you'd see in North America. Finally we got to Tuxtla and it looked like LA from the height we were at. It was night time and the city was lit up below us, laying flat in the valley with long straight lines garnished with small bright yellow dots crisscrossing into one another (just like LA viewed from the hills). We paid the driver 100 pesos, which I hope he put in his pocket because it was a lot cheaper than buying bus tickets!

Conveniently as it was getting a bit late, we found a cheap hotel (that looked like it used to be a prison for adolescents) right across the street from the bus station. We put our bags down, and went for dinner. I had tacos and some cake I had bought from some young indian kids who jump on every bus that stops to make a little cash.

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This morning we're going to San Cristobal De Las Casas. The ride took about 2 hours and again through beautiful mountains on either side of the road. In San Cristobal we found a very well maintained hotel (not a prison this time) that cost us 120 pesos. In town there are again small indian children running around playfully begging for money (or food if you sit at a table of an outdoor restaurant).

We went to the market where the locals/natives set up shop to sell very colorful clothing, art, jewelry and some food. When I asked a guy how much his hammocks were, he told me a price and I said no, almost automatically thinking it was a special "tourist price". He asked me in return, well how much do you want to spend? When I said I didn't know, he laid out all his best hammocks in front of me. I didn't really want to buy anything without the girls, because I thought we would get a better deal if we bought 3 hammocks. They both came up behind me and joined in the sell. We walked away with all three hammocks for 350 pesos, a double person one and two singles! The girls picked hammocks that were full of colors and mine was green and beige, we were happy and it probably was a good deal... at least it felt like it!

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We found an internet café, logged on and I wrote my friend Jesse, Christie, another Sandrine and my Mom. That place pissed me off a bit "cause everything was taking forever to load and my time was nearly up. So, that meant that I could only write a few words to my Mom (I'll do better next time). Once we were all done, we went back to the hotel for money and headed to restaurant we had seen earlier. This restaurant was surrounded by touristy shops, but it was in the courtyard of a beautiful Spanish style villa with big luscious plants surrounding each column that support the second floor balcony. The walls were colored peach with every door, column and window framed with yellow bordures. It was really a beautiful and serine sight to take in.

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After lunch we found a place that does horse back riding tours. We had to pay for a tour scheduled for the next day and really hoped that it wasn't a scam. We'll see you tomorrow! It's going to be a 5 hour trip.

Unfortunately traveling as we were, we often felt like people saw us as walking money fountains. We felt rich compared to the local population. Though we were traveling on a shoe string, the money we had was a life time's salary for some people. And yet we had to make that money last 6 months. It didn't feel right, and we knew that when we ran out of money, the option of going home (back to our 1st world nations) was always on the table... we would never get stuck at the same poverty level we had witnessed.

On diy billboards, walls of churches and other buildings there were lots of hand painted messages, antigovernmental stuff, pro Zapatista type things. While life here doesn't seem to be as scary as it is said to be, especially as a tourist, I am sure it has its dark side and its moments where it isn't good to be here, both as a tourist and a local. I've only seen two soldiers in town, but I had noticed there was a base camp at the entrance of the city. What that means, I don't know.. we may find out tomorrow on a horse!

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See you all in the next episode!