From Campeche to San Cristóbal

After Mérida I traveled to Campeche, a pretty but rather unexciting town at the northwestern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. Due to several pirate attacks in the 17th century, the Spanish conquistadores fortified and walled the entire town of Campeche. A lot of the old houses and fortifications have been restored thus creating a historic center which appears rather lifeless but attracts a lot of tourists.

I didn't do much in Campeche except for exploring the city center and visiting the nearby Mayan ruins known by the name Edzná.

From Campeche, I took the bus to Palenque -to visit more ruins- and then another bus to San Cristóbal. The bus rides took 6 and 9 hours respectively. Bus rides are an experience, I can tell you! So far I've traveled on 2nd-class busses only because they are cheaper, however, the above-mentioned routes are apparently not frequented by 2nd-class busses that's why I had to travel first class. And contrary to what you might expect: it was bad - worse than expected!

While 2nd-class busses have air condition only (an amenity which in my opinion is absolutely sufficient), 1st-class busses offer the convenience of a toilet on board (which sometimes smells and which you don't want to use anymore after the first hour on a bumpy and winding road) as well as non-stop movies in Spanish which are shown on TV screens installed above the passengers' heads. This fact implies that you are exposed to constant noise when riding the bus, because the sound system consists of speakers hanging from the ceiling, and while we can choose to look in a different direction, we unfortunately cannot choose NOT to hear. On the first bus ride I half watched, half tried to ignore a stupid action movie about shimpanzees taking over San Francisco while not really understanding what it was all about, and on the second bus ride, I was forced to hear (sic!) a concert by Britney Spears for over 90 min. Those two audio-visual treats were the most terrible ones of the six I had to bear in total.

It was worth it, however, because San Cristóbal de las Casas, my final destination, is a beautiful city with a very special atmosphere. I immediately liked it a lot. On the one hand there are Bohemian bars and cafés and nicely restored colonial houses, and on the other hand, there are a lot of Tzotzil people coming to town from the nearby villages to sell their crafts and homespun textiles on the local artesania markets. The Tzotzils are an independent indigenous group with conspicuous traditional clothing and some interesting religious practices. I visited one of their villages, San Juan Chamula, where they have a church whose floor is completely covered with pine needles. In addition, there are hundreds of candles burning inside the sanctuary and the prayers are kneeling on the floor burning incense and drinking common soft drinks because burps are believed to expel evil spirits.

Back in San Cristóbal I all of a sudden found myself amidst a most peculiar street parade. At first it seemed to be some kind of a Karneval parade with people being dressed up in scary horror costumes, but then some trucks passed by on whose cargo area human and animal (look for the sheep!) actors depicted scenes from the bible. The whole procession was, of course, accompanied by loud music and the people dancing and having a blast. A very interesting composition!