Cancun to Chiapas

I am in the beautiful city of San Cristobal! We arrived here this morning after an 18 hour bus ride from Cancun (yes, crazy I know). This bus ride really helped us get closer to the part of the Guatemalan border we need to be at in order to arrive in Xela in time to catch a bus to La Escuela de la Montaña.

Cancun was... interesting. The flight was fine, besides our lay over in Houston being too short and us running through the huge airport to catch our plane. It was out of a movie, I´m sure. So far, my theme is thinking that it wouldn´t be an adventure without such happenings. We laughed and high-fived after we caught out breath. Elisa and I found Sasha outside of customs at the Cancun airport. Our first attempt at transportation nearly had us ripped off. Fifty US dollars for a shuttle to our hotel? Nah, I don´t think so.

Our hostel in Cancun may be the fanciest place we´ll stay at on this journey. It was like a mansion, with brightly colored rooms and extremely hospitable service. The woman who owned the place, originally from Holland, had us stay in our own huge room with private bathroom instead of staying in the shared room (where rowdy frat boys had been staying). I realize anyone in Cancun is looking for a bit of a different experience than we are here for. It was still neat to walk around in the warm night and eat yummy mexican food, sip a cerveza while listening to a mariachi band. The boys at the hostel invited us to go dancing but we were exhausted and did not want to pay the US$45 to go to an open bar. We had some beers on the patio and watched the clouds and the stars. It was good catching up time for us, since we had not seen Sasha in months.

The next day we went to the beach by the fancy hotels, walking through them like as if we were staying there. It was sad actually, how many empty and closed resorts there were. The recession and swine flu threats have left Cancun desperate for tourists. The beach was nice and the water was as warm as a bath. The ocean floor was strangely squishy, like walking on a layer of jellyfish. I got stung by something on my knee, but I´m fine now.

The ride to San Cristobal was a beautiful trek through the mountains. It was part jungle and part pine stand. The pines had bromeliads on them! In the tiny towns, you could see children playing in the dirt with sticks and stray dogs watching the traffic go by. San Cristobal is nestled in the valley of those mountains, where the temperature is just right. Big rain drops started falling on us before we ran into this internet cafe. They stopped now, so I think we are going to venture out onto the narrow cobblestoned streets again. Each building is painted in some beautiful tropical color and you can smell the coffee, said to be organic here. The hot chocolate I had for breakfast was delicious!

Tonight, we will stay in Comitan and then arrive in Xela tomorrow afternoon.

Miss you all! I may not be able to write again for another week.

Love,
Ari