Feliz Navidad, Christmas in Chiapas

Guess what Santy found me!!!  He left me a nice silver bracelet featuring  symbols from the Mayan Calender.  How did he know.  Well it was a long night!!  unfortunately our hotel is very close to one of the Mayan Churches and the night was filled with the echoes of drums, dancing, church bells and fireworks as locals celebrated Christmas Mayan style.

To make matters worse, for some reason the hotel had not turned on the hot water for the wing of the hotel we were in.  Now cold showers are OK when your in the tropics, but when your freezing your butt off in Chiapas in winter, it just isn't funny!!!!

After a very invigorating dash under the shower, (dash, as in there was no way I was staying in that icy water for too long), we headed to the dining room for huevos ranchos and some nice strong black coffee.

After our breakfast, we met up with the rest of the group and Johanna, ready to do some exploring of a couple of the villages outside of San Christobal.    We took the scenic route through town to find a local transport company that would provide part of our transport.  The reason for the scenic trip was that Johanna wasn't all that sure where the bus depot was, however, after asking a few locals we finally found the buses.

Well, I am using the word buses very literally, the small parking lot had around 5 very old and well worn combie type buses.  We clambered aboard a little blue one which was ominously names "The Titanic".   We were soon on our way to our first destination, San Juan Chamula which is about 10 kms from San Christobal.  In spite of its name our little bus successfully made it's way up the steep mountain roads, through the pine forests to the quaint village of San Juan Chamula.