A Final, Needed Dose of San Cristobal
Sunday, April 6th, 2008So I had my loungy-day in san cristobal and found a $20, all-day tour of the gruta de san cristobal (big cave!), las cascadas de chiflon and lagunas de Montebello. These are south and southeast of san cristobal and at the lagunas one looks right across the lake into Guatemala. It’s a long day in a vehicle but a good value and if you have the extra day, which I obviously did, it’s worth it.
This time, 8 of the 9 other tourees were Mexican. It was very cool to be with these wonderful people from all over mexico – including 2 gals from the costa del carib, 2 really fun guys from cuidad de MX who were in town for a wedding. We had a good time and I spoke Spanish as often as I could. For both tours from san cristobal I used orisa, an agency on real de Guadalupe on the block just east of the zocolo. They were most reasonably priced and I never had complications. You can go in, get efficient (maybe a little brusque) service and not expect any hassles or pressure sales. Just the facts ma’am.
An aside: at markets I want to say to sellers “I will linger and look at your merchandise if you don’t berate me with a constant dialog of what I’m looking at, how good a deal you I will give me, and a million other things that chase me away from you”. Honestly, I look at (and more likely buy from) stalls where people are there to help but leave me in peace to browse. I wonder if in the big picture this would be a successful business plan for a stall-owner in a market. Actually – even if I’m home and someone hovers at my side in a store I am out the door pronto. Are you the same? Are most people? Do people really respond to this behavior with a purchase? If I had a command of the language here I might try explaining it to the vendor.
Anyhoo – today I went to my favorite spots here in san cristobal and enjoyed the views – of people, mountains, churches, etc. I have a big soft-spot in my heart for this town and I will return. Honestly, the only place I’ve been thus far that gets this reaction. I’ve enjoyed many places but the world is BIG and I seldom resolve to come back to a place (unless I live looong, travel often and have time for re-do’s).
I have a list of places I’ve enjoyed a lot so if you are reading this and going to SC and want to know more let me know. But if you have more than a few days you can figure it out on your own. It’s such an easy place to be. Tomorrow I will head to palenque and I’m finding that my $28 at this beautiful hotel is a good deal. I took some video I hope to post soon (but u-tube uploads take forever from the road). But I hope I can eek out some below $20 nights before I return home on the 26th.
I’m also working on getting more photos uploaded but bandwidth must be limited in these parts. It takes a looong time. OMG! I just realized it’s Saturday and EXACTLY 3 weeks until I go home. I marvel that tortuguero (my first big stop) feels like ages ago and at the same time it doesn’t seem possible that my 5 months will soon be over. I still have palenque, campeche, uxmal, possibly celestun and rio lagaros, and isla holbox on my itin (and any necessary stops in between). If you have any recommendations for these places please let me know!
