San Cristobal : de las Casas de Salsa y Mole

Sunset over San Cristobal from the Church of Guadalupe.

The church in the barrio de Guadalupe

 Arriving in San Cris after a torturous bus ride, I took a taxi through town to my hostel. Driving past brightly painted churches, with courtyards decorated by flagging in the colors of Mexico I instantly knew why everyone likes it here so much. This little city is charming, relaxed, and surrounded by natural beauty. Quite the change from the much larger city of Merida.... the cars don't try to run you over here.

Manuel,Jorge, and Diana giving us a rundown
of the best Mexican/ Argentinian music

   As I mentioned in my last post, the hostel I am staying at is fabulous! Its remarkably cold here in S.C at 2,000m elevation, and the hostel has a bonfire every evening. This is great for enjoying the stories of your fellow travelers. My first 2 nights the other guests were amazing. There was Diana and Jorge, from Tijuana, that I mentioned in my last post. Then Manuel, from Rosario, Argentina. Manuel was a musician, with a positive attitude about everything. He even tried to teach me to play one of his favorite songs from Uruguay. (I am working on it Manuel.) We spent the evening sharing how we passed the day, and playing music. All of this accompanied by lots of laughter, and a generous amount of Indio and Sol beers.
   Towards the end of the evening we all went out to dance. I feel a little embarrassed and confused about every hour that I am awake in this country. I don't know how to speak spanish all that well. Sometime I just point at things on the menu, and hope for the best. But the culmination of my embarrassment, was on the dance floor with Jorge. Jorge, a super smooth dancer, put out his best effort to get me to move my feet in the right direction, but no matter how many time he said "dos pasos" ( two steps) I just couldn't get it! I just kept laughing.... uncomfortably. Salsa is about being super sexy, and enticing, and there I was a laughing bafoon. I loved it!

No mono culture farms in this area. The farms here are maintained
by the villagers.

My horses name was brandy, and I was
only her guest for a few hours. 

Just a leisurely paseo on the horses.
Katherine in the background.

  The next day I met another solo traveler Katherine. She and I got along really well right off, so we decided to go on a horseback ride together to a little indigenous village. San Cristobal is surrounded by indigenous communities, and sometimes the residents don't even speak Spanish. The village we visited speaks tuxcla, and they wear these super funny skirts made from goat hide! The horse ride was lovely. We rode past loads of organic gardens where they grow all the fresh squash, cilantro, radish, cabbage, and lettuce you can find in the market. Yummy! What I didn't count on was how uncomfortable riding a horse is! I know, I am from Wyoming, where practically everyone has some basic experience with horses... but let me just say I have some major respect for those cowboys now.

The landscape around San Cristo. 

  I don't know if chicken mole is a specialty of San Cristobal, but holy wow is it delicious here! After riding horses all day I walked over to the market area to find dinner. The market is lined with stalls, like we have at the fairgrounds in the US. Inside of some of these stalls are little restaurants. Now, they don't look like much. In fact, they are so small I kind of thought to myself there is no way they can make a meal here. Well, I stand corrected!
   I asked for a menu, and the mother looked at me like I had a third eye. So... I just ordered one of the few things I understood come out of her mouth. Pollo en mole. YUM!! They usually use the thigh or leg of the chicken. You know the chicken is fresh because the lady selling chickens is 1 block up. They cover the chicken in this dark red chili and chocolate sauce, and serve it with rice and tortillas. Actually, everything is served with tortillas here. San Cristobal is bursting with tourists, and lots of fancy restaurants to feed them. But for me these little economic kitchens are where the real magic happens! Plus, I like to see them laughing when a tall gringa tells them how wonderful their cooking is!