San Cristobal, at the end of the day

The internet here is spotty, too frustrating and time consuming.  We had a great day (rated only good by those with hurty feet) walking all over town.  Ev requested a no drive day if possible.  We started with an excellent breakfast and long chat with our hostess, Margaret, owner of Casa Bolomchon.  She's lived here 16 years, and in this house 5 years.  Delightful.  We had lots of questions for her and she was gracious in answering them.  Her house is in the old part of town, built in the Mexican tradition: an unassuming front gate that opens into a courtyard with rooms all around the edges. She only rents one room in her compound, and everywhere you look is a gorgeous little detail.  I think the pictures above are clickable.



The main thing I was interested in seeing today was the Na Bolom Foundation.  Franz Blom was Danish Archeologist who came here in the early days and fell in love with the area and indigenous tribes.  He and his wife Gertrude look like my kind of people.  Ev wants me to include that Franz was a card carrying member of the Explorers Club.  That got him all excited.  This is a picture of the courtyard of their home that has now been turned into the foundation headquarters.

This is her jewelry box and the contents of one of her trunks.  I love being allowed to nose around in other people's stuff.

San Cristobal was downright cold.  The indigenous people were all wrapped up in wool, many wearing heavy wool tufted skirts called "bear skirts".  Never got to ask if they actually were bear.  We walked up to see another working museum of Mayan medicine.  Plants are being grown and distilled in this location that are known to be used for healing.  Rituals are being documented.  These people were in a ceremony being led by a shaman. The floor was covered in pine needles and everything used is symbolic.  Later we saw huge bags of pine needles being sold at the market.

It was a full day, tomorrow we drive to Jaltipan to see what we can see...by the way, those women are actually mannequins.  Made you look.