Say YES to Drugs!

Howdy, all! I´ll bet you´ve been wondering where we´ve been. Well, we´ve been busy doing touristy things like an all-day tour, a border crossing into Mexico, and spending a couple of days being sick as dogs.

I´ll start with the non-fun stuff: Right after we crossed from Guatemala to Mexico (7 hours in a van full of Israelis chatting nonstop in Hebrew), it became apparent that we had brought some Guatemalan beasties over the border with us (and Customs didn´t even notice!). It hit Anthony first, and I was right behind. I eventually wrote a note in Spanish describing our symptoms (it´s remarkable how similar the English and Spanish words are for diarrhea, fever, and nausea), and sent Anthony to the pharmacy (he was in a little better shape than I was at that time). Ya gotta love Mexico, after reading my note they set him up with some antibiotics, over the counter, and they cost less than four bucks. Yay Mexico. Anyway, we are starting to feel human again, ready to venture out and see San Cristobal de las Casas.

Now the fun stuff: So, before we left Guatemala, we spent a few days in Panajachel, then headed to Quetzaltenango for a couple of nights. It´s pretty darned chilly in Quetzaltenango. (You all know how much I like chilly.) We did a great tour one day, and saw some pretty cool stuff. We visited a factory where they make hand-blown glass stuff (glasses, goblets, decorative things), they just let us walk around amongst the guys with glowing hot gobs of glass on the end of tubes, sticking them in and out of fiery ovens. (We didn´t even have to sign a waiver.) We visited a whole bunch of villages and saw the oldest Christian church in Central America (1500´s).

We visited two more Maximon statues (see photos below). We watched ladies preparing cotton yarn to be dyed. We visited some guy´s house where on the third floor there are two looms, and we watched the fabric being woven (the weaver makes about $6 a day). The same guy with the looms makes this home-brewed wine called Caldo de Frutas (fruit soup), it´s a wine they only make in this village. Of course we bought some. (It´s gone already.) Oh, and we also visited some hot springs that were pretty neat. They are way up in the mountains, everything is covered in swirling fog and steam from the springs. The water is HOT, as it drips out of the mountain, it´s actually too hot to touch. We soaked for quite a while there.......

We are currently in San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico), which appears to be an amazing city. Very cosmopolitan, it feels like Europe (but with cheap food). We plan on staying a few days, and taking a tour or two. We started out in a kind of iffy hostel, with very loud music right outside our door for hours (ranging from rap to Smashing Pumpkins to salsa). After staying in bed for 24 hours there, sick, we decided to move. We´ve now got some awesome digs at the Casa Margarita. (See photo here.) It´s so lovely I think even my parents would enjoy staying here! (I can´t say that about most of the places we´ve been...) It´s a splurge at $27, but we felt like we deserved something nice.

Well, that´s all for now. We´ll post again soon!