Day one exploring San Cristobal

We arrived in San Cristobal after an 11 hour bus trip along the Pan-American Highway through the mountains of Oaxaca, across the hot flat Isthmus (I really wish it had been light to see it, this is the narrowest strip of Mexico and apparently there is an amazing wind between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific that can knock trucks over), and through the mountains of Chiapas. Needless to say, I was glad to take Dramamine and with my ipod and neck pillow was actually able to sleep for chunks (they play loud dubbed movies throughout the night, American movies I've never heard of... but they also seemed to feature Ed Harris) and it was empty enough that C, L and I all had our own row. Also, the reputation that these buses have as being severely over air-conditioned is no joke. Before we could get on the bus though we were subjected to an amazing amount of security measures (opening our bags for inspection and being wanded down) including filming all our faces once we were seated (I later learned that this was probably in case of the bus crashing, they would have records of the passengers). Since our bus left at 9pm, the only real views I had before it got too dark to see were those of the same route I take out to Tlacolula. What was amazing was seeing a ferocious lightening storm up in the Sierra Norte mountains that ring the valley, these sharp bright flashes of light that illuminated the ridges and overlapping clouds every minute or so, while it was clear down where we were with a full bright moon.

We got into San Cristobal a blurry group and made our way to the B&B we were to stay in, owned by the aunt, B, of a friend of C's (who she grew up in a commune in LA with). It was a lovely little posada with only a few rooms and a lush courtyard/ garden and very much like staying in a commune. We shared a large bathroom area with B and her husband and our bedrooms had big windows into the courtyard which we left open most of the time. B has three dogs who made themselves comfortable (sometimes on C and my bed) and it was very much like living in a slightly chaotic household for a few days. The climate difference between Oaxaca and San Cristobal is amazing (it's about 5oo meters higher), very cold and damp except in the middle of the day. It was also lovely that everyone who was staying in the posada with us were fellow academics and I chatted a bunch with a political scientist originally from Melbourne who's looking at reproduction and midwifery in Southern Mexico! We quickly made ourselves at home and went in search of breakfast at a wonderful organic cafe. Everything in the central area of San Cristobal is very close together, making it a marvelously walkable city... and it felt very familiar after Mum and I had explored it so much a year and a half ago.

As we walked around the city we were really struck by the differences between the cities-- even as in many ways they are very similar (old colonial city with a large indigenous population that is heavily involved in the tourist market-- B was a little shocked that for the most part we really didn't have a great desire to do the "cultural" tours of the area). But there are also these very sensual differences which on the one hand feel very insignificant (SC has narrower and cleaner streets and higher sidewalks), and on the other give the cities very different (superficial) feels. I think that part of the issue is that Oaxaca is also the capital city (Tuxtla is for Chiapas) so there is a real mix within the city of stuff that is obviously touristy and stuff that is "normal"-- it's also a much bigger city. Also, SC is totally totally totally totally on the hippie trail with a lot of Zapatista tourists and tons of Israelis!

The central plaza in front of the Cathedral is incredibly photogenic in rain or "shine," these pictures were all taken on the same day, the first on the way to lunch and the final ones on the way back from lunch (Oaxaca needs some better international "ethnic" food).






L was feeling very sick (for most of the trip) so C and I took off to explore and shop a little. Wandering in the morning around the city we were drawn to this intriguing half-open door and ended up exploring a semi-abandoned school (escuela normal).




It was totally beautiful and very traditional arranged around two or three courtyards with amazing archetural details.


And random piles of categories of objects (these of course were the most visually intriging to me.




After C and I explored the "Indian Market" next to their Santo Domingo (ours is prettier) which has a pretty representative sample of the range of textile products available, she became obsessed with the satin shirts that women from a particular village wear. She had originally seen them for tons of money at the anthropology museum in Mexico City and then again in Oaxaca, and now that we had come to the source, she was determined to find the perfect one. But it ended up being a very frustrating experience emphasizing again the difficulties of finding clothes for non-indigenous bodies. C's a very small person, but the shirts were consistently too small in the shoulders and arms. I've had massive problems especially with shirts here for that reason as well as finding anything that will fit my chest and I think that on a broader level this raises interesting questions about how people make goods here... because while people are definitely producing for a market, it is all things that they themselves also use and wear, so they're basically selling things that they would make normally rather than something like the alebrijes market which was developed as an economic strategy. So even though the markets we visited were clearly aimed at tourists, the products were still very much "for" indigenous communities-- but that also might be an economic strategy of "authenticity." Meanwhile, I finally indulged my inner magpie and bought some fabulous glittery embroidered garments (a child's poncho-- it won't fit over my head-- and a capelet) that I plan to repurpose into something I will use. They are currently covering my desk chair and couch (and these pictures don't do the colors justice).




After an all-night bus ride we were super temporally disoriented and spent a lot of the rest of the day resting and listening to the rain while we read old fashion magazines to each other. C and I went out later to a little (smoky) wine bar where we scoped out the mixture of Chipaneco intellegentsia and hippie tourists-- Oaxaca totally needs one of these!