Mi viaje a Mexico (My trip to Mexico)

Thursday 26 de Febrero
We left for Mexico right after my Mayan Cosomovision class. We didn't have senior sem oh but don't worry our director Brian made us watch the documentary of Romero on the bus. We switched off watching it in groups of three or four on our lap tops, it was a depressing movie about Liberation Theology which is basically the topic of our Senior Sem. Anywhoo, the purpose for going to Mexico was to renew our visas. The bus ride was soo long. It felt longer than the one we took to Coban from Guatemala City. The ride was only supposed to take "6 to 8 hours" but we left Landivar a little after 11am and didn't arrive in San Cristobol Mexico until 9pm. It was really interesting at the boarder...we had to get out of our bus about 4 times within a couple of miles, thats when it felt like we were just inching along. It was SO hot when we were at the boarder, we could definitely tell that we were no longer in the cold mountains of Xela. We stopped at two "official" buildings where we got our passports stamped, and then the other stops were by the army or other officials to look inside our bus for things like drugs or to check our passports. Like I said we finally arrived in San Cristobol around 9:00pm. We unloaded and everyone was so tired that all we really wanted to do was crash in our beds. A bunch of us took advantage of the fact that the hotel restaurant was still open and ate a nice big substantial meal because we had been munching on snacky type food all day! Then we all went to bed. I really liked the hotel, it was huge!
Friday
Most of the people in the group slept in and didn't leave the hotel until 10 or 11. We had a free day on Friday :) A bunch of us girls (me, Brianna, Nicole, Jenna, Shannon B, and Steph) decided that we wanted to go shopping (a lot of the group went shopping as well)! I really liked the city of San Cristobol. It kind of reminded me a bit of Antigua but it was better than Antigua. It was a beautiful city, touristy, had many shops and restaurants side by side. We had a beautiful day to shop, the weather was similar to that of Xela because San Cristobol is also somewhat in the mountains hence it was cooler in the morning, beautiful warm sunny during the day, and then cool again at night. I shopped my little heart out on Friday. Literally we started off at some American looking stores but then finally we found the awesome artisan market (where vendors sell hand made things, it is outdoors and there were many tents side by side in long lines!). On the way to the market we got swarmed by indigenous mayans who carry what they make and try and sell it to you on the spot. We only took a break from our shopping spree to eat at cheap little taco place and then returned to the market. In between I must of visited the ATM like 3 times that day....haha. Luckily for us the peso has fallen a lot and it is 15 pesos to the American dollar! Later that night almost the entire group went out to dinner at a place called Margaritas. Beforehand I bought an elote off the street! Elote is corn on the cob, but almost like state fair style but weirder...it had mayo, shredded cheese, ketchup like salsa, and picante! It was delicious. Dinner was too I had chicken fajitas, and my first ever tequila popper ;) After dinner we got icecream for the second time that day (we had some after lunch too).
Saturday
Saturday was a planned trip day by our director. We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel at 8. It was BY FAR the best hotel breakfast I have had thus far. It was buffet style. Eggs, big pancakes, fruit, bacon, beans, platanos fritos, yogurt, fruit, granola, pastries, the works! Afterwards we got in a bus and rode about an hour to a Zapitista village. I knew nothing about this group before visiting but a bunch of students in my group did. The Zapitistas are a rebellious group that fought against the Mexcican government with arms, but haven't fought with arms since 1994. Now they live still in existence in their own autonomy in their own society. Almost all of the men and women of this village wear black ski masks or hankerchiefs around their faces to protect their identity. Upon arriving our director told us that they don't always let visitors even enter their village so we really didn't have any idea what was going to happen. Luckily they were accepting and collected our passports and let us enter then asked us why we were there. We told them we were just visiting. We got to walk around the village a little before getting the opportunity to speak with some post revolutionary Zapitistas. Our director had us come up with questions to ask them and before entering the room and listening to them speak to us but we had to wait for a long time. One because Spanish is not their first language and two because they didn't want to answer some of our questions because they didn't want to disclose some of their information. It was interesting to hear what they had to say but it was a little hard to focus at times. Afterwards we left the village and went to an Indigenous Mayan town. Here the indigenous men wear wool vests and the women wear wool skirts. We got a tour of a beautiful church there which as a mix between a Catholic church and mayan tradition. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the church because of the belief that the Mayan spirit would be taken away or something along those lines... There is no mass conducted in the the church; the indigenous people in small groups to worship the figures (which are all statues of saints) that are all around the church. They worship by putting candles in front of which ever saint they would like to pray to and saying or chanting a prayer. Ah sorry this is getting kind of wordy...I'm just describing what I remember! We returned to our hotel around 4ish, and returned to the market again! I didn't buy anything more though, I had already boughten a lot! Then Steph Jenna and I decided to give in and taste a little bit of home by eating Subway for dinner. It was absolutely delicious. I believe I got more elote and icecream that night as well...haha. That night we just hung out at the hotel. Some played cards others like me relaxed and took advantage of the wireless.
Sunday
We ate another buffet breakfast at the hotel and then we were on our way back to Guatemala! The bus ride on the way back was better we still had stops at the boarder and all but they were shorter and took less time. This is when we actually got our visas stamped. We got back to Xela around...5 I believe. Even though we were tired, Nicole, Brianna, Jenna, and I went to the fair that was still going on outside my house (it lasted from Sunday to Sunday). We took advantage of the food :P I had a cheverre, elote, and curos! Yummy yummy. I am proud of my stomach :) Now its off to another week of classes....I can't even believe its March! Wow. I only have approximately 5 free weekends left in Xela! The other two or three others are our final group excursion to Lago de Atitlan and Spring Break! Oh and I don't recall if I made this shout out yet but I now have internet in my house! I bought a USB port that gives me wireless wherever I want it :) I only wish I would have known about this possibility from the beginning of trip. I absolutely love it, it elimates the anxiety I had about not being able to use the internet whenever I wanted (before I would go to internet cafes). But to all of my friends who are reading my Blog I am now available for evening Skype dates! Love to all.