Sunday, February 23, 2003
Palenque is lively on Sunday morning. People are
out and about, coming to town to shop. I almost wish
we were spending another day here, but we've been in
Palenque long enough. It's time to move on.
It's a five and a half hour ride on scenic Highway
199 to San Cristóbal, which is enough time to show
not one, but two bad movies. The first one was in
German, subtitled in Spanish. How surreal. The title,
further translated by me into English, was "The
Princess and the Warrior." It was by the director of
"Run, Lola, Run." The only other gringo on the bus
with us, an American, had actually seen the movie
before. We'd rather look out the window at the
scenery anyway.
Scenery along Mexico 199
We passed countless shack villages en route and
witnessed much slash-and-burn agriculture taking
place. We made a ten-minute stopover in Ocosingo,
where I saw the first, but certainly not the last,
breast-feeding of the trip.
Ocosingo
Time for a new video. It's not a movie after all.
It is educational programming from Discovery Channel
dubbed in Spanish regarding dinosaurs. I knew there
had to be dinosaurs around here somewhere!
This bus ride seemed to take forever. We had to
crawl along the road at a painfully slow rate due to
the enormous amount of curves climbing up into the
mountains and due to the great number of topes. Topes
are a Mexican institution. To ensure drivers don't
just speed through these little villages and around
the curves, the government has installed speed bumps
in the road as big as a coffee table, usually well
marked, but occassially a surprise. You WILL slow
down for a tope, or you WILL be leaving part of your
vehicle behind. These things are serious. I took
Dramamine, but I got a little queasy anyway.
Sunday in the mountains
As we were going approximately two miles an hour
over one of these topes while passing through the
town of Oxchuc, we witnessed something odd - a bunch
of men in scary masks were dancing in the road. Tom
thinks they were hoping we would throw them pesos. I
have no clue. Celebration? Protest? Dancing for tips?
Beats me, but it was interesting and surprising.
What the hell?
We finally arrived in San Cristóbal, but we were
headed to Comitán de Dominguez. Outside the bus
station, a chubby little boy asked me for a peso for
something to eat. He was eating at the time! If I
spoke more Spanish, I would have given him a lesson
in marketing. As it was, I gave him nothing.
Caught a combi to Comitán, an hour and 20 minutes,
then took a taxi to centro. We're staying at the
Hotel Virrey, two blocks off the Zócalo, 250 pesos
($23) a night. It is very cute, with a little
courtyard and a fountain with tortugas (turtles) and
way too many chirping birds. Our book described the
staff as charming, and we'd have to agree.
Courtyard of the Hotel Virrey
Comitán is a very charming colonial city, and it
has the biggest and best Zócalo ever! The square is
very attractive, and there were tons of people and
live music and just lots going on. There was a
mariachi band playing in the center of the Zócalo,
Native American flute music coming from a corner, and
various music coming from the surrounding shops.
There were shoeshine boys, Chicklet girls, and
miscellanous snack vendors. We saw a big group of
people gathered and went to check it out. It was a
guy selling an Oxiclean-type product, and very
excited about it. These folks are nothing if not
enthusiastic! The gringos are few and far between
here, and Tom said we really stuck out, so I put away
my camera. Now we blend.
Now how much would you pay?
The cutest little Mexican boy ever (4 years old
maybe) started playing "kick the plastic bottle," and
he soon got Tom and me involved. Eventually, a
slightly bigger boy took the bottle from him for no
reason. Little-boy panic was about to ensue until a
replacement bottle was found and the game continued.
Finally we bid our little amigo adios and went on our
way. He never said a word to us.
We ate dinner at the Restaurant Helen's Enrique in
the Hotel Casa Vieja off the Zócalo. It was
excellent! If you go, get the filete de Tampiqueña.
Plus they had the best guacamole I've ever
tasted.
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