Into Chiapas, Mexico

We had another quick and easy border crossing into Mexico at La Mesilla. We seem to have entered a land of plenty with so much 'stuff' for sale everwhere! The big Day of the Dead festival is coming up soon so there are lots of skeletons appearing!

San Cristobal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas, is an interesting highland town surrounded by traditional villages of the Maya Tzotzil and Tzeltal. There were plenty of shoeshines on the square, some as young as 10 or possibly younger.

We had a very interesting visit to nearby villages San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan, learning about their different religions, dress, languages, law and order. In Chamula, they mainly govern and police themselves and recently lynched (killed) their mayor for withholding funds!

We stayed at Chiapa de Corzo, a short twisty ride away, where we took a boat ride into the Sumidero Canyon. At the far end there was even a small boat selling beer and crisps! However, we shared the river with loads of plastic bottles washed down from nearby towns!

Our room had probably the most uncomfortable mattress of the trip and the town one of the noisiest, with fireworks and firecrackers going off all evening and well into the night! There was also a lot of drum practice, presumably for the Day of the Dead celebrations at the beginning of November.