Destinationisjourneyisdestinationisjourneyis...

Well, I have made it to my first destination, after an extremely long day of travel. I won't go into any details about the travel day, except to mention that it culminated in an hour-long midnight van-ride with a driver who was visibly twitching. Yes, I said all my prayers during that drive. The bottom line of that story is that I was extremely grateful when, at 1:00 am, I finally arrived at the hotel.

After sleeping off the travel crud, I set out to learn about the town of San Cristobal. My initial impression of San Cristobal is "Dream come true! I'm in a Mexican mountain town!" The city sits in a valley at approximately 2200 meters, and is surrounded by green mountains. It gets cold at night (30s-40s), and foggy in the morning. During the day the sun warms everything to a comfortable temperature (today around 75+). The streets are very narrow with narrow, raised sidewalks, and the buildings are colorfully painted. Still, it has the shabby, run-down look that most places I've been to in Mexico have, which somehow adds to its charm.

I am also encouraged by the emphasis on social justice I have already seen here, beginning with the deeply rooted history of the Zapatista movement and extending to the many organizations that appear to have humanitarian aims. I hope to find a way to participate in all this goodwill I'm sensing!

Currently more concerned with practical matters, this afternoon I went and scoped out the language school where I will be studying and the home where I will be staying. The language school was closed, but at my homestay I met the woman of the house, her mother, and their (great) grandson, and saw my room. It all feels just right. I'll have more details about that after tomorrow.

Here are a few photos from my day. Enjoy!

The whole town is festively decorated for the holidays. It actually got me back in the spirit!

It's hard not to want to buy something from every sweet child who approaches.

I ate breakfast at the Zapatista cultural center in town. It was full of imagery of the kind found in this painting, and messages about peace and harmony for all people. I read up on the history of Chiapas and the Zapatistas and realized how recent, and how real, this struggle is. There seems to be a lot of pride around this movement for social justice, and a lot of support for it.

Iglesia Santo Domingo from the street in front of the language school.

Iglesia de Santo Domingo

Detail of the beautiful plaster work on this church.

Shrine in the garden at Na Bolom cultural center--a wonderful educational center dedicated to preserving the rights of indigenous people.

P.S. The latest news I can give about Ryan is that he, Jim, and Stan set sail southward from Ixtapa this morning. And, by the way, I definitely miss his company....