Beautiful San Cristibol

We had the wonderful opportunity of going with one of the Stake Presidency’s families (President and Hermana Ferine and little Ferine) to their Priesthood training in SanCristobal. SanCristobal is about 100 miles north of the Guatemalan border. It is high in the mountains and cold and rainy. It was such a pleasant relief from our hot, humid weather. We even wore a sweater. First time that has happened for about 7 months. We arrived Friday night after 6 hours on the road—one of those hours was being stuck in a traffic jam because of a couple of car accidents and one was because of construction. Normally, it is a 4 hour drive. However, on the way back, for the same reasons it took us 5 hours.
The motel was only $550 pesos a night, and was very rustic. I guess that is a good word for it. The motel was very humid and cold. There were plenty of blankets to keep us ward, thank goodness, which seemed very heavy after sleeping with no blankets or even a top sheet for the time we have been here. The beds were hard as a rock but we slept well and there was no hot water, but that really something different. After checking in the motel we drove over to the Mall and got us a Cancun Torta ,which was really delicious. We do enjoy the Mexican food here. We were pretty tired and it was dark and rainy so we did not do any sight seeing that evening.
Saturday morning we got ready to go and checked out of the motel and headed (with members staying in the motel) to a little café for breakfast. We ordered hot chocolate—it was rico (delicious), fruit, and juevos rancheros. They tasted just like Grandpa Brooks used to fix when I was younger. I had instant memories of Mom and Dad. Funny, how tastes do that. President Chiu insisted on paying for breakfast. He is the Stake President of our stake and has bent over backwards to make our stay in Mexico pleasant. We stayed with him the first 3 days we arrived in Mexico. I wish we were still staying with them and maybe we would learn Spanish.
After breakfast we met the other women and senior couple at the church—everyone spoke only Spanish, and hailed a taxi for downtown historic San Cristobal while the Priesthood had their training meetings. It seems like everywhere in the world has a historic downtown. What a great place to wander around, buy things and see the sights. We saw buildings that were built hundreds of years ago, people selling their wares that are still doing the same things that were done hundreds of years ago, and gained a flavor of the real Mexico that we don’t have in Villahermosa City.
When we got out of the taxi a flock of children and people indigenous to the area were immediately trying to sell us their wares. I made the mistake of buying something with a $500.00 peso bill and when I received change everyone tried to get me to buy their goods with what money they knew I had. I was totally surrounded by little people 5 feet tall or less all trying to get my attention. The others in our group just stood back and laughed. I finally called out, ayuda me ayuda me, which means help me, help me. Some of them came over and shooed them away but the little children just kept following us everywhere we went. Finally, we ducked into one of the big Catholic Churches and hid from them and then left by another door. We would like to have bought something from all of them, but they were not satisfied with one purchase and kept pestering us to buy more and more. Yikes. It was so fascinating to walk around and we bought quite a few more things. People that were set up in the booths were not so annoying and let us come to them to buy. It will be fun to show you all the things we purchased that represent this area. We had a great time trying out our Spanish skills trying to buy things. After about 3 hours it started to rain so we decided to have lunch and walked to a delightful Spanish restaurant where we, again, ate very well for very little money. Our money, with the dollar 13 to 1 really does go a long way here. It will be a shock to pay normal prices when we return. However, things imported from the U.S. cost twice as much here, especially, electronics and American Clothes. After lunch we walked around seeing the sights some more and then hailed a taxi back to the church thinking it was time for the Priesthood to be through. Didn’t happen for another 2 hours. We visited with those waiting – sort of – in Spanish, went for a walk in the rain and then watched some Spanish dances for entertainment when the Priesthood finished their meetings and were waiting to eat. While the dancing was still going on we headed back to Villahermosa since we needed to be back for meetings Sunday morning. The countryside is green, with huge—for Mexico--mountains in the background, rivers, waterfalls and flowering trees. Absolutely delightful scenery.
We arrived in Villahermosa tired, but happy and so grateful for such a rare chance to go to San Cristobal.