How could any place on Earth match the magic of Mazunte? It's a difficult question to answer but it was time for Diego and Jose to leave Mazunte and find out.....
San Cristobal was the next destination on the tequila tour. After trying to leave Muzunte the day before, we finally got to Pochutla thanks to the lift given to us from Ric and Encarni. We had all intentions on leaving the day earlier, and having packed our bags and positioning them in front of Ric's fourwheel drive we were fully committed to go. Ric and Encarni were happy to give us the lift but the thought of staying had crossed our minds a numerous times while having the fairwell drinks. Ric was trying to plant seeds of doubt in our minds but it was definately time to go. For some reason, possibly the combination of the alignment of the moon and stars and the animations playing at Eric's bar we were FORCED to stay due to the safe refusing to open and give up our passports. Oh well, another day in paradise!
Both of us were excited at the propect of some action filled days leading up to and including Mexican Independence day. But first, the 12 hour overnight bus trip beckoned. For Diego the trip was less than enjoyable after an unfortunate coin toss put him up the back of the bus next to the smelly toilets and a rather large cowboy where the temperature was akin to what you may find in a sauna. Jose, however, scored seat number 2, in front of the air-con and next to a crazy German girl who entertained us with her complete screw-ups over the next 4 days. Nadin was certainly something special... and hopefully at the time of writing she manged to find her boyfriend in Canada. If only the coin toss was a tail.....
Nadin had told us she was in San Cristobal to meet up with her German friends Felix and Paul. Felix and Paul had been in San Cristobal for two weeks due to a passport mix up in a surf shop in Porto Escondido. A few events unfolded over the next few days, including Mexican Independence day, Paul's birthday and Felix's passport being returned by post. So everyone was pumped for party! What could possibliy go wrong??
Perhaps this blog entry might be more entertaining if we wrote about Nadin completey stuffing up absolutely everthing she attempted!! But first let us give you some background knowledge of the hostel we stayed in.
Planet Hostel could have easily being mistaken for "Little Tel Aviv" in San Cristobal. Let's let the maths do the explaining here...
Hostel population: 35
Israeli: 27, German: 3, Aussie: 2, Slovak: 2, and British: 1.
Now for a little insight to Nadin's run of unfortunate events...
1. Nadin decides to visit Mexico to see Paul and Felix.
2. She over sleeps on a bus and misses her stop in Porto Escondido to end up three hours away in Zipolite.
3. Reconsiders her three week stay in Mexico to visit Canada to see her boyfriend.
4. Books two conflicting flights
5. Due to fly out of Mexico City on the 28th of Sept but doesn't return to Mexico from Canada until the 8th of Oct.
6. Booking engine wouldn't allow a third conflicting flight to fix the mistake.
7. Solution: spends three days trying to book another flight through another company on an overdrawn credit card.
8. Doesn't have a U.S wavier visa for her stop over on the way to Canada.
9. Last minute hiccup: flight leaving Toluca not Mexico City (about 1 hour from Mecio City).
San Cristobal is pretty much the epicenter of Chiapas. The local markets are certainly lively, which we found out while shopping for food with Luis for the hostel bbq to celebrate Independence day (Not a place for vegetarians). About 5kgs of meat for 10 people seemed to do the trick for the party. Can´t remember the name of the local brew but that too packed a punch that night. Diego was in charge of chopping vegetables and salad while Felix, Paul and myself got the grill going. Luis missed some of the fun as he had a game of basketball to play. Luis is about 5 foot 3 and plays centre for his local team... would be great to play b´ball in mexico with some gringo height.
With the reggaeton music blasting away and Luis and his mates carving up the dance floor, Jose was tasked with grilling the horse flesh so the Independence day party could get into full swing. Probably the highlight of the night was Paul's birthday cake and birthday song. Nadine and Felix couldn´t remember the words to happy birthday in German so we sang "Happy birthday" in English twice. The birthday cake and candle was certainly unique, and not one for the kiddies. A sight to be seen to believed.
So with hangovers in tow, the last day in San Cristobel was spent replacing Diego's camera. Not an enjoyable experience (reminders of San Diego and an iPod come to the fore). We had the pleasure of waiting for a Central American 30 minutes (1 and a half hours) while some asshole decides to test all the stereos at full volume. Will we learn from our experiences? No. But we did quit drinking for almost 24 hours.
Palenque calls.
