San Cristobal

(Jess)

We arrived in St. Cris this morning after a fourteen hour bus ride through narrow mountain roads- at one point, I woke up to see our bus driver passing a big truck on a narrow, low visibility, one lane road into oncoming traffic in the fog... not the best wake up call... but we are here, blurry eyed but alive.

St. Cristobal is a beautiful little city! So many bright colors everywhere! Gen´s house is located just outside of the big tourist area (i guess this is a big expatriot and tourist city). Though we are a bit groggy today, we went to the big artisan market and to a big produce market and bought tons of delicious vegetables to make salsas and dinner tonight! There are lots of street musicians, kids selling all sorts of goods on the streets, and amazing street art on every corner. Unfortunately, I guess the government is trying to crack down on street art in st. cris. Gen said they shot a sixteen-year-old to death and beat the organizer of a big protest against the shooting. None-the-less, there are amazing political tags along every street. Shannon took a billion photos of them, so more to come.

My goals for the coming days are to learn spanish, figure out how to get to guatemala and plan the coming weeks or months. It is nice to be out of the giant mega city and into a more villiage-like, less European-like place. All for now!