THE SMELL OF THE TOWN.

THE SMELL OF THE TOWN.

Sometimes you become part of a place that you ended up missing his aroma

There has been three weeks for us in Chiapas in the town of San Cristobal; before coming here I thought it was going to be hard to adapt to a town after living in a city, but it was not like that at all, I had adapted quickly to the rhythm of this town, and it was an easy thing to do because I like most of the things in this place, but something that I never imagined is that I would love the different kind of smells in here. I still remember that some months ago, when me and my aunt Pita were driving to San Miguel de Allende we talked about how reading can stimulate the smelling sense, so I decided to follow her example and write something describing smells and trying that the reader takes a deep breath and get to imagine them.

When you are in Chiapas you can breathe Mexico, it may sound like a commercial of the Mexican government, but it is true; here you can smell the god and the bad things of a country so full of culture, tradition, nature and also full of contrasts. Since we arrived to Chiapas there was a lovely smell of rain, but since we took the road to San Cristobal, nature started sending us an exquisite aroma of  the forest,  the combination of pine and the smell of wet wood gave us a  good welcome  to this magical place. In here it rains a lot, and that is why this lovely smell of forest and humidity becomes such a magical smell for the nose of whoever lives or visits here, even that the most of the people do not take too much notice of those aromas. In some of the houses and restaurants of this town people cook with firewood, this also contribute to the natural perfume; it is also popular to find the “indigenas”  in the main streets selling natural corn cooked with firewood, the smell of corn combined with the firewood becomes a very representative smell of this place.

Incense, copal and the balm of estoraque are products that you can easily find on the market, you burn them to get nicely fragrances and according to the old traditions they help cleaning closed places and putting away bad vibes, it is common that in homes, restaurants, hostels and also churches they burn this products; in the main churches of the town they have small sections for the locals to pray to their saints, when you get into those places, you can smell the  aroma of one of this products being burned combined with the smell of the candles giving some kind of mystical perfume.

Another place full of smells is the food market, the combination of aromas that goes from firewood cooking corn, passing throw the smell of beans and tamales, all the fresh fruits and vegetables, the condiments, the smell of bread at the entrance of the market, the smell of butcher and specially the characteristic smell of fish in the back of the market. If you walk by the side of the market you will find the tacos section, and the lovely smell that comes from there will invite you to sit down  and ask for a plate; if instead of that you go to the back part of the market, you will find the section of candles and mimbre products (mimbre is a kind of a rope used by the locals to make baskets and other products), the big amount of candles combined with the smell of the mimbre give a clean and pure smell that transports you to a really nice place in nature.

But there are some places in the back of the market where the smell is the contrast of all the good smells, because there is a place where they put the gone off fruits and vegetables and also all the trash from the market. And also in some parts of the town sometimes you get a disgusting aroma that contrasts with all the other nice fragrances, so you have to walk fast and not breathe deep, just to reflect how things are in this country, full of nice things but also full of bad things, Mexico a country full of contrasts.

At the end it is fair to talk more about nice aromas because there are so many and so exquisite, that I am sure that next week when I will not be  here, I  would  miss them, but I hope that reading this can help me to  remember those smells that one day made me love this place

Written by David Herrera González.

June 11, 2015.

The spirits and Ghosts of San Cristobal

The spirit of two Young travellers.

There were two young fellows on a backpacking trip. At some point they arrived to San Cristobal, a little town in the south of Mexico, on the second day they decided to climb up to the church of Guadalupe; eighty steps to get to the white and yellow church, one of the most representative places in that place; when they got to the top they saw a hippie girl taking energies in a little old bench, and as soon as she left they took her place on the bench and every day they returned, sometimes in the morning sometimes in the evening to see the sunset and sometimes they went at night.
Over time, they grew to love the place so much that they decided to stay in San Cristobal, first agreeing to stay for only few months, but in the end they never left, they just decided to live there and climb the church every day, eighty steps day by day visiting the same bench.
It is said that after their deaths their spirits return to the bench and that they scare those whom they are not fond of, they only like the hippies that go there to get energy, and to these they give a really nice foot massage.
THE END.

By David Herrera Glz. SANCRISTOBAL. 2015. SR 

The Ghosts of San Cristobal de las Casas

In a town like this so full of people from all over the world, and full of “indigenas”, of ghosts, spirits, energy, spirituality, faith, it can be hard to distinguish between those walking in the street, who are living and those who are dead
They say there is only way to know the living from the dead and that is by looking at the feet. If there are blisters from walking then they are the feet of the living, if there are no blisters then for sure they are one of the hundreds of ghosts that walk in the streets.

By David Herrera Glz.

LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO STAY.

LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO STAY.

Life is a long trip that you have to follow with light luggage and heavy attitude.

My name is David Herrera and I am Mexican a few days ago me and Luis arrived to Chiapas coming from Aguascalientes, where we were born. We arrived to this place to start a trip to the south of the continent, we landed in Tuxtla Gutierrez airport and then we took a “colectivo” that brought us to San Cristobal de las Casas. We arrived to the bus station with our bags, where we have all our material stuff for the next few months, and we start walking, without knowing where to go and without eating more than some granola bars. Some guys from touristic agencies offered us some hostels but their insistence instead of convincing ended up annoying. The urgency to take off our bags from our backs after a long trip made us started asking in the hotels that were close to the bus station. It was on the second one, Hotel Capri where we stayed, at first stage it did not look that bad, but when they show us the room it was a bit depressing, but not as much as to not pass one night there. The hotel was not that bad, but the room was old, the toilet was clean, the bed was not that comfortable but we were tired enough to sleep that night. Once we left our stuff we went for something to eat, we went for some “carne asada”, something not risky for the stomach, and that has a portion of black beans, rice and some lettuce, we were so hungry that everything tasted delicious.

Luis and I have done trips like this before, and we know that the place where you are staying is something relevant, because if you search properly you can find something economical and decent. This is why we decided to go out and find a better hostel to be here the next three weeks. We started asking in every single hostel that we saw, I had the name of two options that my friend Jorge, who lived here some months, have told me, one of them was ”Hostel Deja Vu” and the other was “Hostel Rosco” We arrived to a hostel that rent rooms per week, it was a nice  room and with his own toilet, but it was a bit too expensive to our budget.  So we continued searching, we got to another called “Posada Gladys” where they rented us a little cabin in very bad stage and also very expensive and adding that the guy was a grumpy bastard, we went out as soon as we could; we noticed that in front there was “Hostal Don Luis” we thought it could be a signal because Luis name, but when the guy showed us the place, he took us to the roof  and there were two abandoned rooms, and a sharing toilet, the price was not that bad, but they were very depressing and we did not want to start the trip like that. On the way back we pass to another hostel with some young people, one of them was playing the guitar and two other were  playing cards on a balcony, the room they had available was nice but the price was a bit over our budget.

When we were going back to our hotel we saw a lighted street and we decided to walk there, it was almost eleven at night and suddenly Luis saw that in a wall there was a little signed that said: Hostel, we got closer and we saw a nice garden and a young girl gave us information and told us that they were full but that tomorrow they were going to have places. For the price and what we could see it was a good option but we would have to come back the next day, we saw that the name of the street was “1 de marzo”, after that we went back to sleep.

The next day we left the hotel around ten o´clock with the bags in our backs and started walking, we decided to go first to the hostel we saw at the end of the night, we find it easily and we noticed it was called “Hostal Luna Nueva”,  the young girl was there and she told us that they just have prepared a room, she invited us to pass and when we got in, we saw that the little garden in the centre was very nice with flowers and plants and  when she showed us the room we saw that it was just perfect for us according to the price, we checked the toilets and they were very clean and it also had a very good kitchen where the guest could cook their food. We still went to see other options but any as convincing as this one.

Today is our fourth day in the “Hostel Luna Nueva” and we are very happy, we have been cooking in the kitchen all days and everything is so clean, and the people in the hostel and the other guests are very friendly.

At the end praying to “San Cristobal”, the saint of the travellers, worked. We hoped that destiny keep smiling to us and put us in good hands and good places for the rest of our adventure.

Written by David Herrera González.

May 24, 2015.