It's Friday afternoon in our little casita in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. This has been an amazing and eye-opening experience so far. Each day has new wonders and sights we've never seen before. Magical, tragic, great beauty and back-breaking poverty. We laugh at the crazy, chaotic mess and then sit back to admire the way the people here enjoy and relax into life.

We've only been here two days and are still trying to figure out the system for getting our basic needs met. For example, drinking water. It comes in large (about 20 liter) containers. After inquiring from several people, we finally found out how to buy it. When you hear a truck with loud speakers blaring Spanish messages and what sounds like ice-cream truck music coming down the street toward your house, you have to run out of the front door and then the courtyard door to flag down the driver. He brings it in the house, punches a hole where the spigot goes and, no problem, you have water---and for only 17 pesos (about $1.50). What a deal!! The noise from this truck is to distinguish it from the men who deliver the propane tanks for cooking. They have chains with rings on the back of their trucks that they drag along the street which make them sound like very loud cow bells. None of these folks seem to have any regular schedule, they just drive around and around in the neighborhoods at several random times a day waiting for folks to flag them down which apparently happens often enough to make it worth their while.

Now trash pickup is another matter. That IS scheduled regularly, every Monday and Thursday morning between 6 and 6:30 AM. The problem is, you can't put your trash out early or the dogs get into it, which of course is very bad since at least some of the trash includes used toilet paper. But there's a man who walks ahead of the truck ringing a school bell to announce the arrival of the truck so when you hear the bell, you must dash out the door with your 2 or 3 bags of trash to hand it over. Is that a great system or what??!!

Did I mention the roosters that start crowing here every morning about 5 AM? It was quite a startling sound to hear right in the middle of this fairly large city, especially the first morning when I was awakened by what I thought was loud yelling from a political rally. Oh well, I suppose it's sometimes hard to tell the crowing from politicians and roosters apart, especially early in the day:)

The downtown in San Cristobal is lovely, as are so many of the cities in Mexico. There is a large church in the main plaza with a pretty leafy park beside it. It's busy all day with shoe shiners, newspaper sellers, itinerant (mostly indigenous Mayan) sellers, and strollers and lingerers of all ages. In the evening there is often music. Last evening with heard a fine Mexican band playing lively dance music as we meandered our way over to Emiliano's Mustache, a local restaurant that serves a huge variety of good tacos.

Don of course has found some coffee shops. This is the heart of Mexican coffee growing and so there is a huge choice of places to sit and enjoy the local brew. We had a good conversation with a rural development professor/book shop owner who talked about the effect of large buyers like Starbucks on the local economy, and the importance of independent coffee shops on maintaining sustainability.

We walk and walk every day, just taking in the sights and the beauty of this place. It's very laid back and has a bohemian feel about it. There are a number of tourists, but they seem to blend in rather well and don't overrun the place or make it feel "touristy". It's a good place for us to be right now, just absorbing the atmosphere and learning about another people.