There appeared to be bullet holes in my bus. Finally came the real "second class" Mexican bus experience. Up till this morning the second class buses I'd been on were perfectly acceptable transportation... as good or better than Greyhound. Today was different.

I rose before 6am to catch the 7am bus from Palenque to San Cristobal. My first tip shouldhave been the ticket sales person who said the bus would leave at "maybe seven... maybe seven-thirty." Turns out that means 8:15. And then we had to stop to gas up the bus before leaving town.

"I had to pee. Bad."
I sat in the seat behind the bullet hole. I image there wasn't really any firearm behind the three-inch diameter hole... but it was fun to think that the bus had careened through a shootout with a gang of Zapatista rebels. Most of the seats were completely broken down and kinda dirty. The windshield was cracked from one end to the other and it all smelled a little. And I had to pee. Bad. You'd think I'd drunk a two-liter of something for breakfast, but I'd just had a few sips of water to take a calcium pill. I was terrified that I'd have to survive the entire seven hour bathroom-less trip. As I was working out the Spanish for "You simply must stop the bus or risk unpleasant and unsanitary events onboard," we pulled into a small teriminal in a town.

I made the trip with four girls I'd met on a tour of waterfalls around Palenque yesterday. Two Norwegians and two Brits. Much nicer crowd than the group of girls I'd hung around with for a while in Campeche. Why do I keep ending up with girls? I dunno.

"Over 7,000 feet up in the mountains."
San Cristobal is pretty impressive. It's another old colonial town, but this one is located over 7,000 feet up in the mountains and has a certain European-ized feel. There are pedestrian-only streets, artsy shops and cafes.

Haggling in San Cristobal

I perused an funky little English-language bookstore for about an hour today, considering such titles as The Portable Jack Kerouac, Selections from the Koran, and another book about the 1996 disaster on Everest. I chose the last. It's apparently no "Into Thin Air," but I expect it'll be interesting. It's also quite cold here. I have on most of the warm clothes I brought and am still a little chilly. I may have to invest in some kind of sweater or something.

Tomorrow morning I'm taking a horseback tour into a nearby village till early afternoon... then I'll probably get around to checking out the town when I get back. I didn't really see much after we arrived today. My hostel bed, by the way... $4 US. They had ones for $3.50 in a room with six beds. I figured I'd splurge and get the four-person room. As of a few hours ago I was the only person in my room.