21. San Cristobal de las Casas

21.

San Cristobal de las Casas

San Cristobal de las Casas is a picturesque village situated in a valley encircled by lush, forested mountains. It has an airport with daily flights to Mexico City and because it is so pretty there are quite a few tourists and even a developing colony of Americans living here.

“My” Californians own an old watermill surrounded by green pastures that they have restored. They have retired here from the USA to enjoy the slower pace and the inexpensive living but they are obviously lonely and bored. We help each other learn Spanish and they show me that the best way to cook eggs is over a very low flame.

They take me with them in their brand new Mercedes to explore several nearby Indian villages. In one village, everyone wears pink vests and straw hats with lots of colorful ribbons hanging from the brim. In the village over the mountain, everyone wears gray and black. I theorize that the “colorful” people will be more peace loving than the “gray” people, but I learn from the local M.D., a young man who was educated in America, that the “colorful” people have the reputation of coming to San Cristobal, getting drunk and bashing each other over the head with stones! So much for THAT theory!

This same young doctor told me a story that illustrates a local attitude toward sex and marriage.

It seems that a young village girl spent the night with her boyfriend. Her hysterical parents brought her to my doctor friend to get his medical opinion—was she still a virgin or not? He examined her and declared she was not. This infuriated the parents even more and they took the girl to several other doctors until they found one that admitted she was still a virgin. This honest doctor is the one the parents paid!