I recently had to make a trip to Mexico because my 90 day passport deadline for being in Guatemala was coming up. Though it was a short stay, I had a lovely time.
Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country. It is home to the largest number of US citizens abroad accounting for 25% of all US citizens abroad. It is also considered a newly industralized country and an emergining power. I learned that it has the 13th largest nominal GDP and the 11th largest by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially the US as well as tourism, being the world's tenth most visited country with over 21.4 million international arrivals. It also ranks fifth in the world and first in the Americas with 29 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
So......where did I go but the beautiful city of San Cristobal de Las Casas....population around 175,000.
I arrived on a Monday and stayed for three days. It had a beautiful central park, cobblestone streets, cute cafes, lots of jewelry stores (with lots of Jade and Amber), and beautiful architecture. Surrounding San Cristóbal and even within the city there are several typical mountain wetlands. They are home to an endemic fish commonly known as "popoyote" which only lives in the valley of San Cristóbal. Unfortunately the rivers are heavily contaminated but the valley of San Cristóbal is surrounded by several mountains that make for beautiful scenery.
In Guatemala, Wal-Mart owns the market. Every banner of Supermarket is owned by Wal-Mart, whether its the Dispensa Familiar, Hiper Paiz, or another banner. Well, I found this bulletin in a munical building in Mexico and it seems like WMT has much of the market there too.
Mayan ancestry is evident in the Mexican population living in and around San Cristobal. Many of the women still wear their traditional Mexican outfits which consisted of a weaved blouse and a skirt with a belt. Their skirts are made of a material that is very much like the hairy monster material that you often find in costume stores. They take a large piece of material, wrap it around themselves to make a skirt, and put a belt around their waste to hold the material in place. I didn't see a lot of men still wearing traditional outfits but the ones that I did see wore a white "dress type" of outfit. It came to slightly past their knees and they wore a white poncho type of top over the "dress."
I didn't find anything on the menus that looked similar to what our Mexican Restaurants serve in the US. Burritos with sides of "Mexican" rice and refried beans......yeah right. And any enchiladas or burritos are served with corn tortillas not flour tortillas. The sauces are different too. Here is my plate of "Enchiladas" served with a spoon full of cream on top. Do we do that in the US? But not bad.
It was charming, charming, charming!
CW
