COMITAN'

Comitan

Well, what a wonderful 3 day respite Jan and I had!  It is such a blessing to be able to trek the area and experience the various people groups, towns, natural wonders, and geography of Chiapas, outside of Ocosingo and the clinic and a few designated villages.  Neither Jan nor I could or would be able to do this without the other.   I encourage her, she supports me! 

Comitan is larger than Ocosingo, not as colonial/touristy as San Cristobal.

 It is higher in elevation than Ocosingo, at about 5100 feet above sea level.  We took 2 combi's (15 passenger vans that make the various runs over the mountains from town to town)  for a total of 3 hours.  Jan and Sharon have been often to the jail here. I've not been.  

The weather has been excellent.  Cool breeze, hot sun, maybe a few clouds.  Cooler up higher, but lovely for walking (uphill..).  

We stayed in a cute , little baaasic hotel with 8 rooms, 4 each facing a little parking lot/ courtyard right off the street.

  2 beds, 2 wooden chairs, a little desk, one overhead light bulb.  A giant step up led to the bathroom.  Hot shower, but the water only came out of about 6 streams...  not bad.  It suited us well.  Price was $20 per night.  

The main parque was 6 blocks up, with a lot of little shops and restaurants, which we frequented our first day.  

Even a little art museum with weird art

One of the main reasons we went was to experience the stunning falls, named Chiflon about an hour out of Comitan (another Combi..).  There is a park and cabanas and a natural iguana

habitat and a walkway/stone steps all the way up to the highest falls.  The trail was. 1000 meters high, and worth the strenuous trek.

Whew

  The trail is the woods but with do-able paths, walkways, etc.  it followed the gorgeous river and there were  spots to eat, pray, love!   We rested a lot on the way up, and waded and sat by the river and read, on the way down.  

We LOVED being there.  

We took the long way home through San Cristobal (the road blocks were reported to be gone..)   We stopped in Amatenango, an area known for pottery.  These are another group of Tzeltal.  The pottery shops were to die for!  They went on and on, along the road.  

Jan also had a mission in mind.  A former worker, Luci , who was known to All of us travelers, lives in the area, makes pottery.  Jan has not seen her for about 5 years.  Jan randomly asked one of the pottery shop attendants if she knew her...She did and offered to lead us up the hill to the community behind the shops to Luci's house.   Luci's sister was home, and went down the hill to fetch her...the result being this sweet Reunion.  

Definitely one of those  Chiapas God moments.  We had a good visit, they served us peach nectar, and gave us each a small hand thrown, hand painted jaguar.  

Dragging our pottery purchases, we made the final 3 hour Combi ride up, over, down the mounts back home a little after dark.  It was a great little getaway. 

As now the hard part begins!  

We spent the day at the Bible School where the team will eat, pray, and sleep.  We cleaned floors, tables, beds, and washed every piece of plastic ware in bleach water.  Pablo is meeting with Doc Israel to fill him in .  It will be his first Caravan.  Hope he can handle the likes of us!  Medications are ordered and in place.  The word is out, the Gringo doctors are here.  Come to Manos de Cristo!   

We await the team's arrival late tomorrow.  

Please pray, however...Randy, our Hebron President has had to cancel his trip tomorrow as his wife is quite ill with a severe bone infection.  We will miss him and pray the best for Leslie.  

Yours,

Carolina in Chiapas

Sent from Carolyn's I Pad