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La Ruta Maya (cont.)

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO
Our final destination is San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, soul sister to Santa Fe, New Mexico; Berkeley, California; and Antigua, Guatemala. To get here, we'd wound up, down, and around the Cuchumatanes mountains, stopping to hike into roadless villages and sleep on the dirt floors of Maya families who have barely seen white folk, let alone shared their homes with them.

We finally arrived in the border town of La Mesilla, and after two hours of inhaling fresh tar fumes and drinking icy Coca-Cola, we were finally granted passage back to Mexico. By early afternoon we pulled into Hotel Posada el Cerrillo, a salmon- and periwinkle-colored hotel in downtown San Cristóbal with whimsical patios heading off in every direction. A spiral staircase wound its way up to a room with a 360-degree view of the city's red-tile roofs. The breezy aerie is an ideal spot for travelers desperately in search of an afternoon siesta. So we napped.

In the late afternoon, I made the rounds of the city and hit the mother lode of markets at Santo Domingo church, where I bought amber earrings, knitted footbags, and all the Chiclets I could stomach. I sat on the top of a wall in the middle of the market and took out my copy of Pablo Neruda's memoirs, hoping somehow that this Latin setting would inspire my own poetics. I read a few lines, jotted down a few of my own, crossed them out, gave up, and started walking back toward the hotel.

That night, our last before we began the 2,000-mile slog home, we shifted into club mode, stepping out to the Blue Bar, San Cristóbal's happening downtown dance spot where a local band mixed it up with Santana covers and Latin chart toppers. A gym instructor named Gustavo asked me to dance, and I sillily started to salsa. We merengued, salsa'd, and boogied into the wee hours. And then it suddenly hit me: The fortune teller in San AndrŽs really did predict my future. I wasnÕt head over heels for Gustavo, but I had definitely fallen in love with this place that so inspires the wild country of the soul.

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