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Home Sweet Home
By Kate | May 6, 2007
We have finally arrived in San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico. Hurrah! After what seemed to be much more than 10 days in Guatemala we are glad to be settling in and not hotel hopping & carrying heavy bags on crowded buses any more. (Although I have to admit here that Neil was carrying about 75% of the total weight in his gigantic-could-fit-an-adult-human bag).
San Cristobal is a big-ish city in the southernmost state in Mexico (Chiapas). It has it´s pretty touristy center part of the city, replete with vegetarian restaurants & hippie hang-outs, but our place is about a 15 min. taxi drive from the center.
We are living in a compound that holds a bunch of artifacts and offices for the New World Archaeological Foundation, which is based at BYU, but the main out of country office is here in Mexico.
It is a pretty strange place with a main courtyard that holds a secret-garden esqe little place (see above). There are tons of huge cabinets that hold all kinds of Olmec artifacts from pottery to obsidian arrowheads to bones. There is a library with all kinds of archaeological books, maps, manuscripts etc.
Our living quarters are part office part apartment of Neil´s boss, Dr. John Clark. This is the professor he has been working for about 4 years at BYU, drawing maps and artifacts for Dr. Clark´s publications.
This is our little front porch in front of the apartment. We also have a little staircase that leads to a deck on the roof with a great view of the surrounding hills and the city of San Cristobal.
We are living in a compound that holds a bunch of artifacts and offices for the New World Archeological Foundation, which is based at BYU, but the main out of country office is here in Mexico.
It is a pretty strange place with a main courtyard that holds a secret-garden esqe little place (see above). There are tons of huge cabinets that hold all kinds of Olmec artifacts from pottery to obsidian arrowheads to bones. There is a library with all kinds of archeological books, maps, manuscripts etc.
Our living quarters are part office part apartment of Neil´s boss, Dr. John Clark. This is the professor he has been working for about 4 years at BYU, drawing maps and artifacts for Dr. Clark´s publications.
This is our little front porch in front of the apartment. We also have a little staircase that leads to a deck on the roof with a great view of the surrounding hills and the city of San Cristobal.
This is a view of our kitchen. We have a stove, a microwave & even a toaster- which we didn´t have in our apt. back home. So, we are really living in style down here. Speaking of style… you may be able to make out the old fashioned car curtains and the file cabinets, Dr. Clark is definitely more of an academic than an interior decorator.
And, of course, you can see our huge jug o´ purified water. We only drink bottled water. Neil has ventured out of the safety of this practice, and paid the price in stomach troubles. So, we have learned our lesson.
This is a view of our kitchen. We have a stove, a microwave & even a toaster- which we didn´t have in our apt. back home. So, we are really living in style down here. Speaking of style… you may be able to make out the old fashioned car curtains and the file cabinets, Dr. Clark is definitely more of an academic than an interior decorator.
And, of course, you can see our huge jug o´ purified water. We only drink bottled water. Neil has ventured out of the safety of this practice, and paid the price in stomach troubles. So, we have learned our lesson.
Just to the right of the kitchen is a little office space. Neil and I are happy to have internet in the apartment, primarily so that we don´t have to pay through the nose to use the internet at internet cafes, but also so we can keep the website updated! We also have a phone. Send us an email and we will get you the number.
There are also a bunch of random things that Dr. Clark has left in the apartment like old tools and artifacts lying around, as well as a frighteningly large quantity of size 18 old man hiking boots from the 1970s. That´s first on the list of (many) things to get rid of!
We went to the chapel today and it was great. The branch here just turned into a ward about two weeks ago. They were all very friendly and kind. Another family lives here on the compound, and they are members as well. They have been taking care of us and showing us around for the first couple of days.
We are really excited about living here in San Cristobal. We are looking forward to quite the adventure.
Tagged with: Marriage • NWAF-compound • San Cristobal • Travels
