Finally in San Cristobal de las Casas

We have finally arrived - more than 12 hours later than expected. I am too tired to tell you about how we spent the last few days in Oaxaca, but a brief update before we go to sleep. Last night we took the nine p.m, bus from Oaxaca to San Cristobal de las Casas, an approximately 10 hour trip. We had anticipated arriving here this morning and having a great time as they are having their wine and cheese festival this weekend. However, at about 3:00 A.M. Or bus lurched to a stop suddenly. I thought it was due to livestock in the road, which has happened before, but it turned out there was a bloqueo going on. Apparently a number of locals had rolled tires onto the road, and were sitting on them to block traffic. They were protesting some sort of grievance between Oaxaca and Chiapas. After waiting 8 hours for them to be done, we ended up getting off the bus, walking around them and getting on a different bus that was on the other side. It turned around and went to a small city in Chiapas called Arriaga. We were assured by the driver that we would be reimbursed for his fare by our original bus line(more on that later). When we arrived in Arriaga we had a few quick tacos and then waited for about an hour and a half for another bus to Tuxtla Gutierrez. Another hour layover or so and we finally caught another bus to San Cristobal. We are now experts in local geography, and needless to say we were never reimbursed for the trip to Arriaga, but our original bus line did cover our "transbordando" tickets to finally get us here. We will have to read the paper tomorrow to figure out what the bloqueo was all about.