breathing at 2100 meters

I can't help feeling that the Westendorfs and Wolfes of my mother's side, not to mention the solid Solomons of my dad's side, were looking down on me with a little bit of reproof as I trailed behind my five sturdy German mountain biking companions yesterday in the hills of San Cristobal. But did great-great-great Grandma Bertha ever careen through the woods on a bike with 2-inch thick tires? No.

When I arrived at the Penguinos bike shop to sign up for the tour, Ursula (our guide) told me I would just need to have good balance. What she didn't tell me is that I'd also have to know how not to hyperventilate biking uphill at 2100 meters. Luckily, she shared that knowledge with me when I started breathing like a little bunny rabbit on one particularly long climb. "In through the nose and out through the mouth. Do it always."

If nothing else, San Cristobal is expanding my lung capacity. The most striking thing from the ride, though, was the picturesque country we went through - kind of like a fairy tale. I keep imagining myself in one of those living history dioramas at Valley Forge or something. I know that may sound patronizing, but I guess a lot of the tours here end up feeling that way. People in the villages here - many of them indigenous villages - are still farming by hand tool or with animals, making tortillas from scratch over open fires, wearing traditional clothing. It's not that technology hasn't entered their lives. There are cell phones and TVs and all that stuff, too.

But here in Chiapas, especially, the land is much greener, and, for example, we came upon an abandoned old water wheel next to a church painted pink and situated in the middle of a pasture overlooking a stream with green banks where ladies were washing clothes. And today, in San Juan Chamula, the church was yet another fairy tale-ish experience, with pine needles covering the floor and hundreds of candles burning in front of glass-encased saints. The smell of pine in the air and fireworks going off outside because there's a ceremony with men on horseback to mark the occasion of a new spiritual leader in the town.

And then I'm back in San Cristobal with its vegan and vegetarian restaurants, coffee shops, gelato, feng shui, and requisite Buddhist meditation center. I think I'm liking this place.