It was a real pleasure to stay in San Cristobal for a week and a half. It’s the first place I’ve been to in Mexico where I could plunk down. If I wasn’t likely to return on my way back down toward Central America, I might just stay here longer. It has just about all I’m looking for. At over 2000 meters elevation, it’s much cooler than anywhere else I’ve been, no more than about 30 degrees C. There’s a cool breeze much of the time, no mosquitoes at all, it’s big enough to have everything but without the big city feel, it has a large and alluring historical center which is especially good if you are a foodie, and the people seem nice though the indigenous people all around are stand-offish.
As far as “things to do” goes, one could say it’s a four day town. Unless you are talking about a place like Mexico City, where the is so much going on you cannot run out of urban things to do, you could say that about anywhere I’ve been so far in Mexico. So, living here would be a regular life, for the most part.
There are the usual pastel colored buildings, stone streets including three nice pedestrian only streets, great places to eat (cheap or expensive, as you like), churches of course, new age stuff if that’s your thing, lefty political vibe if that’s your thing (the Zapatista movement started here), colorful indigenous people around the city and dominant in some of the outlying towns and villages, some caves, and a beautiful gorge with 1000 meter walls about 40 km away near Tuxtla Gutierrez. It’s good. No wonder it’s so popular as a tourist destination.
Time for some pictures. Here are a few of the walking streets. Check out the Tzotzil women carrying their woven goods to sell mostly to tourists and the guy in the San Francisco Giants hat, my kind of guy.
These streets are definitely touristy, but it is not oppressive. Oppressive is when you are badgered by the shopkeepers, street vendors or restaurants to buy their stuff. Oppressive is t-shirt shop after t-shirt shop or some such thing. I can’t stand the hard sell or being taken for a mark. San Cristobal has some class. Speaking of class, I sat at a balcony seat in a restaurant (from where this picture on the left was taken) and treated myself to a truly perfect pizza, a salad with bleu cheese, walnuts and raisins, and nice wine. First pizza since I came to Mexico and I am not making excuses. It was gooood.
I stayed in a hostel that was really a pension. Basically, you stay with a family. There are four bedrooms upstairs where the guests stay, and the family lives downstairs. The woman makes a real breakfast like you are a guest, but the area is really theirs. You can use the kitchen, but it’s best to avoid the area when family is around. The treated me like family during my stay. If they don’t like you, well, you are out of there. For no reason, they kicked out a perfectly lovely American couple. The owner woman got an irrational fear, and that was that. That felt bad. The good was the first batch of tourists there when I first got there. We were a jovial group. The owners are opening a new place, and we had a big housewarming party. Very good vibes then. I made that gimongous guacamole dip in the middle. Avocadoes are perfect and cheap here.
As for things to do in San Cristobal, there are some entertainment options, places with all kinds of dinner music, art studios, clubs if you are into that. The most popular tourist destinations are some caves which I didn’t go to and a long thin lake which used to be a rushing river till it was formed by a hydroelectric dam. This Sumidero Canyon has walls up to a thousand meters high. It’s popular to take a launch with about 25 people and go for a couple of hour ride down this waterway. It’s no 8th wonder of the natural world, but it’s nice, with interesting shapes, lots of trees, animals and birds.
I have no idea why pelicans are there.
There are many towns and villages around San Cristobal populated by indigenous people. They absolutely HATE their picture taken and don’t even offer to have their pictures taken for money. Even at a distance, if they see you taking a picture in their direction, they turn their heads or cover their faces, especially the women who wear the colorful clothes you’d want to take pictures of. I went to one nearby town, Chamula, where mostly Tsotzils live. Here are some pictures I took there.
There are no photos allowed inside this church, but it would have been interesting for you to see. Many of the indigenous people practice a hybrid of Christian and traditional religion. Inside were groups of people who set up rows of candles, at least a hundred, and when they finished lighting them all, sacrificed chickens. It was halfway humane, I guess, putting them in plastic bags then squashing them between there knees and chest. I guess that broke their necks. Then while the chickens were dying for about five minutes, they prayed over the twitching bodies. Then they picked up their candles, their dead bird and their stuff, and left. That’s about the only happening thing in Chamula, though I heard there’s a Sunday market that attracts a lot of people and is fun to go to.
I think that’s about all I have to say about San Cristobal. After there, I went to the capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, about an hour away. That’s where I am now. I will be spending my second and last night here. It’s a fairly pleasant place. Nothing much going on, despite it’s size. The thing to do here is to go to the nightly marimba music in El Jardin (garden) de Marimbas. I was going to go tonight, but I heard they weren’t going to play tonight because tonight is the Mexico championship football game. There are a bunch of people here watching it right now. The other thing would be going on the river canyon ride I told you about. That’s only 10 km from here in Chiapa de Corzo. Today I went back there to see the ruins there. I went to more ruins because these are especially old and I like especially old things. These buildings were built 2700-1900 years ago. There’s not much to see now, but it was free.
Tomorrow I’m going to Oaxaca. I’m only going halfway, as five hours in a bus is all I’m up for. From that waystation, I’ve decided to hit the beaches the next day. After that, I’ll probably go up to Oaxaca City. Then I don’t know what.
Be well, all of you.