San Cristóbal de las Casas

Finally I arrived in Mexico on 12th January! I've been wanting to come here for so long, I was so happy to finally arrive! And San Cristóbal de las Casas was the perfect place to start! It is a really beautiful colonial city. Very nice buildings, many restaurants, bars, cafés, some interesting museums and good tours to do in the surrounding area.

San Cristóbal de las Casas

San Cristóbal de las Casas

I took a tour to the Sumidero canyon, which first brought us to Chiapa de Corzo, a small town about an hour from San Cristóbal which has some nice historical buildings. I visited the town's church, where you can climb the bell tower for views over the town and the river next to it.

Cañon del Sumidero

Cañon del Sumidero

'Christmas Tree' formation in the Cañon del Sumidero

Vultures in the Cañon del Sumidero

To this river we then drove to get into a boat which would take us on a 2-hour tour of the canyon. The boat ride was stunning! The canyon's walls are very steep and high and in between flows the river. Here, crocodiles and many birds live.

The afternoon I spent walking around San Cristóbal de las Casas. I think I could have spent days just walking around this city...

San Cristóbal de las Casas

San Cristóbal de las Casas

At night, I went for some drinks with a German who was on my canyon tour. We started off in a nice bar where we had a Mexican beer. We then got some tequila and juice and drank this on the main square while watching what was going on in the city at night. Afterwards, we were headed for a bar with a happy hour, but instead we found a Mezcalería... We decided it was time to try Mezcal, a drink similar to tequila, but made out of a different type of agave and with a worm at the bottom of each bottle. The drink was not bad for such a strong spirit. It was served with a strange plate of snacks though: Popcorn and something which I identified, after having a close look, as being grasshoppers. After trying them, we agreed that the insects were actually quite tasty, served with some lime on top. After the Mezcal, we went on to try a typical drink from the region, Posh. It was very drinkable too and we got another plate of crunchy red grasshoppers with it. We went on to another bar where they were supposed to have live music. The music started an hour late and was not very good. There were not many people in the bar either, so we drank the free drinks (something with rum and orange juice) we got with a flyer we were handed on the street earlier on and another beer and then left and went home, tired from a long night of trying our way through the typical Mexican alcohol drinks...

Popcorn and grasshoppers served as snacks with the mezcal

The next morning, I went on another tour. It took me to Zinacantán, to a house where traditional clothes are made. We watched the women weave and tried on some Tzotzil Maya wedding clothes. We also got to try posh again, with different flavours. I tried the cinnamon one which was very good. We got a traditional breakfast as well. Home-made tortillas with beans, cheese, red and green tomatoes, Habanero chili and a powder which was made of ground pumpkin seeds.

At the weavery in Zinacantán

At the weavery in Zinacantán

Wearing the Tzotzil wedding clothes - I'm the maid of honour

Wearing Tzotzil clothes

Typical breakfast in Zinacantán

Next, we went to Chamula and visited the church there. From the outside it is a pretty catholic church, but once you enter it you get a surprise. From the inside the church does not look like a church at all. There are no benches, there is no altar. It is big hall with saint statues on the sides and just candles in all the rest of the church. Thousands of candles. People and families come and light different amounts of candles of different colours on the floor and on the tables set up in front of the saints' statues. The different colours stand for different things that they pray for, e.g. white is for good health, multicoloured candles are used in order be freed of envy etc. The people also use chicken for ceremonies, to remove the bad from someone. There are Maya priests doing ceremonies too. t was a very unusual and interesting thing to see.

Curch in Chamula

Cemetery in Chamula

I used this afternoon to see more of San Cristóbal, including the Na Bolom museum, which shows artefacts of different ancient cultures from the region.

Na Bolom museum