Beautiful San Cristobal de Las Casas


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Published: July 17th 2009
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Design is typical of the area

Sleep required



We arrived on the overnight bus from Oaxaca at 6:30 in the morning and took a cab to a not so nice hostel not far from the town centre. The location of the hostel was good and the price was cheap, so that was enough to make us stay there for 3 nights. The ride on the bus was very uncomfortable and so we went straight to bed for a few hours when given our room, safe in the knowledge that things don't really kick off anyway until afternoon and evening and we wouldn't be missing out on anything.

Getting out and about



We have a semi-planned itinerary of where we want to be and how we are to travel to Antigua in the 2 week timeframe that we have before we start with GVI. We went to a few different travel agents in the afternoon, to compare tours of the surrounding regions, to find that they all sold the exact same tours just run by different people. We decided that we would analyse all the brochures and prices over lunch and walked towards restaurants mentioned by our Lonley Planet guide. One of the restaurants was
Buying a woven pieceBuying a woven pieceBuying a woven piece

From a woman from Zinacantan
near a market that grabbed our attention. On the corner was a little stall selling boiled and BBQ'd corn and boiled chokos. There seemed to be many indigenous people selling their wares of painted or material animals, clothing, handmade jewellery and textiles, amoungst other non-traditional stalls that sold t-shirts and other trinkets. We found a stall run by women from the nearby Zinacantan village, who are famous for their textiles. One of the ladies showed us her wares, when a green one with toucans and a monkey caught my eye. The lady explained that it took 3 weeks for the piece to be made by hand and that the colours were all natural and no tinting from artificial sources was used. We looked at other pieces that they had, but we decided on the toucans and bargained with her on the price so that we all were happy.

Zapatistas



Earlier a little boy had come up to us and sold us a little Zapatista doll on a key ring- another item for our Christmas tree collection! The Zapatistas or the group called Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion National (EZLN) are a peasant group who fight for indigenous rights in
ChurchChurchChurch

Close to the market
Chiapas, one of Mexico's poorest states. More than 1 in 4 people in Chiapas are Maya, but have little say in how their land is used. The stormed and briefly occupied San Cristobal de Las Casas on the 1st January, 1994. The leader apologised to startled tourists that were in the town that day, by saying "we apologize... but this is a revolution". His main saying is "We are indigenous people and we are Mexicans. And we want to be both." The group do not want to overthrow the government, and only want to make the indigenous people heard. The government haven't been paying them any attention lately (even though there are still a few of military check points around the outskirts of the town). Apparently, the locals are saying that there will be another uprising in 2010.

Catholic church



The market was very close to a couple of churches that were quite impressive in an old colonial style. We went inside the larger church to find that all of the walls were painted in gold and that there were different sections of the church dedicated to different people. Jesus had a large section next to one dedicated to Mary. It was interesting being back in a Catholic church again after visiting so many mosques during our recent travels.

A visitor at lunch



We ate lunch at the intended nearby restaurant and were not disappointed. I ordered a fajita and Dan ordered a Chile Relleno (Stuffed Capsicum) and our waiter gave us a sample of the local liquor similar to Tequila and the Metzcal of Oaxaca. I liked it more than the metzcal, however we both still think Tequila is the best. A young boy, named Emiliano, visited us at the table with little pottery animals that he had made and painted. He had such an array of animals that he even had a Kangaroo! We chatted with him for a while, whilst he showed us his work and I bought a frog from him. All of the animals looked like a traditional variance to the real animal, that I have seen, with the animal having exagerated features, like larger limbs and ears. I think my frog looks similar to a slough, but you can still tell its a frog.

Hanging out in town



Whilst we were walking around or sitting in the Zocalo (main square), many women and young girls would ask us to buy necklaces, belts or shirts. Sometimes a polite 'No, gracias' ('No, thank you') would work and other times, we found it easier to walk away. The town is a beautiful colonial town with many nearby attractions. I have read that it is easy to stay here a week, as there is so much to do and the place has so much energy and action going on. Needless to say, there are quite a few tourists here, but it isn't visibly over run by white gringos (foreigners), which enables the place to still hold its charm.

We booked a couple of tours for the next few days with an agency that impressed us with its information and competitive prices. We are interested in seeing some natural sights, as we haven't seen any in a while and so have booked a tour to see some caves, lakes and a waterfall on one day coming up. We also want to see the massive market at Chamula on Sunday and so also booked that for that day.

Dinner, markets and a church



In the evening, the hunger bugs striked again
Restaurant where we ate lunchRestaurant where we ate lunchRestaurant where we ate lunch

(Building on the left)
and we went back to the market to buy the boiled corn and chokos with salt and lemon. At first we bought one choko, in case we didn't like it, but it was delicious, so we went back and ordered another one. From there, we wandered around the town to discover more areas that we hadn't seen earlier in the day. We found a large, beautiful yellow and maroon church near a square that had a large cross in the middle of it. Nearby, firecrackers were going off and besides continuing to scare me, it continued to scare the pigeons off the church's outer facade and you could see them fly out each and every time in their large group, for them to only return moments later.

At this church square, Dan had 2 very persistant vendors trying to sell him their wares. Both the elderly lady and the young girl, were trying to sell him a shirt or some bracelets and wouldn't leave him alone. We were ready to leave the square at this time anyway, so walked away still saying our polite 'No gracias'. It was starting to get late and we can see how frustrating it must be for them to not have sold much during the day. We found a pedestrianised side street that had fancy restuarants along it. Nearby, we came across a large square with with plenty of people with their families standing around. Hamburger stalls lined the road way and other stalls were setup in the square. Dan and I braved eating some strange fruit that came in a liquor tasting liquid - not so nice, before we came across a stall that sold fruit punch. We tried the 2 different types and were pleasantly surprised. The vendor added some liquor to our drinks with our acknowledgement and we stood around watching the live band play whilst we sipped our drinks that tasted like apple pie (with real sponge pieces in it) and the other of pineapple/grape/guava fruit punch.

The band wasn't just any old band. It was a group of men with one boy playing traditional music with the drums, trumpet, tamborine, guitar, another wood-like instrument and two massive xylophones that each had two different levels. Each xylophone had 3 people playing it. One of the men played with 4 sticks, and we watched in awe at these men playing such an interesting instrument. The square was based at the front of a church and the ground was covered with pine needles that were intentially placed there. The church doors were open and many candles lit the inside. It looked like a special ceremony was taking place, but upon further inspection (by us wandering in), we saw it was just a small group of people at the front of the church, all gathering for a purpose, with other church-goers coming and going as they pleased, staying to say prayers or lit candles in front of the many statues and paintings.

Right next to all of this action was a sweet and artisan market. We were surprised that it was still open, although most places were even though it was 8pm. There were many different types of sweets inside, with all of the sweet stalls selling the same items. One that caught my attention was one that looked like grated pumpkin or carrot, but we didn't stop to buy anything, after having our sweet punch drinks. Other stalls sold the usual leather goods and trinkets that we had seen already and there were a few traditional clothes shops around as well. But since it was getting dark and us old folk need to get up for our tour in the morning, we decided to head back to our concrete hostel and call it a night.


Additional photos below
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Dan's friendsDan's friends
Dan's friends

Trying hard to sell their wares
Band near churchBand near church
Band near church

They were amazing how they played the large instrument together


18th July 2009

Nice log and fotos
HI! Very nice pics. Those "xylophones" were marimbas - they're in your last pic. It looks like the municipal band. And the drink you had was ponche (punch) made with fruit, as you noted, and the local brew pox (posh) and that is a special cake they put in their ponche (I prefer it without). The pox is also used in religious ceremonies.

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