San Cristobal de Las Casas

My bus ride from Cancun went by in a blur. I must have slept for the vast majority of the 15 hour ride and before I knew it we were cruising through the Chiapas highlands as the sun was rising. There was a thick fog in the tree covered valley below which caught the morning sunrise in a spectacular way. Up here the temperature was decidedly cooler... to the point I had to don my long pants and hoodie again! San Cristobal is another colonial town that is situated in the Chiapas region of Mexico. This region is fairly high up and is covered in pine trees and undulating grassy hills. The cooler temperature, fresh air and untouched surroundings was quite exhilarating and beautiful to look at. San Cristobal actually hangs in a little depressed valley which we descended into.

Sunrise in the cloud covered Chiapas highlands

The town, as you might expect, is post-colonial and has retained much of its character such as narrow cobbled streets still intact after many years. The buildings are all low and single story with large colourful churches, convents and cathedrals towering above. The streets are clean and most of the buildings seem to be well taken care of. Overall a very nice place to walk around in.

I caught a cab from the bus station to the Rossco Hostel. The place was spacious and the dorms seemed fine if a bit badly lit. It was still early in the day and I was relatively well rested. I walked through the town in bright sunshine admiring the town. I chose a nice outdoor restaurant to indulge in a Breakfast a la Americano and have a short read of my latest book (A Perfect Storm). After, I walked up to one of the viewpoints and it was there that I noticed the sun disappear and thick menacing clouds rolling in towards me. Light rain started to patter down so I scuttled down the viewpoint and tried to get to the Ambar museum which was nearby. The rain intensified and soon I was darting from cover to cover whilst referring to my useless map to find this elusive museum. Eventually I found it only to realise it was closed on a Monday! Annoyances! I couldn´t think of anything else to do so I ran into the adjacent church and got out my book and read for the next 2 hours, waiting for the rain to abate.

I had to troop all the way up there

A small section of the city

Main square

Lightning and thunder were regularly smashing around in our vicinity even causing the ground to shake. After a while I ventured out even though the rain was still just as strong as ever. The streets were flowing rivers and I was freezing in my beach shorts and flipflops. I dashed into a nearby internet cafe and amused myself there for another hour. By then the rain had diminished to a light patter so I could get back to hostel. I still was seriously damp and had to have a warm shower and change of clothes to feel normal again.

The hostel had decent TV channels so I settled down to watching some old movies and playing chess against Charlotte (Eng). I ventured across the road to get some tacos for dinner. I was a bit naughty in ordering some pork ones but nothing can really stop me once I have a craving. I only paid 17 pesos (1GBP) for 5 tacos with accompaniments (chopped onion, cilantro, radish and spicy salsa)... serious bargain!

The hostel offered several trips to canyons and Mayan ruins and whatnot but nothing really grabbed my interest so I decided I would stay a city slicker for my time there. Tuesday morning started off dry so I again tried to visit the museums. This time they were open and my first stop was the amber museum. This was actually a very interesting visit even though the English guide they hand you has about 4 pages on it and the exhibit consists of about 30 pages of text. I managed to piece together the fact that the Chiapas region is renowned as having some of the highest quality amber in the world. Some of the pieces and carvings were very intricate. The museum itself is not very large so I was finished there quite quickly. I moved onto the Museum of Popular Culture... which was closed for some reason I couldn`t fathom. Oh well, I called an early lunch. I moved to the busy market area of town which was nice and filled with gringo hippies. I actually think half the street vendors selling bracelets and the like were white travelling hippies with messy dreadlocked hair. I stopped off at a decent looking restaurant and had some weird breakfast thingie that consisted of chips soaked in a tomato salsa with chicken and sour cream and refried beans on the side. It was actually pretty good! Once again the heavens opened up so my stay in the restaurant lasted a good 2 hours longer than I planned.

The Amber Museum

Amber with some little bugs stuck in it

Intricate carving from Amber

Breakfast nacho thingies (with beans)

After some more wandering around I returned to my hostel and met up with some more travellers to have a few drinks at the Tequila Factory. It was me and 6 girls... a statistic I have never obtained before (and I didn't even have to pay...). This worked out wonderfully as the bar staff, in their eagerness to please and gain favor, gave us several free shots of tequila. I also learned that a tequila shot should be drunk by first licking the salt, biting the lime (and holding the juice in your mouth) and then finally taking the shot and mixing it all up. It makes a delightful change and I rue the fact that I have been doing it wrong all these years! We danced salsa at the Revolucion bar and then headed back early as the free drinks could not be handled by some of the youngsters.

Me and the girls... 6 of them

Tequila aftermath

Huh?

The morning dawned overcast and I was beginning to worry my tan was going to disappear. I was fed up with the cold and bad weather so I booked myself on a bus to the next beach, Puerto Escondido, leaving later that evening. The bus left in the evening so I had a day of leisure, eating and drinking and chilling until I had to say goodbye to San Cristobal.