On our onward journey we come to the next state of Mexico: Chiapas. Really cliché is the crossing of the border of the states: While in Oaxaca it was still fairly dry and hot, the landscape changes into dense, green jungle and our road winds its way back up to an altitude of well over 1000m above sea level. For the time being, because up to San Cristobal de las casas we overcome still further altitude up to us on approximately 2100 m.a.s.l.

On our way we drive through very poor areas of Chiapas, where large parts of the population still live very traditionally and in simple conditions. Many houses are reinforced with tree trunks and branches. In the better case the houses are made of simple concrete constructions, but they never look finished to us. Finally, we reach San Cristobal de las casas and find directly a suitable street parking close enough to the center, flat and sufficiently quiet. Now we explore the city!

Center of San Cristobal de las casas

There are two main pedestrian streets in the center of San Cristobal. These pedestrian streets have a strong tourist influence. Many cafes and restaurants are adjusted to the tourist needs and represent rather less the traditional conditions. But that doesn’t bother us at the moment. We notice in Mexico that every now and then we like to claim a little bit of the higher standard, which the tourism brings with itself. Especially the variety of food is very welcome.
Among other things, we also visit two churches here. One of them is the church Santo Domingo de Guzmán. At first, we don’t find the church because the whole square around the church is covered with a big, improvised, but coherent handicraft market. Tiptop, so we find our way through all the different stalls to the church, only to find out that the church is closed for visits. So back through all the stalls to the center of town, only to make the same round trip again later. We get lost a few times in dead ends within the stalls before we find the way again. Unfortunately, the facade, because of which we actually wanted to visit the church, is currently being renovated.
Never mind, we stumbled upon this wonderfully chaotic handicraft market.

In San Cristobal there is a unique food court. But the word food court is actually an insult to the beautiful and coherent construction. It is the Plaza Agustín, which combines several restaurants in the courtyard under one roof. It is also common to order drinks and smaller treats across restaurants, only the main dishes should at least come from the restaurant where you sat down. We didn’t realize this until we were feasting, so we didn’t bother with all the details. If anyone would like to try this, a brief clarification with the staff would certainly be good advice. For all you foodies, Plaza Augustin is definitely worth a stop! We might have expected a food court like this in a hip European city, but not in a Mexican mountain town! All the nicer is the variety and the food was very fine, although it must be said that the prices are rather in the upper sector by Mexican standards.

Surroundings of San Cristobal de las casas

In the surroundings of San Cristobal live mainly people who are descended from the Mayas. More precisely, they are descended from the Mayan tribe of Tzotzil. There are also some communities which still live old customs and rituals. However, we skipped these attractions during our trip because they are quite double-edged. We got actual stories about them from two other travelers we met later. Today the rituals are probably big sources of income for the remote villages. But the money does not necessarily flow to the population, because maybe the men who are responsible for the cashing belong to other, more modern but not necessarily friendly organizations. We will leave it at that with our description.

All in all, the side trip to San Cristobal did us good. Due to the altitude, the temperatures were pleasantly cool. The mix of Mayan culture and tourism was just enough to have many amenities that were not available in less touristy towns. Still, we met some traditional people as we made our way through town. We were also able to buy macadamia nuts from the region. Unaware as we were, the price was quite high though, since we bought them in the shell. Half a kilogram of macadamia nuts with shell were just about 150g macadamia. We didn’t bring a nutcracker either, with a hammer we opened the nuts just like the gentleman at the street stall did for us with most of the nuts. Despite the high price we appreciate this experience – we have probably never been able to buy macadamia nuts that locally!