 | | | | | | | | | | | This is page one of three for San Cristobal. For those of you who are looking to visit a traditional Mexican town, this is definitely the one to choose. San Cristobal was our favourite town (the full name of the town is
San Cristobal de las Casas). This is hardly surprising as it is in the middle of our favourite state (ie. Chiapas). The town, its culture, people and surrounding villages make it an inspiring place to visit.
The People
The Indians of San Cristobal are very traditional and dress in their colourful native costumes. The ladies wear strategic
layers of clothing including magnificent embroidered blouses and what appear to be folded blankets on their heads. | | | | This everyday appearance of the Indians is extraordinary. Unfortunately however, the Indians believe that part of their sole is taken when they are photographed. We
were therefore unable to take photographs of many of the beautiful costumes that we saw. From a photographic perspective this was probably the most disappointing aspect of our trip. | | | Furthermore, although the market stalls sell various embroidered blouses and traditional clothes it is considered an
insult for foreign women to wear such clothes in the town itself.
Markets
San Cristobal has various markets packed with traditional local clothing and Marcos dolls (see the
political climate of San Cristobal page for more info on Marcos). | | | | On our last morning in San Cristobal we went to the local food markets at about 6.30am.
These were fascinating and were completely devoid of tourists. Although Andrew could not endure the smell nor the sight of the slaughtered animals which were being carted around, we found the variety of beans and chilies endless. I didn't know that so many types of beans existed and in so many various colours including pink, purple and white speckled kidney type beans. They looked like they had been painted. The flower section of the market was also beautiful. | |
| | Christmas Eve
On Christmas eve we went to Margarita's bar which is a tourist hangout. The food, atmosphere and music were all great (the smoke was however also plentiful). The
most memorable part of the evening was when we all bought flaming 'La Cocharacha' shots, one of which Etsuko knocked over onto the table causing the table cloth to catch on fire. It was really funny watching people trying to put out the blue alcoholic flame. | | | | We also let off a load
of fireworks from the top of our hotel building. | | | | Christmas Day
Most people indulge in a huge decadent feast for their Christmas dinner. We on
the other hand ate arguably the best and yet cheapest dinner of our entire trip. We went to the La Salsa Verde
taco restaurant and ate chicken and cheese tacos which were fantastic. The chicken was cooked in front of us over what appeared to be a 44 gallon drum with a huge wok on top of it. We were relatively dull in our selection of chicken and cheese as their selection was endless. However, that chicken, cheese, tortilla, Mexican salsa , onions, etc. was delicious and only cost 3 pesos which was about 55 cents. | |
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