A Magical Place: San Cristóbal de las Casas

04/09/09-14/09/09

From San Salvador we took our second Ticabus to Mexico, passing through Guatemala along the way. The journey was a long 12 hours, and the last part of it was spent trying to understand the constant ramblings of the man next to us. He was from Atlanta with a very strong accent, meaning that even I had trouble understanding him at times :) The bus dropped us off in Tapachula, Chiapas (the most southern state of Mexico) and after checking into a hotel we went and had some sincronizadas (soft flour tortillas with avocado, cheese and tomato). We only stayed in Tapachula the one night and the next day took another 8 hour bus to the very heart of the state, San Cristóbal de las Casas. Even arriving at 11pm we could tell that it was a beautiful town and that we were going to enjoy our stay here. At night the main square is lit up and is always full of people. It is good to be back in a place where you can still find bars and restaurants open after 8pm (not the case in San Salvador!!)

San Cristóbal was founded in 1528 by Diego de Mazariegos, and it´s full name of San Cristóbal de las Casas is in honour of fray Bartolomé de las Casas, who arrived here in 1545 as the first bishop of the diocese. He was one of the few that defended the indigenous people at the arrival of the Spanish. It is popular with tourists as there are so many things to see and do in the area, and the town itself is captivating, very clean and safe with beautifully coloured buildings, several churches, museums, bars and restaurants....it has something for everyone and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to visit Mexico.

The state of Chiapas has the highest population of indigenous people (descendants of the famous Mayas) than any other state of Mexico, and a high percentage of them are concentrated in and around San Cristóbal. Their culture is still very much alive and apparent here, especially so in the surrounding villages which are 100% indigenous. They still wear their traditional clothing and speak their own language, although many of them also speak Spanish. They make their living from handicrafts, mainly jewellery and clothing, which they sell either at the markets or on the streets. The biggest indigenous groups in this area are the Tsotsiles and Tzeltales, their respective languages being Tsotsil and Tzeltal, which are the 5th and 6th most widely spoken indigenous languages in the whole of Mexico. The most widely spoken is Nahuatl. At 62, Mexico has the second largest number of indigenous languages in the world (India has the most), and before the arrival of the Spanish there were 180!!! As we were planning to visit a couple of the nearby indigenous villages, Vic and I decided to do a 3 hour intensive course of Tsotsil so that we could exchange a few words with the locals. Our teacher was brilliant and got through so much in the few hours, and after practising for a bit that same afternoon, we had managed to learn a few of the basics such as: K'uxa elan? (how are you?), vo'one lek oyun (I´m fine), kolaval (thank you), k'usi abi? (what is your name?), jbi Lauren (My name is Lauren), bu likemotal? (where are you from?), likemuntal ta Inglaterra (I am from England), jun, chib, oxib, chanib, vo'ob (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). I can count from 1 to 20 but I don´t want to bore you all :) It was really fun learning a new language, especially such an unusual one, and although we didn´t need it when we visited the indigenous villages (everyone we spoke to could speak Spanish) we did manage to make ourselves understood so it was completely worth it!

San Cristóbal is 2,100m above sea level, and although it can still get quite hot during the day, we were surprised by the sudden drop in temperature, and we had to dig out the few warm clothes that we have in our backpacks :) The main part of town is not very big and you can see most of the sights on foot. There is a city tour you can do by tram (well, it´s not actually a tram, it just looks like one), but there has to be a minimum of 4 people to do it, and as yet we have not been lucky enough to arrive at the same time as other people. We have since done the tour ourselves on foot, but it´s not the same without a guide pointing things out and explaining the history behind it, so we might still try and do it before we leave. The main sights here are the cathedral and several other churches of various colours, the most spectacular of which has to be Santo Domingo (see Vic´s first photo below).

We have also visited a couple of interesting museums. The first was Na´Bolom (house of the jaguar), which was founded in 1951 by Frans Blom, a danish archaeologist and explorer, and his wife, Gertrude Duby Blom, a Swiss conservationist and photographer. After studying at Harvard, Frans came to Chiapas in 1919 and on one of his archaeological treks he came across the Lacandones, another group of indigenous people, inhabiting the Lacandon jungle. He and the Lancadones became great friends and he decided to dedicate the rest of his life to studying and helping this ancient tribe. Unlike the other indigenous groups, the Lacandones had never come into contact with the Spanish and for this reason they are considered to be the purest descendants of the Mayas. They don´t speak Spanish and they still believe in their own God, whereas the Spanish christianised many of the other indigenous communities. Since its discovery, the Lacandon jungle has become increasingly accessible to outsiders and much of the land has been destroyed. Na´Bolom has a reforestation project in place in an attempt to maintain the Lacandones homeland and even though Frans Blom and his wife have since passed away, the organisation continues to carry out the work that they started so many years ago. Sadly, only 400 of the original Lacandones remain alive today, and due to the intermarriage between members of the same family, there are an increasing number of abnormalities apparent in the younger generations. In an attempt to reduce the frequency of these genetic mutations and to ensure the longevity of this unique people, the Lacandones are now being encouraged to marry into other indigenous groups, which has been met with positivity, and already there exist a few of these 'new' communities. The second museum we visited was about the state of Chiapas, which is made up of 9 regions. We are in the region called Altos, of which San Cristóbal is the capital. The museum was split into the nine different regions with information on the typical food and drink to be found, what indigenous groups live there and the typical regional festivals. It was only very small and did not take long to walk around, but I found it really interesting.

As well as exploring the town, we have been on a few excursions to places of interest, some nearby and others quite far away. On each of the tours we have had the opportunity to meet some lovely people, such as Erica from Mexico City, who we met on our tour to the indigenous villages, and who in turn introduced us to people she had met on her previous tours: another couple from the capital, Arturo and Jasmin, a newly married couple from Santander, Juan and Esther, and another man from Madrid, whose name I can´t remember :( Also, on our first night in San Cristóbal we met two brothers, Juan Carlos and Fernando, who live in the capital of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez, but who spend their weekends in San Cristóbal. They invited us over to have a few drinks with them and when the first bar closed we went on to another place, where we got chatting to a group of travellers (four English people and two Germans) until the early hours of the morning! Finally, on our last tour to the Lakes of Montebello, we met three lovely women (a mother and daughter and a friend of the family), who laughed and giggled all day long, making all of us laugh too :) They were really friendly, happy people and they made the experience so much more enjoyable. We didn´t catch their names, but we hope they have continued to enjoy their holiday in San Cristóbal. They were also from Mexico City. So not only has San Cristóbal been a great place for things to do, we have been lucky to meet some great people who have helped to make our experience here even better! More about the tours we have done in the following posts.