San Cristobal de Las Casas

This is a beautiful small village in Chiapas in the very South of Mexico surrounded by mountains. It is a traditional town and has an amazing market where you can buy colourful Mexican handicrafts after some hard bargaining. There is a thriving tourist scene as the pretty cobbled streets, the picturesque properties and the indigenous population draw people to this pueblo.Tzotzil and Tzeltal clothing is the most varied and colourful in Mexico and contains Mayan influences. I spent a lovely two weeks in San Cristobel de Las Casas. I am surprised I managed to leave the place. My Pousada was comfortable, clean and friendly with glorious views. There were wonderful cafes, restaurants and everything was within walking distance. There are many interesting small villages nearby which do not seem to have been touched by the hands of time.

Here you can eat Argentinian steaks while watching Tango, drink Italian coffee or French wines or down tequila like the natives. The small movie theatre is open air and a curtain separates you from the projectionist. Nearby is the interesting town of San Juan Chamula where they have some unique religious practises. Their worship is a mix between pre Hispanic rituals and the worship of St John the Baptist. It had strange ceremonies which included killing live chickens. The church had pulled out all the pews and the floor was covered in pine fronds. It smelt of pine and incense. No photographs were allowed in that church for fear of public lynching.  If you take a photograph  inside their church or  of any of their practises you are likely to get stoned out of town. One photographer had been thrown out of town and escaped with his life for taking photos. We had terrible floods in Chiapas and people were flooded out of their homes. It was mainly in the poor area of San Cristobal. Lots of people donated clothes and I was helping to sort the clothes. I also gave money for gasoline as they needed to get people out of the houses. The river burst its banks and was very fast and creating danger. People could not get out of the houses ambulances broke down etc. I knew about it but most foreigners thought it was just heavy rain. I had been trying to read the papers to improve my Spanish and realised there was a disaster happening. It was hard finding out information.