Exploring San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas

February 3, 2017

 

Last summer sometime our son and his family commented that they were going to be going to San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas to attend a wedding in November.  When we heard that we immediately asked if we could tag along.  We love to travel with them and San Cristóbal had been somewhere we had been wanting to visit.  So in mid-November we met up with our son, daughter-in-law, their daughter and our granddaughter (who was living with them and going to school for a semester abroad) in the México City airport. It didn’t take long to arrive at Tuxtla Guitérrez and catch a shuttle for the one hour trip to San Cristóbal.  What gorgeous scenery along the way, I wish I had taken some pictures.  By the way, this will be a picture heavy post, all the pictures were taken with my phone, including the one at the top, taken at Na Bolom, a must visit museum.

Chiapas8
We had rented an Air B & B house right in the center of town. That’s it, just above.

Chiapas4We had so much fun!  We walked all over, especially on the many pedestrian
only streets (hint, hint Mazatlán) and had some incredible food
and drink.  Above you’ll see our granddaughter buying some chapulines,
(or grasshoppers) for a snack!

Chiapas2
I love all the street vendors.
Nut vendor
Nut vendor
Chiapas6
Chamula

The above picture of our granddaughters was taken in front of the church in Chamula.  This is an amazing and interesting place and you can read a very good blog post about it here.

Chiapas11

 

I love they way they decorate their delivery trucks!
I love they way they decorate their delivery trucks!

 

Pretty doorway and pretty occupant!
Pretty doorway and pretty occupant!

I don’t have a picture to show you but we all had an amazing time at the handcrafts market.  It seemed endless and we pretty much shopped until we dropped.  Lots of clothing, scarves, hats, fancy dog collars, and much more came home with all of us. The city is so fun, there was lots of spontaneous music around town and of course amazing coffee!

Our son and granddaughter on their way to the wedding.
Our son and granddaughter on their way to the wedding.

 

One highlight of the trip for all of us was visiting the Museo de Trajes Regionales run by Sergio Castro to fund his humanitarian work in the area.  I have known about Sergio for years through my friend Betsy who runs My Mexico Tours.  There has been a movie made about him, titled El Andalón, which is incredibly inspiring, and if you search on YouTube you will find other short videos about him and his work. Sergio was treating patients in the courtyard of the museum while we were there – as we were leaving he came over to greet us.  Just being in his presence for a short time was extremely moving.

Photo credit: https://www.locogringo.com/loco-adventure-sergio-castro-museum-regional-clothing
Sergio Castro  Photo credit: https://www.locogringo.com/loco-adventure-sergio-castro-museum-regional-clothing

There is a long history of political activism in Chiapas and there is lots of political graffiti around town, see below.

Graffiti3

Graffiti2

Graffiti1

Chiapas10

Chiapas9

 

Our trip to Chiapas was over much too soon and we were on our way back to México City where the family went back to school and work and Paul and I caught a bus for our next adventure, Guanajuato.  That’ll be in a day or two, stay tuned!

Share and Enjoy !

More about Nancy

I'm Nancy, a US expat living in San Antonio Tlayacapan, Jalisco after 11 years in Mazatlán, México.

2 Comments
    1. Great post. I’ll be back in Chiapas in a few weeks – one of my favorite places in Mexico.

      BTW, the “church” in Chamula is no longer considered a church and was desanctified years ago……don’t remember all the details. The culture is fascinating, isn’t it?

    1. I loved San Cristóbal de las Casas when I was there in 2014. It’s such a different place, even from most other “different places” in Mexico. True magic is there in the foggy, mysterious mountains.

      Saludos,

      Kim G
      Redding, CA
      Where the mountains are wonderful, but the valley’s a little pedestrian.

Comments are closed.