San Cristobal de la Casas
What a lovely town. Clean and friendly once you get over making a bad mistake by booking a crap hotel before you arrive.
We calmed down by having coffee and a croissant in the Italian Cafe. Then we headed to the old colonial Holiday Inn. Yes, they had a room for the night. They even welcomed us to the town, and the hotel and showed us to our delightful room. We wished weŽd been here last night instead of at the rude and noisy Hotel Mansion de Los Angeles. Lovely!
We spent half an hour on the roof terrace with our books until the sun went behind the clouds then it was out to explore.
First stop was to Otisa Travel to book our bus to Palenque tomorrow. They were very friendly and helpful.
After a quick drink-stop, we went to the markets by one of the many churches. Loads of stuff on sale – especially rugs and throws and clothes and jewellery. And the great thing was we were left to browse rather than being hassled all the time. This prompted us to buy two new throws – huge, bright and very cheap. We also bought a really cute embroidered wooly cardy – should get some use out of it at some point.
We looked round the cultural museum next to the church. Apart from some good black and white photos, it was a bit boring!
The huge food market was an eye opener – fruits and veg everywhere. Piles of chillis. Christmas decorations. Massive baskets of smelly shrimps and dried salted fish. Chickens being dissected. Live chickens carried around in multiples on the arms of sellers. Quite an assault on all the senses!
We found a nice courtyard cafe for lunch – proper Mexican style. Spicy Guacamole and tuna salad with a handful of tortillas. Hot but nice!
We walked out of the main area of town up to the church at the top of the hill, at the top of 86 (I think) steps. We were a little out of breath to say the least! We always seem to find the funeral when visiting a church and it was nearing “the end” at this church as we arrived.
Tags: Mexico
mihai