Almost melted by the heat in Mazunte, it was time to get high… We left the coast to head to the Central Highlands region of Chiapas: San Cristóbal de las Casas.
San Cristóbal de las Casas is located in a small valley surrounded by hills. With an elevation of about 2,200 meters it was the highest city in Mexico we’ve been to. The lovely and lively high San Cristóbal offers amazing colonial architecture. And as the area is largely inhabited by indigenous people, it as well adds an interesting cultural flair.
Arriving in the town on a cloudy day, we immediately missed the heat of Mazunte, at least a little! 😅 Beacause of its altitude San Cristóbal was clearly cooler… 🥶 After finding some sweaters deep down in our backpacks, we wandered through the pueblo mágico. The colonial town with its cobblestone streets and colorful buildings has its own charm.
Kakaw
While strolling around in the city, we climbed up to one of the churches to watch all of San Cristóbal. It was a little bit cloudy but still nice to see the surroundings. We also came by the chocolate museum. Unfortunately we were not there at the right time for a tour. So we decided to just try some traditional hot chocolate, kakaw. As you could choose the cocoa content,we ordered one with 70% and another with 70% and Pox, a local alcoholic spirit. The kakaw tasted quite different to our hot chocolate and left a pretty bitter note. But still an interesting taste and experience.
Hand-poked souvenir
Rewarmed from the hot chocolate we continued our stroll and discovered a little artist collective in a small patio. It was a gathering of artists, musicians and interested people. There was some art, like paintings and hand-made jewelry and tattoo artists that caught Magda’s attention. 😁 They offered hand-poked tattoos and Magda spontaneously decided to get one as a souvenir for the trip so far. While getting her tattoo, Christian was filming and watching the scene. After about an hour Magda was the happy owner of an amazing hand-poked tattoo. And we concluded the day with some delicious mexican food, beer and margarita.
Local tour
To get to know the city and its surroundings a little better we took another free walking tour. We were pretty lucky with the weather as it was a sunny yet chilly day for the tour. The guide showed us around and explained a lot about the history and especially about the culture in San Cristóbal and the surrounding area. We even made a short lunch break at a local market to get to try some delicious dishes. The tour was really nice as we also got to know some local organizations, like a music and art school and an artist collective with a nice rooftop terrace and bar.
With these first impressions we decided to enjoy a few relaxed days before we wanted to get to know the surroundings better.
