Mexico: San Cristobal de Las Casas (Chiapas)

Mexico City

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The next stop on our itinerary was San Cristobal de las Casas, a city in the state of Chiapas in Southern Mexico. We stayed there for 3 days, visited the town, Sumidero Canyon, a village called Chiapa de Corzo, El Chiflon waterfalls, Montebello lakes and then Mayan ruins at Palenque.

To reach San Cristobal, we took a 2 hour flight from Mexico City, to the airport in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, which is about 35 kms from San Cristobal. Just landing at San Cristobal felt so relaxing and fresh after the hustle bustle of Mexico City, that I think I already had fallen in love with the place! The airport was pretty small, with just one luggage belt and it was easily accessible from San Cristobal; you can take a taxi or the shuttle from the airport to the city.

San Cristobal is located in the Mayan state of Chiapas, which is supposedly one of the poorer states of the country. It is mostly mountainous and has a high percentage of indigenous people still living in the mountains. Its mostly famous for its natural beauty as well as its Mayan heritage.

San Cristobal de Las Casas

When we reached San Cristobal, we got down at the bus station, and walked 10 mins towards our hotel: Posada La Media Luna. The walk was through the not so busy parts of town, and our first impressions were not so good; it looked like a very small village! With cobbled streets, small empty shops, and the villagers going on with their daily chores; I did wonder, if we had decided to come to the wrong place!

San Cristobal at night

But as I learnt during my time in Mexico, 'never judge a town in Mexico by its first look', and so San Cristobal turned out to be a real stunner in the end, when we actually saw the town! With its tourist areas filled with activities, people, churches, music, shops, markets and anything else you would need as a tourist. It turned out to be the best part of our vacation too.

Posada La Media Luna

We stayed in a Posada (an inn), called Posada La Media Luna (Inn of the crescent moon) which was located right next to the central street. Although the people there did not understand English at all, they were very helpful and made our stay very comfortable.

San Cristobal is a pretty small town built by the Spanish, and still retains its old world charm. Again like Mexico City, its at a high altitude of about 5000 feet, making it cool throughout the year. The streets are cobbled, there is a central square called the Zocalo, and loads of music and restaurants and shops and churches around that area. All the houses in the town are mostly of one floor and painted in bright colours. The town is mostly geared towards tourists, but even then most people don't speak English. Its a big plus to know some Spanish, though you will get by without it too.

Church of Guadalupe

Its fun to spend time in the town, as there is much to see. There are a couple of churches, all of them more beautiful than the other. Two of the churches are located on a hill, which give a good panoramic view of the town. One of them is the church of Guadalupe, located on top of a hill and provides a good view of the whole town. The others were the churches of San Domingo and the central cathedral, both of which were exquisite.

San Cristobal

The local markets also abound with beautiful and very colourful handicrafts plus there are many restaurants which play Spanish music in the evening, for you to enjoy a nice musical meal. We went to a restaurant called La Paloma twice, was a good one. We also saw some Mariachi serenade to a women, though we did not see too many of them around.

San Cristobal Zocalo

San Cristobal

There were a lot of people selling local handicrafts, handwoven woolens, embroidered purses etc. walking around the streets. A lot of these handicrafts looked like the ones we can get in India, similar embroidery and colourful work. There was a lot of commercialisation too, with women with small kids out in the cold, trying to sell at least a piece to tourists. Were these people poor? It did seem that there was some poverty in these areas, but not as desperate as we see in India.

Also, even though we did not rent a car, it would have been a good idea as a lot of places were located far away from San Cristobal and it would have offered a lot more flexibility if we could have driven around in our own car.

Tour to Sumidero canyon and Chiapa de Corzo

Natural xmas tree

We took a day tour to the Sumidero canyon + the village of Chiapa de Corzo, with about 10 people in a mini-van. It was not a guided tour, but the driver would in between give a brief history or titbit about the places we were doing to. It did not help us much though, as it was all in Spanish:(. The drive to Sumidero was relaxing, as it was through lush green mountains, cloaked in clouds, with cool pleasant weather and felt specially fresh as it had just rained.

Sumidero Canyon

At Sumidero, we did a 2 hour boat ride through the canyon which had mountain walls of almost 900 metre high on both sides of the river. We also spotted some wildlife on the sides, a couple of birds, iguana, spider monkeys and crocodiles. The canyon was impressive, but honestly I may even give this tour a miss.

Church of Chiapa de Corzo

After the canyon, we stopped at the town of Chiapa de Corzo, which was again a pretty little spanish village with the typical church, the Zocalo square, the cobbled streets, coloured houses, beautiful handicrafts and the customary christmas tree and scene of Jesus's birth setup in the Zocalo. The stunning black spanish dresses we saw here were different though, perhaps local designs from this village? We walked around a bit in the town, to the local church and checked out the local stuff they were selling - was fun!

Zocalo

Church

Spanish dresses

Tour to El Chiflon cascades and Montebello lakes

The next day, we did a day tour which first took us to the El Chiflon cascades and then to the Montebello lakes. The trip was fun but not extraordinary, but that might have been because it was raining the whole day!

The drive was pretty long too, about 3 hours one way. We passed through many rural areas while driving, where you could see women dressed in local clothes and children stopping the vehicles on the roads, asking for taxes! There were some pretty houses and villages on the drive, but mostly seemed dirty and run down with tin roofs. You could also see how Christian the country was: even small villages had a well decorated christmas tree in the Zocala, with other decorations all around. There were sugarcane and maize plantations also on the way, and we even saw some people traveling on horses!

El Chiflon

The El Chiflon cascades are a serious of waterfalls, and paint a pretty picture.  As you walk along the waterfalls, you encounter the smaller cascades first, then some bigger ones and then you see the biggest of all! The main waterfall is pretty high and misty all around. You can walk upto the biggest of the waterfalls but can't go to the top:(. There was a zipline too at the top waterfall, which seemed like fun.

El Chiflon

El Chiflon

Lake with view of Guatemala

The next stop for us was the Lagos de Montebello; which apparently has some 57 lakes, all located on top of volcano craters. They are apparently all of different shades due to the different minerals coming out from the volcanoes, but we could not see the colours that day due to the rain and clouds. We however did see Guatemala across one of the lakes:).

Green lake

After the tour, we had lunch at a local place, which felt really local. It was tough to get any vegetarian food there as no one understood English. Thankfully, what came finally was tasty as all Mexican food usually is. And we also had chocolate made of local caracao, apparently of very good quality (though I could not figure out the difference!).

Commercialisation or employment?

On this tour, we also met an old lady who had visited San Cristobal 40 years ago. The way she described how it looked that time, made me imagine how untouched this place would have been 40 years ago and how much I am missing, seeing it now after so much of nature has been destroyed over the years. She also mentioned that she had just come after spending 10 days in the jungle in a Mayan village! It made me wish that we could also see and experience the really local culture rather than what has been created to cater to tourists!

Mayan ruins of Palenque

We did not have a visit to Palenque in our original itinerary but it was recommended so much by everyone, that we decided to go there even though it meant we had to change our plans. We booked a tour to Palenque from San Cristobal, whereon we would leave in the middle and go to Merida from there itself. However, due a confusion, we never got booked on the tour!

Our hosts at the Posada were very helpful though, and understood English. They managed to put us on an empty tourist bus going to Palenque early in the morning at 4:30am, which though we were quite sceptic of initially turned out well for us. The drive to Palenque, though supposedly unsafe was extremely enjoyable; beautiful hills, green and covered with trees, interspersed by small villages and drives through valleys. And by this time, the weather also turned warmer which helped a lot! We even stopped at a local Mexican dhaba on the way to have breakfast, but I think we had not been localised enough, and so did not eat there!

Palenque ruins

Once in Palenque, we realised we were too late for the tour to the Palenque Mayan ruins and the Agua Azul & Agua Clara waterfalls, so decided to just go to the ruins ourselves and ditch the other places. And it turned out to be quite a great idea. Even though the tours are convenient and comfortable, its great to travel on your own where you have the flexibility of spending as much time as you want at a place. And so, we got to spend the entire day at the Palenque ruins, which we absolutely fell in love with!

We took one of the frequent local buses which run from the city centre to the National Park housing the Palenque ruins, and just entering the park lifted up our spirits a lot. There were tropical jungles all around, fresh after rains the night before. The tickets to the park are about 85 pesos, and its advisable to take a guide (ours took about 600 pesos for 4 people). We met a Brazilian couple there who had been on one of our earlier tours, and since they knew Spanish, it helped us get a discounted price:).

Overview of Palenque ruins

Inside the palace

Once we entered the ruins, it was like we had entered a different era. The Palenque ruins are from 200BC to 800AD and are located at a location different than other typical Mayan ruins: right in the middle of lush green hills, the whole area with a very fresh feel to it. These ruins had been lost to trees for about 1000 years and then had to be excavated. There are some 1500 buildings in this area of which 20 are in the main area which have been excavated and visited by the tourists. The rest are still waiting to be uncovered....

The Palace

Hieroglyphics

The Mayans were indigenous people who had cities across multiple Mexican states, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. They did not have a central ruler, but consisted of multiple city states with their own rulers, culture, architecture style but bound by a common language and the famous Mayan calendar. The Mayans are famous for being scientifically advanced, the knowledge of the zero and their calendar which was based on accurate scientific knowledge. They also had developed a script - the hieroglyphics which have now also been just partially decoded.

The Mayans were also famous for playing the ball game, which though similar was played differently in all the Mayan city stated. In Palenque also, there is a ball game court still standing, and apparently the loser here was not sacrificed as in the other locations. A funny thing though was that the Mayans did not know about the wheel, wonder how they created such huge buildings without wheels to carry the stone! Another famous aspect of the Mayans was the magic mushrooms, which their priests used to take, when they wanted to see the Gods! Apparently it works very well!

King Pakal (flat head)

The Palenque rulers also belonged to the Mayan civilisation but were in some ways unique as they did not indulge in human sacrifices, wrote in stone and were located in the mountains, with plentiful of water. The people of Palenque also had flat heads, which was done by tying a stone to the face for many years; You can see the flat heads in all the images that they created of people.

The Mayans had a very accurate calendar and built their buildings symmetrically, so that on certain days in the calendar, the light would fall at certain angles to reveal different architectural details. The guide gave us a lot of information on what happens on what day, but unfortunately I don't remember the details anymore:(.

Ornaments found on body of King Pakal

King Pakal was the most famous of the Palenque kings, and his body was discovered under one of the pyramids in this area. There are lot of stories around about him, how he was a great ruler, and what he did during his reign - all etched in stone hieroglyphics. His body was found in a huge sarcophagus, now kept in the museum. And the body was decorated with multiple jade jewels and mask.


All the buildings in these ruins were built in stone and covered with plaster. The main buildings in this village are the tombs of King Pakal, his mother - the red queen, the rulers' palace, the temple of the sun, the temple of the skull, the temple of inscriptions and temple of the medicine. All buildings are partially destroyed but still show some of the original painting and carvings which tell the story of the Mayans. All the main buildings are located atop a platform of stairs with some remains of the carvings. Also apparently all these buildings were painted red in those times - I can't even imagine how this area would have looked in 500AD!

Other than the main buildings, there were some more ruins spread out in the area, where the non-royal people used to stay. Though antique, these houses don't get as much attention as they should! They are still covered with trees, and remain to be excavated.

Houses of the general public

Tomb of King Pakal and his mother 'Red Queen'

It was a pleasure to just walk in this area, from 1000s of years ago, trying to imagine how those people would have lived, what their mysteries were and why did they vanish. And the fact that these ruins were in the middle of the jungle, with a pleasant weather also made it a lot more pleasurable.

Series of waterfalls

We spent about 4-5 hours in the ruins, and honestly could have spent more. It felt great to explore the area, even without the guide, to imagine, to dream, to get lost.. This was my most favorite part of the Mexico trip, and I was truly mesmerised by what all I saw! And of course, there was this beautiful waterfall just next to the ruins, which I guess always gets overlooked by its grander neighbours! We also spent some time admiring all the handicrafts that people were selling handicrafts - the colours and intricacies were amazing!

Flathead king

And then we went into the museum near the ruins and were amazed even more! The artefacts and sculptures of the ruins had been placed in the museum, and included the sarcophagus where King Pakal was found, the hieroglyphics of the Mayan which have been deciphered and a replica of what the palace would actually have looked like.

Sarcophagus - King Pakal

The sarcophagus of King Pakal was a huge thing made of stone. On its top isthe famous depiction of the King, waiting to go to heavens, but this image is sometimes thought to signify that King Pakal is sitting in an airship, ready to take off! Take a look for yourself, do you agree?:)

King Pakal, sitting in a spaceship:)

Alien with Mayans

There were many other intricate sculptures in the museum. It is sometimes said that the Mayans had contact with aliens. Under the same theory, there was a stone painting with a weird looking creature sitting with the Mayans. Could it have been an alien? The Palenque museum was actually a museum that I liked and would definitely recommend a visit.



Other than the ruins, Palenque does not have much to offer, so I would suggest not staying there the night. After the park closed, we had dinner at Don Muchos, a restaurant just next to the ruins which looked like a happening plan with an amazing relaxed ambience.

Other things to do

There are a couple of other things to do in Chiapas in case you have time. One is the visit to the local Mayan villages of San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan, both of which have standard tours running from the city center. Second would be a 3 day camping trip to Lake Miramar which is apparently one of the most beautiful lakes in the Chiapas. On the whole San Cristobal is a place you should definitely not miss; experience the quaint little town, explore the natural beauty around and see some of the grandest Mayan culture and ruins nearby.

continued...

Merida (Yucatan)
Mexico: Trips for travel
Mexico: Impressions