San Cristóbal de las Casas is again a small colonial town in Mexican highlands of Chiapas - 2160 m above sealevel - where you could spend easily a week or two. It reminded me of towns as Arequipa or Cusco - both also colonial, small and really nice. There were plenty of small plazas, low buildings, beautiful churches, markets, restaurants, art cinemas, bookstores and a lot of cafés serving Chiapas coffee.

I arrived here in San Cristóbal together with Hanne but didn’t go to the same hostel. I went to hostel Rossco Backpackers Hostel just two blocks away from Templo de Santo Domingo - also knows as the handcrafts market - which had an online promotion - book online through HostelWorld.com or HostelBookers.com and pay only 65 pesos instead of 119 pesos, great deal! And Hanne went CouchSurfing with a girl called Erika.

My hostel was great, but the first night I got again bedbugs all over my neck and arms. Fucking hell, I can tell you those bits are worse than mosquito bites! So the next morning after discovering my bits all 14 people had to move to different dorms and the one infected got cleaned up.

In the three days that we spend in San Cristóbal I met up with Hanne and Erika and together we explored the city. After a day walking from cathedral to church and back to the market, Erika took us to a small art cinema called Kinoki, playing all kinds of great art movies. They play three movies a day: one at 16:00, one at 18:00 and the last at 20:00. We took the first show which was free. ‘Zeitgeist 2: Addendum’. A documentary about how corrupt the whole system is and gives examples and this time also solutions about the problems. If you haven’t seen this movie you should definitely watch in on YouTube.

The next day Erika took us to a small town about 45 minutes by bus called San Juan Chamula. The town is really small and the most beautiful church I ever saw! Maybe not from the outside but from the inside! Inside the Templo de San Juan there were no bank to sit on and no altar. The floor was covered by pine-needles and everywhere you see hundreds of flickering candles. It’s so impressive! Chamulans revere San Juan Bautista above Christ, that’s why there are no banks or altar. People coming in making a free space on the floor somewhere in the church, putting about 4 rows of candles on the floor - each row contains about 13 candles - lighting them and doing their prayers. You are not allowed to take photographs inside the church - also not outside when people are coming out of the church - because that takes away their spirits and causes bad luck! After the Templo de San Juan we went to the small cemetery of the town which is an open field, while walking of it, you are exually walking over the graves. And each grave can contain more crosses, which mean that there are more people buried on top of each other. There are also three colours, black for the old people, white for younger people, and blue for children.

Around noon we went back to San Cristóbal and met up again at Kinoki for another art movie. This time a documentary about the Zapatistas. On January 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, and on the same day a unknown leftist guerrilla army, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) emerged from the forests to occupy San Cristóbal and other towns in Chiapas. A fight broke out between the Zapatistas and the government army killing about 150 people, mostly Zapatistas. The documentary shows why the EZLN came into life, what they are fighting for and how the situation is nowadays.

I was - and still am - fan of Rage Against The Machine, and they made songs about the problems of the Zapatistas. Didn´t know that before, so it´s interesting to watch this docu.

Nightlife in San Cristobal

And if you just want to go for a beer or some live music I recommend the Bar Revolución. Every night live music and lots of locals and gringos. Also great food!

San Cristobal has been really great and fun. A place to keep in mind and to return to on a next trip through Mexico. That’s Erika for showing us around, showing us San Juan and thanks a lot for the great gift!

Photos are here.