Walk about in San Cristobal

On Sunday we got on a shuttle to take us back to Mexico from Guatemala, the journey took 11 hours in total, including a very anxious wait at the Guatemalan border when our shuttle left and assured us someone would be there to pick us up in 10 minutes, 2 hours later another shuttle arrived and we eventually got to San Cristobal on Sunday evening.

San Cristobal is a colonial town a few hours from the Mexico – Guatemala border, it has a similar look and feel to Antigua but is much more busy with tourists, Mexican and foreign.

On Monday we decided to go on a free walking tour of the town, it took us around various parts of the city and showed us different churches and view points of the town, we also got to go to various restaurants and bars and try traditional food and drink, soups, juices, tamales, molies and posh alcohol. Not that it’s fancy it’s just called posh and is an alcohol made from corn and sugar cane. We also visited a market and our guide explained that each little town around San Cristobal specialises in different crafts, leather, metal work, pottery, amber etc. And how San Cristobal acts as a hub for all these places to sell their goods.

Our guide also explained to us about the tensions and history between the indigenous Mayan population in the area and the colonialist government and how the various Mayan groups bound together to take control of San Cristobal in the 90s until an agreement to more rights for local people lead to a somewhat peaceful resolution, although natives still feel sidelined by the government.

The walk lasted about 4 hours and afterwards we went back to the market to try and buy some jumpers. San Cristobal is elevated 2200 m high so in the evenings it gets very cold here. We found some jumpers but they were expensive and itchy and as we’re off to the beach next we decided to save money and be cold for one extra night. Something we regretted later on, but we ended up going to a wine bar with some people from our hostel as they had been the previous night and said it was nice and also they had outdoor heaters, so it wasn’t too bad in the end.

Today we booked our bus tickets to Puerto Escondido by the coast, we were going to go to some local villages by horse this afternoon but it was expensive and we both feel a bit knackered after all the late nights and early mornings, so we’ve just had a chill day reading and sunbathing in the hostel.

Keep you updated on what we’re up to next.

Lots of love,

Alice x

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