Wednesday, February 26, 2003
San Cristóbal de Las Casas is nestled in the
highlands of Chiapas at an altitue of 7,000 feet. The
air is cool and pleasant. Little wonder that when the
Spanish arrived here in the 1500's they found the
location a fine site for a colony. San Cristóbal, or
Ciudad Real as it was then called, was for years the
only Spanish town in a region with a large population
of Indians, and as such was a major center for
missionaries. Each neighborhood has its own church
and patron saint. The charm of this attractive
colonial city has attracted international artists,
writers, bohemians, and backpackers, for better or
for worse.
We bagan our day with desayunos (breakfast) at Las
Nubes, adjacent to our hotel. Marvelous salsa and the
best coffee of the trip. A boy came by and wanted to
shine my shoes - while I was eating. Does that ever
work? We were treated to more "cheesy listening"
music, this time in Spanish.
Inside El Templo de Santa Lucia
This morning we're going to El Parque Ecoturística
Grutas de Rancho Nuevo, a park 10 kilometers east of
San Cristóbal set in a beautiful pine wood, the
feature attraction being an extensive cave with
cathedral-like chambers. A taxi to the park is 50
pesos, and it's 10 pesos to enter the cave. You go in
unguided, but there is a well-kept walkway. It's
impressive.
Los Feliz Americanos at Las Grutas
On down from the cave are some really neat slides
and some really neat niños. A whole flock of kids,
children of the vendors I presume, were having the
time of their lives on these huge, polished-concrete
slides. They slid down on cardboard and plastic
bottles and clumps of grass - anything they could
find! It was nice to see children playing instead of
working.
Happy niños
We walked the kilometer back to the highway to
catch a ride back to town. Shortly thereafter a
pickup with a covered bed stopped for us. It wasn't
just a random farmer. These camionetas are a regular
form of transportation. Just 5 pesos each. What a
deal!
Templo de San Francisco
This afternoon we went church hiking. The Chapel
de San Cristóbal is a small chapel, painted in white
and red. It is located on one of the city's two main
hills, the Cerrito de San Cristóbal, and the prime
attraction is the view. It was a heck of a climb,
especially in the blistering sun, but it's worth
it.
The City of San Cristóbal
Next we walked all the way across town to the
Templo de Guadalupe, a shrine to the Virgin of
Guadalupe, located on the hill of Guadalupe, another
big climb. The church is spectacularly colorful and
affords another great view.
Templo de Guadelupe
We were getting pretty hungry by this time, so Tom
bought elotes (corn on the cob) off a street vendor.
She was astonished when we didn't want a half-inch of
mayonnaise slathered on the corn as is customary;
however, we did opt for the salsa. It was good, but
it needed butter and salt to be great.
Arco del Carmen
Later we had dinner at the Restaurante Capri
Pizzaria. This is the second pizza place we've been
to in Chiapas, and they both served us Worcestershire
sauce with our pizza, along with of course a pepper
sauce. Who puts Wooster sauce on their pizza? I tried
it. It wasn't too bad.
We sat in the Zócalo and people-watched for a long
time. Tom wanted to Internet. I wanted to sip
margaritas. Sorry nobody heard from us tonight!
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