It’s a 13 hour overnight bus trip from Puerto Escondido [9] to San Cristobal [10]. With more room and better seats it’s much easier than the13 hour flight across the Pacific.
San Cristobal is the most magical of all the Mexican Pueblos Magicos. There is a significant indigenous population, still clinging to traditional dress and languages, people of mixed and Spanish descent plus a few resident foreigners and so a great mix of cultures and food. There is no need to “do” the sights – just wander the cobbled streets of the well preserved Spanish colonial town with its Neoclassical, Baroque and Mudejar buildings.
In a valley 2100 meters, San Cristobal is cold in winter so we enjoyed sitting by the fire in the evenings sipping Spanish wine in our beautiful renovated apartment in an old colonial building in the historic center.
Our week in San Cristobal in 2011 pictures of the town are here.
We stayed at Kurukatz Apartments
The La Merced monastery, founded 1537, was built as a fortress
Local women at work
Cloth from San Cristobal
San Cristobal's sweets market
Pine needles leading to the Church of Santa Luca, protector of eyes, built 1884
Pam doing the shopping
Women chatting outside the Cathedral
The Cathedral looks quite plain inside
Every December dancers honor the Virgin by ....
... making their way up hill to the Church of Guadalupe
Band playing outside Church of Guadalupe
Another group of Guadalupe worshipers
Our favorite bar, La Vina de Bacco, sells Mexican wine
Tonina (house of stone) is the tallest of all the Mayan pyramids (70 meters). Abandoned in the 10th century AD, it was not rediscovered until the 1970s. It is off the beaten track, about 3 hours from San Cristobal and little visited. Without a guide, its just a pile of rocks but luckily we had Enseo, who also works on the excavation, to take us over the site.
Tonina, the tallest of the Mayan pyramids (70 meters)
Warrior sculpture inside Tonina
Another Tonina warrior
A headless prisoner
Prisoner bound with rope
Death - the King looks upward to heaven
View from the top of Tonina
It's a steep descent down the pyramid
Tonina ball court - the winners got sacrificed!
Mandarin seller in traditional dress of Ocosingo, on her phone
Chumula is an independent Mayan speaking community only 10 kilometers from San Cristobal. No outside police or military are allowed. The Church has no pews and the floor is covered with pine needles where healers combine pre-conquest Maya customs and Spanish Catholic traditions. Incense burning, alcohol and Coke, sometimes chicken sacrifices are part of the processes. It’s very strange. Absolutely no photography is permitted in their Church.
A few more pictures of the village from 2011 here.
Decorated cars bring the faithful to the Church of Saint John the Baptist
Sunday market at Chamula
Chamula embroidery