Cocodrilos and Micheladas in San Cristobal de las Casas

San Cristobal de Las Casas, Ciapas Mexico

July 30 - August 3, 2014

While San Cristobal wasn´t on our original itinerary, it came highly recommended and also broke up our travel to Guatemala while allowing us to avoid Guatemala City all together... So we jumped on it!  San Cristobal de las Casas is a colorful little colonial town with several nice walking streets, a huge market, and lots of colorful streets to explore.  On either side of the city are two small churches set up on a hill with daunting staircases leading to their doors, as well as lovely views of the city when you turn around.

In tackling the first staircase, we were a little over-ambitious, and tried to run to the top, forgetting that we were at 7,200 feet above sea level... we didn´t make it very far, and finished huffing and puffing to the top.  The second one (pictured above) was quite a bit more manageable, but we still elected to walk.

We took a day trip to visit the Sumidero Canyon, which is surrounded by a national park, and whose image
appears kind of as the face a Chiapas.  It´s even the picture on their stamps and some of their license plates.  Not only was it beautiful, but we got to see it in a fun little boat on a beautiful sunny day!  Aside from the grandness of the canyon, we saw crocodiles and tons of cool birds like pelicans, egrets, and herons.

Okay... This next picture was not our finest moment... but we are really trying to soak up the local culture, which includes junk food does it not?  First, I want to let you know that there are entire stores didicated to

these snacks.  Basically, you open a bag of doritos, and take yourself through the condiment line: nacho cheese sauce, corn, jalepeños, beans, salsa, sour cream ... whatever.  Then you eat it right out of the bag.  To accompany them we have flavored micheladas (one mango, one tamarind).  It turns out a michelada in mexico is different than we had thought.  Basically you take your secret sauce (yeah... still not sure what´s in there but it seems to be spices, worchtershire and lime?) and you add it to your beer.  Then you can add other stuff if you want  like tomato juice, clamato, or in our case, fruit flavors... yum!  Don´t worry, we also indulged in more traditional Mexican snacks like churros and chocolate and even made our own lunch from fresh tortillas, avacodos and hot sauce and ate it on our rooftop terrace at the hostal.  Amazing!

As much as we loved Mexico, our bank account was telling us it was time to move on.  However, we would love to return and give this beautiful and diverse country the time it deserves!  But for now, we are Guatemala Bound!

*Authors´ note: Our Guatemlan visas expire at the beginning of November, which means we need to make a quick run for the border.  Anyone interested in joining us in San Cristobal for Day of the Dead?*