San Cristobal de las Casas
We arrived in the city early in the morning, exhausted and battered after another harrowing 12 hour bus ride through the winding mountain roads. We were greeted by a friendly French man named Denis and his wife Andrea. They own Le Gite Del Sol bed and breakfast in the old quarter of the city. Although we had decided to stay somewhere else for our first night in town, we told them we’d be by to visit later on and possibly stay.
The climate in San Cristobal is noticeably cooler than on the beach. I was thankful to have a sweater to wear, especially as I’d become acclimated to the hot and humid climate of the coast. Now the days dropped to below 20 degrees and although that would normally feel just fine, after weeks of weather in the 30s it felt quite chilly.
San Cristobal is filled with narrow cobble-stoned streets and low buildings with red tiled roofs and large wooden doors. As we walked through the streets, there were the usual street vendors hawking their wares as well as hotels and restaurants begging us to enter and give them a try. You can spend quite a bit of time walking around the city and sampling the food and taking in the sites.
Because quite a few tourists over the years have ended up staying here and started businesses, there is a good variety of international food on offer. Some great options include Thai (try Bangcook http://www.bangcook.com), poutine (Con Tenedor http://contenedorbar.com), wings (Crepes & Wings https://www.facebook.com/crepesandwings.scc), Vegan (Todo Vegano http://www.todovegano.com), French pastry (Oh la la!).
There are loads of great Mexican options. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, try the chapulinas (fried crickets). The mezcal here is not quite as abundant as in Oaxaca, but still plentiful. We indulged in a few shots while out on the town. The stuff will hit you like a ton of bricks if you’re not careful. Most places will offer a beer and shot of mezcal for between 40 and 50 pesos.
One thing that needed to get sorted out on this trip has been my teeth. I’ve heard that dentistry is really affordable in Mexico and the quality of work is really good if you find the right dentist. Monica and I spent a day scouting out different dentists in San Cristobal to inquire about prices and see if we could find a dentist that speaks English. This would prove futile in the end. After walking for many hours and talking to at least 8 dentists, we realized that we’d have to make do with our lacking Spanish skills to communicate. We found a dentist named Aroc whose clinic is “Dental Care” on Dr. Jose Felipe Flores St. in the historic part of the city. Aroc is very friendly and really made an effort to communicate with us. Monica was able to get 2 fillings for 750 pesos. I had a crown put in for 1950 pesos. Both incredibly good prices compared to Canada or the U.K.
As I lay in the dentist chair with drills and vacuum tubes stuck in my mouth I am struck with just how challenging communicating with this dentist will be. He makes an effort, using his phone to translate what he needs to say but sometimes it comes out as gibberish, as Google translate does from time to time “I need to sally time the tooth to benefit the mastication”. And then he begins operating while I’m try to gurgle some kind of response but just end up saying “Si” and praying “sally time” doesn’t mean “yank out”. In the end it all works out though. I get about $1000 worth of dental work done for 1/5 the price.
There are some good tours to take around the city and we decided on a trek and zip-lining excursion with an outfit called Xaman Expediciones http://xaman.com.mx. Our guide Eddir spoke excellent English and was able to tell us a lot about the flora and fauna as we hiked through beautiful pine forests towards the first of three zip lines. The lines stretch quite far over a canyon with the highest being 50 meters above the ground. They were very safety conscious on this tour and I never felt at risk. I’m not comfortable with heights, but when you start on the zip line you’re not on a precipice. You’re on a bit of a slope that begins in the forest. This was perfect for me because it looked like it was no big deal until of course you’re 20 meters down the line and suddenly the bottom drops out from under you and you’re flying over a death dealing height. There really is minimal risk. The safety harness is securely fastened with a redundancy in case there’s any problems.
Finally, after a week in this wonderful town, it is time to head south towards Guatemala. Monica was able to find a tour shop that offered a bus from San Cristobal to Panajachel for 300 pesos http://www.turismotrotamundos.com. This is about 50 pesos cheaper than the average rate in town. The bus picks you up at your hotel at 7:30 am and arrives at 4:00 pm.
