After spending a turbulent night on the coach from Oaxaca, we hoped that San Cristobal would be a pleasant place to recuperate. Or San Cristobal De Las Casas to give the town’s full name – what a mouthful! Unfortunately, San Cristobal maybe a pretty town with brightly colour buildings, lively plazas and twisting streets, but it’s also FREEZING! We thought we’d left the high-altitude iciness back in Peru and Bolivia, but apparently not. In the 5 minutes it took to walk from the bus terminal to our hotel my poor toes turned to 10 lumps of ice… typically Gary thought the icy temperature was ‘refreshing’! Grrr.
Anyway, if you get over the temperature with lots of vigorous walking by day, having hot Mexican food for dinner and huddling under blankets at night, San Cristobal isn’t such a bad place to relax. It’s a small town, but it really is a pleasure to explore the cobbled streets, or to wander up one of the surrounding hills to peer into one of the little colonial churches that perch on top. We even browsed some of the shops selling locally-mined amber – Gary was a little taken aback when I explained that the translucent yellow ‘rock’ was effectively hardened resin, and could even feature trapped insects…
Well, we will now descend into jungle territory, where hopefully it will be a bit warmer! Over the next few days we’ll travel north into the Yucatan peninsula towards the sunny beaches of Cancun, Playa Del Carman and Isla Cozumel – so we’re pretty hopeful that the weather will warm up.
Anyway, if you get over the temperature with lots of vigorous walking by day, having hot Mexican food for dinner and huddling under blankets at night, San Cristobal isn’t such a bad place to relax. It’s a small town, but it really is a pleasure to explore the cobbled streets, or to wander up one of the surrounding hills to peer into one of the little colonial churches that perch on top. We even browsed some of the shops selling locally-mined amber – Gary was a little taken aback when I explained that the translucent yellow ‘rock’ was effectively hardened resin, and could even feature trapped insects…
Well, we will now descend into jungle territory, where hopefully it will be a bit warmer! Over the next few days we’ll travel north into the Yucatan peninsula towards the sunny beaches of Cancun, Playa Del Carman and Isla Cozumel – so we’re pretty hopeful that the weather will warm up.
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