San Cristobal is one of the many places that I never even knew existed in Mexico but that everyone I know who had visited absolutely loved. After being in Mexico for 7 months and hearing so much about the city, I really, really, really wanted to go. I finally boarded a flight from Merida to Tuxtla (the closest airport to San Cristobal) and was on my way.
I arrived in the late afternoon and waited anxiously for the very overcrowded shuttle to leave the airport. As we climbed higher and higher up into the mountains, it began to cool down a lot and I was suddenly grateful for the large Spanish man I was squashed up against.
We finally arrived in San Cristobal late in the evening after a 90 minute shuttle ride and the city was alive with people. I couldn’t believe it! After spending months and months in a strict lockdown in Merida and seeing other cities in Mexico slowly coming back to life, I was simply shocked to see a place where it looked like COVID hadn’t touched. Restaurants and bars were open, people were dancing and there was live music. For the first time in 10 months, I felt like life was kind of back to normal.
San Cristobal is a gorgeous little colonial town sandwiched between rolling hills. The vibe is very laid back with a mixture of expats and locals and some of the cutest stray dogs I have ever seen. Men and women from the local indigenous communities roam the streets selling brightly colored scarves, sweaters and toys and the children play patiently nearby. There are two main streets which are lined with bars, restaurants and trendy shops and a big market where you can stock up on fruits and veggies (there is even a twice-weekly organic market where you can get freshly baked bread that is to die for!).
Rather than the 5 days or so I thought I would stay in San Cris, I ended up staying there for two weeks. The surrounding area of Chiapas is absolutely beautiful with green mountains, rushing rivers and soaring canyons. I visited the Sumidero Canyon, El Chifon waterfall, Montebello Lake district and the famous Mayan ruins of Palenque which were all wonderful. Sumidero Canyon is gorgeous with soaring cliffs on either side of you as your boat meanders through the canyon’s river. Wildlife abounds and we were even lucky enough to see a crocodile! El Chifon was spectacular and could compete with many of the “great” waterfalls of the world and the lake area bordering Guatemala looks like it could be straight out of New Zealand. These can all be easily reached on day trips.
Palenque was a bit more difficult to get to and I had to travel by colectivo first to Ocosingo and then on to Palenque. The colectivos were cheap and left frequently but even though I left around 7:30 am, I didn’t make it to Palenque in time to get into the ruins (as of October 2020, they had strict rules regarding the amount of people who could enter each day) and I ended up having to spend two nights in Palenque. There isn’t a huge amount to do there so if you are on a tight timetable, I recommend doing a guided trip from San Cristobal which leaves at 4 am and gets you back late at night.
After spending hours upon hours crammed on little buses, I decided to slow things down a bit and spent my days leisurely hopping from one vegetarian restaurant to the next. San Cristobal is full of vegetarian friendly places with good quality, inexpensive food. The coffee there is amazing and cheap and the bars all have 2 for 1 specials which brings the cost of a beer to just over $1. I was even lucky enough to reconnect with an old friend living there and make lots of new friends. By the end of my two week stay, I felt like I was “part” of San Cristobal and I didn’t want to leave!
