A super air conditioned night bus from humid Mazunte saw me arrive to a very different climate (almost 10-15° colder) in the mountainous state of Chiapas, in the beautiful colonial town of San Cristóbal de las Casas. Arriving bright and early the town was not yet awake except for some street cleaners. I made my way to a recommended hostel, Rossco Backpackers, and was really not sure what to expect as this one will be the cheapest I’ve stayed in yet at only $75 pesos (NZD$5.50) per night. It was awesome, comfortable spacious dorm of 14 beds, nice clean facilities, a movie room with bean bags and hammocks, 3 blankets on each bed, good strong WiFi and even breakfast included. After little to no sleep on the night bus the cosy bed looked very inviting but I decided to push on through, a quick hot shower was revitalising and a welcome change to throw on my jeans and closed in shoes. Coffee was first on the agenda and this southern most state in Mexico is world famous. Although they export majority of their beans I still managed to discover a delicious little cafe to get my fix and at only $15 pesos (NZD$1.10) I was beginning to think that this town was going to be very kind to my budget!

One of my favourite things to do when first arriving into a new city is to check out a free walking tour, they work on tips so at the end you decide how much you think it is worth and just pay what you feel. So the next day I head to the main plaza to find the guide. Carlos was such a natural and took us on a journey through his city and explained just enough history and politics so it wasn’t overwhelming and personal experiences to make it the most enjoyable walking tour I’ve ever done. Which is a big call as even through Europe there were some great ones.

It was a street art tour…

It was a food/drink tasting tour including coffee, chocolate, mole, juices, breads, pox (a liquor made of corn)…

It was a market tour…

It was amazing and I marked some gems on my map to go back to the following day. The question was did I have enough meals to be able to go to all of them, maybe I’ll have to stay longer.

San Juan Chamula is a small village 2 hours walk from San Cristóbal. I mean you don’t have to walk, you could get a colectivo but we decided we like adventures.

I’m not sure if I can quite describe the particular church here, to do it justice but as there was strictly no photos/videos allowed I will try do my best. It’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. From the outside it looks like any other church:

Inside it’s quite dark with light only from some small windows and thousands of candles on long tables, the air is thick with incense and smoke, there are no seats, thick pine needles cover the floor, statues of saints lining the inside walls. Small groups of people are preparing their ritual in front of their chosen saint. The ritual is lead by a medicine man where local people have come to seek help to rid them of a disease or sickness. So this is my understanding, depending how sick the person is the man will either use chicken eggs or if really sick a chicken. Kneeling on the floor the man will feel the pulse to assess the severity of the sickness. Stopping to chant, light candles, drink soda which is then burped over the candles to help get rid of the demons that is making the person sick. The process is repeated and then once the assessment is made, in this particular case the lady was very sick as the man took her live chicken which I hadn’t noticed was sitting beside her in a woven bag. He waved it over the candles, chanting, waved it over the lady, chanting, burping, waving and then… breaks the chicken’s neck.

The disease is taken from the lady, transferred to the chicken and chicken is killed to ensure the disease is gone….Looking around I realise there were many other chickens and other offerings that people have bought to rid them of their sickness. Soooo weird yet we couldn’t stop watching in fascination as groups of people huddle around to begin their own ceremony.

So some countries are more passionate about football than others and Mexico is certainly one of the more passionate ones! There is a buzz around the city as the first game for Mexico gets nearer for the World Cup. A massive screen is erected in the main plaza and with a 10:00am kick off we get a crew together from the hostel to watch the game. Although my breakfast hadn’t even settled we grabbed a couple of beers each from the Oxxo and scored some seats. If you’ve been following the games you’ll know that Mexico beat Germany (the current world champions) 1-0 so let your imagination run wild with a party in the street, salsa dancing, everyone hugging each other, it was like they had won the cup.

After a few lazy days just soaking up the city I decided to do a day trip and check out Cañón del Sumidero. The drive to the canyon was about 1 hour and then we got on a boat for about 2 hours. It was awesome and saw lots of different birds, spider monkeys and also a crocodile. The canyon was very impressive with the highest part 1 km high.

I really enjoyed my time in San Cristóbal and meet some really nice people that I hope to meet up with again on the road. Although I’ve been travelling solo I’ve never felt alone as there are always people to talk with and go on adventures. I’m a few destinations behind on my updates but San Cristóbal placed me at about 1 month into my adventure. Take is as a good sign that I am behind because that means I’m not alone/lonely and I’m making friends and living in the moment xx