With its creative ambience and indigenous cultures, San Cristobal de las Casas makes for a fascinating stay, whether its for a couple of days or forever.
Surrounding Villages:
The villages around San Cristobal de las Casas make for fascinating day trips. But bear in mind that some indigenous people are not happy about their picture being taken, nor is it a great idea to take photos inside the churches.
San Juan Chamula This village has a strict prohibition of photography of any kind of ceremony or of the interior of the church. The villagers are of Tzotzil Mayan origin, and have some very beautiful traditional clothing with abstract, colored designs based on frogs, snakes, and other wild creatures.
Zinacatan This village not only bans photography in the church, but in the cemetery as well.
Tenejapa This picturesque village sits in a lush valley, with a river passing through. Here the people are of Tzetzal dialect and the traditional dress involves a wide brimmed hat with multi-colored ribbons hanging off the brim.
Amatenango del Valle This village keeps alive the tradition of making pre-hispanic pottery, made by building a fire around the pieces instead of putting them in a kiln. The Tzetzal people here also produce some very nice textiles.
Huitepec Ecological Reserve: On the road to San Juan Chamula, at 3.5km from San Cristobal, you will find the entrance to this Reserve. Oak forests rise to rare cloud forests, with a wide range of resident and visiting bird species. Grutas de San Cristobal: The 9km long cavern is found to the southeast of San Cristobal. The first 350m are lit - if you want to go further then you will need a torch.
Shopping
Most of the shopping for food in San Cristobal is from Mercado Municipal.
The area boasts some of the best textiles in all Mexico, one of the best places to buy these is at Sna Jolobil, an indigenous textile weavers' cooperative near to the area of Santo Domingo. You can also, of course, buy textiles in the surrounding villages themselves.
Bars and Nightclubs
Club Latino's Nightly live tropical music! Mazariegos 19
San Cristobal de las Casas sits nestled in the valley "Valle de Jovel" in the temperate highlands of Chiapas. The town receives a lot of visitors from Mexico and abroad (particularly from Europe), and combined with the strong indigenous culture the result is an interesting, vibrant atmosphere.
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With its creative ambience and indigenous cultures, San Cristobal de las Casas makes for a fascinating stay, whether its for a couple of days or forever.
