San Cristobal de las Casas
One of our favourite towns in Mexico has to be San Cristobal. It's climate, it's culture, and it's location makes it much more than just a stop off on the way to/from Guatemala (as we originally thought). Do your self and favour and give it a few days of your time.
The other option is either a tour for around 400 pesos, this is a great option as you get to visit a few sites along the way the Palenque Ruins, Misol-Ha and Agua Azul or a mixture of the 3. This takes 9 hours too but that includes time in each place. It's probably also a good idea to double check if you need to pay all the entrance fees on top of the price as that would push the price up dramatically.
We decided to go on our own with a Collectivo. We went to the main square and got in a Collectivo to Ocosingo which should take about 3 hours. We think ours went a funny way as it definitely seemed to take longer and it stopped off in a few villages that weren't on the main route. In Ocosingo we got another Collectivo all the way to San Cristobal de las Casas. It was 80 pesos to Ocosingo, then 75 to San Cristobal de las Casa.
The ride to Ocosingo was pretty uncomfortable. The Collectivo was packed and this particular Collectivo had very little leg room. It was about 3 and a half hours to Ocosingo where we were grateful to get out and stretch our legs. We planned to have lunch in Ocosingo though we didn't want to walk far with our big bags. Kate wasn't sure she wanted to eat at any of the places - which were all budget street food, but we opted for a chicken place that was just barbecuing chicken which seems to be a local speciality in the state of Chiapas and the Yucatan. I got half a chicken for 60 pesos and it was delicious! Kate had a few of the bits which looked most cooked but we were pretty safe. It was well done. Afterwards Kate nipped up to a local shop to pick up a yogurt for dessert.
We walked back down to the Collectivos and jumped in the first one to San Cristobal for 75 pesos. this one was a lot more comfy and less crowded so we were able to stretch our legs! It took another three hours or so to get to San Cristobal and we jumped out ready to walk to our hostel. Something felt very strange as we jumped out however. We shivered and both looked at each other - it was cold! This was very unexpected! We left our jumpers on and walked to our hostel (Planet Hostel). It was a little further than expected - and we only remembered half way that the hostel offers to pay for your taxi from the bus station (DOH!). We were pretty tired by the time we got there and we were a little confused to find the front door. We then had a slightly complicated conversation in broken Spanish about where we wanted a room - turns out arriba means upstairs, and not the shout of "arriba! arriba!".
The hostel seemed clean and the rooms looked good - though I couldn't help feel the hostel gave off a prision vibe with its heavy iron doors. We settled in before going to explore the city and see if we could find some dinner. We also hoped to find out any information about getting to Guatemala. We went out for dinner looking for a specific place but were shortly very confused by the road names. The roads seem to change every now and then and to make things worse they tend to be named things like "Calle 5th November" or "Calle Random Day and Month" making all the road names pretty similar.
We gave up and quickly took seats at a lively looking bar called "La Vina de Bacco". We quickly found a glass of wine was around 25 pesos and immediately got stuck in! Not only that, but they kept on bringing snacks every time you got a drink and popcorn seemed to reappear every time we finished a bowl. This was great! We also got some dinner there but really you could have survived on the snacks for free!
We had a couple of drinks and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, but decided to head back (via an ice cream) as we wanted to be up early to book on to a bus. We thought about going the next day but we were pretty tired after the journey from Palenque and thought it best to get another night in San Cristobal. We got back to the hostel to find the door shut. We had been pretty worried earlier about the door being locked and thought maybe there was a curfew that we'd missed. We rang the doorbell for about 5 minutes before a light switched on, phew! A hatch in the door opened and there was a very angry woman there. "Planet Hostel, tienemos una llevar" - we have a key. The woman angrily pointed at the door next door. Oh dear, wrong door... We apologised profusely before heading to the next door which opened pretty much immediately. Oops! They really did look like the same door though! We headed to bed pretty shortly after that, feeling very guilty about waking up a poor old woman...
The next day we got up and booked in for another night. We got a free breakfast which was either hotcakes with banana or eggs. Then we went into town to look around. We walked to the main square and up a few very beautiful cobbled streets before settling down for a pastry at a very nice French restaurant called Oh la la!. Kate was very surprised to find the pastry was top notch!
After that we went to a couple of travel agencies to ask about transfers. The hotel offered one for 400 pesos but we decided to ask around. We went in to a couple of agencies only to be greeted with people who either were having a bad day or really didn't like their jobs. Eventually we found an agency we liked a little more called Explorando Chiapas and booked in for a transfer the next day at 7:30 am for 350 pesos. It was a 7-8 hour trip so it was going to be another tiring day!
We walked around a bit more after that, up to a pretty church at the end of the street where we sat and admired the view before coming down and grabbing a small bite for lunch. We found a very nice small cafe and got a quesadilla and a fruit bowl, both were very nice. As we were eating we talked about our travel plans going forward. We'd basically spent 3 times longer in Mexico than we had expected and so we really had to work out how we were going to do the rest of the trip. It was going to be tight! After that we decided buy some veg for dinner to cook back at the hostel and headed back to drop off at the hostel, and also to continue our research in to the rest of the trip.
We cooked up dinner in the shared kitchen. Luckily we were the only people around so didn't need to contend for pots and pans. It was just some very simple veg stir-fry with a bit of garlic and ginger, it was just what we needed after so many tiring days and eating crisps and biscuits on buses. We then headed back out to our favourite bar for some more wine - the perfect end to our time in San Cristobal de las Casas.
The morning came around very quickly and we needed another early start to be ready for the shuttle. The plan was to stop in Comitan along the way for breakfast so we didn't worry about breakfast, we just made sure we were downstairs by 7:30. A nervous 10 minutes later our shuttle showed up, we were a little worried to see the windscreen was very cracked and the bus seemed a bit uncomfortable. We drove around the town for five minutes before the bus stopped to - for what we thought - pick up some other passengers. In fact we were supposed to transfer on to another shuttle. We lugged our bags out again and took up our favourite seats at the front of the bus and off we went. "Hablas Espanol?" the driver asked - No! Un pocquito - "No, a bit" we replied. He smiled and kept driving. We picked up another four passengers before finally leaving, so we had enough space which was good. The driver then gave a quick spiel in Spanish, and everyone replied Si... we just looked confused. At this point I should have asked for a translation. I just smiled and nodded.
We stopped for lunch about an hour and a half later in a town called Comitan. The last main town before the border town of Ciudad Cuauhtémoc. We grabbed breakfast at a dodgy cafe and made sure we'd been to the loo and got some more supplies for the journey before continuing on to Ciudad Cuauhtémoc.
This was our first border crossing of the trip so we were a little nervous but we'd read up on the lonely planet and believed we knew what we were in for - we had our FMM card and our passports, that was all we needed. We got to the desk and the border office asked for 500 pesos each. What?! We don't have 500 pesos! It doesn't say anything about this in the book! Yet again our Spanish let us down, we couldn't say anything and were sent back to our driver who at this point we found out didn't speak any English and looked very annoyed. He'd told us to get money in Comitan (In Spanish). We said we didn't have the money and he said there were no ATMs in the village, the only one was in Comitan an hour back in the wrong direction... One of the other guys on the bus helped to translate for the driver and he suggested we go over the road and asked for a cash advance. We crossed our fingers and went over to the shop. It was a very confusing layout with 3 different counters with seemingly different uses. We managed to ask fora cash advance with the help of our phrase book and nervously handed over a card. A moment later we had 1000 pesos in our hand. Phew! We ran back over to the border control box and quickly had our stamp out of Mexico. It was only later that we could Google and found out from this blog that we indeed didn't need to pay. Oh well, we'd better learn Spanish!
Moments later we were in Guatemala - the second country on our trip!
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| Overlooking San Cristobal de las Casas |
Getting There
Getting to San Cristobal, especially from Palenque, was a little bit trickier than getting elsewhere in Mexico. The main bus companies don't currently serve a direct route meaning getting an ADO bus can take 8-9 hours and goes via Villahermosa.The other option is either a tour for around 400 pesos, this is a great option as you get to visit a few sites along the way the Palenque Ruins, Misol-Ha and Agua Azul or a mixture of the 3. This takes 9 hours too but that includes time in each place. It's probably also a good idea to double check if you need to pay all the entrance fees on top of the price as that would push the price up dramatically.
We decided to go on our own with a Collectivo. We went to the main square and got in a Collectivo to Ocosingo which should take about 3 hours. We think ours went a funny way as it definitely seemed to take longer and it stopped off in a few villages that weren't on the main route. In Ocosingo we got another Collectivo all the way to San Cristobal de las Casas. It was 80 pesos to Ocosingo, then 75 to San Cristobal de las Casa.
Where we stayed
We stayed at Planet Hostel, it's a laid back hostel with free breakfast and wifi. The kitchen is also nice as it's out in the open and feels really nice. The downsides are the thin walls and the echoey corridors that seem to amplify any noise. If it wasn't a laid back hostel it would be a nightmare. They also forbid alcohol to be consumed in the hotel - probably for the same reason. It's also a little further out than some of the other hostels.Things To Do
- Transfers to Guatemala - You can get mini van transfers to Antigua, Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala city. We paid 350 each for our transfers to Xela through Explorando Chiapas.
- Day trips to Lagunas de Montebello, Sumidero Canyon and El Chiflon - we didn't have time for these but apparently they are beautiful.
- Take in the town - the town is really beautiful and there are lots of lovely shops and places to grab food and coffee.
Food & Drink
- La Vina de Bacco - very cheap wine, and you get a free snack when you order a glass!
- Oh la la! - really great french pastries.
- Mio Loncheria - nice little place we stopped for lunch
Journal
We left our hotel is Palenque around 10ish, we grabbed a couple of croissants from the place we got our smoothie place and an organic coffee (we also bought some ground coffee for an awesome 17 pesos for 100 grams). We then walked up to the main Collectivos and jumped in to the first one to Ocosingo (80 pesos each).The ride to Ocosingo was pretty uncomfortable. The Collectivo was packed and this particular Collectivo had very little leg room. It was about 3 and a half hours to Ocosingo where we were grateful to get out and stretch our legs. We planned to have lunch in Ocosingo though we didn't want to walk far with our big bags. Kate wasn't sure she wanted to eat at any of the places - which were all budget street food, but we opted for a chicken place that was just barbecuing chicken which seems to be a local speciality in the state of Chiapas and the Yucatan. I got half a chicken for 60 pesos and it was delicious! Kate had a few of the bits which looked most cooked but we were pretty safe. It was well done. Afterwards Kate nipped up to a local shop to pick up a yogurt for dessert.
We walked back down to the Collectivos and jumped in the first one to San Cristobal for 75 pesos. this one was a lot more comfy and less crowded so we were able to stretch our legs! It took another three hours or so to get to San Cristobal and we jumped out ready to walk to our hostel. Something felt very strange as we jumped out however. We shivered and both looked at each other - it was cold! This was very unexpected! We left our jumpers on and walked to our hostel (Planet Hostel). It was a little further than expected - and we only remembered half way that the hostel offers to pay for your taxi from the bus station (DOH!). We were pretty tired by the time we got there and we were a little confused to find the front door. We then had a slightly complicated conversation in broken Spanish about where we wanted a room - turns out arriba means upstairs, and not the shout of "arriba! arriba!".
 |
| Kate carrying her heavy load - featuring what looks like a broken arm |
The hostel seemed clean and the rooms looked good - though I couldn't help feel the hostel gave off a prision vibe with its heavy iron doors. We settled in before going to explore the city and see if we could find some dinner. We also hoped to find out any information about getting to Guatemala. We went out for dinner looking for a specific place but were shortly very confused by the road names. The roads seem to change every now and then and to make things worse they tend to be named things like "Calle 5th November" or "Calle Random Day and Month" making all the road names pretty similar.
 |
| It was cold enough for jackets - San Cristobal is at a higher elevation |
We gave up and quickly took seats at a lively looking bar called "La Vina de Bacco". We quickly found a glass of wine was around 25 pesos and immediately got stuck in! Not only that, but they kept on bringing snacks every time you got a drink and popcorn seemed to reappear every time we finished a bowl. This was great! We also got some dinner there but really you could have survived on the snacks for free!
 |
| Wine and snacks at La Vino de Bacco |
We had a couple of drinks and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, but decided to head back (via an ice cream) as we wanted to be up early to book on to a bus. We thought about going the next day but we were pretty tired after the journey from Palenque and thought it best to get another night in San Cristobal. We got back to the hostel to find the door shut. We had been pretty worried earlier about the door being locked and thought maybe there was a curfew that we'd missed. We rang the doorbell for about 5 minutes before a light switched on, phew! A hatch in the door opened and there was a very angry woman there. "Planet Hostel, tienemos una llevar" - we have a key. The woman angrily pointed at the door next door. Oh dear, wrong door... We apologised profusely before heading to the next door which opened pretty much immediately. Oops! They really did look like the same door though! We headed to bed pretty shortly after that, feeling very guilty about waking up a poor old woman...
 |
| Ice cream to end a great first evening in San Cristobal |
After that we went to a couple of travel agencies to ask about transfers. The hotel offered one for 400 pesos but we decided to ask around. We went in to a couple of agencies only to be greeted with people who either were having a bad day or really didn't like their jobs. Eventually we found an agency we liked a little more called Explorando Chiapas and booked in for a transfer the next day at 7:30 am for 350 pesos. It was a 7-8 hour trip so it was going to be another tiring day!
We walked around a bit more after that, up to a pretty church at the end of the street where we sat and admired the view before coming down and grabbing a small bite for lunch. We found a very nice small cafe and got a quesadilla and a fruit bowl, both were very nice. As we were eating we talked about our travel plans going forward. We'd basically spent 3 times longer in Mexico than we had expected and so we really had to work out how we were going to do the rest of the trip. It was going to be tight! After that we decided buy some veg for dinner to cook back at the hostel and headed back to drop off at the hostel, and also to continue our research in to the rest of the trip.
We cooked up dinner in the shared kitchen. Luckily we were the only people around so didn't need to contend for pots and pans. It was just some very simple veg stir-fry with a bit of garlic and ginger, it was just what we needed after so many tiring days and eating crisps and biscuits on buses. We then headed back out to our favourite bar for some more wine - the perfect end to our time in San Cristobal de las Casas.
The morning came around very quickly and we needed another early start to be ready for the shuttle. The plan was to stop in Comitan along the way for breakfast so we didn't worry about breakfast, we just made sure we were downstairs by 7:30. A nervous 10 minutes later our shuttle showed up, we were a little worried to see the windscreen was very cracked and the bus seemed a bit uncomfortable. We drove around the town for five minutes before the bus stopped to - for what we thought - pick up some other passengers. In fact we were supposed to transfer on to another shuttle. We lugged our bags out again and took up our favourite seats at the front of the bus and off we went. "Hablas Espanol?" the driver asked - No! Un pocquito - "No, a bit" we replied. He smiled and kept driving. We picked up another four passengers before finally leaving, so we had enough space which was good. The driver then gave a quick spiel in Spanish, and everyone replied Si... we just looked confused. At this point I should have asked for a translation. I just smiled and nodded.
We stopped for lunch about an hour and a half later in a town called Comitan. The last main town before the border town of Ciudad Cuauhtémoc. We grabbed breakfast at a dodgy cafe and made sure we'd been to the loo and got some more supplies for the journey before continuing on to Ciudad Cuauhtémoc.
This was our first border crossing of the trip so we were a little nervous but we'd read up on the lonely planet and believed we knew what we were in for - we had our FMM card and our passports, that was all we needed. We got to the desk and the border office asked for 500 pesos each. What?! We don't have 500 pesos! It doesn't say anything about this in the book! Yet again our Spanish let us down, we couldn't say anything and were sent back to our driver who at this point we found out didn't speak any English and looked very annoyed. He'd told us to get money in Comitan (In Spanish). We said we didn't have the money and he said there were no ATMs in the village, the only one was in Comitan an hour back in the wrong direction... One of the other guys on the bus helped to translate for the driver and he suggested we go over the road and asked for a cash advance. We crossed our fingers and went over to the shop. It was a very confusing layout with 3 different counters with seemingly different uses. We managed to ask fora cash advance with the help of our phrase book and nervously handed over a card. A moment later we had 1000 pesos in our hand. Phew! We ran back over to the border control box and quickly had our stamp out of Mexico. It was only later that we could Google and found out from this blog that we indeed didn't need to pay. Oh well, we'd better learn Spanish!
Moments later we were in Guatemala - the second country on our trip!
Great blog!
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