San Cristobal de las Casas

In Palenque, we spontaneously decided on the jungle tour with a subsequent journey to San Cristobal. This was definitely a cheaper but NOT comfortable option as it turned out afterwards... but how could we have known what to expect? For a whole 5 hours, we wondered how on earth such roads could be built!! In terms of distance, the places are really not far apart... about 200 km. However, since the Mexican apparently has a great love for speed bumps, he set one every 50 meters. This means that you can't escape from the constant and rapid stopping and accelerating... for 5 hours! Our fellow traveler Steffan, a funny guy whom we got to know on the night bus to Palenque, struggled especially. He had bruised his ribs a few days earlier in a drunken fall and couldn't laugh or cough. His suffering was audible with every bump! We were all on the verge of going crazy. Our mood swung between incomprehension, nausea, gallows humor, and simple resignation.

Eventually, after this truly terrible ordeal, we arrived in San Cristobal late in the evening in the uncomfortable and overcrowded minibus, with back and buttock pain. Completely frustrated and exhausted, the three of us looked for a hostel close to the bus station. "Close to the bus station" usually doesn't mean anything good. A peculiar dump. The door of the room couldn't be closed, everything was a bit dirty... but it didn't matter, as long as there was a bed to stretch out on! We were happy! ... Until we were woken up at 6 a.m. by the bells of the nearby church. It repeated every 15 minutes from then on. That was worse than any alarm clock... because the snooze function couldn't be turned off! Ahrr...

However, after an unlucky start in San Cristobal, we had a few very nice days! After moving to a beautiful colonial hotel and Stefan heading further north, we enjoyed the benefits of the city and had a good time. The cityscape was characterized by beautiful old colonial architecture. The streets were lively, with lots of music, street art, vibrant colors, good food, and simply a very pleasant atmosphere. We really really liked it here... so far, one of our favorite cities on this trip.