Dancing into the New Year (Chiapas - Mexico)

Finally in Mexico, we were really looking forward to this country, especially the cuisine. We had heard a lot of good things about Mexican cuisine, so we plunged into the hustle and bustle of the city and tried the local specialties. Starting with the well-known dishes like tacos and burritos, to the more special ones like etole (a boiled corn cob, smeared with mayo, tortilla crumbs and of course hot sauce, surprisingly delicious). We particularly liked the restaurant "Comal, Cocina de Barro", where the chef prepared his dishes over an open fire in a cozy backyard.

Unfortunately, there was a "small" catch. The water quality in San Cristobal is exceptionally bad, you should avoid tap water wherever possible and definitely not drink it. So, like almost everyone else in our hostel, we caught the "typical" stomach illness of the region, which turned out to be relatively persistent and lasted for a week and a half. Unfortunately, we spent Christmas in bed. When you're traveling in Latin America for a long time, this just happens sooner or later.

Since the stomach illness came on in waves, there were always days when you didn't feel anything at all. Of course, we took advantage of this and visited one of the region's attractions, the Cañon del Sumidero. An impressive canyon that is over 1000m deep. At the bottom, a river meanders through the 25km long gorge. We followed the river in a boat and got a great perspective of the canyon. You can also admire the many animal inhabitants, especially the American crocodile. There were these huge lizards everywhere, on average they were around 4m long (in exceptional cases even up to 7m) and it was impressive to see such a large reptile up close. You definitely don't want to swim there.

We came to San Cristobal because there was a music festival here over New Year's Eve. We were fit again in time for the start. We also met a group of Viennese who had travelled there especially for the festival and who welcomed us into their group (we even knew some of them already). The venue was in the woods outside the city in a national park. We spent a few days and nights there with our new friends. It was the perfect festival, set up with great attention to detail and a coherent overall concept. We had a great time and danced into the new year 2024.

The next destination would be Oaxaca, a state of Mexico that borders Chiapas and is much talked about among travelers (good things, of course).