San Cristóbal de las Casas

After I got sick in Puerto Escondido, I had to stay in bed for at least a day (which was even hotter than outside). But I was lucky, when I got into the bus yesterday evening for a 13 hour trip my relationship to the toilet was not that close anymore and by now I don't feel sick anymore.

So I arrived at San Cristóbal de las Casas today in the morning. The city is really adorable! It is in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas at 2300 meters above sea level in Chiapas, a State of Mexico close to the guatemalan border with lots of jungle. My travel guide also told me that lots of dropouts of the industry nations live here and I completely understand them. The weather is really nice, about 25 degrees every day, the nature around is marvellous (by now I only saw it on postcards but I will tell you about it) and the city is really cute.

It isn't that big, you can walk everywhere in at least 30 minutes, but you find everything you might be looking for somewhere in the city. The houses are beautiful and there are no big streets anywhere close to the center. If you look around you just see tops of the mountains around you that remember you of the altitude of the city. Despite the altitude, the city is not located on a hillside but on a plateau, so you don't have that mountain feeling when walking around. Also, I really like the smell of the cathedral Santa Domingo (a little bit like candle wax and wood).

The city was founded in 1528 and was capital city of Chiapas for a long time. It got its name from the bishop of Chiapas at the time of founding, Fray Bartolome de las Casas, who was one of the first to support the indians against exploitation of the spanish crown.