San Cristobal is a pretty town with a large indigenous indian population. There’s a huge market where all kinds of locally made goods are sold, along with numerous churches and colonial buildings. There’s also this one, a traditional “Burger King”.San Cristobal is also the centre of the EZLN movement – the “Zappatistas”. They were involved in armed conflict with the Mexican government in the 90’s over indigenous rights. Since then they have achieved some of their goals (without arms) and are still working to relieve poverty in local communities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation
Tequila is cheaper than water here… These 750ml bottles are about 50c. Cheap as they were, I didn’t risk it!
I have to admit, San Cristobal wore on me a bit after a few days… It was the first town I’d seen in Mexico that I would call “touristy”, and the constant hassle from street vendors made me want to be somewhere else. However a stomach bug kept me there a couple of days longer than planned. My first real problem of the trip (in that department!), I was vomiting and spent most of Christmas Day in bed. The next day I gave the bike a wash, and the day after that (well, it was a big effort to wash the bike!) I was on the road out of town.
