This morning, I woke up rested and re-energized. Most everyone in the group left early on a day tour to get a boat ride through a local famous canyon. But after yesterday’s eventfulness, the last thing I wanted was to spend today on buses and boats. I decided to just stay put and check out the town on my own schedule, taking a bit of a breather from the pace of the tour.
I took care of a few necessities, like dropping off some laundry and finding an ATM. Both were made a bit more urgently necessary due to yesterday’s events. These taken care of, I was free to enjoy a day of much-needed me-time.
Coffee-coffee-chocolate
San Cristobal is famous for the local coffee, so of course I had to sample some for breakfast. Carajillo Cafe was just the ticket: they served up some delicious cinnamon french toast accompanied by one of their famous “slow coffees”, made in a drip contraption right at the table. This is the sort of place that has old-fashioned coffee makers and cold brews, and would probably be right at home in St-Henri or any other hipster neighbourhood. The difference is, they’re using locally grown beans from small organic growers right in the surrounding hills.
After a nice leisurely brunch, I armed myself with a tourist map and visited some of the sights of San Cristobal. I checked out two essential sites: the coffee museum and the cocoa museum. You know me, I couldn’t pass those up. Both were pretty small and of course, all the explanations were in Spanish. But I got the idea, and got tastings at both, so it’s all good.
I strolled the streets and visited a number of shops and local handicraft markets. San Cristobal is not-so-nicely known as gringo central and it’s not hard to see why: This part of town, at least, is your typical tourist town, with booking agents, pizzerias and fast food chains, and people selling wares every few feet. You find towns like this everywhere, and it’s okay because San Cristobal is a fairly charming version. But it all felt very familiar and a bit repetitive after a while. Overwhelmed with the choice of shirts and dresses and handbags and woven blankets, I photographed a lot but bought nothing.
Herbs, flowers and very non-touristy San Cristobal
Next, I decided to visit OrquÃdeas Moxviquil, the orchid botanical gardens I’d heard about. It seemed like a nice peaceful way to spend a slow travel day. Google Maps said it was only about a 25-minute walk, but it kept getting confused as to my location, so it took me about an hour and a half to find the spot. And no wonder: Getting there involved walking through some parts of town where tourists don’t seem to go. The poverty in some of the neighbourhoods I passed during my walk was fairly obvious: Dirt roads with small shacks built along them, people laying barrels of gravel everywhere, and the non-touristy taquerias and roadside stands. The gardens themselves were located in a very random spot off a main ring road / highway, where there was no sidewalk so I followed the example of some local Mayan women and walked in the ditch. I passed a bunch of random motorcycle repair shops, metalworks stations, and other things you wouldn’t expect to find near botanical gardens. Quite strange.
Even arriving at the gardens, it was far from obvious that they were open; I almost turned around and left before I spotted someone official working there to sell me a ticket. He was very nice and spoke a little English, and spent some time showing me around and explaining the various orchids and other plant species they had on the trails and in the greenhouse. There were a handful of other tourists there, but the whole thing felt a bit unfinished and haphazard.
After about an hour there, I’d seen all the random plants and flowers I could want to see, so I set off back towards town. On the way, I stopped off at one last museum, the Mayan Medicine museum. This one had a more put-together display showing the different traditional techniques, herbs and plants that the Mayan indigenous people use instead of modern medicine. They also offered a window into daily life — since I missed yesterday’s tours to the local villages, it was a bit of an alternative. The garden out back had a bunch of plants used in traditional medicines, along with what they’re used for. A disproportionate number of them seemed to be for diarrhea; I guess it’s not only tourists who get afflicted in Mexico.
I walked back along more streets where the tourists don’t go, passing the furniture district along the way. The beautiful Mexican pine furniture, made locally by craftsmen, would look amazing in my apartment; too bad I couldn’t possibly get any of it home.
On the way back to the town centre, I stopped off at the Lic. Jose Castillo Tielemans market, which seems to be the main food market in town. Most of the merchants were getting ready to pack up for the day, but I did get to sample some local cheese with a spicy rind, and a couple of local pastries. Yum.
Chilling out
Back at the hotel, I met up with the others, who’d had fun at the canyon — but told me it was probably good I skipped it if my stomach still wasn’t 100%, because the boat ride was apparently very bumpy. I had a rest and a shower, and met back up with everyone around 7pm for dinner. We kinda-sorta-accidentally ended up at this organic vegetarian restaurant with live music and a great rooftop garden. The food was delicious, and us mostly-vegetarian folk were happy, though a couple of the others would’ve preferred a more carnivorous choice. A couple of drinks later, nobody cared much, and we had a nice time. After dinner, we walked around a bit, stopping off at Carajillo so I could buy some coffee beans, and a few people needed an ATM stop and such. It gets quite chilly at night here, so the Australians were all shivering, though I was quite comfortable in a t-shirt. I’m not laughing too hard, though; they’ll have their chance to turn the tables on me from tomorrow onward when we head into the hot weather.
We have a very early start tomorrow, so we didn’t go out tonight. Instead, in grand backpacker tradition, we headed back to the hotel for a few rounds of cards, tunes and drinks before turning in for the night.
So, I didn’t see everything that this area has to offer, but I did get a nice taste of San Cristobal — both from a tourist and a non-tourist perspective. Tomorrow we head down to the jungle of Palenque. Stay tuned for more updates!
