Every country has one and we happened to arrive in Mexico smack bang in the middle of its rainy season. While it didn’t seem to bother us in our first couple of weeks, in San Cristobal de las Casas the rain was ruthless. The good side of this was that we caught up on a lot of sleep and blog writing (so much for that now), and a few sessions of ‘Sex in the City’ for good measure. The down side? Walking around a city in ankle deep water isn’t the biggest crowd pleaser and the thought of a sleep in or a warm cup of coffee in a cosy cafe was far more enticing than looking like a drowned street rat. So while this colourful place had many an activity to keep us occupied, we spent the majority of our four days there indoors, listening to the sound of the rain outside. Ice-cream shops got a good run, vegemite toasties became a morning ritual and the local restaurants got some business. My favourite was the authentic hole-in-the-wall ‘Napoli Ristorante’, the Italian born owner serving up a mean cannelloni and Hawaiian pizza, it really was exceptional.
The colours of San Cristobal
We did, however, take advantage of the sunshine on the rare occasion when it would emerge. Mornings were the best bet at which time we coupled sunshine with sightseeing and exercise, stair climbs being the torture of choice. One morning we made a dash up to the Church of the Virgin de Guadalupe and had what felt like an asthma attack at the top, forgetting how high the altitude was (nearly 2100m). On another morning we went to the ‘mirador’ (viewpoint) where we found outdoor gym equipment, just in case our legs hadn’t had a good enough workout on the way up.
On our last day we got lucky. The heavens took a day off and gave us a full day of sunshine, making it the perfect day for a trip to the ‘
Canyon Sumidero’, which at points is 1km high. We spent two hours lapping up the sun in the motorised tour boat, getting up close and personal with the spectacular waterfalls while at the same time keeping a safe distance from the crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank. It was kind of reminiscent of a family camping trip to the Katherine Gorge, except that unfortunately parts of the Canyon were quite polluted due to the rain having brought rubbish from other water sources. Despite that it's a really worthwhile day trip for anyone visiting San Cristobal.
What was not worthwhile was approaching the local tailor about replacing a zip on my backpack, a process he said would take a day but which instead took four. In the end I had to harass some other tailors for his home address, knock on his door (opened by his teenage son) and demand that he give me back my bag back. This was only a few hours before we caught a night bus to Oaxaca City, so I was a little stressed. Had I not put on my angry pants I think backpacking without a pack would have been quite a challenge.
