Wrapping Up Our Month in San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico)
Although we have been in Oaxaca, Mexico for more than two weeks now, we’ve been too busy to update our blog! We just hosted our upstate New York friends Krista and Rich, who long-time readers may remember from our 2022 trip to Machu Picchu. And in a couple of days, we’ll be entertaining our friends Mike and Elizabeth, from Boston.
But honestly, it’s been nice to take a break from writing and reconnect with friends. Traveling with new people makes you appreciate a different perspective on the things around you!
That said, in the time between visits I wanted to tie up loose ends from our month in San Cristobal de las Casas. We did so much more than our earlier posts suggest and, despite some gastric distress, we enjoyed our time there!
Pepto Bismol Shouldn’t Be A Food Group
Just before we arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas, we heard from a fellow traveler that the town has a reputation for getting people sick with food poisoning. This is because the local water supply is particularly nasty.
We weren’t too concerned at first because we have always been cautious about how we deal with non-potable water in Latin America. But soon after we arrived we heard that there were extended Salmonella outbreaks in recent months. So we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.
Despite our best efforts, it was only a matter of time before we were affected. Most of the time it was relatively minor intestinal shenanigans, but Rhonda got hit hard with full-blown food poisoning the day before we were supposed to leave for Oaxaca! The fever and chills were no joke.
Thankfully we knew the exact antibiotics we needed from past experience with this, and many local pharmacies don’t care if you have a prescription or not.
Still, we were reasonably healthy the majority of the time we were in San Cristobal de las Casas. So we were able to do a lot of fun things, despite munching Pepto Bismol tablets like they were candy. But our indigestion did slow down our pace.
A Whirlwind of Experiences
Intestinal fireworks aside, San Cristobal de las Casas is a great place to spend time. There are so many things to do and see, especially if you are willing to seek out less touristy experiences.
We generally tried to visit two or three interesting destinations per week (health willing), in addition to exploring the nooks and crannies of the town on foot.
Here are some of the additional things we did during our month in San Cristobal de las Casas, but not individually worthy of separate blog posts.
We spent a day exploring the El Encuentro Ecopark ($10 MEX/$0.59 USD per person entrance fee), hiking the trails, and enjoying the solitude, less than an hour’s walk from our Airbnb.
We explored the local Maya anthropological museum Casa Na Bolom ($60 MEX/$3.44 USD per person entrance fee), built inside the former residence of European anthropologists Gertrude and Franz Bolom. The Boloms were major advocates for local Maya cultures here while they were alive.
We spent a day exploring the Arcotete Ecopark ($20 MEX/$1.18 USD per person entrance fee), hiking the trails, and doing some minor spelunking.
We had our first experience with tlayudas, a Oaxacan dish sometimes described as a folded Mexican pizza. We got ours with ribs on the side.
We went on a guided tour of the Cascadas el Chiflón Ecopark (near the town of Las Palmitas), which featured some of the most spectacular ice-blue waterfalls we’ve ever seen.
And we visited the Reserva Ecológica y Jardín de Orquídeas Moxviquil ($90 MEX/$5.33 USD per person for garden + trail access), an ecopark and botanical garden featuring orchids of the region. The trail and surrounding gardens were lovely!
Closing Thoughts About San Cristobal de las Casas
Food-borne illnesses aside, we liked the San Cristobal de las Casas.
The town itself has many interesting things to do and see. The weather was great in January, albeit a little on the chilly side at night. There were many day trip possibilities, with tours that could be booked with manageable costs. And the local cuisine was quite good, assuming you can avoid some of the digestive landmines.
That said, we were ready to leave for Oaxaca. Playing Russian roulette with our food intake for one month made us a little gun-shy, and we were hoping that things would be much better in Oaxaca.
And thankfully, they were! More on that later.
Until next time…
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6 thoughts on “Wrapping Up Our Month in San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico)”
Really enjoy your posts and the information is very valuable. As I am getting to head out to Merida next month I am still a bit concerned about how much money to take , US Dollars, Mexican pesos. Etc. Should I take some pesos from here or should I pay with debit card and let the bank due the exchange rate. We will only be in Merida and surroundings for an entire week. Already have car rental in place and the I will go to Mexico City for the weekend. Any insight will be appreciated. Thanks and continue your posts going
Honestly, just take money (pesos) out of an ATM at the airport in Mexico. And be sure to decline the currency conversion! Hopefully you have a ATM card that waives ATM fees. But if not Santander bank has low fees (around 35 pesos in Oaxaca).
And all that said, it is never a bad idea to have a hundred USD in hand just in case.
Anything else you need to know? I have no experience with Mexican rentals, unfortunately.
I feel like I would never eat if I traveled to most of these places. I have a huge (huge) phobia around nausea. I have resigned myself to not being a traveler. So I am glad I can live through your blog!!
Hope you next leg is less eventful in that dept.
In truth, aside from San Cristobal, our experiences have been no worse than in the USA. Chipotle seemed to have it out for Rhonda back in the motherland.
We were also a little leery about food at first when we started this adventure, and it wore off pretty quick. Thankfully Oaxaca been fantastic! It’s amazing how your system rebounds when you aren’t exposed to salmonella on a daily basis. 😉
You were in San Cristobal just a month before we came there for a month stay in March. We also were hit with gastro issues and it was the worst in our lives. We were violently sick half of our stay in SC and then I was sick for the next week we stayed in Comitan, with non-abated fever. Had to call in a local doctor and get antibiotics.
Needless to say, our stay there was spoiled and we did not see as much as we planned. I am glad your stay was not affected as much!
Wow, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we kept the worst symptoms at bay during our time there…at least until the day we left! 😂
And it’s a shame. It was a lovely little town, but playing Russian roulette with my GI tract does not incentivise us to return.