Visa Run to San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico

Haven't been to San Cris in a while and needed to do a visa run, so figured why not.

The city was great -- as usual -- but the trip there and back was soooooo awful. Twelve hours of hell in a shuttle bus. Bad driver, no seatbelts, speed bumps, construction, no air conditioning, my knees jammed up against the seat in front of me. Ugh. 

I try to justify that it's 24 hours of torture for 90 days of paradise in Guatemala! 

Didn't take too many pictures cuz I only have the camera on my phone and it's garbage, but here's a few. 

I forgot about the many Volkswagen Beetles in San Cris!

I love the pedestrian-only streets.

The big church near the central park.
The other cool church was under construction so I didn't take photos of it.

Fancy Burger King

Yes, I walked up those stairs!

View from the top, not so great. 
But there's a better picture from my walk down the back of the hill on a lovely sloping road.
That guy had a Xoloitzcuintle dog but he ran out of the frame.

You don't have to go up those crazy stairs to get to the top. There is a paved road up the back of the hill that you can take a car up. I would think the walk up that way would be more difficult, as it is longer and still pretty steep. But it is wonderful to walk down that way. A gorgeous and peaceful pine and cedar forest with flowers, butterflies, and birds.

The rocks had many pretty little flowers growing on them. 

View from the walk down.

I stayed at Hotel San Luis, which was located just behind the church in the picture below. Great hotel at a great price. Easy walking distance to the park and also to Chedraui, a big store like Walmart, where I shopped for 2.5 hours! 😊

Iglesia de la Merced.
The Amber Museum entrance is just to the left of the church in this photo.
It is located in the former convent of the church.

The Museo del Ambar gallery. Small but really interesting.

pieces of amber

Lots of amber with bugs in them, pretty cool.

Donated by Indiana Jones, lol.

The Amber Museum cost 50 pesos and was less than an hour to see it all but it was really neat and a good thing to do on a rainy day. 

I love walking the streets of San Cris. It's such a pretty place, with lots to gawk at.

San Cristobal is a lovely city and worth a visit. Great shopping, parks, churches, food, architecture, and markets. If you're there and don't have sore knees (lol), you can also take day trips for more great adventures.