San Cristóbal and Agua Azul

Tags: Agua Azul, Chiapas, Mexico, San Cristóbal

Date: March 18, 2019

After our stop at Rancho Nuevo, we made it to San Cristóbal de las Casas. It is the center of tourism in Chiapas with many good restaurants. Here are some pictures from around town:

The Guadelupe Church:

View from The Guadeloupe Church:

Even in town, you can find interesting nature:

The Cathedral of San Cristóbal:

View from the plaza in front of a third church called The Church of San Cristóbal:

San Cristóbal was founded in 1528 but didn't get its present name until 1943 after at least seven name changes on the way. In 1960 Samuel Ruiz became bishop of the Catholic Church here and he started working with local Mayas. The Zapatista movement arose from the collaborations between the Mayas, the Catholic Church and leftist groups from around Mexico. On January 1 of 1994, the day the NAFTA treaty went into effect, the Zapatistas took over San Cristóbal and several other communities. The Mexican military quickly responded and a few days later a ceasefire was agreed upon. About a year later, the military broke the ceasefire by order of the president. There is still some tension in Chiapas between the Mexican government and the Zapatistas, but things have cooled down a lot since 1994.

After staying in San Cristóbal, we went for a long drive back over the mountains. On the way, we stopped at Agua Azul which is a series of waterfalls on the Xanil River. The water contains lots of minerals which makes it nice and blue. The minerals also make deposits in the waterfalls which is very characteristic. Here is a bunch of pictures of the waterfalls:

We met a few turkeys on the way up the river bank:

Turkeys often walk about freely in Chiapas.

A few more waterfall pictures:

Here you can see a few of the touristy shops in the background: