Best of San Cristóbal

El Zócalo [1]: Most Mexican cities have attractive zócalos (central plazas), but San Cristóbal’s is particularly lovely, with tree-shaded benches and a two-story bandstand with a café and live marimba music most evenings. It’s adjacent to the cathedral and city hall, each with plazas of their own, as well as the main pedestrian walkways.

La Catedral de San Cristóbal [2]: The city’s main cathedral is especially impressive in the late afternoon, when its mustard-yellow facade seems to glow in the setting sun. Inside is an impressive retablo altar, and the church steps and plaza are a favorite gathering place for families, tourists, shoe-shiners, and folk-art vendors.

Templo y Ex-Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzmán [3]: This grand church is a colonial masterpiece, with an impressively ornate facade and a gorgeous gold-painted altar and wing chapels inside. The former convent houses a museum and award-winning indigenous textile shop, and the city’s best artesanía market can be found in the adjacent courtyards.

San Juan Chamula [4]: The most visited indigenous village outside San Cristóbal, and with good reason: This staunchly independent town has fascinating customs and history and a beautiful church with no pews — and no priest — that is used instead for healing ceremonies conducted by shamans.

El Romerillo [5]: This tiny roadside hamlet is home to one of the largest and most important Chamulan cemeteries, guarded by towering Maya crosses. Its mounded graves are covered by wood “doors” through which family members talk to the dead on All Saints Day (Día de Todos Santos) in November.